How Did Hitler Attack Russia

The confrontation between German and Russia was a battle unlike all others that were fought in the Second World War. Although Hitler had other motives for attacking the east, this war was primarily based on ideology. The Germans did not wish to simply exploit Russia for political and economic gains but to completely annihilate the Red Army. It was a war launched against the Bolshevik, Jews and the Slavs. Hitler’s intention was to destroy the red army rapidly at the borderlands, using Blitzkrieg. The decree to overthrow Russia was given in December 1940, under the code name operation Barbarossa. The operation was executed in June 1941 and came to an end in December. However this massive assault would prove insufficient to take over Russia. In

Observing back on history we can clearly see that Hitler’s decision to attack Russia was thoughtless. There were overwhelming evidences available to indicate that operation Barbarossa would be a failure. However, Hitler believed that the Red army would fold under German’s assault. We can see this as an underestimation of Russia on Hitler’s part. This fatal assumption is clearly based upon political and racial discrimination against the Bolsheviks, the Jews and the Slavs and the belief that the Germans were indestructible (Nazi policy, 22). The führer clearly miscalculated the Russian’s forte or he believed that he can use Blitzkrieg to achieve a swift victory (WWII, 137). The Germans overlooked Russians ability to replace broken armies with new ones within a short period of time. If the Germans hadn’t underestimated the Red army and adequately planned for the invasion, they would have noticed that operation Barbarossa alone would not had been sufficient to take over Russia. And as we saw, once operation Barbarossa was not successful in securing Russia, the Germans had to carry out further operations in the attempt to take the east resulting in them exhausting resources which will prove costly for them in the

In 1941, the Soviet population stood at nearly 200 million. This gave the Russians the upper hand in terms of manpower, a luxury in which the Germans do not enjoy. Hartmann, Christian. Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941-1945. The lack of German intelligence on the Russians ability to mobilize new armies was one of the main reasons that operation Barbarossa failed. (Titans Clash, 79). The rest of the world, like the Germans, also do not have sufficient intelligence regarding the strength of the red army.(WWII, 151) When the Germans turned their eyes towards the east, the whole world thought Russia was going to collapse just as Poland and France did. However, what everyone, especially the Wehrmacht, did not notice was that the soviets had reserves that can replace loses quickly, unlike the Poles and the France. General Halder, Nazi’s Chief of the Army Staff, recognized his error in mid-August when he realized that there were 360 army division and not 200 as per his Intel (WWII, 151). Halder had undying faith in Operation Barbarossa and was expecting the war to come to an end within a fortnight (Own Reff, 27). However he realized he had faulty intelligence when he received new information from the department of Foreign Armies East. He then realised things would not go according to the German’s pre-war