Why Germany HAD to defeat the USSR in 6 weeks

#history #ww2 #operationbarbarossa

[geordiedog]

A poor showing against the Finns probably helped make his mind up. Bottom line was they needed to act while they still had time. They needed to grab Soviet resources before their own ran out.

[ZSTE]

While hindsight is 20/20, at the time of the invasion, the general consensus was the USSR was screwed when Germany invaded. It wasn't just the Germans that got this wrong.

[derin]

My Grandfather took part in Barbarossa right from the beginning having previously fought in Poland and France.
He told me that even as an ordinary Infantry soldier, they knew it was going wrong within days.

[jamesallatore]

Had the Nazis been more humane to the millions of captured Russian soldiers and the civilians in the areas they captured, it might have been a different war. But they wouldn't have been the Nazis either then.

[rickeyb]

Adolph took the dice in his hands. He shook the dice, blew on them, then rolled out Operation Barbarossa!
Darn! Snake eyes, 50 million lives later!

[carlosgallegos]

It was because it had 3 months to do it, because of the oil reserves. It 1939 they had a deficit in oil and when they overtook the rest of western Europe the deficit increased because Germany had to provide the energy to power the whole of Europe and Romania was providing all of the oil for her ships, planes, trucks and tanks, that is why Fall blau was so important Germany needed the oil from Baku, Meikop and the rest of the Caucuses in order to fuel the German war economy.

[mladenmatosevic]

Distance from border to Moscow was about same like distance across whole France, from German to Spanish border. Only French did not fight all the way, Russian roads were worse and more sparse, and Moscow was only half way to Ural which was Russian equivalent to Ruhr area in Germany. Yet they expected victory on 6 weeks... To cross over 2500km... Sigh.

[ringo-lfcd]

I don’t think Hitler was totally wrong about the Soviet Communist mentality. It was a highly centralized system so it made sense that it could easily collapse. What he was wrong about was Russian toughness and tenacity. I think that transcends whatever political system was in place over the years. Russians have successfully defended their lands for centuries in the worst conditions imaginable. Plus, unlike the French or Norwegians, the Russians were literally facing annihilation so that made them fight even more desperately and determinedly.

[StephanHeinrich-gciv]

The start of Unternehmen Barbarossa was delayed by the unexpected uprise of Yugoslavia which the Wehrmacht had to pass on its way to support de Italian army which was losing its war in Greece, which Mussolini had attacked

[ashleytidd-wi]

Even Stalin admitted that they could not have won without US supplied oil and equipment.

[Normalhetrotaxpayer]

German General quoted as saying 'jib done' only a few weeks into the campaign. The main problem being that after a few days of not knwiing what to do, the Russians then fought and slowed them down too much.

[mc-]

When you think everyone else is beneath you, you get cocky

[gabrielstroe]

Hitler didn't believe that "the communist society was fundamentaly weak", he just told that to the german soldiers and officers. What else could he have told them? " we don't have the men or material to beat the soviets and the USSR is too big to take it, but we have to try"

[shaydowsith]

Also the failure of the japanese to attack ussr from the east allowed stalin to free those units to fightnagainst the germans in the west. And those were tough siberian troops.

[thomasyoung]

My grandmother said that when they announced over the radio the start of operation Barbarossa was when a lot of people realised Germany was going to loose the war as there was no way they’d be able to fight on 2 fronts and win.

[antoniocalderon]

The Wehrmacht did roll at the beginning of the war, they achieved tremendous victories and took hundreds of thousands of prisoners but then Stalin became a butcher to his own troops not allowing any retreat even if militarily necessary and executing those that
either retreated or failed to charge
in attacks that were suicidal in the truest sense of the word.

[mikelitorous]

For the most part he was correct, they made insane advances and took ridiculous amounts of troops, the problem was he didn’t factor in the winter

[fwfeo]

Literally what Napoleone and the US neocons thought they can do to Russia! Everyone seems to make that same mistake and live to regret picking a fight with them! 🤷‍♂️

[godzillasmother]

The Germans failed because they didnt build a four engine bomber.

[ChrisJensen-serj]

Well, with an occupation policy that treated ethnic minorities that HATED the Soviet regime with a PASSION, the Germans ended up treating them WORSE than the Soviets ever did!

Maybe, just maybe, a different attitude in this department might just have knocked the partisan campaign on its head and provided both the manpower and co-operation from these same peoples to give them "enough reserves" of people.

Communist society WAS "fundamentally weak". Hitler was correct in his assumption, but the "racial theory" and it's resulting policy towards the occupied people torpedoed that