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OPERATION BARBAROSSA 91

OPERATION

BARBAROSSA

In June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of

Soviet territories. Ranged across a vast front that stretched 1,000

miles (1,600 km) from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Germany and its

Axis allies advanced at an extraordinary pace, besieging Leningrad

and reaching within striking distance of Moscow by early October.

The peace between Germany and

the USSR that had been agreed in the

Nazi–Soviet non-aggression pact of

August 1939 (see pp.32–33) proved

to be short-lived. Hitler believed the

Slav people to be Untermenschen (“sub-

humans”) and wanted to take the

USSR’s vast territories for Lebensraum

(“living space”) for Germans. Operation

Barbarossa, named after the Holy

Roman Emperor who pursued German

dominance in Europe, was Hitler’s plan

to invade the USSR with three million

Germans and one million men from

Axis Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and

Italy; Finland joined as a co-belligerent.

The German commanders were

confident that Operation Barbarossa

would be over quickly; they thought the

Red Army was weak, and that German

“The ideology that dominates us is in diametrical

contradiction to that of Soviet Russia.”

ADOLF HITLER, MAY 1935

air power would provide a superior

edge. The campaign did indeed

start well: by July, the Germans had

advanced 400 miles (640 km) and

defeated large groups of Soviet forces

around Minsk and Smolensk. The Red

Army suffered enormous losses as

Stalin refused to acknowledge the

extent of the danger and willingly

sacrificed men in defense of the cities.

By October, Kiev had fallen,

Leningrad was surrounded with

the help of the Finns (see pp.94–95),

and Axis forces had reached the

Crimea. However, the German

troops were exhausted, their supply

lines were stretched and, as they

prepared to advance on Moscow,

they were about to face the deadly

cold of a Russian winter.

STALIN’S PARANOIA AND PURGE OF THE ARMY

By the time of the German

invasion in 1941, the Red Army

was fatally short of experienced

personnel; only a quarter of its

officers had been in post for

over a year. Paranoid about

political opponents, Stalin had

embarked on a Great Purge

of the Communist party in

1936. By 1939, three of the five
      Marshals of the Soviet Union
      (right) were dead, along with
      hundreds of army officers.

THE CENTER ADVANCES

JUNE 22–OCTOBER 2, 1941

Tanks of the German Army Group Center

enclosed and destroyed Soviet pockets at

Bialystok and Volkovysk to reach Minsk by

June 27. However, with the German infantry

lagging far behind, thousands of Soviet troops

escaped eastward. The German advance toward

Moscow was suspended after the capture of

Smolensk because Hitler diverted military effort

toward Ukraine and the Caucasus.

3

Advance from Romania

Advance to Crimea

and Donbass region

Donbass

region

THE DRIVE TO THE CRIMEA AND

CAUCASUS JULY 2–OCTOBER 16, 1941

On July 2 the southern section of Army Group

South—including two Romanian armies—

launched an invasion of Bessarabia, to recover

the region for Romania. By August 8 Odessa

was under siege. Once operations in Kiev were

over, Army Group South continued its advance

south into the Crimea and east toward the

industrial Donbass region.

5

4 THE FALL OF KIEV

JUNE 22–SEPTEMBER 26, 1941

Army Group South progressed through Ukraine,

enclosing three Soviet armies in a pocket near

Uman by July 16. The German tanks then swung

north to meet Group Center forces who had been

sent south to encircle nearly 500,000 Soviet troops

near Kiev. On September 19 the city of Kiev fell,

freeing Army Group Center forces to focus once

more on their original objective: Moscow.

2

3

4

5

1

TIMELINE

JUN 1941 JUL AUG SEP

THE SOVIET UNION OVERRUN

The Germans and Axis forces moved

east from June 1941, gaining a huge

strip of Soviet territory and trapping

thousands of Soviet troops as they

advanced on Leningrad, Moscow, and

Soviet industry in the south.

KEY

Axis countries,

occupations,

and co-belligerents,

Jun 21, 1941

Axis gains by

early Oct 1941

German

army groups

Pockets of

Soviet troops

Soviet fronts

(army groups)

OCT NOV

Axis encirclement of Kiev

Soviet counterattack, Jun 26–30

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Dnie
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Caucasus
Crimea
Donbass
region
B
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FINLAND
BELORUSSIA
UKRAINE
EAST
PRUSSIA
GENERAL
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BOHEMIA
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Army Group
North
North-West
Front
South-West
Front
West
Front
Army Group
Centre
Army Group
South
U
S
S R
Novgorod
Leningrad
Maladzyechna
Khmelnytskyy
Staraya Russa
Novozybkov
Kremenchuk
Stary Oskol
Velikiye Luki
Volkovysk
Voznesensk
Kirovograd
Daugavpils
Kryvyy Rih
Chernobyl
Berdyansk
Zhytomyr
Mykolayiv
Mogilev
Smolensk
Vinnytsya
Vitebsk
Cherkassy
Nelidovo
Korosten
Babruysk
Belgorod
Mariupol
Bialystok
Konotop
Ventspils
Moscow
Kishinev
Memel
Kherson
Warsaw
Tarnopol
Nikopol
Helsinki
Bryansk
Brovary
Vyazma
Grodno
Tilsit
Kharkov
Odessa
Poltava
Nizhyn
Kaunas
Ryazan
Polotsk
Roslavl
Tallinn
Orsha
Narva
Mazyr
Rzhev
Uman
Minsk
Pskov
Kerch
Rivne
Kovel
Sumy
Tartu
Lutsk
Kirov
Brest-Litovsk
Luga
Przemysl
Kiev
Riga
Tula
Lida
Iasi
Lyck
Axis advance toward Moscow
US_090-091_Operation_Barbarossa.indd 91 22/03/19 2:39 PM