Borders of the German occupation of the USSR on the map. Event cards: the attack of fascist germany on the ussrrazgrom of fascist

In 1942, the map shows the maximum advance of the fascist troops into the depths of the Soviet Union. On the scale of the Soviet Union, this is a small part, but what were the victims in the occupied territories.

If you look closely, in the north the Germans stopped in the area of \u200b\u200bthe present Republic of Karelia, then Leningrad, Kalinin, Moscow, Voronezh, Stalingrad. In the south we reached the region of the city of Grozny. You can't describe it in a nutshell.

From the school history course, we know that the Nazis in the USSR reached such cities as Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Grozny, Kalinin, Voronezh. After 1942, when the Nazis advanced as much as possible across the territory of the USSR, they began to retreat. You can see the progress of their promotion on the map in more detail:



The Germans advanced quite deep into the territory of the Soviet Union. But they did not manage to take strategically important cities: neither Moscow nor Leningrad submitted. In the Leningrad direction, they were stopped in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Tikhvin. In the Kalinin direction - near the village of Mednoe. At Stalingrad we reached the Volga, the last outpost - the village of Kuporosnoye. On the western front, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Rzhev, the Germans managed to be knocked out at the cost of incredible efforts (recall the famous poem by Tvardovsky I was killed near Rzhev). They also fought furiously for the Caucasus, which was of strategic importance - access to the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. We stopped in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Maykop.



Where the Nazis reached, this is already a well-known business, and every historian can accurately tell everything in detail, about every point, about every city and village in which there were fierce battles, everything is especially well described and remained in memory in books that can be for many years just pick up and read.

And this is how the map looks like:



A lot of maps are shown, but I will say in words: during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis came close to Moscow, they had only 30 km to Moscow, but they were stopped there. Naturally, I know everything about the blockade of Leningrad, the Battle of Kursk, the Rzhev area. Here is a map of the battle for Moscow.



http://dp60.narod.ru/image/maps/330.jpg

This is the line of maximum promotion of the Germans &; Co deep into Soviet territory.

There are many types of cards.

To be honest, I don't really trust the Internet, I trust history textbooks more.

I myself live in Belarus and therefore the card may not be much different.

But here's a photo I took, just for you!



The Nazis went far, but, as you know, they failed to capture Moscow. Not so long ago I was interested in information when the Nazis began to retreat. We managed to find only some facts of the events near Moscow. You can quote:

The map shows the territory of the USSR, which the Germans managed to pass before November 15, 1942 (after which they went a little further inland and began to retreat):



The German offensive on the USSR was in 1941, they almost achieved their goal, and the Nazis had only about thirty kilometers to reach Moscow, but they still did not succeed, but here is a map where everything is described in detail



They were near Moscow - 30 km, and they were defeated there, you better read it in Wikipedia, everything is described in detail there and the dates are from the video, see here. And here is the map in the pictures below, everything is marked by black arrows.



During the Great Patriotic War, fascist Germany captured a significant territory of the former USSR.

The troops of the Third Reich occupied many republics of the then union. Among them are part of the RSFSR, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, the Baltic republics.

Below on the map you can see the border (bold red line), where the Nazis entered during the hostilities:

Event maps: The attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR The defeat of Nazi Germany The radical change during the Great Patriotic War Victory over the militarist Japan Video archive materials: A. HitlerPact of Ribbentrop-Molotov June 22, 1941 Beginning of the Great Patriotic War Tank battle near the village of ProkhorovkaStalingradBerlin operationTehran conferenceYalta conferenceSigning of the Act of surrender of GermanyParade of Victory.

