Invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa)Hitler was not satisfied with signing the nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union, but it was a necessary maneuver, It was not soon that he broke the agreement and started the Soviet Invasion. The Invasion started on June 22, 1941 after Hitler signed Directive 21, also known as Operation Barbarossa This was the largest invasion in WWII, Hitler attacked the USSR trough tree different front:, North, Center and South. The North was aiming to Hitler's main military target - Leningrad. Moscow as in the Center, it was to be invaded after the North. In the south Hitler targeted Kiev and Ukraine.
In the north the German main goal was to get to Leningrad, but after crossing the Neman River they encountered 300 Soviet tanks. After four days of battle the Germans defeated the Soviet defense a headed towards Leningrad, but due to insufficient supplies Hitler ordered a haul until the infantry would join them. This gave the Soviet army a week to prepare and build up their defenses. On July 3 the German infantry reached the Panzer forces. But due to strong rain storms, Germans were not able to attack, this gave the Soviet forces a chance to reorganize and prepare for a counter offensive. Three days later the Soviets launched their counterattack, but due to Germanys superior air force defeated it. In the center, German forces took over Minsk, which was a big railroad junction. This prevented the Soviet forces from any escape. Moscow launched a counter offensive against the Germans, but due to low supply and no means of replenishing it, the Soviets offensive failed. The south was hit the hardest; the German 1st Panzer Group attacked the Soviet 6th army with 600 tanks. Soon five Soviet forces counter attacked the 1st Panzer Group with with a force of 1000 tanks. This was one of the largest battles in World War 2. After the Soviets efforts the Germans came out victories but the 1st Panzer Group sustain a lot of damage Hitler greatly underestimated the Soviet force and so his army was running short on supplies. Hitler assumed that his forces will quickly destroy the Red Army and capture the designated cities and then will be able to live off the land. All operations were slowed down until more supplies arrived. As the war progressed, the weather started to get colder and rain fall increased, many roads started to turn to mud and the German advance to Moscow significantly slowed down, eventually operations were stopped. This gave the Soviets a chance to prepare 11 new army's. The Siberian forces also arrived, bringing 1000 tanks and 1000 aircrafts. On November 11 the ground started to freeze and the Germans continued their movement towards Moscow. Failure of the German Barbarossa campaign marked the turning point in the war. Battle of KurskThe Battle of Kursk was a major turning point in the war. The battle took place from July 5th to August 23rd 1943 when the Germans attempted to attack the Soviet forces. The Germans were not aware that the Soviets had predicted their attack and had prepared for it by placing anti-tank defenses and minefields. Their tactic was successful because after a short distance the Germans lost many of their tanks. Five days after the Germans first began to advance, Soviet forces began their counterattack. The battle of Kursk is the largest tank battle in history, consisting of six thousand tanks, two million troops, and four thousand aircrafts As result the Soviet Army pushing back the perimeter of the Germans to East of Europe.
Battle of the Baltic 1941On the Soviet side the 8th, 11th and 27th armies while one the German side the 18th, 16th armies and the 3rd and 4th Panzer group. The operation started on June 22, 1941 after a German attack. The 8th army was defending the north section of the Lithuanian border against the German 18th army. At the same time the German 16th army and the 4th Panzer groups where battling for the rest of the Lithuanian boarder against the Soviets 11th army. The operation did not go well for the Soviet Union because both armies had to retreat from their stations, resulting in German victory. The Battle of the Baltic is part of the Baltic Sea campaign that lasted from 1939 to 1945 and was the Baltic Sea operations between Germany and Finland against the Soviet Union.
Battle of Ukraine
Hitler wanted to use Ukraine as living space for his Rising German nation. On his way towards Moscow Hitler invaded Ukraine. On the first day of the invasion Hitler attacked Kiev and two other cities. The Ukrainians did not resist at first because they saw the Germans as liberators from the communist control of the Soviet Union, but the end result was quite different then what they hoped for. Germany treated the Ukrainians much worse than the Soviets ever did, taking huge amounts of land from them. The Germans used the Ukrainians as a labor force for the German’s. When the Germans invaded Ukraine, Stalin ordered the scorched earth policy. Stalin did not want the Germans to have any resources from Ukraine, so he ordered all the cattle, grain, tractors and railroads to be destroyed or evacuated from Ukraine. Everything that was not evacuated was blown up, set on fire or destroyed. In 1943, leaving Ukraine, Hitler ordered about the same policy, but instead of evacuating, he destroyed everything. Hitler did not want to leave anything behind for the enemy. Basically everything that was left behind by Stalin’s policy was destroyed by the Germans.
The battle of Kiev
The battle of Kiev is divided into two sections: first was the battle of Kiev of 1941 where the German forces came out victorious by barricading the Red Army’s 5th, 21st, 26th and 37th armies. The Soviet Union suffered some of its greatest losses during the war; losing 700,000 troop’s .As a result the Germans occupied the city for more than two years until the second battle of Kiev of 1943.
