Transcript War in Europe, 1940-1943

BARBAROSSA
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Lend-Lease
Rassenkampf
Stalingrad
Bagration
Georgi Zhukov
Great Fatherland
War
After the Fall of France
• Battle of Britain,
12 August to
27 September
• 121 Air Raids
• Stalemate in West
• US Lend-Lease Aid
• British Technology
The Reasons for BARBAROSSA
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Rassenkampf
Lebensraum
Fascist Ideology
Finland
Wermacht Morale
Alliances
* = Major Oil Field
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Dramatic Success of Blitzkreig
• German Success
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3.3 million German soldiers
60 Miles per Day
8 Russian Divisions Wiped Out in First Week
2,000 Planes Destroyed in 48 Hours
6,000 Tanks Lost in July Alone
1,500,000 Casualties in 14 Days
By August, Germans Were 200 Miles From Moscow
Failure of the Russian System
• Army Not Ready
– Stalinist Purges of the 1930s
• 80% of Colonels Purged
– Political Reliability Over Military Capability
• Late Mobilization
– Distrust of British Intelligence
– Hope for Diplomacy
– Remembrances of 1914
June
July
Aug-Sep
October
North
Leeb
Center
Bock
South
Runstedt
Approx
300,000
Russian
POW
Approx
600,000
Russian
POW
But the Russians Aren’t Done
• “Trading Space for
Time”
• Russian Industry Out
of Reach
• Reserves of
Manpower
• Winter is Coming….
Limits of Blitzkrieg
• Counted on a Four
Month Campaign
• Far From Supply
Lines
• Not Prepared for Cold
Weather
Siege of Moscow, October 1941
• Initial German
Success
• Nazis 40 Miles Away
• Lenin’s Coffin
Removed
• 700,000 Russian
POWs
Zhukov and “General Winter”
• Nazis Have No Winter
Gear
• Temperatures Hit 40
Below Zero, Celsius
• Nazis Have No Winter
Oils
• Zhukov and the
Siberian Reserves,
December 6, 1941
“Comrade Kill Your German”
• Momentum Shift
• 300,000 Germans
Killed or POW in
December Alone
• Bitter Nature of the
War
• American Entry
• Two Front War by
Spring
Stalingrad, Sept 1942-Jan 1943
• German losses exceed
250,000 men
• Worst fighting of the
war
• Major turning point in
the war
• Surrender of Paulus
and the Sixth Army
Reasons for Russian Recovery
• Quantity has a quality all
its own
• Industry
• Russian patriotism
• Changes in Russian
doctrine
• Lend-Lease as the vehicle
for Deep War theory
• Diplomatic isolation of
Japan
• Second Front?
Resources at Kursk
(July/August 1943)
USSR
Germany
Men
1,336,000
900,000
Tanks
3,444
2,700
Planes
2,900
2,000
Heavy Guns
19,000
10,000
Operation
Bagration
Russia’s Great Fatherland War
• 20,000,000 Russian dead
– at least
• Russia in firm control of
Eastern Europe and plan
to keep it
• Mistrust with west
• Russian army powerful,
efficient by 1945
• Russians able to absorb
huge casualties