Powerpoint on Operation Barbarossa for students.

1. THE LARGEST INVASION
IN HUMAN HISTORY
OPERATION BARBAROSSA

2. OPERATION
BARBAROSSA
• INVASION OF THE SOVIET UNION
BY NAZI GERMANY
• TOOK PLACE ON 22ND JUNE, 1941
• OPERATION CULMINATED IN THE
BATTLE OF MOSCOW RESULTING IN
GERMANY’S DEFEAT
• MORE THAN 15 MILLION
SOLDIERS PARTICIPATED
• OVER 6 MILLION CASUALTIES (IN 5
MONTHS) – INCLUDING DEAD,
WOUNDED, MISSING AND
CAPTURED

3. THE GERMAN SIDE
OF THE STORY
• TO HITLER THE WAR
BETWEEN NAZISM AND
COMMUNISM WAS
INEVITABLE
• HE BELIEVED THE WAR
WOULD BE A RAPID
SUCCESS, TAKING NO
MORE THAN THREE
MONTHS
• SO TO ANNEX UKRAINE
LIKE BRITISH INDIA
(LEBENSRAUM)
• AND TAKE OVER
OILFIELDS IN THE
CAUCASUS

4. THE SOVIET SIDE OF THE STOR
• STALIN BELIEVED THAT THE SOVIET
UNION COULD EASILY DEFEND
AGAINST A GERMAN INVASION
• THE SOVIET UNION HAD A
POPULATION OF 200 MILLION
COMPARED TO THAT OF GERMAN
WHICH WAS 70 MILLION AS OF 1941
• STALIN CONCLUDED THAT HITLER
DID NOT WANT A TWO FRONT WAR
AGAINST BRITAIN ON THE WEST AND
RUSSIA ON THE EAST

5. ASSUMPTIONS
• HITLER BELIEVED THAT DESTROYING THE RED ARMY
WAS MORE
IMPORTANT THAN GAINING TERRITORY AND DID NOT
CARE
ABOUT TAKING MOSCOW
• MANY GERMAN GENERALS BELIEVED THAT TAKING
MOSCOW
WOULD BE THE DECISIVE FACTOR IN THE WAR
• HITLER ALSO BELIEVED THAT THE OBJECTIVES OF
BARBAROSSA
WOULD BE ACHIEVED BEFORE WINTER AND
THEREFORE, NO
WINTER PREPARATIONS WERE MADE.

6. AXIS PREPARATION
• PREPARATIONS BEGAN IN LATE 1940
• OVER 3 MILLION GERMAN TROOPS WERE SECRETLY MOVED
TO
THE EASTERN BORDER
• THE OPERATION WAS SET TO BEGAN ON MAY 15 BUT WAS
DELAYED
TO JUNE 22ND
• 150 GERMAN DIVISIONS
• 3 ARMY GROUPS
• 3350 TANKS
• 7200 ARTILLERY PIECES
• 2770 AIRCRAFTS
• 600,000 MOTOR VEHICLES
• 700,000 HORSES

7. USSIAN STRENGTH
• THE GREAT PURGE OF THE LATE
1930s WAS ORCHESTRATED BY
STALIN. 15 OUT OF 16 ARMY
COMMANDERS, 50 OUT OF 57
CORP COMMANDERS, 154 OUT OF
180 DIVISIONAL COMMANDERS
WERE KILLED
• THE RESULTS OF THIS
DEVASTATION WOULD BE
REVEALED IN THE DISASTROUS
WINTER WAR, WHERE THE
NUMERICALLY AND
TECHNOLOGICALLY SUPERIOR
RED ARMY WAS PUSHED TO THE
VERGE OF COLLAPSE AGAINST A
SIGNIFICANTLY WEAKER FINNISH

8. RUSSIAN
STRENGTH
• THE RED ARMY
CONSISTED OF:
- 171 DIVISION WITH A
TOTAL OF
- 5.5 MILLION MEN
MOBILIZED FOR COMBAT
- RESERVE FORCE OF
14 MILLION
- 23,000 TANKS (INITIAL)

9. PANZER KAMPFWAGON
MP 40LUG
ER
GERMAN
WEAPONS
KARBINER

10. KV - 1
T - 34
SOVIET
WEAPONS
MOSIN NAG
MAKAROV
PPsh

11. THE ORDER OF
BATTLE
• GERMANY SENDS 3
ARMY GROUPS:
NORTH, SOUTH
CENTRE
• NORTH – LED BY
WILHEIM RITTER VON
LEEB (MARCHES
THROUGH NORTHERN
BALTICS INTO
NORTHERN RUSSIA
AND CAPTURES
LENNINGRAD)
• CENTER – LED BY
FEODOR VON BOCK
TAKES MOSCOW
• SOUTH – LED BY GERD

12. Battles of Operation Barbarossa
• Battle of Bialystok-Minsk (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Raseiniai (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Dubno-Brody (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Smolensk (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Uman (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Kiev (Decisive Axis Victory)
• Battle of Moscow (Strategic Soviet victory,
German operational and tactical failure, Eventual
failure of Operation Barbarossa)

13. STATISTICS
AXIS POWERS
• 250,000 KILLED
• 500,000 WOUNDED
• 25,000 MISSING
• 2,093 AIRPLANES
DESTROYED
• 2,758 TANKS LOST
SOVIET UNION
• 7 MILLION LOST
• 3 MILLION WOUNDED
• 3,300,000 CAPTURED
• 21,200 AIRPLANES
LOST
• 20,500 – 34,000 TANKS
LOST
• 20 MILLION
CIVILLIANS LOST

14. WHY IT FAILED?
• Strong Optimism that prevented any worst
case-scenerio planning
• Underestimation of the Enemy &
Overestimation of German Military
Capabilities by Hitler
• German industries collapsed
• Enemy from the West
• The Mud & The Winter (and Distance)
stopped German Blitzkrieg

15. THANK YOU
Prepared by: Ahnaf
Ahmed