German Invasion of Russia 1941;Operation Barbarossa (war, general, Hitler, USSR)

[skytrekker]

Any thoughts on why this operation failed?

[domergurl]

time of the year?

[my54ford]

The simple fact that OKW and Adolph Hitler failed to plan for the extended logistics as well as cold weather op's lead to the failure of Barbarossa. That coupled with the overemphasis on Stalingrad and the ultimate defeat of 6th Army. All this together with the opening a whole other front ment the effort was doomed to failure and one of the finest forces of fighting men were wasted in the most savage fighting of the 20th century

[cpg35223]

Any number of reasons:

1) Complete and total underestimation of the basic fighting ability of Russian soldiers. Yet, the Soviet General Staff was incompetent during the first few months of the war, but the Russian soldier has always been tenacious, brave, and inured to hardship.

2) Because of this total underestimation, the Germans did not supply for a long campaign. Witness the lack of winter coats with which to fight in the Russian winter.

3) A total failure to incorporate disenfranchised Russians and Ukranians in the conquered territory. There were literally millions who had a score to settle with Stalin. Yet the Nazis treated the conquered population of the Western Soviet Union even worse than the Communists, if possible.

4) Frittering away of Axis forces in the peripheral North African campaigns. With the Vichy French running Morrocco, Algeria and Tunisia, the logical strategy in North Africa should have been to hold ground, not try to seize the Suez. As it was, the Axis lost half a million men in this theater, along with aircraft, tanks, and other equipment.

5) The decision to move forward on all fronts, rather than a couple of different axes of advance. Upon reaching Smolensk in the center, I think the Germans should have held there, then pushed harder towards Stalingrad and Onega and Archangel, rather than throw so much into capturing Moscow. Onega and Archangel were vital ports of supply to the West, and Stalingrad and the Caucusus region would have cut Stalin off from crucial oil supplies. Then the German army could have encircled the Russian positions defending Moscow.

Of course, easier said than done, right?

[skytrekker]

The original date for the attack was set actually for mid May 1941- but Hitlers Junior partner Mussolini's botched invasion of the Balkans forced the Germans to 'rescue' The Duce's failed Legions. This set the date 4 weeks later which was crucial.

Also Hitler and the Chief of Staff badly underestimated the size of the Soviet military machine. Although the initial invasion made good progress, the German lines where too thin, so that some of the Russian counterattacks met with some success.

And also the Germans where not prepared to fight in winter weather.

[skytrekker]

The Germans allocated 162 combat divisions in June 1941- but the number of Panzer divisions was the same total used in France (16)

[Dd714]

In one simple statement -supply lines were overextended.

CPG had the most detailed response but he left out Russia's retreating slash and burn strategy so that German troops could not easily subsist off the land as they advanced.

[LordBalfor]

I agree with pretty much everything mentioned above by all the posters - especially cpg35223 - who's point #3 is right on target. Treating those in occupied areas of the USSR as little more than animals was a disasterous mistake, but unfortunately such thinking was "built in" to NAZI Germany as it would have required accepting various "inferior peoples" - such as the Ukrainians - as equals - something that was simply not likely to happen given the NAZI's racial ideology.

German was doomed from the moment the attack on the USSR began. The USSR was simply too big to be conquered in the traditional sense - only some sort of "liberation" would have given Germany even a slight chance at success.

Ken

[Six Foot Three]

Also with Army Group Center smashing it's way onto Moscow and then Hitler stopping their advance and sending them south to help Army Group south was a Huge factor. Field Marshall Von Bock the lead General of Army Group Center was furious at Hitler for this as was lead Panzer General Guderian as they protested to no avail.

I'm sure the Soviets may have still won the war if Hitler alowed Bock and Guderian to smash on to the capital but it definately allowed the Soviets time to fortify Moscow and outlying perameters and also allow the Harshest winter in 50 years to Paraylize the German Army.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Dd714

In one simple statement -supply lines were overextended.

CPG had the most detailed response but he left out Russia's retreating slash and burn strategy so that German troops could not easily subsist off the land as they advanced.

Good point. I left that out. I hate myself.