Non-aggressoin Pact



Operation of Barbarossa and The Battle of Stalingrad (By: Tommy Choy)

Non-aggressoin Pact

• Aug. 23, 1939: Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggressions Pact, that Germany and Soviet wouldn’t attack each other

• Secret Additional Protocol: Germany gave Russia Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Eastern Poland

• Benefit for Germany: 1. Avoid the two-front war between Soviet and France. 2. Concentrated the attack over the eastern of Europe

• Benefit for Soviet: 1. Avoid Germany’s attack. 2. Gain more land and security. 3. Reparation for the loss of military and economy after WWI.

• Sep. 1, 1939: German invaded Western Poland

• Sep. 17, 1939: Soviet invaded Eastern Poland

• Therefore, Soviet should also bear the responsibility of the trigger of WWII, which had the conspiracy with Germany over the invasion of Poland.

• Non-aggression Pact is nothing more than a piece of paper.

• Nazi Germany destroyed this pact and followed by the Operation Barbarossa.

Operation Barbarossa

• Nazi’s objective: 1. Conquest of Soviet—Leningrad, Moscow. 2. Source of agriculture—Ukraine. 3. Resources—Caucasus.

• Army Group North (AGN) was in charge for the invasion to Leningrad

• Army Group Centre (AGC) was in charge for the invasion toMoscow

• Army Group South (AGS) was in charge for the invasion to Caucasus

• Soviet’s weaknesses:

1. Great Purge over the military: Stalin eliminated 30,000 officers imprisoned, tortured or executed. 3/5 marshals, 14/16 army commanders, 50% regimented commanders had been removed, and replaced by the inexperienced amateurs. This greatly degrades the power of Soviet’s armies

2. Wrong calculation of Stalin: He insisted Germany wouldn’t attack until the summer of 1942. Even though he received lots of warnings from his own source, even from a German General, he still didn’t believe the imminent attack until June 1941. This caused the complete failure of facing the German first attack.

3. Obsolete weapons: In Russian 14,000 tanks, only 1861 were T-34, the rest was the obsolete that were produced in 1920s and 1930s.

• Germany’s weaknesses

1. Lateness of invasion: At first, Germany predicted it would only take few weeks to take over all the objectives, so regardless of the lateness of invasion, that the harsh Russian winter finally defeated German’s armies.

2. Disadvantage of number of military: Same underestimation over Soviet as above. Only 3300 tanks Germany faced 20,000 tanks of Soviet.

3. “Two” German armies—low mobility: One is German armoured, such as Panzer corps, with tanks. Another one is German infantry. While German armoured advanced rapidly, German infantry still needed horses, bikes, even walking to advance, this seriously decreased the mobility.

• Soviet’s strength

1. Men power + determination: Soviet had 3-5 millions soldiers and their determination to protect the country is substantial.

2. Severe winter of Soviet: Only Russians are more likely to endure the severe winter, that was quite opposite for Germans.

• Germany’s strength

1. Modern technology of weapons

2. Luftwaffe: Established in 1935, that was the most important component of German army with its constant bombardment over the city. This was what made German army powerful.

• 22~24 June, 1941: Massive strike by the Luftwaffe took over Minsk

• 1 July, 1941: AGC destroyed 471,000 Russian troops

• 22 July, 1941: General Pavlov was executed of the “crime” of surrounding

• After stiff resistance of Soviet, Soviet withdrew the troops in Kiev (Ukraine) and Leningrad, for the defense of Moscow.

• Sept. 30, 1941, Operation Typhoon began, attack of AGC on Moscow

Nov. 23: 3rd Panzer took Klin 32km north-west of Moscow

However! Dec. 1: winter came with -35°C, 4th Army attack to west Moscow halted with a 24km depth

• Dec. 6: winter counterattack began

• Dec. 20: threat of Moscow removed.

• Dec. 19: commander-in-chief, Marshal von Brauchitsh removed, replaced by Hitler

• Jan 2, 1942: Hitler hold front line

• Jan 5, Stalin ordered offensive across entire Eastern Front

• Mar 1942, AGC receded

• 1st received order to advance on Rostov in Oct. but it started going in Nov.

• Nov. 22, Semyon Timoshenko’s South Western Front regrouped—fierce attack north of Rostov

• Nov. 28, 1st Panzer abondoned Rostov, withdrew 129km to west to a winter defensive position

• Horrific loss of Germany and Soviet

• Jan. 31, 1941: 917, 985 causalities in Eastern Army of Germany

• May 1, 1942: AGS had only 50% of original infantry, AGC and AGN had 30%, and 4200 tanks in June 1941 down to 140 in March 1942

• 2 June 1941~31 Dec. 1941: Red Army suffered 6 million casualties, 3 million prisoners, tanks losses of 21,391

Battle of Stalingrad

• Germany’s objective: 1. Army Group A (AGA) invaded Stalingrad. 2. Army Group B (AGB) invaded Caucasus for oil resource

• Stalingrad: Origin: Tsaritysn Now: Volgograd

• Trade centre during 19th century

• Red Army’s most decisive victory of civil war

• Stalingrad bore Stalin’s name after he got supreme power in 1925

• Hitler aimed for destruction over economy, industry and psychology over Stalingrad, bore with name of Stalin

Fatal mistake

• German 4th Panzer Army is managed to reach 200 miles from Stalingrad.

