Failure of Operation Barbarossa prior to its start
...not even make up his mind as to what he wanted to capture. He wanted to do several things at once, which at first would be capturing Leningrad and taking over land in the south with their purposes. Leningrad would be for political reasons and southland would be for economic. He would be leaving out a big detail… Moscow. History dictates that Moscow was turning around point in the last attempt to dominating Europe. Stalin knew this, Hitler thought otherwise. While Red Army would be mobilizing towards Moscow, Hitler would be wasting valuable taking over the most important target, Russian government and the place Stalin would be staying in. (Hoyt, 88). Hitler hated Soviets with passion but little he knew about the country or the culture within. While his first quote states that he was very confident in himself. He called decision ‘the hardest decision of my life”, writing to Mussolini. The next quote proves his confidence otherwise, he later in October 1941 said: “At the beginning of every campaign one pushes an immense door which opens onto a room plunged in darkness. One never knows what is hidden there”. If he was so confident in himself, why would he fear if the room was to be filled with darkness or not? Hitler’s mind was changing its targets and decisions were sometimes unclear, this made him hard to think straight about his operation in Russia (Payne, 73). Hitler wanted to defeat Russians by the time winter hit, which is a smart move but finishing the war that would start in June by October would seem insane. Even if their army was not ready for this attack and were not mobilized and would take some time for them to mobilize it would still not be a problem for them to get up. With such a great population and will of the people and hatred towards the nazi’s and of Stalin’s dictatorship powers it would be not be hard for them to find men or even women to fight the war. Covering such a great land by the time winter hit was almost a suicide (Lyons, 99). Hitler was clearly reaching for something impossible, he thought Russia was a weak enemy, underestimating them, and after all of his victories over Europe he overconfidently would be making one of his biggest mistakes. Soviet Union was not only known for its great manpower but also for its extreme climate and terrain conditions. Winters came early and were long and very cold. This would be a great rush and challenge for German blitzkrieg machine. He once again knew that Soviet Union would fall in the matter of short time; he thought Red Army was a joke and would not even be a challenge. After Red Army’s action in Finland he became even strongly desiring to attack the Soviets first before they would attack him (which would never happen because Stalin never planed on attacking him). He also believed that the Soviet government was very unpopular and that since people suffered so much from it, it would fall very easily (Lyons, 99). Even though Hitler knew that winter in Russia would be one of the worst enemies his army could ever face, his army was still unprepared for it. This Operation would be so extremely rushed that soldiers were not equipped for the war. A letter was later revealed by a German soldier writing: “We have seriously underestimated the Russians, the extent of the country and the treachery of the climate… this is the revenge of reality”. They did not have enough supplies to survive and in no way they could fight under winter conditions. They were still wearing their summer uniform and no jackets were present. Winter would come early and mud would turn into ice (Lloyd, 99). The temperature ranged in around –40C which means that machine guns froze, oil turned thick, vehicles had to be either kept running or soldiers had build fires under them just so they would start the next day (Wright, 89). Soviet Union was not as greatly industrialized and therefore not many roads existed. You would have paths flowing around the country, which could easily turn into mud or into ice depending on the season. Germans relied on blitzkrieg and therefore would have to move as fast as possible but if the campaign starts in July there are lots of problems to face. In the summer of 1941 Ukraine experienced a boiling summer, which would mean there would be lots of rainfall too according to evaporation theories. With this enormous amount of heat German tanks would be killing the ground polluting with dust everywhere, this would cause a problem with clogging their machinery and of course it would be hard for troops to operate. Germans thought it would be much more relieving if it rained, they were wrong. Rain turned roads into mud (roads in Russia, Ukraine were not as modern as one thought, they usually would be just paths with no bricks or asphalt). Troops, tanks, anything would get sucked in into this mad and would also create problems for the supply lines to reach the front lines (Hoyt, 88; Wright, 98). Red Army including its people knew the advantages they had, putting aside the climate advantages and their adaptation to this, they knew their terrain very well. They would “dig foxholes and dugouts” which would mean Germans would cross this field and would get shot from the back. Tanks would not be able to operate through the insane forest areas where there were no paths and you going over a mine or getting ambushed by camouflaged soldiers were things that were happening (Bell 86). One of the Hitler’s greatest advantages that let him attack so many countries in such a short period of time and that let him mobilize much faster then all of the other countries, was Germany’s railroad system. Troops could be carried from one front to another much faster (they would not be marching for weeks like in Napoleon times). Railroad system was something Hitler and his officers overlooked. It was completely different in Russia. It was known by Germans that the railroad system was narrow then theirs, but either because of overconfidence, or lack of time, or even resources, this problem did not face any discussion and therefore nothing was done to convert the system or place some kind of a solution in place (Lyons 99). Napoleon could be compared to Hitler in couple of ways; one would be his defeat in Russia. In early 1800s, Napoleon too decided to attack Russia, and he too was overconfident rushing his attack on the capital facing cold winter. While Napoleon succeeded in reaching Moscow, a surprise was waiting for him, the Russian people had burned down the city and there was nothing Napoleon could do but to retreat and accept his defeat. It would do be speculated that Russians without a doubt could be using one of these tactics fighting against Hitler 130 years after (Hoyt, 88). Hitler overlooked the obstacles his army could be facing with terrain and climate. The freezing cold made it impossible for his soldiers to survive and slowed down the blitzkrieg. Terrain that Russians knew so very well turned out to be a greater factor too. These two factors combined with the next argument would be just impossible for any army to overcome. Hitler’s toughest obstacles to overcome with Operation Barbarossa would be the people, the way they lived, the culture itself and their leader. Stalin was not someone who would not give up easily nor would give Hitler any type of advantage. Stalinism was a great way to command its people but it was a way to keep your people under control by using strict rules and policies. The ways the people were treated, and the way they would fight the war would almost seem unfair. People were afraid of their government and if there or only two choices, which would be fighting the Germans and not fighting them but getting executed by your own government, what would you do? Not many chose to be executed by their own government (Bell, 86). Hitler wrote to Mussolini one day saying after the invasion: “They fought with true stupid fanaticism… with primitive brutality of an animal that sees itself trapped”. This was shown throughout many ways. Soviets were prepared to fight in ugly ways ...