The fateful war of Hitler and Stalin (“Magyar Hirlap online”, Hungary)
From the editors. Another example of the myth-making "about the War": stereotypes such as "Stalin did not believe", "intelligence reported," "Stalin prepared his strike on Germany" and other myths are present.According to the Fuhrer, Russia was "the last hope of England," so he wanted to deal with it, but the Bolshevik dictator was also preparing for an attack.
Most historians agree that Hitler, at the zenith of his power, seventy years ago made a fatal mistake by attacking Russia. For four years later, the German Empire suffered a catastrophic defeat from the American-British-Soviet coalition, and the European continent almost half a century divided into a free democratic Western Europe under American hegemony and the Bolshevised Eastern Europe conquered by the Soviet Union.
“The Fuhrer explains in detail to me the situation: the attack on Russia will begin as soon as the concentration and deployment of troops ends. We stand in front of an unparalleled victorious campaign. It will be the largest in the world stories. The example of Napoleon should not be repeated! ”Writes Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Education and Propaganda of Nazi Germany, in his diary.
Six days later, on June 22, 1941, at dawn — day after day, on the 129th anniversary of Napoleon’s campaign in Russia — the Barbarossa plan began to be fulfilled by Hitler’s order: more than three million Wehrmacht soldiers (and almost four million with the Allies! ) with three and a half thousand tanks, with seven thousand heavy artillery pieces, with more than two thousand seven hundred airplanes, at the front more than a thousand kilometers wide, they started a lightning war against the Soviet Union - Russia. This was indeed the largest and longest attack in military history, but Goebbels was still mistaken: Hitler repeated Napoleon's example with this decision to go for broke. (Just before the attack, the Führer told one of the secretaries that for him Russia was always mysterious, like the ghost ship Flying Dutchman.) The difference is that after the invasion of Russia, he fought not two, but four more years with the allied forces that were united against him, increasingly gaining strength in power.
"Indirect actions"
Why Germany attacked Russia, more precisely, Hitler on Stalin? Why was not - could not even be? - Successful execution of the plan "Barbarossa", and why until then the indestructible Wehrmacht could not defeat the Red Army? Finally, why did 22, June, 1941, become the most important turning point of the Second World War - more importantly Pearl Harbor, Stalingrad, the Norman Operation?
Perhaps the last question is the easiest to answer. In the middle of 1941, Hitler was at the zenith of military and political power, an incredible series of triumphs put an end to the Russian war. By conquering her former ally, and then declaring the war on the United States, she herself created the Russian-British-American coalition, which only by adding joint financial, industrial, military-technical efforts and manpower could outrun and defeat the German Empire, which from 1938 to Spring 1941-th dominated and held control over most of Europe. In addition, Stalin’s victory over Hitler led to half a century of domination and Bolshevization in Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union alongside the United States became the second world military superpower. (Although this required unreasonable and irreversible mistakes, wrong decisions, omissions of the American President Roosevelt and in part - the British Prime Minister Churchill).
The answer to the first question is a little more complicated and complex. It is indisputable that among the strategic goals of Hitler, the conquest and colonization of Russia already from the 1920-s were in the first place, on the one hand, for gaining German living space (Lebensraum), on the other - for gaining European hegemony. True, until the 1940 year, it was a secondary goal, for the long term, because Hitler knew well that only then he could defeat his opponents if he prevented them from uniting against themselves. The real strategic goal was to avoid the possibility of resistance. From this follows another axiom: who wants to get a certain target, he must have alternative targets - wrote in the Strategy, his main work, Liddel Garth. According to one of the most significant military thinkers of the twentieth century (and he was a role model, including for the brilliant German generals Guderian and Rommel), Hitler understood very deeply that in political and military strategy, “indirect actions” are equivalently the most effective the path for the mental and physical disintegration of the adversary, and thus, for its complete destruction The one who most effectively wants to strike a blow must choose the most vulnerable spot, therefore, the strategy should strive to deceive, intimidate, paralyze and neutralize the enemy.
"Sea lion" or "Barbarossa"
Hitler really all foreign policy and military success to the summer of 1941-th reached this "indirect action", diligently taking care that the lightning strike was inflicted on only one enemy. He took Austria and Czechoslovakia without a single shot, and in the summer of 1943, when he had already seen that Great Britain and France would not be indifferent to watch the attack on Poland, he suddenly concluded a non-aggression pact with Stalin, and then about friendship. By this, he prevented the British-French-Russian alliance, which was dangerous for him, by ensuring the security (temporary) of the eastern border of the German Empire, and began vital foreign economic cooperation with Russia, rich in raw materials and energy. Even after the German invasion of Poland, the Second World War began, but since Stalin was outwardly satisfied with the annexation of the eastern part of occupied, dismembered, devastated Poland and the Baltic states, Hitler had every reason to be pleased with Stalin: he avoided the danger of a war on two fronts .
Hitler never refused to attack Russia, only deferred until the German army could gather all its strength against the eastern colossus. Wehrmacht easily occupied Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg during the springtime of the Northern European and Western European “incredible campaign” and in less than six weeks plunged the main and ancient enemy of Germany, who defeated France in the First World War, which capitulated 22 of June . He stayed on his feet and was resisted only by Great Britain led by Churchill, mainly due to the English Channel, through which, like Napoleon, Hitler did not want to risk landing military units on the southern English coast. After the British government did not want to sign a peace treaty (obviously offering a repaired role) with the Third Reich, and many months of German bombing could not bring the island nation to its knees, Hitler gradually came to the conclusion that if he destroyed the last great power of the continent, Russia, then the “last hope of England” will disappear, and it will stop the hopeless struggle and will be forced to bow to the conclusion of peace.