• Hitler orders 4th Panzer Army to assist Kleist to south

• Bock’s 4th Panzer Army returns back from south-east along Don River.

• When Bock meets Kleist's forward units, only 14.000 enemy soldiers are taking in the encirclement. (July 9, 1942)

• Von Kleist: The 4th Panzer Army was advancing on my left. It could have taken Stalingrad without a fight, at the end of July, but was diverted to the south to help me crossing the Don…When it turned north again, a fortnight later, the Russians had gathered just sufficient forces at Stalingrad to check it.

• July 1942, German 6th Army led by Paulus, advanced toward Stalingrad

• Stalin’s order, “No one steps back!”

• General Chuikov assists Gerneral Zhukov for defense of Stalingrad

First German attack (14-26 Sept. 26)

• August 23 (6:00pm): battle of Stalingrad begun

• Luftwaffe—1000 German planes dropped incendiary bombs, 40,000 civilians killed

• German arrived suburbs of Stalingrad

• By Sept., German took over Stalingrad’s 1st Station & Mamaev Kurgan

• Paulus declared the south and centre of city won

Second German attack (27 Sept.~7 Oct.)

• 62th Army VS. 6th Army

• Advantage for Soviet troops: Nature

• Advantage for German troops: Luftwaffe (Stuka)

• Tactic of Chuikov

• ¬“Hug” German’s front line

• 3 independent units from 62th:

• ¬Storm group

• ¬Reinforcement group

• ¬Reserve group

• ¬Stiff resistance

Third German attack (Oct. 14-29, 1942)

• Oct. 14, Stalingrad became a only objective with brutal attack on Tractor Factory

• Midnight, Tractor Factory surrounded, made it to Volga

• Oct. 17, German’s 3 ways to south

• Chuikov’s 62th stayed till ending

• Oct. 18, German cut off Barrikady

• Oct. 24, 6th Army’s assault deminished, weather became noticeably colder

• Oct. 25, frenetic fighting without success of German troops

• Reasons for failure:

• ¬Soviet artillery

• ¬Inability of Luftwaffe (exhaustion for AGA&B)

• ¬Soviet air offensive (1. Counterattack in N & S; 2. Forced Germans into sky battles; 3. Destroyed German positions & sleeping quarters+dread of winter)

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• Oct. 29, fighting died down

• Nov, 6th Army failed and trapped

Soviet Counterattack

• By Nov., Soviet secretly built up force of million men, 14,000 heavy guns, 1,000 tanks, and 1,350 aircraft.

• Operation Uranus—aimed Rumanian units

• Germany ignored Rumanian units’ suspect

• Nov. 19, massive attack from Russian defeated Rumanian Third Army, exposed left flank of 6th Army

• Nov. 20, Russian destroyed mixed force of Germany and Rumanian that protected right flank of 6th Army

• Nov. 24, Paulus’s armies were cut off from supplies

• 280,000 German troops surrounded

• Paulus wanted to retreat

• Luftwaffe Chief Herman Goering promised 500 tons per day of supplied for 6th Army

• Hitler agreed and Nov. 22, he ordered Paulus to fortify for reinforcement

• Low supplies from Luftwaffe to Paulus’s Army

• Planes brought wounded solders & mails bidding farewell

• Paulus pleaded Hitler for retreat

• Hitler: wait for reinforcement

• -30°C

• German soldiers slaughtered horses

• 125,000 German soldiers buried under snow

• Jan. 1943, Russian demanded German surrender. Paulus: hopeless; Hitler refused

• Jan. 25, 1943: Russia cut down all supplies to German army

• Jan., Hitler urged Paulus to commit suicide to avoid dishonour of surrounding

• Jan. 31, Paulus surrendered

• Feb. 2, Northern pocket surroundered

• 6th Army was annihilated

• Battle of Stalingrad was over

• Hitler: “The God of war has gone over to the other side.”

Aftermath

• Casualties of Axis: 850,000

• 400,000 Germans, 200,000 Romanians, 130,000 Italians, and 120,000 Hungarians were killed, wounded or captured

• Red Army: 478,741 men killed and captured and 650,878 wounded (Total: 1,129,619)

• Total: 1.7 million to 2 million Axis and Soviet casualties

• Largest single battle in human history

Questions:

1. Who is Soviet Foreign Minister?

2. What is the Secret Additional Protocol of the Non-aggressoin Pact between Soviet and Germany?

3. What are the benefits from the Non-aggression Pact for Soviet and Germany?

4. What were the Germany’s objectives in Operation Barbarossa?

5. Identify the examples of Germany’s underestimation over Soviet.

6. What was the fatal mistake of Germany before the battle of Stalingrad?

7. Why did Germany want to take over Stalingrad so desperately?

8. The battle of Stalingrad was the battle between which Germany’s army and which Soviet’s army?

9. Briefly explained the main events in First, Second and Third German attack in the battle of Stalingrad.

10. Why were the main reasons that caused the defeat of Germany?

11. Why the battle of Stalingrad is the largest single war in human history?

Bibliography

• Book source:

o Walsh, Stephen, “STALINGRAD—The Infernal Gauldron”, 2000, Thomas Dunne Books.

o Alexandria, Virginia, “The Road to Stalingad”, 1991, Time-Life

• Internet:

o Author: N/A, “The Battle for Stalingrad, Updated: 10 November, 2006, URL:

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