Unlike the first battle, the Red Army came out victorious. During this battle the Soviets launched their first summer offensive. The offensive was successful because the Red Army was successful at pushing the German forces south. The 1st and 2nd Ukrainian forces were ordered to push the German forces past the Dnieper River. On November 3, 1943, the Soviet forces surprised the 4th Panzer army with a attack. Because of the surprise the German army was quickly defeated. The Germans later did counter attack when the 4th Panzer army was reinforced with weapons and the 25th and 48th panzer divisions. The reinforced Panzer army was countered by the 7th tank corps, which resulted in a tank battle. The battle lasted until November when rains created mud which halted the operations. By December the mud froze and the Germans continued with their attacks, but this time the Soviet Army was reinforced and so they defeated the Germans and marking the end to the battle of Kiev. The Winter Campaign
The Winter Campaign started in 1941 and lasted until 1942. As Hitler was going towards Moscow, the Soviets were preparing to defend their capital; they built anti tank trenches around Moscow as well as prepared their own tanks for battle. They also prepared their new weapons such as the Katyusha Rocket launcher. This was the first self propelled artillery weapon that the Soviet had. It was usually mounted on the back of trucks to allow mobility. The winters campaign was suppose to be easy and quick, but because Hitler did not prepare his troupes for the Russian harsh winter consequently lead to his defeat. The cold weather created many problems for the German troops. Hitler sent huge numbers of tanks and artillery to attack Moscow but because he was not prepared for the cold, soldiers started to freeze, tanks and artillery were not working properly do to freezing. The Red Army saw this dilemma and proceeded with attacking the Germans. The Germans were unable to fight in the freezing conditions, had to flee and on January 7, 1942 German forces abandoned the campaign.
The Siege of Leningrad
The siege of Leningrad also known as the Leningrad blockade. The blockade started on September 8, 1941 when the German Army surrounded Leningrad. The blockade lasted from September 8, 1941 until January 27, 1944 (900 days). The supply within Leningrad was very limited and was only meant to last for 1-2 months. After food, water and fuel for heating supplies ended, it became extremely scarce and a large number of the 3 million people within the city did not have anything to survive. At some point food was so scarce that people had less than a fourth of a pound of bread a day. Even with the harsh conditions that people had to live, they did not surrender and industrial work still continued. Thousands of people were evacuated by the “Road of life” which was the only route that connected Leningrad with the main land.
On January 18, 1943 the Soviets were able to open a small path to the city. But the blockade completely ended only on January 27, 1944. Approximately 800,000 civilians died and more than 1 million soldiers were killed in the blockade. Leningrad was one of Hitler’s main goals of Operation Barbarossa, because Leningrad was Russia’s former capital, Leningrad’s industrial importance. Beside Leningdrad was the Soviets main Baltic fleet base. The battle of Moscow
Started on October 2, 1947 went on until January 7, 1942. Operation Typhoon was the final German attack on Moscow. Germany gathered man from all over the Eastern front for this operation. The operation had two parts to it, first was to attack Moscow from the North with the 3rd and 4th Panzer armies. The second part was to attack from the South of Moscow with the Panzer army .When the 3rd and 4th Panzer armies were gathered, the operation was launched in early October, because the Soviets did not expect another attack, the operation was a surprise to them. The Red Army was quickly defeated and later on surrendered with more than 600,000 of their man taken as prisoners. After successfully conducting the operation, the German army started to move towards Moscow, but strong rains caused the roads to turn into mud, which significantly slowed Germans down. Germany had another plan to take over Moscow, which was called Operation Wotan. Their goal was to capture Moscow with the main weapons being tanks, which is why it was nicknamed the tank operation. Moscow was had prepared a strong defensive. They had three defensive lines as well as adding new army’s and bringing additional troops from Siberia and from the east. As a result the German operation was slowed down, the Red Army used that chance to counter attack the German army and push them back. Battle of Berlin
This was the final major operation conducted by the Soviet forces. On January 12, 1945 Soviet forces penetrated the German front and headed towards Berlin. The Red Army attacked Berlin along two fronts, east and south of Berlin. As the Soviet Army entered Berlin, they quickly reached the center of the city were German forces were anticipating them. This created a close combat citation within the city but resulted in the Soviet victory. But before the Germans surrendered Hitler and many of his followers committed suicide rather than being captured and trailed. The battle ended on May 2, when the city’s forces surrendered.
Soviet partisan’s war
Also known as Guerrilla Warfare, this was a resistance movement from the Soviet side against the German’s, the goal was to disrupt and encounter German communication and inelegance. This was controlled by the government and carried out by the Red Armies Special forces unit. The Soviets would embed people into the German government or army as well as other departments and they gathered information about German strategies and other important information.
Woman’s role in WWII
During WW2 woman had a huge part on the outcome. While men were fighting on the front lines woman were taking their jobs in the factories, producing artillery, weapons and many other war equipment. But woman not only did the man’s job back home, there were woman that took part in the war mainly as medical or administrative. Woman also defended Soviet Union, for example, during the blockade of Leningrad woman took shifts defending the city. Other examples of woman that served in Army are Lydia Litvyak, who was a pilot in the Soviet Air force, or Roza Shanina, who was a sniper at Soviet Army.
Red ArmyThe Red Army was made up from working class man who volunteered to protect communist Russia. It was created after the revolution of 1917 and it held both the Soviet army and navy. The name did not last long, in 1946, the "Red” was taken out. Soldiers were not called "Red army man “any more they were known as "rankers".
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References
NYPL Digital Gallerey, picture on right Graduating excercises, 2nd officers training camp ,middle SS Robert S. Abbott was launched in California , left
77th Div. in training at Camp Upton
Wikipedia, Eastern Front(World War 2). Link
Red Army, Erepublik the new world.Link
Invasion of the Soviet Union, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Link
Battle of Kursk ,Encyclopaedia Britannica.Link
Battle of Kiev picture, Link
The Winter campaign, Link
Battle of Moscow, Link
Battle of Berlin, Link.
Wikipedia, Eastern Front(World War 2). Link
Red Army, Erepublik the new world.Link
Invasion of the Soviet Union, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Link
Battle of Kursk ,Encyclopaedia Britannica.Link
Battle of Kiev picture, Link
The Winter campaign, Link
Battle of Moscow, Link
Battle of Berlin, Link.