All we have to do is kick the door open, and the whole rotten structure inside will collapse - Adolf. Hitler

This was Hitler's assessment of the Soviet Union, and he believed that as long as it pushed to Moscow with all its might, the Soviet Union would be doomed. Just like France, occupy the whole of France in twelve days.

His plan was that the Germans planned to quickly conquer the western territories of the Soviet Union, as far north as Arkhangelsk and as far south as the Astrakhan front, which was also known as the AA front. In the first few months of the war, the Germans continued to use the blitzkrieg tactics that had won great victories in Western Europe, sweeping across most of the Eastern European Plain and annihilating millions of old and poorly tactically ill-equipped Soviet troops, demonstrating a brilliant art of warfare, but in the end the offensive was still hampered by the harsh winter in the Battle of Moscow. The setback of this battle can be said to be the main cause of the final defeat of Nazi Germany. A turning point in the fate of Hitler and the Third Reich. Most importantly, the defeat of Barbarossa opened the years-long Eastern Front, making it one of the bloodiest wars in human history, with tens of millions of people killed. (Die more!) ）

Stalin's fame gave Nazi Germany some legitimacy in waging the war, and it also gave Hitler considerable confidence in the victory of the German army. Stalin killed countless rank and file officers of the Red Army in the Great Purge, leading to the weakness and incompetence of the Red Army as a whole. In its propaganda against the Slavs, Germany had always emphasized the brutality of the Soviet regime, and at the same time that the Red Army was preparing to attack Germany, arguing that their pre-emptive attack was nothing more than a pre-emptive move.

The Barbarossa operation was conceived primarily by Hitler himself. Some military and diplomatic personnel also advised Hitler, as Chen Shao had advised Hitler. It would have been appropriate to settle the Allied forces in Britain before opening up the war against the Soviet Union, but most German staff members agreed that the invasion should be launched at some necessary point.

Hitler's decisions were often contrary to the advice of his generals, but up to that point, the Germans had achieved a string of brilliant victories under Hitler's strategy that would have been thought impossible, and he considered himself a political and military genius.

During this time, Hitler's pride and audacity, combined with the excellent training of the German army, won the Rhine, Austria, the Czech Sudetenland, Poland, Denmark, and Norway without much effort, and each battle was almost unimpeded. He then quickly attacked France through Luxembourg north of the Maginot Line, annihilating a large number of Allied forces with encirclement tactics. and continue the offensive south to the Swiss border.

The Allied forces besieged to the north were finally withdrawn via Dunkirk. And most of the main forces were completely annihilated by Germany. The British army was completely expelled from France, but the British relied on the superiority of their navy and air force to avoid invasion. Unable to force Britain to surrender, and lacking naval and strategic bombing forces, Hitler decided to turn his sights to the East.

He believed that as long as the USSR was crushed. Britain is unlikely to hold on any longer. Hitler was conceited about his amazing victories in Western Europe. There is also a catalyst. He saw that after the partition of Poland, the Soviet Union's attempted occupation of Finland in the Winter War also showed the world the corruption and low combat effectiveness of the Red Army at that time.

Hitler believed that the Soviet Union was corrupt and that victory would take only a few months. Therefore, there is no need to prepare winter equipment. It is precisely for this reason that Chen Shao put the title of stupidity on Hitler.

Of course, as a careerist, Hitler also had his own ideas. He estimated the following benefits of capturing the Soviet Union:

When the Soviet Union was defeated, the large number of demobilized soldiers was able to supplement the labor shortage in German industry.

Ukraine can provide a lot of cheap food.

The occupation of the Soviet Union would have allowed for a large number of slave laborers, which would greatly improve Germany's geostrategic situation.

Defeating the Soviet Union would further isolate the British Empire.

The German war machine was in dire need of more oil, and this could only be achieved after the capture of the Soviet Union's oil-producing region of Baku.

As an ally of Germany, Japan, which coveted the Far East, also launched an attack on the Soviet Union at the same time, and wiped out the Soviet army, navy, and air force in the Far East. Occupy all the lands of the USSR in the Far East. Japan's offensive plan was divided into three directions. First, with German support and tanks purchased from China as the main force, they suddenly wanted to attack the border of the Soviet Union, and through the narrow border line, they attacked Vladivostok, Twin Cities, and Komsomolsk. Second, with the Marines as the main force, they launched an attack on the Soviet Far East from Sakhalin Island and opened up a landing site, and then the army followed and joined the Kwantung Army in Korea to encircle Komsomolsk. Third, with the navy as the main force, destroy the main naval force of the Soviet Union in Vladivostok. and to support the combat operations of the Army. The above three points were launched and carried out at the same time, and the offensive plan was jointly formulated by the German military staff and the Japanese staff headquarters.

