3.2.4: Operation Barbarossa & Battle of Stalingrad
➢ By summer 1941, Hitler was supreme in Europe. Now he turned his attention to the USSR, a country he had long wanted to control for Lebensraum & resources (such as the wheat lands of Ukraine region & oil fields in the Caucasus region)
➢ On June 22,1941, _____________________________________________, the invasion of the Soviet Union began. The battlefront stretched 1800 miles, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea
➢ The Nazis swept through the buffer zone that Stalin had established in Poland & pushed onward into the USSR. The Soviets resisted but were forced to retreat.
➢ In less than three weeks of the attack, 300,000 Russians had been captured, 2,500 tanks, 1,400 artillery guns and 250 aircraft captured or destroyed.
➢ As they fell back, the Soviets carried out Stalin's_______________________________ ____________________________________, burning farm equipment, crops, everything that might be of use to the advancing German Army & also evacuating entire industrial factories (e.g. tank) deep into Russia
➢ The Germans continued their steady advance. After 4 months of fighting they had overrun the Ukraine & were approaching Moscow
➢ The Soviet Union seemed to be on the verge of collapse. In Oct, 1941, with German power at its greatest extent. Hitler boasted that victory was his before the winter
➢ At the end of 1941, the German advance came to a halt. Nov saw the onset of a bitter Russian ____________________________
➢ The Nazis had not prepared for winter conditions. German tanks were immobilized by lack of anti-freeze, winter oils & thousands of poorly dressed soldiers (they had summer uniforms) died from exposure
➢ The Soviets on the other hand, showed no signs of surrendering. Accustomed to cold weather, they slowly prepared to counterattack. Before spring arrived in 1942, the Soviets had made gains against the invaders
➢ By the summer of 1942, German forces had regained the initiative & were advancing deep into southern Russia towards the Caucasian Oil Fields & Stalingrad
➢ For Hitler, taking ________________________ would serve the purpose of crushing Russian morale (symbol of communism), controlling a major industrial centre & cutting off oil transportation to the Soviet economy
|Battle of Stalingrad |
|German Army |Russian Army |
|1,011,500 men |1,000,500 men |
|10,290 artillery guns |13,541 artillery guns |
|675 tanks |894 tanks |
|1,216 planes |1,115 planes |
➢ For Stalin, it was the last attempt to stop the German blitzkrieg & save the USSR
➢ In attempting to take the city, the Germans destroyed buildings & other infrastructure which became obstacles for its mechanized/blitzkrieg army
➢ The Germans were forced to get out of vehicles & fight ‘hand to hand’ combat, this exposed the weaknesses of the German army
[pic]
➢ Russia would not surrender until the last man, woman & child was unable to fight
➢ In the meantime, Soviet armies were built-up near the city for a counter-attack
➢ In Nov 1942, Soviet armies in a a surprise attack, surrounded the German army at Stalingrad, cutting off all land supply lines
➢ With the approaching winter & lack of supplies, General Paulus pleaded with Hitler to allow him to surrender. Hitler refused this request, but the German army did surrender in Feb 1943
➢ This was a major turning point in the war, & the first major defeat of the German army in Russia (it lost 750,000 casualities,91,000 captured, 900 aircraft destroyed, 4000 tanks destroyed)
➢ It boosted the morale of the Allies, from here on there would be no turning back & the Russians continued to drive the Germans back from the east for the rest of the war
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