What Are The Challenges Of Operation Barbarossa

In the midst of global conflict in the 1940’s, Hitler looked to the East to expand the authoritarian control of Nazi Germany and to remove one of the greatest threats to the grand plan, the Soviet Union. As Kirchubel, 2013, skillfully highlighted in the Operation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet Russia Führer’s success in the west against France, Belgium, and the Netherlands meant that Germany was safe from western threat for now, and while the opportunity arose, Hitler diverted military attention to the east to invade the U.S.S.R. under the operation code name, ‘Barbarossa’. Stalin was caught unprepared for war, but eventually the tides of war would turn and the Soviet Union ultimately defeat Nazi Germany, influencing and shaping

Nazi forces misjudged the harsh effects of the cold Russian winter, which slowly tore away at the unprepared Germans and reduced the effectiveness of their Blitzkrieg tactics. In the credible statements of Zimmerman, 2014, the conditions at the front were “Appalling. Weapons malfunctioned, vehicles wouldn’t start, frostbite cases soared” and “troops froze to death” reflecting the severity of the winter and the impact it had on the German army, which ultimately prevented cleaner execution of plans and success in the east. Furthermore, the lack of intelligence and decisive thinking led to Hitler prioritising key industrial and economic locations in the south over the capture of the Soviet capital, Moscow, which was a mistake, not considering the importance of Moscow to the Red Army’s morale and Joseph Stalin’s rule. Prodan, 2017, patriotically articulates the events of a march held in the Red Square, to celebrate the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution amid the threat of the Wehrmacht being only tens of kilometres away from Moscow. The march was successful, with not one bomb being dropped on the capital, boosting the morale of all military units that had marched, which fundamentally contributed to the downfall of the German army and the fatherland. This error essentially led to the battle of Kursk, where the Germans executed their final offensive in an attempt to halt the ruthless Red army. The planning and strategies put into place by the Germans in the battle of Kursk did not account for the adapted military tactics used by the Soviets which ultimately decided the outcome of the battle. As thoroughly depicted by Trueman, 2015, in an uncertain manner, Blitzkrieg was used by the Wehrmacht which exhausted the supply lines as the Soviets used retreating tactics to counter