In January 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany, led by Adolf Hitler (see video archive). A hotbed of military tension arose in the center of Europe. The attack of Nazi Germany on Poland on September 1, 1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War.
June 22, 1941 Germany, without declaring war, attacked Soviet Union (see video archive). By this time, Germany and its allies had captured virtually all of Europe. This allowed it to use the military-industrial potential of the occupied countries to strike at the Soviet Union. Superiority in the technical equipment of the German army (i.e. in tanks, aviation, communications) and the accumulated experience of conducting modern warfare caused the
a slow offensive by German troops on the Soviet front in the summer of 1941
The Soviet Union was not prepared to repulse aggression. The rearmament of the Red Army was not completed. By the beginning of the war, the creation of new defensive lines had not been completed. Huge damage to the fighting efficiency of the army caused stalinist repression in the army. In 1937-1938. during the repression, 579 of the 733 senior command personnel were killed Armed Forces (from brigade commander to marshal). This resulted in serious mistakes in the development of military doctrine. The biggest blunder of J.V. Stalin (see video archive) was ignoring the information of Soviet intelligence officers about the exact date of the start of the war. The Red Army was not put on alert. MASS REPRESSIONS IN THE RED ARMY (for the period 1936-1938) THE HIGHER COMMAND OF THE RED ARMY REPRESSED from 5 marshals 3 from 2 army commissars of 1st rank 2 of 4 army commanders of 1st rank 2 of 12 army commanders of 2nd rank 12 of 2 fleet flagships 1st rank 2 out of 15 army commissars 2nd rank 15 out of 67 corps commissars 60 out of 28 corps commissars 25 out of 199 divisional commanders 136 out of 397 brigade commissars 221 out of 36 brigade commissars 34
As a result, in the early days of the war, a significant part of Soviet aircraft and tanks was destroyed. Large units of the Red Army were surrounded, destroyed or captured. In general, the Red Army in the first months of the war lost 5 million people (killed, wounded and captured). The enemy occupied Ukraine, Crimea, the Baltic States, Belarus. On September 8, 1941, the blockade of Leningrad began, which lasted almost 900 days (see map). However, the stubborn resistance of the Red Army in the summer and autumn of 1941 thwarted Hitler's plan for a blitzkrieg (plan "Barbarossa").
With the outbreak of war, the efforts of the ruling party and government were aimed at mobilizing all forces to repel the enemy. It was held under the slogan “Everything for the front! Everything for the victory! " A military restructuring of the economy began. Her part of the evacuation of industrial enterprises and people from the frontline zone began. By the end of 1941, 1,523 enterprises were relocated to the East of the country. Many civilian factories and factories switched to the production of military products.
In the first days of the war, the formation of the people's militia began. In the rear of the enemy, underground resistance groups and partisan detachments were created. By the end of 1941, more than 2 thousand partisan detachments were operating in the occupied territory.
In the fall of 1941, Hitler launched two offensives on Moscow (Operation Typhoon), during which German units managed to approach the capital by 25-30 km. In this critical situation
the army was greatly assisted by the people's militia. In early December, a Soviet counteroffensive began, which lasted until April 1942. As a result, the enemy was driven back from the capital by 100-250 km. The victory near Moscow finally canceled out the German plan for the "blitzkrieg".

The names of Soviet military leaders became known to the whole world: Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, Ivan Stepanovich Konev, Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky.