The combined strength of Germany and Japan can be said to be unprecedentedly powerful, with nearly 8,000 tanks, not counting armored vehicles. The number of aircraft also reached nearly 5,000, the number of army personnel combined was more than 6 million, and the artillery pieces were 70,000.

On the Soviet side, the Soviet Union of 42 years is not to be underestimated in all respects. The rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union in the 30s led to the third largest industrial production in the world, after China (and indeed the United States), and on a par with Germany. The production of military equipment has also increased rapidly, and the economy had already shifted to military production before the outbreak of war. In the early 30s, the Red Army also developed a modern operational doctrine and promulgated it as an army-wide operational principle.

In terms of the number of troops and the number of troops, the Soviet Union was not at all weaker than the German-Japanese army. At this time, the Soviet Union had 330 divisional troops with a total strength of 6.5 million. The number of combat heavy weapons is also very large, with a staggering 120,000 artillery pieces (75 mm caliber is counted), and the number of tanks is also very terrifying, adding up to 30,000 (all types of tanks) and 20,000 aircraft (all models, even if they take off).

The number of Soviet troops on the Soviet-German border, under the secret dispatch of the German army, has been surpassed by the Germans. At that time, the total number of Soviet troops was as high as more than 6 million, which was not at all less than the total number of ground troops sent by Germany to participate in the Barbarossa operation and the total number of Japanese troops. Besides. The massive military mobilization of the Soviet Union allowed the Red Army to increase steadily in numbers, allowing the Soviet Union to devote more troops to the front than the Germans. Since the forces of both sides fluctuated, the forces of the two sides were evenly matched on the whole.

And the USSR had a number of advantages in the comparison of some weapons. The Red Army's superiority in tanks was particularly obvious, with a total of 29,598 tanks, of which 15,000 were distributed in five military districts of Western Russia (three of which directly faced the German-Soviet front). And the total number of tanks owned by the Wehrmacht was about fifty-eight thousand. This gave the Red Army and the Germans a gap of up to 3: 1 in the number of available tanks. The Soviet Union also had the known world-class T-34/85 tanks, and the fastest known BT-8 tank. The Soviet Union also had an overwhelming numerical superiority in artillery, and the 122mm A-19 gun could even be said to be the world's best artillery at that time, and there were a large number of them.

The most advanced Soviet tanks were not numerous before, however, after the Sino-Soviet border conflict. 100% of tanks and 87% of warplanes produced by the Soviet military machine are already of modern design. The old equipment of the past has been discarded.

However, the Luftwaffe and Army were extremely well trained and experienced, and their qualitative superiority was more than offset by the Soviet Union's numerical superiority. Coupled with the fact that a large number of experienced Red Army officers and commanders were killed by Stalin during the Great Purge, one-third of the Red Army officers and almost all of the high-ranking generals were executed or exiled to Siberia. Instead, a large number of officers with "political experience" but no combat experience were replaced.

The Great Purge. Three out of five marshals were executed. Two-thirds of the corps and division commanders suffered the same fate. In total, the executed leaders of the Red Army amounted to 30,000 people. This created a large number of young and poorly trained officers within the Red Army. For example, at this time. Seventy-five percent of the officers of the Red Army have not served for more than one year. The average age of the commanders of the corps of the Red Army was a full 12 years less than the average age of the commanders of the German divisions, and these officers often lacked the will to act actively on the battlefield, and a significant part were simply not capable of fulfilling their posts.

Most Soviet units remained in peacetime condition at the time of the war, which may explain why Soviet Air Force planes were easily destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing units in later photographs of Soviet Air Force fighters lined up close along the runway (rather than dispersed). Until the outbreak of the war, the Soviet Air Force was forbidden to attack German reconnaissance aircraft, and a large number of German reconnaissance planes were allowed to enter Soviet airspace to conduct surveys. Although the Soviet Air Force had thousands of fighters, most of them were extremely old, such as the I-15 and I-16, while advanced aircraft such as the MiG and Lavochkin were few and far between. Very few warplanes had radios, and those that did had them often malfunctioned, and the lack of encrypted equipment made it easy for the Germans to eavesdrop. At the same time, Soviet pilots were extremely backward in their experience and technology in air combat.

The Red Army units were rather dispersed and unprepared, the units were often unable to communicate with each other, and there was a lack of transport to assemble effective combat forces. Although the Red Army had a very large number of advanced artillery, many of these guns were not equipped with ammunition. Artillery units also lacked transports and could not be deployed quickly. Tank units are large and well-equipped, but they are extremely inexperienced, logistically unsupported, and poorly maintained. Tank units are often rushed into battle without any fuel, ammunition, or personnel resupply arrangements. Usually after a single battle, the tank is destroyed or reimbursed.

Before the war, the Soviet propaganda machine was constantly promoting the strength of the Red Army, declaring that any aggression against the Soviet Union would be easily repulsed.

