German invasion of the Soviet Union that opened World War II
on the Eastern Front, commencing the largest, most bitterly contested, and
bloodiest campaign of the war. Adolf Hitler’s objective for Operation
BARBAROSSA was simple: he sought to crush the Soviet Union in one swift blow.
With the USSR defeated and its vast resources at his disposal, surely Britain
would have to sue for peace. So confident was he of victory that he made no
effort to coordinate the invasion with his Japanese ally. Hitler predicted a
quick victory in a campaign of, at most, three months.
German success hinged on the speed of advance of 154 German
and satellite divisions deployed in three army groups: Army Group North in East
Prussia, under Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb; Army Group Center in northern
Poland, commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock; and Army Group South in southern
Poland and Romania under Field Marshal Karl Gerd von Rundstedt. Army Group
North consisted of 3 panzer, 3 motorized, and 24 infantry divisions supported
by the Luftflotte 1 and joined by Finnish forces. Farther north, German General
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst’s Norway Army would carry out an offensive against
Murmansk in order to sever its supply route to Leningrad. Within Army Group
Center were 9 panzer, 7 motorized, and 34 infantry divisions, with the
Luftflotte 2 in support. Marshal von Rundstedt’s Army Group South consisted of
5 panzer, 3 motorized, and 35 infantry divisions, along with 3 Italian
divisions, 2 Romanian armies, and Hungarian and Slovak units. Luftflotte 4
provided air support.
Meeting this onslaught were 170 Soviet divisions organized
into three “strategic axes” (commanding multiple fronts, the equivalent of army
groups)—Northern, Central, and Southern or Ukrainian—that would come to be
commanded by Marshals Kliment E. Voroshilov, Semen K. Timoshenko, and Semen M.
Budenny, respectively. Voroshilov’s fronts were responsible for the defense of
Leningrad, Karelia, and the recently acquired Baltic states. Timoshenko’s
fronts protected the approaches to Smolensk and Moscow. And those of Budenny
guarded the Ukraine. For the most part, these forces were largely unmechanized
and were arrayed in three linear defensive echelons, the first as far as 30
miles from the border and the last as much as 180 miles back.