Although Hitler had already been preparing for war with Russia since late July 1940, it was not by chance that 1940 was decided in December on the same day with the decision to postpone the Sea Lion plan, which aimed to invade England - he signed the order number 21, the plan of operation "Barbarossa". According to him, the German Wehrmacht had to prepare to ensure that "even before the end of the war against England, in a lightning war, to defeat Russia - the USSR". The final goal of the military operation planned for mid-May is after the defeat of units in western Russia and preventing their retreat from occupying Russian (and before that Baltic, Belarusian and Ukrainian) territories along the Arkhangelsk-Volga-Astrakhan line, that is, most of Russia from Black sea to the Caspian would fall under German domination.
Stalin won time, but was late
More than six months passed from December 1940 to 22 on June 1941. The spring war of 1941 (not previously planned) to pacify Yugoslavia and Greece delayed the attack on Russia for five to six weeks and gave more time to Stalin (Bolshevik leader in early May, he became head of the government and the army) so that he would prepare for defense or, possibly, the counteroffensive. But Stalin did not believe until the last minute that the ally so dear to him and even his ally who had admired him would treacherously attack in such a situation, when behind her back there was England at war, linking significant German forces. To this day, the subject of dispute among historians (including Russian) is why Stalin did not take appropriate precautions or countermeasures to reflect the expected, from various sources of intelligence, a fairly accurately predicted, large German offensive.
Referring to the fact that Stalin, up to June 21, did not consider the warnings of the German offensive credible and did not give the command to declare full combat readiness, many exclude that the Bolshevik dictator planned a preventive attack on Germany. But nevertheless, it is known that in the spring of 1941, the highest Soviet command developed several plans of attack. It is also a fact that the continuous movements of the Soviet divisions, including the mechanized and armored troops, in the 1941-th near the Soviet-German border intensified. At the time of the German attack, about three million Soviet soldiers were stationed near the western border, and it is likely that by order of Stalin, by the middle or end of July, units of the Soviet army would complete redeployment to positions for an offensive. After all, one can hardly believe that the Bolshevik leaders, who have repeatedly directly expressed aggressive intentions since 1939, have idle millions of armed soldiers on the Soviet-German demarcation line for months. The fact that, in the end, it was not Stalin who attacked Hitler, but vice versa. In any case, we can conclude that the Wehrmacht 22 June 1941-th year attacked not a peaceful or peace-preparing empire. (Continuation is possible).
All the details of Hitler’s plan were known.
“According to some reports, 84 warnings came to Moscow. In short, Soviet intelligence in 1941 cannot be blamed for anything. Advice through sources in German ministries of economics, aviation and foreign affairs knew all the main details of Hitler's plan. But Stalin did not want to pay attention to them. Characteristically, he signed a resolution from below a Prague report: “English provocation! Investigate!" When he learned more about German targets from a source in the German Ministry of Aviation, he exploded: “Let this source go to hell! This is not an informant, but a disinfectant. ” Even the warnings of Marshal Semyon Tymoshenko about the impending collapse, he rudely dismissed. "
“According to some reports, 84 warnings came to Moscow. In short, Soviet intelligence in 1941 cannot be blamed for anything. Advice through sources in German ministries of economics, aviation and foreign affairs knew all the main details of Hitler's plan. But Stalin did not want to pay attention to them. Characteristically, he signed a resolution from below a Prague report: “English provocation! Investigate!" When he learned more about German targets from a source in the German Ministry of Aviation, he exploded: “Let this source go to hell! This is not an informant, but a disinfectant. ” Even the warnings of Marshal Semyon Tymoshenko about the impending collapse, he rudely dismissed. "
N. Ferguson, World War
The goal is the destruction of Russia.
“England hopes for Russia and America. If the hopes associated with Russia fail, with America everything will be decided, because with the liquidation of Russia, Japanese influence in the Far East will increase significantly. England puts mainly on Russia ... But if we split up with Russia, the last hope of England will disappear ... Resolution: in this battle, the fate of Russia must be decided. In the spring of 1941. The faster we get rid of Russia, the better. A military operation only in that case makes sense if we destroy the state with one heavy blow. Territorial benefit is not enough here. The goal is to eliminate the viability of Russia. ”
From the report of General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Land Forces, about the meeting of Hitler with his generals in July 1941 in Berghof.
The goal is the destruction of Russia.
“England hopes for Russia and America. If the hopes associated with Russia fail, with America everything will be decided, because with the liquidation of Russia, Japanese influence in the Far East will increase significantly. England puts mainly on Russia ... But if we split up with Russia, the last hope of England will disappear ... Resolution: in this battle, the fate of Russia must be decided. In the spring of 1941. The faster we get rid of Russia, the better. A military operation only in that case makes sense if we destroy the state with one heavy blow. Territorial benefit is not enough here. The goal is to eliminate the viability of Russia. ”
From the report of General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the Land Forces, about the meeting of Hitler with his generals in July 1941 in Berghof.
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