The Invasion of the Soviet Union

After failing in his attempt at attacking Great Britain, Hitler was undaunted and turned his attention in another direction.  In June 1941, Hitler turned on the Soviet Union in the East, breaking the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, although it was never the intention of Hitler to adhere to the terms of the pact, it was merely a tactic to stave off a two front war.  For Hitler, the destruction of the Soviet Union, the elimination of the Communist threat to Germany, and the seizure of Soviet land for lebensraum was key to his plan.  Under the codename Operation Barbarossa, Germany with some 3 million troops, invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 in the largest German military operation of WWII. The Germans once again engaged in the same blitzkrieg tactics that had been successful in Poland.  Although the Soviets had millions of troops to outmatch the Germans, the Soviets were poorly trained and ill equipped to deal with the strength of the German military.  It was the intent of the German military to wage a war of annihilation against the Soviet Union.  Special Units, called Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units), were deployed by the Germans behind the lines to physically annihilate Jews, Communists and other persons deemed to be a threat to the establishment of German rule.

Despite the great amount of loss that the Soviets suffered at the hands of the Germans, the country did not collapse.  Although by the Fall of 1941, the Germans had invaded deep into Soviet territory, they had failed to reach Leningrad or Moscow, their intended destinations.  As winter encroached, the Germans were ill-prepared for a Soviet winter.  They lacked the necessary warm clothing, and their equipment was nearly inoperable in the frigid conditions.  When the winter of 1941 set in, German progress in the Soviet Union came to a standstill.  While the Germans were stalled by the severe Russian winter, the Soviets were given an opportunity to recover from the vast numbers of casualties they suffered at the hands of the Germans in the initial attacks. 

Although the Germans were stopped by the Soviet winter of 1941 - 1942, they did not give up.  After failing to capture the city of Leningrad, Hitler ordered his troops to lay siege to the city, instituting a military blockade and forcing the citizens to surrender.  Under the Siege of Leningrad, nearly 1 million Soviet citizens died.  As the Spring of 1942 emerged, Hitler renewed attacks on the Soviet Union.  Although the Soviet troops were weary from fighting, they rediscovered a tactic to aid them in their defeat of the Germans, the fighting retreat, which inevitably put a strain on German supply lines. Soviet soldiers were instructed to retreat instead of stand their ground.  By the end of the summer 1942, the Axis powers, including German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops had moved within striking distance of Stalingrad, a major industrial city and economic port located on the Volga River.  The goal of taking Stalingrad for Hitler was to secure important oil fields in the Caucasus. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from August 1942 – February 1943.  As the Germans encroached the people of Stalingrad were trapped and Stalin refused to allow any evacuation from the city that was named for him and insisted on its defense at all costs.  The battle for the city descended into one of the most brutal in WWII. Individual streets were fought over using hand-to-hand combat. The Germans took a great deal of the city but they failed to fully assert their authority. Areas captured by the Germans during the day, were re-taken by the Russians at night.

By November 1942 the Soviets had gathered forces for a counter attack, code named Operation Uranus.   The Soviets broke through the Axis defenses and surrounded approximately 250,000 German troops, cutting them off from the remainder of the Axis troops.  Hitler refused to allow the trapped troops to retreat and promised to send air reinforcements as the winter months approached.    The Germans, starving and running out of ammunition lasted until the end of January/ beginning of February 1943, when the remaining troops, approximately 90,000, surrendered to the Soviets.  Despite the fact that nearly 1 million Soviet soldiers died defending Stalingrad, the battle was a crushing defeat for Hitler and the Axis Powers as the German army began to retreat to the West.  Stalingrad marked a major turning point in the war.