All About - History - Hitler Versus Stain

Hitler vs Stalin: Operation Barbarossa
BARBAROSSA GENERALS
The opposing German and Soviet commanders committed millions of men and vast
resources to one of the largest clashes of arms the world had ever seen
ADOLF HITLER
As early as the 1920s,
Adolf Hitler made public
his vision for the German
people to find Lebensraum,
or living space, in the east.
Believing that Soviet Russia
could not withstand the
onslaught of Nazi combined
arms, the Führer launched
Operation Barbarossa. It
was to prove a decision that
would eventually doom the
Third Reich.
JOSEF STALIN
After the nations signed
a much-publicised nonaggression
pact in 1939
and co-operated during the
invasion of Poland, Premier
Josef Stalin naively refused
to believe intelligence
reports suggesting that
Hitler and the Nazi war
machine were preparing
to invade the Soviet Union
on a front more than 1,600
kilometres long.
WALTHER VON
BRAUCHITSCH
Commander in chief of the
German Army during the
early years of WWII, Field
Marshal von Brauchitsch
supported Hitler’s
proposed invasion of the
Soviet Union. However,
von Brauchitsch fell into
disfavour with the Führer
when German forces failed
to capture Moscow.
GEORGY ZHUKOV
Although his earliest
counteroffensive
operations against the
invading German Army
ended in failure, Marshal
Georgy Zhukov remained
a central figure in the
Red Army effort to stem
the Nazi tide and in the
eventual victory during the
Great Patriotic War, as the
Soviets called World War II.
GERMANY’S ALLIES
The smaller nations thrown into the meat grinder between Hitler and Stalin
FEDOR VON BOCK
Field Marshal Fedor von
Bock commanded Army
Group Centre during
Barbarossa. He opposed
Hitler’s alterations to
the original Wehrmacht
plan to drive directly
against Moscow rather
than attempting great
encirclements of Red Army
troops and capturing Minsk
and other cities prior to the
advance on the capital.
ALEKSANDR
VASILEVSKY
A high-ranking member of
the Red Army general staff,
Marshal Vasilevsky was
responsible for planning
much of the defensive
effort around Moscow in
the autumn of 1941 as well
as many aspects of the
Soviet counteroffensive
operations that led to
eventual victory.
FINLAND
Finland had been embroiled in
border disputes with the Soviet
Union prior to Barbarossa. The two
nations had been battling it out on
the Karelian Isthmus since 1939 in
the Winter War and Hitler saw the
opportunity for an alliance. On the
same day as Barbarossa, the Finnish
Army, although not technically part
of the Axis, began an assault on the
Isthmus just north of Leningrad.
Even after Barbarossa ended, the
Continuation War lasted until 1944.
ROMANIA
Hitler was keen for an alliance with
Romania as it granted him access
to extra oil reserves and the second
largest contribution of troops to
Barbarossa. The troops joined up
with Army Group South but found
their ability in battle was often
castigated by Wehrmacht generals.
Regardless, they were instrumental
in the push on Odessa and the
Crimea, but when the USSR pushed
west, the Romanian Army was in no
position to resist.
ITALY
After the joint invasion of Greece
and the Balkans, Mussolini was
keen to assist his German ally. An
expeditionary force of 62,000
troops was raised but, like the
Germans, they were unprepared
for the frozen climate. The
Italian Eighth Army supported
the Wehrmacht throughout the
campaign but turned out to be no
match for the Red Army. Tens of
thousands of POWs were captured
to suffer in Soviet prison camps.
HUNGARY
Linked to Germany through their
alliance with the old Austro-
Hungarian Empire, Hungary was
given territory in Romania and
Yugoslavia as a way of goading
them into the war. Despite this,
the Hungarians were hesitant to
commit soldiers and contributed
less than other Axis states. Their
sudden capitulation in 1944 in the
face of the Red Army advance saw
Hitler install a puppet regime to try
to stymie the Soviet fight back.
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
The Slovak Republic was
established in 1939 as a client state
to Nazi Germany. As a puppet
state, it was forced to submit to
German direction. The Slovakian
Expeditionary Army Group sent
45,000 men to aid the Wehrmacht
but could not keep up as it lacked
vehicles to match the fast-moving
panzer formations. Their moral
declined as the war went on so the
majority of its divisions were turned
into purely construction battalions.
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