Stalin's stubborn personality made him unable to accept any contrary subordinate advice, coupled with his blind faith in non-aggression pact. At this time, he increasingly overestimated the strength of the Soviet Union. In the spring of this year, Stalin's intelligence services repeatedly warned of an imminent German invasion, but none of them were taken seriously by Stalin. Although Stalin and his staff were aware of the possibility of an attack, the Soviet Union decided to refrain from provoking Hitler because of Stalin's superstition about the strength of the Red Army. As a consequence of this series of mistakes, the Soviet troops on the border were not put on alert at the beginning of the war, and even in the event of an attack, they had to ask the top for permission before they were allowed to counterattack, and although the Soviet Union had introduced a partial alert two months earlier, this had no effect at all when the German attack began. Stalin also refused to fully mobilize the army.

Right now. Germany and Japan have already bared their fangs. However, nearly half of the Red Army bases were concentrated less than 200 kilometers close to the border, and according to the orders of the Red Army, fuel, equipment, trains, and so on were also hoarded there. As a result of the hasty changes in tactical doctrine carried out by the Red Army, the combat power of these units was greatly weakened.

Originally, the Soviets began to use tactics last year: a standard line defensive front would be used to close to other countries, with infantry units forming strong fortifications in trenches on the defensive lines, and tanks supporting infantry operations. The results of the French campaign were extremely shocking, and the French Army, which was the third largest in the world at that time (the Soviet Union was the first and the second was China), was completely defeated by the German army in less than half a month.

The results were analysed in the USSR, but the data on the analysis was not comprehensive. The analysis concluded that the collapse of France was caused by an over-reliance on the defense of the front and a lack of support from armored forces. The USSR decided not to repeat the mistakes of the past. The tactics of defending the trenches were abolished and the tactics of concentrating infantry units into large-scale mobile units were adopted instead. All tanks were grouped into 31 large mechanized corps, which it was claimed that each would be larger than the German Panzer Corps (though few legions had reached this size until the outbreak of the war).

The Soviets predicted that in the event of a German attack, the panzer forces of the German vanguard would be cut off and annihilated by mechanized corps. The mechanized corps would then work with the infantry units to annihilate the remaining German infantry. And the southern regions of Ukraine are stationed with a large number of troops. Prepare for a strategic encirclement of the German army after the outbreak of war. After destroying the German Army Group South, it went north to capture Poland. The encirclement of the German armies of the Central Army and the Northern Army would soon be completely annihilated, and Nazi Germany would be defeated.

Despite the fact that the USSR prepared a lot. But where will the German side attack, as the USSR expected. The rigid mechanism of preparing for war allowed the Germans to take advantage of a big loophole.

Actually, Stalin was still very thoughtful, and he was not a stupid person. The strategic center of the Soviet Union was still in Europe, and his eyes were always on Europe. Otherwise, Stalin would not have put half of his armored forces on the European front.

Stalin's plan was for Hitler to engage in cannibalism with the rest of Europe, followed by a massive invasion of Europe by the Soviet Union. At that time, Stalin cooperated with Hitler only on the basis of this long-term plan, and the expansion and preparation of the Red Army in the past two years showed that he was preparing to "liberate Europe". Bringing the European map into the scope of the Red Regime.

And the USSR even had several plans, one of which was planned by Zhukov. The plan included a clandestine mobilization of the Red Army, which used training as a pretext to deploy a large number of troops on the border in order to cut off Germany's oil supply from its allies such as Romania once the attack began.

However, these were all Stalin's conjectures, and when the war came, all these preparations became gimmicky.

The Axis elections launched an offensive at 4:45 a.m. on June 22, or 10:45 a.m. Hanjing time. Witnessed by many generals of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, this major battle finally began.

At the beginning of the offensive, more than 50,000 German artillery pieces took off their camouflaged artillery jackets, and nearly three million German troops waited for the order to attack. At half past four in the morning, Hitler tore up the Soviet-German non-aggression pact and gave the order to attack the Soviet Union.

Suddenly, the quiet dawn was torn apart by the explosion of thousands of shells, and 2,000 German planes pressed down on the Soviet positions like dark clouds, bombs rained down, and thousands of Soviet soldiers died in their sleep. In the face of the sudden heavy bombardment and artillery bombardment by Germany, the Soviet army fell into an extremely passive situation for a while. By noon that day, the Soviets had lost more than 1,000 planes, most of which were blown up at the airfield before they had even taken off.

