Transcript WWII Notes 8: Germany Moves East

WWII Notes 8:
Germany Moves East
World Wars – Hamer
January 5, 2010
Reasons for War with the Soviet
Union
Fall 1940 – Sea Lion had not worked so
Hitler focused on one of his primary
objectives – a crusade against USSR
Reasons for War in the East
• Lebensraum would move East – Ukraine
looked appealing
• Hitler saw an inevitable confrontation
between civilization (National Socialists) and
Judeo Bolshevism
Why Now (Fall 1940)? PART 1
• Hitler increasingly inpatient
• Worried about his health
– What if he died before his life work was
completed?
• Hitler felt that Great Britain, while not
defeated, was eliminated as a power on the
continent
Why Now (Fall 1940)? Part 2
• Felt Soviet Union was vulnerable
right then
– Effect of Red Army Purges of 19371938
– Germany doubted the quality of this
army
• Assumed its morale was
destroyed by purges and Winter
War
• Hitler said about the Red Army:
“You only have to kick in the door
and the whole rotten structure
will come crashing down”
Operation Barbarossa
Early Plans for Barbarossa
• German General Halder
(mastermind of campaigns in
Poland and W. Europe)
estimated that the Soviets
would only be able to resist a
German invasion for 8-10 weeks
• End of July 1940 – decision
made to invade the Soviet Union
in Spring 1941
Hitler issues specific orders:
December 18, 1940
• Final objectives were not specific geographic
points (cities), but the key objective was the
destruction of the Red Army in Western Russia
• Convinced it would happen in about 2 months
German Army Moving East PART 1
• 3 army groups assembled
for operation
– Army Group North
would go through the
Baltic States with a
general objective of
Leningrad
– Army Group Center
would focus on the
Moscow area
– Army Group South
would aim through the
Ukraine to Kiev
German Army Moving East PART 2
• 145 divisions:
– 102 infantry divisions
– 19 armored divisions
– 14 motorized infantry divisions
– 2500 tanks
– 2700 planes
– over 1 million troops were moved from western
Europe
– 10,000 horses
German Army Moving East PART 3
• May 15, 1941 was set for original invasion
date
– Spring rains would have ended
– Turf would be firm enough to support the
Blitzkrieg
Italy Messes Up
• October 1940 Mussolini invaded
Greece even though Hitler pleaded
with him not to
– Fiasco from the beginning
– Greeks defeated Italians and followed
them in retreat into Albania
– So unstable that Hitler had to send in
troops to stabilize
• April 1941 Germany invaded
Greece and Yugoslavia
• Had to postpone Barbarossa until
late June
New date for invasion: June 22, 1941
• Earlier invasion date wouldn’t have worked
anyway because the weather was even more
important
– Spring 1941 unusually wet – rivers in Poland
flooded until early June
– Tanks couldn’t have made it earlier anyway
• New date was 129 years to the day from
Napoleon’s attack on Russia in 1812 . . . and
that went so well . . .
Stalin Not Paranoid Enough (for once)
• As Germans began to mass troops along their
frontier (in Poland), Soviets possessed best
spy system in the world
– Stalin had been receiving intelligence from Japan,
Churchill in England, US, letting USSR know that
Germany was planning to invade
– But Stalin refused to heed these
• Did not alert his commanders on the borders, who
started to notice German activity
Ideological Conflict
• Germans also began preparations to
indoctrinate their troops for the campaign
against the Red Army
– This was not like other battles
– German Army was told this was a war without
rules – ideological conflict to the end.
– Decree issued by Hitler in late May letting high
command know to prepare troops for this sort of
war
• Orders said there were four groups to watch
out for:
• “This struggle demands ruthless and energetic
measures against Bolshevik agitators,
guerillas, saboteurs, Jews, and a complete
elimination of every active or passive
resistance”
War Against the Soviet Union
Begins
Barbarossa Begins – June 22, 1941
PART 1
• After daybreak June 22, 1941, the last train
delivering materials to the Germans crossed
from Soviet territory. German troops watched
it cross and then launched Barbarossa
– Caught the Russians totally by surprise
Barbarossa Begins – June 22, 1941
PART 2
• Since the Russian frontier
was far West, it bought
Stalin time, but those
divisions were crushed by
Blitzkrieg attacks.
• Tens of thousands of
causalities, hundreds of
thousands of prisoners,
and 1200 aircraft destroyed
on the ground in the first
24 hours.
Russian supplies captured by
German Army
Initial German Successes
• Army Group north
moved 150 miles within
5 days and was close to
Leningrad by July 10th
• Army Group Center
captured 500,000
Russian prisoners – only
200 miles from Moscow
within 3 weeks
• Army Group South had more resistance, but still was
moving forward
• German General Halder said that ‘the Russians lost the
war in the first 2 weeks’
Initial German Problems PART 1
• Center and North had outdistanced supplies
• Were encountering mechanical problems and
problems with the roads
• Blitzkrieg was working and Russians had their
butts kicked, but the Russians didn’t grasp that
they were actually defeated…
– Russians were inflicting casualties on the Germans as
well
• Russian units separated from the main command
made their own decisions about attacking the
Germans, which was confusing for the Germans!
