More than 5.5 million German troops invaded the USSR along the 1800 mile front of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa still remains as one of the biggest military operations ever executed. The aim of Operation Barbarossa was a quick victory in the European part of the Soviet Union. This was planned to be done by splitting the German Troops into three parts, the northern group, which travelled through Latvia heading for Leningrad, the central group which travelled through Belorussia towards Smolensk and the Southern group which travelled through the Ukraine heading for Stalingrad. Yet there were several other reasons Hitler were attacking Russia. Firstly Hitler had always hated Communists and at this point in time Russia were a Communist state. If he destroyed Russia he could wipe out the Communist "virus". The other reason for attacking Russia was that in the Ukraine there were vast wheat fields which could be easily taken and used to feed his own people. Also Russia h
Despite this in December 1941 the Red Army repelled the strongest blow of the Wehrmacht, Germany had made a lot of grounds and important sieges, most notably the oil fields in the Ukraine, but were pushed back by a weak Russian army from Moscow and were unable to mount a counter attack. The main reason for this failure of Operation Barbarossa was the weather, but this only happened due to Hitler's underestimation of Russia and the delay at the start of Operation Barbarossa. Hitler felt that his army was much stronger than that of Russia and Hitler had expected that his "battles of encirclement" strategy would cut off and trap most of the Russian army. But Hitler miscalculated the size of the Soviet army. This meant that Hitler could not circle the Russian army, and also meant that the Soviet Union could launch a counter attack. Since Hitler thought he would be able to gain a quick victory over the Russians he did not to expect to end up fighting in the harsh Russian winter. Tanks and planes froze up, and German soldiers were fatigued quickly, Russians since they were used to the conditions were well prepared and were able to repel the German invasion even after losing 20 million soldiers and civilians. Another contributing factor to why Germany ended up fighting in the winter of 1941/1942 was the five week delay at the start of Operation Barbarossa, which meant that instead of the Operation starting in mid may it ended up beginning in June, even closer to the start of winter.
Using sources A-C, it is obvious that Hitler underestimated but also it shows what the war was like from the perspective of a German soldier and for a Russian. Source A gives a good impression of how the Germans thought that the Russians were weak and easy to defeat. This can be seen in several places for example "The Führer thinks that the action will only take 4 months; I think-even less" This shows directly that Hitler felt that he could defeat Russia quickly but also that this notion had been passed down to other Germans. Another way in which the Germans felt that they could win is how they felt that Bolshevism was very weak "Bolshevism will collapse as a house of cards." Source A gives an accurate depiction of the foolishness of the Axis powers. Source B shows how Russia felt about Hitler. In the poster it shows Hitler bursting through the Nazi-Soviet Pact, holding a gun looking like a rat, from this we can tell that Russia had a big army due to the obvious size of the Red Army soldier (drawn in red). It also shows how Hitler underestimates the enemy thinking that he can surprise them and kill them with just a gun. Another thing that this poster depicts is how fake Hitler was, shown by the mask which has fallen off his face. This poster would have boosted Russian morale by showing that Hitler was a dirty, frail, two-faced rat, but it also has a lot of factual evidence such as Hitler hiding behind the Nazi- Soviet pact to delay war and how the Russians knew that he was coming. The final source, Source C shows how the German soldiers themselves were doubtful of victory "Long before winter came the chances had been diminished owing to the repeated delays in the advance that were caused by bad roads, and mud." This also shows how bad the conditions were in Russia and how unprepared German troops were for it. Another part of Source C which shows how the Germans underestimated the Russian army and how big it was "Another adverse factor was the way the Russians received continual reinforcements from their back areas, as they fell back. It seemed to us that as soon as one force was wiped out, the path was blocked by the arrival of a fresh force." This shows how massive the Russian army was and how it was able to replenish its troops easily. Source C gives an accurate idea of how harsh it was to be fighting as a German soldier and how pointless it all seemed.
There were less decisive reasons which made Operation Barbarossa fail but they all contributed. Firstly was the Russians quick action which meant they were able to move over 1500 factories away from the fighting, allowing them to keep producing arms and munitions for their troops to hold of the Axis assault. Secondly Hitler split his forces too much, in order to take over Russia as fast as possible, this meant that since the Russians had a much bigger army they could easily repel German attacks and neutralize sieges because of the German lack of troops. Finally the Russians showed much Bravery trying to defend their country, for example even women workers in Stalingrad attacked the German soldiers. This patriotism was unmatched by the Germans as they were not on their home ground.
Ultimately Operation Barbarossa failed due to the German's foolishness to underestimate the Russian army. This lead to the Germans being forced to fight in unusual circumstances such as cold, rain, mud and ice which the Russians were used to giving them a massive advantage.