The city of Stalingrad on the Volga became a symbol of the fortitude and heroism of Soviet soldiers. The defense of Stalingrad began in September 1942. For two months of fierce fighting, the defenders of Stalingrad repulsed 700 enemy attacks. By the middle of 1942, German troops were forced to stop the offensive due to heavy losses. On November 19, 1942, the offensive of the Soviet troops began (Operation Uranus). It developed with lightning speed and successfully. Within 5 days, 22 enemy divisions were surrounded. All attempts to break through the encirclement from the outside were repulsed (see map). The encircled group was cut into pieces and destroyed. Over 90 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered.
The victory at Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The strategic initiative passed to the Soviet command. In the winter of 1943, a broad offensive of the Red Army began on all fronts. In January 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken. In February 1943, the North Caucasus was liberated.
In the summer of 1943, the largest battle of the Second World War took place - Battle of Kursk... It started with a massive offensive
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german troops near Kursk (July 5, 1943). After a huge tank battle near the village of Prokhorovka, on July 12, the enemy was stopped (see video archive). The counteroffensive of the Red Army began. It ended with the complete defeat of the German troops. In August, the cities of Orel and Belgorod were liberated. The Battle of Kursk meant the end of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War (see.
map). In the fall of 1943 she was released most of Ukraine and the city of Kiev.
1944 was the year of the complete liberation of the territory of the USSR from the invaders. Were liberated Belarus (operation "Bagration"), Moldova, Karelia, the Baltic States, all of Ukraine and the Arctic. In the summer and fall of 1944, the Soviet Army crossed the USSR border and entered the territory of Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Norway. With the approach of Soviet troops, armed uprisings broke out in a number of countries. In the course of armed uprisings in Romania and Bulgaria, pro-fascist regimes were overthrown. In early 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Poland, Hungary, Austria (see map).
In April 1945, the Berlin operation began under the command of Marshal Zhukov. The fascist leadership was completely
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demoralized. Hitler committed suicide. On the morning of May 1, Berlin was taken (see video archive). On May 8, 1945, representatives of the German command signed the Unconditional Capital Act.
rations (see video archive). On May 9, the remnants of German troops were defeated in the area of \u200b\u200bPrague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. Therefore, May 9 became the Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War (see video archive).
The Great Patriotic War was an integral part of the Second World War (1939-1945). The allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition were Great Britain and the United States. Allied troops made a significant contribution to the liberation of Western and Central Europe... However, the main burden of the struggle against fascism was borne by the Soviet Union. The Soviet-German front remained the main one throughout the Second World War. The landing of Anglo-American troops in Northern France and the opening of the second front took place only on June 6, 1944. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union entered the war with Japan, fulfilling its allied obligations. The war in the Far East lasted from August 9 to September 2 and ended in the complete defeat of the Japanese Kwantung army. Japan's signing of the Act of Surrender marked the end of World War II (see map).
The Soviet people paid an enormous price for their victory. During the war, about 27 million people died. 1710 cities lay in ruins (see video archive), over 70 thousand villages and villages were burned. Thousands of factories and factories were destroyed in the occupied territory, museums and libraries were looted. However, mass heroism at the front and the selfless labor of Soviet people in
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the rear was allowed to defeat Nazi Germany in this difficult and bloody war.
The attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union.

Battle of Kursk
Defeat of Nazi troops at Stalingrad

The front line to the beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive
troops (11/19/1942)
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The direction of the strikes of the Soviet troops in November 1942, the encirclement of the German fascist troops
Front line on 11/30/1942.
The direction of the strike of the fascist German troops trying to break through to the encircled group
Counteroffensive by fascist German troops and their withdrawal
Front line by December 31, 1942
The final elimination of the surrounded non-German fascist troops (January 10 - February 2, 1943)
Front line by July 5, 1943. The offensive of the fascist German troops Defensive battles and counterattacks by the Soviet troops The line at which the Nazi troops were stopped The Soviet counteroffensive

