The German invasion of Russia started on June 22, 1941.
“When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment!”
Adolf Hitler
Operation Barbarossa was the name for Germany’s invasion of Russia. It commenced on June 22, 1941. It was the biggest invasion in history. The numbers boggle the mind.
Over the course of the operation, about four million Axis powers personnel, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare, invaded the western Soviet Union along a 1,800 mile front. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, and between 600,000 and 700,000 horses for non-combat operations. The offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition.
This was Hitler’s greatest blunder, resulting in the destruction of the Third Reich by Spring of 1945. Hitler boasted of a thousand year Reich. But due to Barbarossa and D-Day the Third Reich lasted only twelve.
Within a single week, German forces advanced 200 miles into Soviet territory, destroyed nearly 4,000 aircraft, and killed, captured, or wounded some 600,000 Red Army troops. To give some perspective we lost around 400,000 during the entire war.
Germany suffered a million military casualties, Russia 4,973,820 (with civilians, 26.6 million Soviet lives were lost), 1,129,619 of which were lost at Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle in history. Make no mistake, the Red Army bled the Germans white.
Americans can justifiably be proud of our role in World War II. But Russian children are proud to learn of the battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943), the great tank battle of Kursk (1943) and the breaking of the siege of Leningrad (1944) as moments that turned the tide of the war. For good reason the Russians call it “The Great Patriotic War.”
Marshall Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was Stalin’s top general. Hard to imagine Russia winning without him. He never lost a battle. He once said, “It takes a brave man to be a coward in the Red Army.”
Not to be preachy but I’ll close with a quote from Malcolm Muggeridge:
“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”
“This was Hitler’s greatest blunder”.
I disagree. Hitler, and the Germans in general, biggest mistake was the incredible brutality leveled on the people of the invaded countries. The Germans gave them two options, yield to the Germans and die or fight and maybe live to avenge yourself.