Early successes also came about because the Russian army suffered from a lack of leadership. This was because 90% of Generals, 80% of Colonels and more than 50% of the commanders had been killed by Stalin in the purges in the 1930’s. This resulted in an unorganised army and no one resisted the first attacks from Germany, under Stalin’s orders. All the confusion meant that the communication and organisation at the start was almost non-existent and so the Germans were able to take advantage of this by taking hundreds of thousands of Russian troops as prisoners of war in only the first two months. Stalin’s purges had caused these problems and his ignorance of threat allowed the Germans to take the Russian soldiers by surprise and capture them.
Germany’s early success can mainly be attributed to Stalin and in particular the weaknesses that he displayed during the invasion. There are many examples of this such as when he was given intelligence by Britain and America that Germany would attack Russia but he chose to ignore the warnings because he believed it was just a sign of Western ill-will against him. Up until the night of the Battle on the 22nd June, Stalin was still trading with Germany with raw materials such as grain and oil and he appeased Hitler. Because of the ignorance of intelligence reports from the West, the Red Army commanders were not given reliable intelligence about Germany’s preparations and were not able to take precautionary measures. Another mistake that Stalin made was that he dissipated his forces. The Army was dedicated to the construction of the new frontier defences and deployed to defend all of the Russian frontier, rather than concentrating on defence in depth. This meant that when the Germans first attacked, the Soviet defences were too thinly spread and were defeated easily by the German Blitzkrieg tactics
The Russian army, although the largest in the world; was relatively ineffective against the Germans. It had more tanks and the same amount of aircraft as the rest of the world’s armies did combined. Secondly, the Red Army was formed from many diverse peoples who were often hostile towards each other and so were fighting against each other, rather than with each other, this contributed to low morale. The machines and weapons being produced were produced in mass amounts due to Stalin’s policies that affected industry but many of these were poorly made and did not work properly. This meant that the resources available to Russia were not being used effectively or efficiently enough and that is why their army was so easily overcome in the first few months by the Germans. This was important to the initial successes of the Germans because had the Russian army been well prepared, disciplined and focused, the early losses might not have been so huge. If Stalin hadn’t used such harsh policies on his home front then the weapons produced could have been of a better quality and if he listened to his intelligence then the planes may not have been destroyed so easily by the Germans which would as a result have caused problems for the Blitzkrieg tactics.
Another reason for the initial success at the start of Barbarossa was because Germany’s army seemed unstoppable, were confident and had high-morale after shocking Europe with their successful attacks. Germany had a highly trained army with well-trained troops, high quality armaments, a large air force and good tactics such as Blitzkrieg. These tactics had already worked especially well in France, Holland and Norway and they were very experienced in Blitzkrieg. Apart from Britain, Germany was virtually controlling all of Europe and, after only a couple of months into Operation Barbarossa, huge parts of Russia as well. This meant that combined with the Red Army weaknesses in defence, it was easy to advance very quickly towards Moscow. Stalin could have avoided any serious problems and not experienced any of the German tactics in the same way if he had have pulled troops from the Eastern border to the western border and heavily defended that border.
The speed of the German invasion also had consequences and therefore it was not all good news for Germany. Their huge early successes into Russia, that at one point looked as though they would reach Moscow and gain control of the Communist country, had consequences that resulted in a number of ultimate failures that the Germans made during Barbarossa. These factors and others meant that the operation ultimately ended with Russia in control. The most important factors that caused the Germans to eventually fail in their invasion were Hitler’s mistakes and bad decisions. Hitler had an inflated opinion of himself and his army, he underestimated the enemy, he didn’t allow for delays or the harsh winter, he turned against friendly peasants because he thought they were racially inferior and his own pride got in the way of the invasion. I believe that had Hitler not meddled in the army affairs and ignored the advice of his generals then the ultimate failures and mistakes that were made would have been unlikely to come back and haunt Germany.