Position of troops by August 9, 1945 "" I Fortified areas of Japanese troops Direction of attacks by Soviet troops
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Strikes by Soviet-Mongolian troops Action by the Pacific Fleet
Airborne assault
Action of the People's Liberation
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Counterattacks of Japanese troops and their withdrawal Atomic bombing of Japanese cities by American aircraft Signing of the Act of Japan's unconditional surrender To share with friends: It is known that during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazi armies were never able to reach the Middle Volga region, although in accordance with the Barbarossa plan, by the end of the summer of 1941, the Wehrmacht was supposed to reach the Arkhangelsk-Kuibyshev-Astrakhan line. Nevertheless, the military and post-war generations of Soviet people were still able to see the Germans even in those cities that were located hundreds of kilometers from the front line. But these were not at all those self-confident occupiers with "Schmeissers" in their hands, who were crossing the Soviet border at dawn on June 22.
The destroyed cities were rebuilt by prisoners of war
We know that the victory over Hitlerite Germany went to our people at an incredibly high price. In 1945, a significant part of the European part of the USSR lay in ruins. It was necessary to restore the destroyed economy, and in the shortest possible time. But the country at that time was experiencing an acute shortage of workers and clever heads, because millions of our fellow citizens, including a huge number of highly qualified specialists, perished on the war fronts and in the rear.
After the Potsdam Conference, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a closed resolution. According to him, when restoring the industry of the USSR, its destroyed cities and villages, it was supposed to use the labor of German prisoners of war to the maximum extent. Then it was decided to take all qualified German engineers and workers from the Soviet occupation zone of Germany to the enterprises of the USSR.
According to official Soviet history, in March 1946, the first session of the USSR Supreme Soviet of the second convocation adopted the fourth five-year plan for the restoration and development of the country's national economy. In the first post-war five-year plan, it was necessary to completely restore the regions of the country that suffered from the occupation and military actions, and in industry and agriculture reach the pre-war level, and then surpass it.
For the development of the economy of the Kuibyshev region, about three billion rubles were allocated from the state budget in prices of that time. In the vicinity of post-war Kuibyshev, several camps were organized for former soldiers of the defeated Nazi armies. The Germans who survived in the Stalingrad cauldron were then widely used at various Kuibyshev construction sites.
At that time workers were also needed for the development of industry. Indeed, according to official Soviet plans, in the last war years and immediately after the war, it was planned to build several new plants in Kuibyshev, including an oil refinery, a drill bit, a ship repair and a metalwork plant. It also turned out to be urgently necessary to reconstruct the 4th GPP, KATEK (later the AM Tarasov plant), the Avtotraktorodetal plant (later the valve plant), the Srednevolzhsky machine-tool plant and some others. It was here that German prisoners of war were sent to work. But as it turned out later, not only them.

Six hours to get ready
Before the war, both the USSR and Germany were actively developing fundamentally new aircraft engines - gas turbine. However, German specialists were then noticeably ahead of their Soviet colleagues. The backlog increased after, in 1937, all leading Soviet scientists dealing with the problems of jet propulsion fell under the Yezhovsko-Berievsky skating rink of repression. Meanwhile, in Germany, at the BMW and Junkers factories, the first samples of gas turbine engines were already being prepared for serial production.
In the spring of 1945, the factories and design bureaus of Junkers and BMW were in the Soviet occupation zone. And in the fall of 1946, a significant part of the qualified personnel of Junkers, BMW and some other aircraft plants in Germany, in the strictest secrecy in specially equipped trains, was taken to the territory of the USSR, or rather to Kuibyshev, to the Upravlenchesky village. In the shortest possible time, 405 German engineers and technicians, 258 highly qualified workers, 37 employees, as well as a small group of service personnel were delivered here. Family members of these specialists arrived with them. As a result, at the end of October 1946 in the village of Administrative, there were more Germans than Russians.
Not so long ago, a former German electrical engineer Helmut Breuninger came to Samara, who was part of the very group of German technical specialists that more than 60 years ago was secretly taken to the Upravlenchesky village. In the late autumn of 1946, when the train with the Germans arrived in the city on the Volga, Mr. Breuninger was only 30 years old. Although by the time of his visit to Samara he was already 90 years old, he still decided on such a trip, however, in the company of his daughter and grandson.

