CAUSES and CONSEQUENCES of the BARBARROJA operation

In 1941, and after two years of war, it seemed that the victory of the Second World War it was going to be for Germany, having taken France and only a United Kingdom that was continuously bombed was left as a great enemy. In this very beneficial situation, Hitler thought he was the time to attack the USSR, this being the beginning of an operation that would change the war forever, and therefore in this lesson from a Professor we must talk about the causes and consequences of operation Barbarossa.

In 1939, and shortly before start of World War II, the states of the USSR and Germany signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact or Non-Aggression Treaty, according to which both powers agreed not to intervene in the actions of the other, both knowing that the best thing for the two nations was not to have to fight.

In 1941 and with the war well advanced by the Germans, the leader of these, Hitler, he thought it was time to break the pact with the USSR and start an attack to conquer this great land formed by the Russian peoples. This operation was known as

Operation Barbarossa and among the numerous Causes that led to its beginning we must name the following:

• Hitler's original idea had always been a eastward expansionBut the fear of a possible attack between France and the USSR on each side of Germany had made him change his mind.
• Hitler hated the Slavic people. It is considered that Hitler hated the Slavs almost as much as the Jews, so it was logical that the German leader wanted to attack the USSR.
• The USSR was a communist region and Hitler's ideology had always clashed with communist ideas, the party of this ideology in Germany being the first to be attacked and repressed by the German Nazis.
• The disputes between the Russians and the Germans were constant during the war, with supply cuts due to the wars and with Mussolini's refusal to bring positions closer to the Soviets.
• Another cause of Operation Barbarossa is that, with the victory against France and the neutral state of The United States, the only enemy of Germany was the United Kingdom, being a key moment to attack the USSR.
• The victory over France with a lightning attack he made Hitler think that it was time to do the same with the Russians, thinking that this would achieve a great victory.

To understand the evolution of Operation Barbarossa throughout all the months in which it took place, in this lesson from a Professor we are going to narrate the events that took place throughout each of the months, thus understanding the rapid evolution of the operation.

June and July

On June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa begins with the entry of German troops to Russian soil, being considered the most complex attack of the history of mankind, by the enormous number of men, weapons and with a speed of invasion never sight. In just under twenty days the Germans managed to pass the Russian defenses and enter the nation, from where the army is divided into three parts to be able to occupy the entire vast Russian soil in a fast.

During the months of June and July the Germans carried out actions of great repression against the areas they were occupying, being the H.Hand the German police who they killed and imprisoned to all those dangerous to German interests or who were Jewish. At this time there were mass killings of Jews and members of the Communist Party, and it was with the arrival of Himmler and his men that the murders of large groups of Jews it became commonplace.

June and July were marked by German victories and heavy losses by the Soviets, but the Soviets did not surrender and managed to stop the Germans' lightning attack.

August and september

The USSR had not collapsed from the German attack, so Hitler had to change his idea from the blitzkrieg to one more focused on attacking the Russian peoples and gradually pursuing conquest.

Although in mid-August the USSR troops increased in number, they were already more prepared to face an attack and began to use the guerrilla attacks To burn the areas that the Germans conquered and could not feed themselves, the reality is that the German advance did not slow down and in autumn they were very close to their main cities.

TO September 1941With much more delay than expected, the Germans reached the cities of Leningrad, Smolensk and Dnepropetrovsk, in addition to occupying the area of ​​Crimea. The advance of the Germans on all fronts seemed to show that Hitler's victory was very close, but winter was near.

October November and December

Although the German advance was well advanced, it had been much slower than expected and that caused hunger and fatigue to begin to be common in German troops, especially due to the guerrilla attack of the USSR.

After taking the most important cities, all armies united to take Moscow, but then winter has arrived and the battles began to side with the Russian balance. On December 6, the counterattack of the USSR began, which managed to expel the Germans from the city of Moscow.

As the weeks passed, the victories of the USSR were greater and greater and in a short time the Germans were expelled from Russian soil, Failing Operation Barbarossa.

To conclude this lesson, we will now talk about the consequences of Operation Barbarossa. We will explain the main effects brought by the end of this German operation, since its conclusion it was key to the end of the Second World War. The main consequences of the failure of Operation Barbarossa were the following:

• The USSR joined the Allied side to attack Germany, causing the allied forces of World War II to be much more numerous.
• Hitler blamed the generals participating in the conflict for the defeat, bringing this a total reconstruction of the German army.
• The entry of the USSR made Germany had to divide its armies, losing a large number of men in key positions of the war.
• It is considered the largest military operation in all history and also one of the largest human and economic losses.