Definition of Operation Barbarossa

Already before he made his intentions clear in the Mein kampf (German for "My Struggle"), Adolf Hitler toyed with the idea of ​​taking over the vast territories of Eastern Europe to the Caucasus, through Poland and into the Soviet Union.

Furthermore, Hitler himself regarded the East Slavic peoples as racially inferior, as well as the doctrine of the Nazism in general.

Once Hitler was in power, and despite the signing of the pact not to aggression German-Soviet, it was sung that Germany would attack the USSR. It only remained to see when and how. And so did the Soviet dictator Stalin.

Operation Barbarossa is the attack plan that the German high command designed to invade the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

The name of the plan was a tribute to Emperor Frederick I, nicknamed Barbarossa for the reason that the same nickname makes clear, and one of the historical figures that Hitler liked.

The German dictator said that a successful attack against the USSR would demoralize the British, since they could not resort to the fear that a USSR raised that, at any moment, could strike a blow from the back to the powers of the axis.

In fact, many historians have claimed that had Hitler not been the first to attack Stalin, at one time or another another and when he had felt strong enough for it, it would have been Stalin who would have given the order to attack.

In the spring of 1941, the Soviet army was not ready to face the German army.

The reasons were diverse, but the main one was the political purges to which he had been subjected by Stalin's paranoia and his clique in power, who had beheaded him from many of his commanders able.

At a technical level, the Soviets were also in a period of renewal of their equipment, which was inferior to the majority of those available to the German army. Thus, the T-34 tanks would enter into combat when the Nazis were already roaming around territory While the Red Army had more aircraft than the Luftwaffe, these were generally older models.

Stalin also did not expect a German attack at the time.

With the Battle of Britain still raging, Stalin was of the opinion that Hitler would not dare to open a second front, and that before it would seek to liquidate the British rival, either by diplomatic means (by negotiating), or by military.

The Soviet dictator even ignored his advisers and his spies (the most important of him, Richard Sorge, who operated in Japan), which pointed to an imminent invasion in June 41.

His orders were clear: do not respond to any provocation in order not to give reasons. Even shortly before the invasion began, a couple of German deserters who wanted to report the imminent invasion were "courteously" returned to their lines by the Soviets (following orders), where they evidently met a cruel outcome at the hands of a platoon of shooting.

The surprise at the beginning of the attack was total, and the Red Army was slow to respond adequately to the aggression.

In some cases there were damaging situations, with commanders who prohibited their men from responding to enemy fire, alleging or Either that they were wrong and that this was not an attack, or that it was a mere provocation to which it was necessary not to respond.

Stalin issued orders along the same lines, that of not acting initially, which after a few days changed to that of responding to fire, although the damage had already been done.

The Operation Barbarossa plan of attack featured three prongs that plunged into Soviet territory like claws into the flesh of their victim.

In the north, an army group had to take control of the Baltic republics in their advance towards Leningrad.

Historically linked to the Polish, German-speaking and Finnish territories, the republics Baltics had been shortly before annexed by the USSR, and the Germans were received there as liberators.

In the center, another group of armies had the mission to conquer Belarus and then continue to Moscow.

And finally, in the south, the third spearhead of the German army was to take control of Ukraine (territory fertile, considered the granary of the USSR) to later continue and take control of the oil regions of the Caucasus.

In Ukraine, German troops were also welcomed as liberators. Already in the First World War, the government The German had encouraged the creation of an independent Ukrainian state, a satellite country to support him in his fight against the Russian Empire.

Each of the German army corps had an objective that, in addition to being military, was political and economic.

It was very Hitler-like, and although there are things that are obvious (such as depriving the USSR of its main wheat supplies occupying Ukraine, or oil conquering the Caucasian republics), this multiple orientation has been criticized by scholars and historians.

Initially scheduled for May 41, the execution of the Barbarroja Plan must be delayed until June of the same year.

The reason is the disastrous intervention in the Balkans of Italy fascist of Musolini, which made fear to expose the southern flank and, therefore, forced the Wehrmacht to intervene.

Hitler also dragged his allies, primarily Italy, Romania, and the Kingdom of Hungary into the adventure.

Although the satellite states of Croatia and Slovakia, and Finland also participated.

Regarding the latter country, Finland, it deserves a full stop. It had been attacked by the USSR in 1939, and although it was defeated, it won a victory moral in the war, resisting the invader and preserving its independence, although it was at the cost of giving up its own territories to the Soviets.

The Finnish government accepted an alliance with the Axis powers, but on the condition that it would only recover the territories that the USSR had forced him to give up, not going beyond the old border between the two countries, which fulfilled.

Can we consider Operation Barbarossa successful? Of course, it was a brilliant start to the invasion for the Axis troops, but it did not end with the results necessary to declare it a success:

• The northern army group failed to take Leningrad despite subjecting it to an intense siege for almost two and a half years, which caused it to bleed without achieving major objectives.


• The core group failed to capture Moscow, despite having been fighting on its periphery.


• The southern army group managed to capture Ukraine, but not the oil regions of the Caucasus, which in the medium term led to the Battle of Stalingrad, disastrous for the arms of the Reich and its allies.


• The industrial potential of the USSR was not liquidated.


• Actions against population civilians provoked an aggressive rearguard with the occupation forces, which led to diverting troops into counterinsurgency actions.


• The enemy was not liquidated with one stroke of the pen, putting Germany and the entire Axis in a quagmire (in springliterally) from which you could not get out and that would ultimately seal the fate of the Second World War.


• far from being weakened and isolated, Britain could breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to take back Europe.

The German invasion of the USSR, Operation Barbarossa, began on June 22, 1941 (on June 23, 1812, Napoleon had begun the invasion of Tsarist Russia), and it is considered completed in December of the same 1941, once the German push is slowed down both by the Red Army troops and, above all, by the harsh winter Russian.

From that moment on, the battle plans would be different, although they would be based on the territorial gains achieved through Operation Barbarossa.

Photos: Fotolia - Grigory Bruev / Fedor

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