Helmut Breuninger with his grandson

In 1946, I worked as an engineer at the state-owned enterprise "Askania" - recalled Mr. Breuninger. - At that time, it was very difficult for even a qualified specialist to find a job in defeated Germany. Therefore, when at the beginning of 1946, under the control of the Soviet administration, several large factories were launched, there were a lot of people who wanted to get a job there. And in the early morning of October 22, the doorbell rang at my apartment. On the threshold stood a Soviet lieutenant and two soldiers. The lieutenant said that I and my family are given six hours to get ready for the subsequent dispatch to the Soviet Union. He did not tell us any details, we only learned that we would work in our specialty at one of the Soviet defense enterprises.
In the evening of the same day, under heavy guard, a train with technical specialists departed from Berlin station. When loading the train, I saw many familiar faces. They were experienced engineers from our plant, as well as some of my colleagues from the Junkers and BMW plants. For a whole week the train went to Moscow, where several engineers with their families unloaded. But we drove on. I knew a little the geography of Russia, but I had never heard of a city called Kuibyshev before. Only when they explained to me that it was called Samara before, I remembered that there really is such a city on the Volga.
Worked for the USSR
Most of the Germans taken to Kuibyshev worked at the experimental plant No. 2 (later - the engine-building plant]. At the same time, OKB-1 was 85 percent staffed by Junkers specialists, in OKB-2, up to 80 percent of the staff were former BMW personnel, and 62 percent of the OKB-3 personnel were specialists from the Askania plant.
At first, the secret factory where the Germans worked was run exclusively by the military. In particular, from 1946 to 1949 it was headed by Colonel Olekhnovich. However, in May 1949, an unknown engineer came here to replace the military, almost immediately appointed the responsible manager of the enterprise. For many decades this person was classified in about the same way as Igor Kurchatov, Sergey Korolev, Mikhail Yangel, Dmitry Kozlov. That unknown engineer was Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov, later an academician and twice Hero of Socialist Labor.
Kuznetsov immediately sent all the creative forces of his subordinate design bureaus to develop a new turboprop engine, which was based on the German model "YuMO-022". This engine was designed in Dessau and developed up to 4000 horsepower. It was modernized, its capacity was increased even more and it was put into series. In subsequent years, not only turboprop, but also turbojet bypass engines for bomber aviation came out of the Kuznetsov Design Bureau. German experts were directly involved in the creation of almost each of them. Their work at the engine plant in the village of Upravlenchesky continued until the mid-50s.
As for Helmut Breuninger, he got into the first wave of moving from Kuibyshev, when some German specialists, along with their families, were transferred to Moscow factories. The last such group left the banks of the Volga in 1954, but the surviving German specialists had a chance to return home to Germany only in 1958. Since that time, the graves of many of these visiting engineers and technicians have remained in the old cemetery of the village of Administrative. In those years when Kuibyshev was a closed city, no one looked after the cemetery. But now these graves are always well-groomed, the paths between them are covered with sand, and the surnames in German are written on the monuments.

He recalled: Stalin was sure that the Germans would break into Moscow, but he planned to defend ​ every house - until the arrival of fresh divisions from Siberia.

On October 12, 1941, the NKVD organized 20 groups of Chekist militants: to protect the Kremlin, Belorussky railway station, Okhotny Ryad and sabotage in areas of the capital that could be captured. Throughout the city, 59 secret warehouses with weapons and ammunition were set up, the Metropol and National hotels, the Bolshoi Theater, the Central Telegraph and ... St. Basil's Cathedral - it occurred to someone that if Moscow was seized, Hitler would come there. Meanwhile the British historian Nicholas Reeds in 1954 he suggested that if the soldiers of the Third Reich entered Moscow, the "Stalingrad scenario" would have happened. That is, the Wehrmacht exhausts itself in multi-day battles from house to house, then troops from the Far East arrive, and then the Germans surrender, and the war ... ends in 1943!

