Russian Rulers History Podcast · Mark Schauss

Operation Barbarossa - Part Two

·24 min·30 clips

The story starts on June 21, 1941. Late that night, Soviet troops receive NKO Directive No. 1, which calls on them to be ready for combat while avoiding provocative actions of any kind. A German soldier, Alfred Liskow, has already crossed the lines and warned the Soviets that an invasion is imminent. Stalin does not believe the warning, even as commanders in the field keep saying the Germans are massing on the border. At 3:15 a.m. on June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa begins. German aircraft bomb Soviet-controlled cities in Poland first, and artillery fire quickly follows all along the front. Airstrikes reach as far as Kronstadt near Leningrad and Sevastopol in the Crimea. The episode sets that attack against Germany's earlier sweep through Western Europe. The Battle of Britain has not gone the way Hitler wanted. Sea Lion is abandoned because the Luftwaffe cannot secure the air. After that, Hitler turns to the idea that destroying the Soviet army in the east might force England to sue for terms. That logic drives the invasion east. In the first month, Soviet losses are staggering: over 2 million men are killed or captured, along with 3,500 tanks and 6,000 aircraft. On July 16, the Germans capture Smolensk, a key gateway to Moscow. Even so, Timoshenko's battalions slow the advance enough to blunt some of the early momentum. Hitler responds by ordering Army Group Center to regroup in late July. The three main targets, Moscow, Leningrad, and the Donetsk Basin, are still in Soviet hands. When the plan starts to stall, Hitler changes the goals and turns toward Moscow and Ukraine. Stalin answers with NKGB Order No. 246, later known publicly as Order No. 270. That order says a man who surrenders will cost his family its life and brands deserters as traitors to the motherland. The episode closes by stressing that the fighting grinds on until early May 1945. Millions die. Barbarossa goes down as a complete failure.

As heard by us

A plainspoken, chronological look at Barbarossa's opening and the failure that followed.

This episode follows Operation Barbarossa from the last warnings on June 21, 1941 to the first attacks just after midnight on June 22, and it does well to stay close to the confusion of those hours.

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Why you'd press play

If you want Barbarossa from the June 21 warning to the June 22 launch and the first month of reversals, press play.

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