The Great German Crusade

Hitler viewed the war with the Soviet Union as a great crusade to eliminate communism and the genetically inferior Slavic people who lived there. He amassed a tremendous military force to conquer a land that had repelled the great armies of Napoleon. Over 200 infantry and armored divisions with 3,500 tanks, 3,000 aircraft, and numerous supporting units were assembled. This powerful force of over three million men crossed the Soviet border during the morning hours of 22 June 1941, to begin one of the greatest military endeavors in human history.

Soviet Reaction

The Red Army represented a powerful force on paper. There were 2.9 million troops ready to face the Germans on the border. The Soviets also possessed one of the best tanks in the world, the T-34, but they were just starting to manufacture them. Furthermore, Stalin had gutted the army during his purges, and the men were almost leaderless. During the first weeks of the campaign, the Red Army was caught by surprise, broken, surrounded and killed or captured. Millions of Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner in the first months of the war. Stalin compounded the problem by forbidding any soldier from retreating. This allowed the German blitzkrieg to capture or destroy more Soviet divisions.

As the Germans advanced, they encountered local populations of the various republics. These people, in many cases welcomed the German soldiers as saviors from Stalin, who had starved or murdered many of them. The welcome for German soldiers was short lived as Einsatzgruppen troops followed to liquidate undesirables. Hitler was not in the Soviet Union to make friends; he was there to destroy and enslave the population.

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As the German Army attacked in three directions North, center and South, the Soviets lost 2.5 million men, over 15,000 tanks and 5000 aircraft. The saving grace of the Soviet Union was its massive size, population and climate. Stalin was able to retreat and regroup in the face of German forces and wait for winter.

Hitler was at the peak of his power. Many would say he was the master of Europe at this time. He had defeated, or seriously bloodied, the victors of the Great War, and the future of Germany looked as if it would last 1000 years.