Anti-aircraft gunners guarding the city. The Great Patriotic War. Photo: RIA Novosti / Naum Granovsky

Fact # 2 - Officials started the panic

... October 16, 1941 State Committee Defense adopted a resolution "On the evacuation of the capital of the USSR". Most understood it this way - from day to day Moscow will be surrendered to the Germans. Panic began in the city: the metro was closed, trams stopped running. Party officials were the first to rush out of the city, calling for a "war until victory" yesterday. Archival documents testify: “On the very first day, 779 leading employees of institutions and organizations fled from the capital, taking with them money and valuables worth 2.5 million rubles. 100 cars and trucks were hijacked - these leaders used them to transport their families. " Seeing how the authorities flew away from Moscow, the people, picking up bundles and suitcases, also rushed away. For three days in a row, the highways were packed with people. But

Muscovites are building anti-tank fortifications. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Ustinov

Fact # 3 - The Kremlin was not considered

... It is believed that the Wehrmacht got stuck 32 km from the then Moscow: the Germans managed to capture the village of Krasnaya Polyana, near Lobnya. After that, information appeared that the German generals, having climbed the bell tower, examined the Kremlin through binoculars. This myth is very persistent, but from Krasnaya Polyana, the Kremlin can be seen only in summer, and then in absolutely clear weather. It's impossible in the snow.

On December 2, 1941, an American working in Berlin journalist William Shearermade a statement: according to his information, today a reconnaissance battalion of the 258th division of the Wehrmacht invaded the village of Khimki, and from there the Germans surveyed the Kremlin towers with binoculars. How they managed it is not clear: from Khimki, the Kremlin is even less visible. Plus, the 258th division of the Wehrmacht that day miraculously escaped encirclement in a completely different place - in the Yushkovo-Burtsevo area. Historians still do not come to a consensus on when exactly the Germans appeared in Khimki (now there is a monument to the defense - three anti-tank hedgehog) - October 16, November 30, or still December 2. Moreover, in the Wehrmacht archives ... there is no evidence of an attack on Khimki at all.

Fact number 4 - Morozov was not

…Commander 2nd tank army Reich General Heinz Guderian after the defeat near Moscow, he blamed ... Russian frosts for his failures. They say that by November the Germans would have been drinking beer in the Kremlin, but they were stopped by the terrible cold. The tanks were stuck in the snow, the guns were jammed - the lubricant was frozen. Is it so? On November 4, 1941, the temperature in the Moscow region was minus 7 degrees (before that, it rained in October and the roads became limp), and on November 8, it was completely zero (!). On November 11-13, the air froze (-15 degrees), but soon it warmed up to -3 - and this can hardly be called "terrible cold". Severe frosts (below minus 40 °) hit only at the very beginning of the Red Army's counteroffensive - December 5, 1941 - and could not radically change the situation at the front. The cold played its part only when soviet troops drove the Wehrmacht armies back (this is where Guderian's tanks really did not start), but stopped the enemy near Moscow in normal winter weather.

Two Red Army men stand next to an inverted german tank, knocked out in the battle near Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti / Minkevich

Fact # 5 - Battle of Borodino

… On January 21, 1942, the Russians and the French met for the second time in 130 years at the Borodino field. On the side of the Wehrmacht fought the "Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism" - 2452 soldiers. They were instructed to defend Borodino from the advancing Soviet troops. Before the attack, he addressed the legionnaires marshal von Kluge: "Remember Napoleon!" In a few days, the legion was defeated - half of the soldiers died, hundreds were taken prisoner, the rest were taken to the rear with frostbite. As in the case of Bonaparte, the French were unlucky at the Borodino field.

... On December 16, 1941, Hitler, amazed by the flight of his army from Moscow, issued an order similar to Stalin's, "Not a step back!" He demanded "to hold the front to the last soldier," threatening to shoot division commanders. Chief of Staff of the 4th Army Gunther Blumentritt in his book "Fatal Decisions" pointed out: "Hitler instinctively realized that a retreat in the snow would lead to the collapse of the entire front and our troops would suffer the fate of Napoleon's army." And so it eventually happened: three and a half years later, when Soviet soldiers entered Berlin ...

The Borodino Museum was destroyed and burned by the Germans during the retreat. The picture was taken in January 1942. Photo: RIA Novosti / N. Popov

The art of war is a science in which nothing succeeds except what has been calculated and thought out.

