Posted on 06/22/2003 10:09:56 AM PDT by SAMWolf
On June 22,1941, German troops invaded the USSR, thus beginning one of the most violent and devastating wars ever. The German army (Wehrmacht) had begun planning this invasion in July 1940, under the code name Otto, then Fritz, and finally Barbarossa. In planning the invasion, the Wehrmacht basically had the choice of two strategies: the first was to wage a war of attrition, while the second was to win by military annihilation in the tradition of Napoleon. In choosing, the Germans would have been wise to consider the consequences the latter strategy had in the invasion of Russia for Napoleon. However, the Germans and their Nazi leaders felt that defeating the Soviet Union would be fairly easy, and thus chose the strategy of military annihilation. One reason for this is that the Nazis had been stressing such traditional German concepts as Lebensraum (living space) and Drang nach Osten (push to the East), as well as promoting racism and anti-Semitism. All four concepts "justified" a war of annihilation.
The reasons Germany undertook such an invasion are simple. First, in the 1930s the Nazis had made the "struggle" against Bolshevism a "central theme in domestic and foreign policy." Thus a war against Bolshevik Russia was merely the logical outcome of this belief. Secondly, Germany was still at war with Britain, and Hitler believed that if the Soviet Union could be defeated quickly, the British would be more willing to accept peace terms. Moreover, the Germans had had great success and felt that the USSR. would be "one more lightening victory, particularly fought against the inferior races of the East. Author Alan Bullock gives a much more practical explanation. He states that, "Hitler invaded Russia for the simple but sufficient reason that he had always meant to establish the foundations of his thousand-year Reich by the annexation of the territory between the Vistula and the Urals." These reasons justified, at least in the minds of the Nazi and Wehrmacht leadership, tactics which are today still considered barbaric and immoral.
In the end, the Germans were defeated in Russia, which bore the brunt of German aggression in World War II. It is generally accepted that the German army had the bulk of its troops, as well as its best troops in the East. For these reasons, many consider it Communist Russia who really "won" the Second World War. If the Soviet Union would have fallen quickly, Britain really might have sued for peace with Germany, for the United States had not yet entered the war (and would not for six months after Barbarossa was underway). Thus, the reasons Germany did not achieve victory in Russia are of great importance. One reason is of course, the determination of people of the Soviet Union; another is the problem of fighting a war on two fronts. However, the biggest problem for Germany in the East was the Germans themselves. Germany lost the war in the Soviet Union through bad military planning, much of which was the result of Nazi ideology. The Germans failed to fully exploit the discontent with Stalin and Communism amongst the indigenous population, and even diminished what support they (the Germans) did have since they were convinced they could achieve victory through annihilating the enemy.
One reason the invasion failed is that Hitler himself got too involved in the decision making (especially for one whose military experience consisted of running messages as a corporal). The Army High Command considered the capture of Moscow essential. Former General Wladyslaw Anders, of the Polish army who fought both Soviet and German troops between 1939 and 1945, states categorically that the capture of Moscow, which was the center of railway and communications networks, and of Soviet authority, would have made the Red Army tactic of retreating into the interior "impracticable." Despite this, Hitler did not heed their advice, and put Moscow on a level of secondary importance. Hitler, extremely overconfident, felt the German army could defeat the USSR. in two or three months, and therefore did not adequately prepare for a winter campaign. As Bullock notes:
From early November the Germans were fighting in sub-zero temperatures, intensified by a bitter wind, the few hours of daylight and the long nights, and fighting in an unfamiliar land against an enemy inured to the conditions, warmly clothed and equipped for winter operations.
Here it is easy to see that not only was Hitler's military strategy faulty, but his planning (or lack of it) forced the army to endure conditions which were extreme, to say the least.
The Mongols did it.
Treaty of Brest-Litowsk.
I know the Imperial Army was old-fashioned, but I think they still classify as "modern" by 1917 standards.
There was never any doubt.
Not quite true...Nazies yes but Wehrmacht officers many of top generals opposed and hated Hitler and cronies.
Understatement...all decision even where individual battalion move went through Hitler.
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