The Germans quick advance into Russia forced a great demand upon supplies and relied on overall cooperation. The evidence of Germany’s ultimate failures in Operation Barbarossa was that 200 out of 900 men in one division were unable to continue fighting within just two weeks of the Russian winter, mostly because they didn’t have the clothing to keep them warm and cope with these conditions which was due to German incompetence and Hitler’s previous mistakes that had allowed the invasion to continue into the winter. In only the opening few weeks of Barbarossa, the Germans had lost 100,000 men, which was equal to the amount lost in all their previous campaigns in World War II. German production was not as good as the Russians- by 1941, Russia had between 20,000 and 25,000 tanks compared to Germany’s 18,000. Finally, Hitler’s intervention in the Operation was clear because in a month and a half Hitler had ordered 3 different directives, one of which focused on the crucial decision to not capture Moscow. Hitler had not controlled the invasion well and his arrogance eventually led him astray and to become too involved in the offensive and to ignore the other Generals.
The ‘General Winter’ weather scenario contributed to the ultimate failures of Germany that helped Russia to win Barbarossa. The Russian winter caused many of the roads to become frozen and when that melted it became wet and muddy. -40 Celsius temperatures meant that the Germans couldn’t advance as the oil froze in the vehicles and the machinery wouldn’t fire because it was jammed. This caused the Germans to lose morale and when illness or frostbite started to go through the German army groups many started to die. To make it worse, the commanders didn’t pack in winter clothing as they believed that the battle would be won by winter, this was another fault of Hitler’s as his over-confidence became his downfall. This meant that as soon as the harsh, proper winter came, the German advance literally stopped in their tracks; they were unable to go forward or backward at any speed and so this meant that the Russians could counter attack and push the Germans back from where they had come from. Hitler’s over-confidence caused the initial problem as he decided to defend his reputation in the Balkans which wasted time and then his decision to divert the troops from Moscow made it even worse. These two mistakes by Hitler allowed the Russian winter to set in which gave a chance for the Russians to eventually counter-attack as they were prepared and had the home advantage.
When good Russian leadership was introduced in 1941, this led to the ultimate failure of the Germans which was down to the fact that troops became re-energised and morale was boosted. An example of this was the appointment of Zhukov as the defence chief of Moscow. He had already had success holding Leningrad from the Germans and gave the Red Army in Moscow the leadership that they desperately needed to unite the Russian people as one so they could defend their country and Moscow as well as they could. He brought expertise to the front line and someone who knew what they were doing would be defending the capital and his appointment can only have raised the morale of the troops. This point is relatively important, not in deciding the ultimate failure as Hitler had already ruined the German chances by allowing the people of Moscow such a long time to regroup and organise defence, but along with their new defence chief they were also able to receive help from their specially snow-trained allies from Siberia. Good Russian intelligence concerning the Japanese came through showing that the Japanese were no longer interested in attacking Russia from the east but were focusing instead on the USA. This meant that the 10 divisions of highly trained winter soldiers who were Russia’s Siberian allies were brought over from defending the east coast, from Japan, to help reinforce troops at Moscow and drive the Germans back from where they had come from.
One mistake that can be blamed on a leader but not entirely on Hitler is the problems faced in Greece and Yugoslavia and these can be blamed on the arrogance of Mussolini. When Italy started to be driven back Mussolini asked Hitler for help. Hitler agreed and overran both Greece and Yugoslavia in less than 2 months. Hitler might not have wanted to help but as he and Mussolini were allies. Although this was not wholly Hitler’s fault it did increase his confidence in his army and waste time for the Russian invasion. This meant that Hitler had lost 2 valuable months whilst it was Russian spring and summer so he was leaving himself very little time if anything went wrong in the invasion to avoid the harshness of the Russian winter and reach Moscow before it set in fully. As for many of the ultimate failures, many of them can be linked with the lack of knowledge and the mistakes made, both of which came down to Hitler.