Napoleon

The Barbarossa plan is a plan for Germany's attack on the USSR, based on the principle of lightning war, blitzkrieg. The plan began to be developed in the summer of 1940, and on December 18, 1940, Hitler approved a plan according to which the war was to be ended by November 1941 at the latest.

The Barbarossa Plan was named after Frederick Barbarossa, the 12th-century emperor who became famous for his campaigns of conquest. In this, elements of symbolism were traced, to which Hitler himself and his entourage paid so much attention. The plan got its name on January 31, 1941.

The number of troops to implement the plan

Germany trained 190 divisions for warfare and 24 divisions as a reserve. For the war, 19 tank and 14 motorized divisions were allocated. The total number of the contingent that Germany sent to the USSR, according to various estimates, ranges from 5 to 5.5 million people.

The apparent superiority in Soviet equipment should not be taken into account especially, since by the beginning of the wars, Germany's technical tanks and aircraft were superior to Soviet ones, and the army itself was much more trained. Suffice it to recall the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, where the Red Army demonstrated weakness in literally everything.

Main impact direction

Barbarossa's plan defined 3 main directions for attack:

• Army Group "South". A blow to Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea and access to the Caucasus. Further movement to the line Astrakhan - Stalingrad (Volgograd).
• Army Group "Center". Line "Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow". Advance to Nizhny Novgorod, aligning the "Volna - Severnaya Dvina" line.
• Army Group "North". A blow to the Baltic States, Leningrad and further advance to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. At the same time, the Norwegian army was to fight in the north together with the Finnish army.

Table - offensive targets agree with Barbarossa's plan

	SOUTH	CENTRE	NORTH
purpose	Ukraine, Crimea, access to the Caucasus	Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow	Baltic, Leningrad, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk
Number	57 divisions and 13 brigades	50 divisions and 2 brigades	29th division + army "Norway"
Commanding	Field Marshal von Rundstedt	Field Marshal von Bock	Field Marshal von Leeb
common goal	Get on line: Arkhangelsk - Volga - Astrakhan (Northern Dvina)

By the end of October 1941, the German command planned to enter the Volga-Severnaya Dvina line, thereby capturing the entire european part USSR. This was the plan for a lightning war. After the blitzkrieg, there should have been lands beyond the Urals, which, without the support of the center, would quickly surrender to the winner.

Until about mid-August 1941, the Germans believed that the war was going according to plan, but in September there were already records in the diaries of officers that the Barbarossa plan had failed and the war would be lost. The best proof that Germany in August 1941 believed that there were only a few weeks left before the end of the war with the USSR is Goebbels' speech. The Propaganda Minister suggested that the Germans collect additional warm clothes for the needs of the army. The government decided that this step was not necessary, as there would be no war in winter.

Implementation of the plan

The first three weeks of the war assured Hitler that everything was going according to plan. The army advanced rapidly, winning victories, soviet army suffered huge losses:

• 28 divisions out of 170 were disabled.
• 70 divisions lost about 50% of their personnel.
• 72 divisions remained combat-ready (43% of those available at the start of the war).

For the same 3 weeks, the average rate of advance of German troops inland was 30 km per day.

By July 11, Army Group "North" occupied almost the entire territory of the Baltic States, providing access to Leningrad, Army Group "Center" reached Smolensk, Army Group "South" went to Kiev. These were the last achievements that fully corresponded to the plan of the German command. After that, failures began (still local, but already indicative). Nevertheless, the initiative in the war until the end of 1941 was on the side of Germany.

Germany's failures in the North

Army "North" occupied the Baltic region without any problems, especially since there was practically no partisan movement there. The next strategic point to be captured was Leningrad. Here it turned out that the Wehrmacht was not capable of this task. The city did not capitulate to the enemy and until the end of the war, despite all efforts, Germany was unable to capture it.

