One additional item for today.
Today Franz Halder had a meeting with the commander of the Replacement Army, Colonel-General Fritz Fromm to outline the limitations for personnel in the upcoming operation BARBAROSSA.
Halder notes in this meeting that he expects 275,000 casualties on the initial Soviet border battles and a further 200,000 casualties by the end of September. With an existing replacement army reported by Fromm of only 385,000 men with 90,000 earmarked for the Luftwaffe, Halder knew he wouldn’t have enough men to maintain forces after September.
Seems to me that Halder’s estimates weren’t that far off the actual figures, either.
My God...half a million lives ended or ruined... and Halder was throwing out such high casualty estimates like they were just numbers in a ledger. He isn’t even counting projected Soviet losses, of which he cares not. Cougar, your post really shows the cold brutality of this war.