Initial German Problems PART 2
• Russians chose fighting over
surrender to save themselves
from falling into German
hands
• Reasons for this:
– Moving along with (advancing
behind) the German troops
were special SS groups called
Einsatzgruppen
– Stalin declared that if a soldier
broke ranks and retreated, it
would be considered desertion
and they would be immediately
shot
Member of an Einsatzgruppe
prepares to shoot a Ukrainian Jew
kneeling on the edge of a mass
grave filled with corpses
Initial German Problems PART 3
• Panzer leaders were super enthusiastic about
massive movement
• But infantry officers who followed the Panzers and
cleaned up the resistance were not as excited
– While the Russians were being pushed back and being
slaughtered, the German infantry were still fighting this was “real” combat as opposed to fighting in France
• Russian stragglers left behind the rapidly advancing
German lines sniped and plagued the German lines
Initial German Problems PART 4
• Soviet military technology was
lacking, but even this primitive
fighting was scary
• New weapon for the Russians: T-34
Tank that Germans didn’t realize the
Russians had and Russia had many
of them
– More than a match for any German
tank – it was the most technologically
advanced tank of the time
• German HQ thought things were going so well
because of tremendous gains, but there were signs
of real problems to come
Strategy Debate Mid-July –
One Month into Campaign
Which Way to Go?
• Hitler said to divert Panzer groups from Center
to North group for a drive on Leningrad
• More should be diverted from Center to go to
South group as well
• Other German commanders did NOT want to
do this because they wanted to concentrate in
the Center for drive on Moscow
• Panzers halt for this from mid-July until August
20th – they went the way Hitler wanted
Theories: Could the Germans Have
Taken Moscow? PART 1
• Wasted a month of good weather
• German supply problems
– Troops had outrun supply lines
– Roads were impassable
– Train system was unreliable
– Harassment of supply lines by guerillas
Theories: Could the Germans Have
Taken Moscow? PART 2
• German manpower was stretched to their
absolute limit – they were at the end of
reserves and had not instituted a draft yet
• Russians did have reserves and were moving
them to the West
– SO Hitler said focusing on Moscow would
definitely outrun supplies and allow for
encirclement by Russian reserves. Therefore Hitler
wanted to keep the broad front
Theories: Could the Germans Have
Taken Moscow? PART 3
• The debate itself was
symptomatic of the biggest
problem – Barbarossa had
failed in its original
objective: to destroy the
Red Army in Western Russia
• Germans had attempted too
much and were still 200
miles from Moscow
Continuing the Offensive
September 1941
Siege of Leningrad
• Leningrad is put under
siege
– 200,000 citizens of
Leningrad would die from
starvation and exposure
– Kiev also fell to
encirclement September 26
• 600,000 more Russians
would be captured
Finns to attack Soviet Union from
the north. Germans to attack
from the west.
Siege of Leningrad
Germans Attack Moscow
• September 30 – Army Group
Center moved on Moscow
– Panic in Moscow
– 600,000 Russian POW’s
– Rumors that the government was
moving from Moscow to the East
Women and Older
Men from
Moscow dig 100
Miles of Anti-Tank
Trenches around
the City
“We Will Defend Moscow”
Those Amazing Soviets
• 1500 Russian industrial
factories were
dismantled (by the
Russians), put on trains,
and moved East along
with 1 million workers to
build new industrial
cities beyond the Urals
and away from the
Germans.
Halt of Barbarossa PART 1
• Heavy rains in October stopped offensive until
November
• When the weather grew cold Germans could
move towards Moscow again
• November 15th – offensive began again
Halt of Barbarossa PART 2
• Germans out of supplies – those they had
were inadequate for the cold
– Cotton and denim uniforms with no winter
clothing and no overcoats
• Tanks were breaking down
– No antifreeze available
– Had to light fires under the tanks to heat them
• Late November temperatures reached -10 F
– An open can of rations would freeze within 30
seconds
Russians Fight Back PART 1
• Russians were planning
both defense of Moscow
and major counteroffensive
– Georgi Zhukov was
placed in charge of
defense of Moscow
– Moved reinforcements
from the far-East (Siberia)
and they arrived East of
Moscow – Germans did
not know about this
Russians Fight Back PART 2
• December 5, 1941, Zhukov launched a
massive counterattack North and South of
Moscow
– Halted German offensive and threatened to turn it
into a disaster
– Counteroffensive stalled in January and February
• Germans launched a new offensive in Spring
1942 – war in the Soviet Union was not over
Barbarossa Failed
• Blitzkrieg phase was over
– Germany was now in for the long conflict Hitler
had hoped to avoid
– Red Army was not destroyed nor was Moscow
captured