Operation Barbarossa was to begin in May 1941. It consisted of three German army groups: Army Group North, Army Group South, and Army Group Center. Army Group North would take the Baltic, Army Group Center would drive toward Moscow, and Army Group South would take the Ukraine and Caucasus. The invading force consisted of over 3 million soldiers, 3,350 tanks, and 600,000 vehicles.

Unforeseen military developments in the Balkans delayed the onset of Operation Barbarossa for five weeks. Hitler was unconcerned about this since he believed the Russian Red Army would be over ran long before winter. An over-confident Hitler proclaimed, “When Operation Barbarossa is launched, the world will hold its breath.”

The largest military campaign in history finally began on June 21, 1941 at 3:15 A.M. Russia was aught unprepared even though the Red Army was the numerically strongest army in the world. It was composed of 230 divisions of 14,000 soldiers each. Through st

Hitler’s generals were eager to begin the advance on Moscow but Hitler had a different idea. On July 23, 1941 Hitler ordered a delay on the attack of Moscow until all Russian resistance around Smolensk was suppressed. On July 30 he issued an order for the forces to move to Leningrad and Kiev. Hitler’s generals balked but by August it was settled. There would be no advance on Moscow until Kiev was taken over.

In February 1943 German Army Group A was cut off by the Russians. By March 1943 the Russians had pushed forward on all fronts. In May, Hitler decides to make a desperate thrust toward Kursk using his remaining Panzer tank strength. He decides to delay the attack until July since a new Panzer tank would be ready. This delay allows Russia to set up anti-tank defenses for Kursk. On July 5th the largest tank battle in history begins. The Germans have 2700 tanks and the Russians have 4000. The Russians defeat the Panzers. The tank battle is over by July 13th with both sides suffering heavy losses of tanks. The Russians would be able to replace their lost tanks with just a few months of production. The Germans would never be able to bring together a force that could take back the advantage. The Russians began a counter offensive at Kursk on July 19th that effectively ended Operation Barbarossa. Russia was now ready to continue their advance toward Germany and a Russian victory.

The German invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa, is noteworthy for several reasons. It was the largest military campaign

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