The geography of Russia and the change of morale also contributed to the ultimate failure of the German’s in Barbarossa. It was a very vast country and the Germans large advances seemed disconsolate which caused many of the German soldiers to lose morale. For example, to the Germans it seemed as though there were no natural barriers between them and Moscow, except the Pripet marshes which covered 40,000 square miles, where military operations were impossible, and the rivers Dvina and Dnieper but these did not present a significant obstacle to aggressively lead mechanised armies supported by air power. This meant that these unexpected problems that arose had not been planned for and didn’t help the soldiers when they were advancing. I don’t think that this problem is that important to the ultimate failure of Barbarossa but it was a problem that the Germans could have done without. Especially as the German morale was decreasing the Russian morale was increasing due to new distinctions being introduced to the Red Army and peasant guerrilla uprisings against the Nazis which encouraged more groups to take part as they heard about them. The Russians even held a traditional Red Square parade held to commemorate the October Revolution which would increase patriotism unlike Hitler who was requisitioning fur from Germany and sending it to the war front which caused panic on the home front.
Hitler made many mistakes that led to the ultimate failure in the invasion. Firstly, Hitler overruled military advice of his Generals. Instead of capturing Moscow, when his troops were only 40 miles away, he diverted Army Group Centre and 2 Panzer groups away from Moscow to invade Ukraine. His generals really believed that Moscow was going to fall and were very angry when he called Moscow an ‘unimportant target’ and ignored their thoughts. Even the Russians believed that Moscow was going to fall that many of them fled and Lenin’s body was even evacuated from the Kremlin. This meant that when Moscow was ‘ignored’, it was a major relief for the Russians and gave them even more time to regroup and refocus. Had the Germans taken Moscow, then it is extremely likely that Russia would have fallen and indeed it could have been the end of WWII. The fact that Moscow wasn’t taken is very important in the outcome of the Battle because as Russia was a Communist country and Moscow was its capital, it meant that Moscow was a highly centralised command economy and nearly all rail links in the Soviet Union passed through the city, including those carrying vital reinforcements from the east. Therefore this mistake can be linked with Hitler’s faults and bad decision making during the Battle.
Probably the greatest undoing of Barbarossa that led to its ultimate failure that’s linked with Hitler’s mistakes was the fact that Hitler was too arrogant and over confident. For example, his famous quote about Russia was that “You only need to kick down the door and the whole rotten structure will come down.” If Hitler had said this after a victory that he had achieved he may have been right but as it was, it just showed how over confident he was. His arrogance is also shown with his thoughts that his own army was more superior than anyone else’s, he felt that there was a certainty of victory (partly because he thought his leadership abilities were excellent) and that the Red Army was no more than a group of inherently inferior, poorly trained amateurs. This meant that his soldiers might have underestimated the opposition, just like Hitler did, and so they did not take the same mindset that they had when conquering the rest of Europe. I think that this point is important because had Hitler gone into Barbarossa with more reasonable targets and more preparation had have gone ahead then he might not have made the same mistakes.
Another point that can be attributed to Hitler and then the ultimate failure of Barbarossa was his flawed political judgements. In the winter of 1941-42, he turned against the peasants, who had at the start been allied with him, by sending SS guards to Russia to begin killing the peasants in the areas that were rebelling because Hitler felt that they were racially inferior. These errors by Hitler caused the cutting off of supply lines and German troop’s morale was lowered even more.
In conclusion, it is clear that there are 2 very different sides to Operation Barbarossa. Firstly, the Germans made huge advances and seemed to be on their way to certain victory but then the Russians seemed to claw their way back into Barbarossa and eventually drive the Germans back. Therefore I think the most important point that led to the early success was that Stalin appeased Hitler right up until Barbarossa began by continuing trade supplies to Germany and not positioning his troops on the border. He hoped that this would prevent Germany from ‘feeling the need’ to attack Russia but even though he was looking for peace, it backfired on him because the Red Army was disorganised and lacking in clear orders as to what to do when they came under attack which meant that many troops and machines were lost early on. However, ultimately, Barbarossa failed because of Hitler through his errors and mistakes. I think that the most important point that led to the ultimate failure of Barbarossa was the fact that Hitler stopped his troops marching on Moscow which gave the Russian people time to regroup and set up defences under Zhukov. That with the help of ‘General Winter’ caused the Germans to be pushed back and the Russians to take the lead.