Army Failures Center

Army Center reached Smolensk without any problems, but got stuck under the city until 10 September. Smolensk resisted for almost a month. The German command demanded a decisive victory and the advance of troops, since such a delay under the city, which was planned to be taken without great losses, was unacceptable and cast doubt on the implementation of the Barbarossa plan. As a result, the Germans took Smolensk, but their troops were pretty battered.

Historians today assess the battle for Smolensk as a tactical victory for Germany, but a strategic victory for Russia, since it was possible to stop the advance of troops to Moscow, which allowed the capital to prepare for defense.

Complicated the advance of the German army inland partisan movement Belarus.

Failures of the Army South

Army "South" reached Kiev in 3.5 weeks and, like the Army "Center" near Smolensk, got stuck in battles. Ultimately, they managed to take the city in view of the obvious superiority of the army, but Kiev held out almost until the end of September, which also made it difficult for the German army to advance, and made a significant contribution to the disruption of the Barbarossa plan.

German troops advance plan map

Above is a map showing the German command's plan for the offensive. The map shows: green - the borders of the USSR, red - the border to which Germany planned to reach, blue - the deployment and plan for the advance of German troops.

General state of affairs

• In the North, they failed to capture Leningrad and Murmansk. The advance of the troops stopped.
• With great difficulty, the Center managed to reach Moscow. At the time the German army reached the Soviet capital, it was clear that no blitzkrieg had taken place.
• In the South, they failed to take Odessa and capture the Caucasus. By the end of September, Hitler's troops had just captured Kiev and began an offensive on Kharkov and Donbass.

Why Germany failed the blitzkrieg

Germany did not succeed in the blitzkrieg because the Wehrmacht was preparing the Barbarossa plan, as it later turned out, according to false intelligence data. Hitler admitted this by the end of 1941, saying that if he knew the real state of affairs in the USSR, he would not have started the war on June 22.

The tactics of lightning war were based on the fact that the country has one line of defense on the western border, all large army units are located on the western border, aviation is located on the border. Since Hitler was sure that all Soviet troops were located on the border, this formed the basis of the blitzkrieg - to destroy the enemy army in the first weeks of the war, and then to rapidly advance deep into the country without encountering serious resistance.

In fact, there were several lines of defense, the army was not located with all its forces on the western border, there were reserves. Germany did not expect this, and by August 1941 it became clear that the lightning war had broken down and Germany could not win the war. The fact that World War II lasted right up to 1945 only proves that the Germans fought in a very organized and brave manner. Due to the fact that they had the economy of all of Europe behind them (speaking of the war between Germany and the USSR, many for some reason forget that the German army included units from almost all European countries) they were able to successfully fight.

Did Barbarossa's plan foil

I propose to evaluate the Barbarossa plan according to 2 criteria: global and local. Global (landmark - Great Patriotic War) - the plan was thwarted, since the lightning war did not work, german troops bogged down in battles. Local (landmark - intelligence data) - the plan was executed. The German command drew up the Barbarossa plan on the basis that the USSR had 170 divisions on the country's border, there were no additional echelons of defense. No reserves or reinforcements. The army was preparing for this. In 3 weeks, 28 Soviet divisions were completely destroyed, and in 70, about 50% of personnel and equipment were disabled. At this stage, the blitzkrieg worked and, in the absence of reinforcements from the USSR, gave the desired results. But it turned out that the Soviet command has reserves, not all troops are located on the border, mobilization brings high-quality soldiers to the army, there are additional lines of defense, the "charm" of which Germany felt near Smolensk and Kiev.

Therefore, the failure of the Barbarossa plan should be viewed as a huge strategic mistake of German intelligence, led by Wilhelm Canaris. Today, some historians associate this person with the agents of England, but there is no evidence of this. But if we assume that this is really so, then it becomes clear why Canaris slipped an absolute "linden" to Hitler, that the USSR was not ready for war and all troops were located on the border.