By evening, the tank units of the German army had advanced fifty kilometers into the territory of the USSR. It was not until 7 p.m. that day that the Soviet Union officially ordered to open fire on the invading German troops. After the success of the sneak attack, the Germans used most of their prepared forces, including 190 divisions, 3,700 tanks, 4,900 aircraft, 47,000 artillery pieces, and 190 ships (non-capital ships, many gunboats plus destroyer cruisers), to launch a full-scale attack on the Soviet Union on a 1.5-kilometer front from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

The Germans were divided into three routes, attacking the Baltic coast and Leningrad of the Soviet Union in the north, and Moscow in the middle. The southern route seized Ukraine, the "breadbasket" of the Soviet Union.

The situation was very dangerous for the Soviet Union at this time. The North Road German army penetrated 500 kilometers into the belly of the USSR in 18 days. By November, German troops had occupied 1.8 million square kilometers of land in the Soviet Union.

Hitler got carried away and said to everyone: "If we kick the door, the whole ruined house will fall."

But. At the very beginning of the war, Germany was presented with a difficult problem. It is quite difficult to calculate the distribution of forces in a particular area of the two sides at this stage, because most German lists include many reservists who have not yet entered the battle, and it is difficult to calculate the same balance of forces between the two sides effectively. It is reasonable to calculate that about 2.6 million German troops entered operational condition on June 22, and they faced a similar number of Red Army troops in the Soviet military districts.

The German surprise attack was still fully effective, and although the Soviet command warned the border troops at 0:30 a.m. after receiving reports of the approaching German troops, none of the troops were ready for battle.

Stalin was stunned by the news of the German invasion and did not make a formal statement to the nation until a week or two later, on July 3. Stalin made a radio speech to the Soviet people. A call to action for all the Soviet people. Resolutely fight against fascism, the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union officially began!

The biggest shock to the Soviet army was not the timing of the raid, but the sheer number and close coordination of the German troops attacking Soviet territory at the same time. Some 3.2 million German ground troops were engaged in the offensive on the Western Front, along with hundreds of thousands of Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Italian troops. Finland launched an offensive from the north. But the Soviets continued to provide large-scale reinforcements while simultaneously confronting these enemy forces. The Soviet forces on the Western Front numbered about 2.6 million on June 22. Despite a staggering 4.5 million casualties in six months of fighting, by the end of the year it had jumped to more than 4 million (not counting the Soviet domestic forces and reserves). The Luftwaffe claimed to have destroyed 1,689 Red Army fighters on the first day of the invasion, while it itself lost only 35. In fact, the losses of the Soviet Air Force in the first few days were even more heavy than the Germans had estimated. In total, 5922 aircraft were destroyed in the first three days.

The speed of the German attack completely paralyzed the Soviet defense plan, and the severe lack of radio and communications equipment also made it difficult for the Soviet troops to coordinate their operations.

The German offensive also ignited the independence movement of many Soviet occupying powers, and on the day of the German attack, there was an anti-Soviet riot in Lithuania, and the next day a declaration of independence was issued. Tens of thousands of Lithuanians joined the mutiny. As the German offensive to the north progressed, the mutiny spread to Estonia.

The main reasons for the serious defeat of the Soviet army were the successful raids of the German troops and the problems within the Soviet army. With the exception of China, the German army at this time was arguably the most well-trained and experienced force in the world, possessing advanced tactical theories of mobility and annihilation, near-perfect communication technology, and the self-confidence that comes from constant victory. By contrast, the Soviet forces were woefully lacking in leadership, training, and preparation. At the same time, large numbers of Soviet forces were concentrated on the German-Soviet border (occupied Polish territory) without proper defense, resulting in the complete annihilation of these forces within weeks of the start of the war. Many Soviet units were also severely constrained by the principle of non-aggression and non-provocation from the top, and were ordered to "return fire and then counterattack" after the start of the war (making them very vulnerable in the face of German encirclement), while there was a general lack of experienced officers and a sluggish and corrupt bureaucracy was common. The incompetence of the Soviet leadership had already been demonstrated in the previous aggression against Finland.

The tactics adopted by the Soviet Union in the weeks following the start of the war led to disastrous results. At the beginning, the Red Army completely overestimated its combat capabilities, and the mechanized corps not only failed to defeat the German panzer divisions, but also suffered heavy losses from the intensive attack of the Luftwaffe dive bombers. The poor maintenance of Soviet tanks, combined with the inexperience of tank crews, led to an alarming failure rate, as well as a shortage of spare parts and trucks for logistical support. The abandonment of trenching tactics by infantry units also led to disastrous results, as Soviet infantry units were simply unable to move flexibly on the battlefield with low mobility and no tank support.

The huge losses suffered by the USSR made the Soviet propaganda machine begin to adjust the content of propaganda. Before the war, the Soviet government had always advertised the strength and invincibility of the Red Army, but by the autumn the tone of propaganda had changed to "the Red Army has become weak, there is not enough time to prepare for war, the German attack is too sudden, the German butchers are acting, and the Soviet territory must be protected" in order to arouse the determination of the people and soldiers to defend their homeland and country. (To be continued.) )