Indepth Study of Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

By Steve Overton aka Mad Russian


The Origins of Operation Barbarossa:

It has been said that Hitler was the only man that Stalin ever trusted. It’s also been said that the war against Russia was the only war Hitler ever wanted. If that was true Hitler had wanted this war for a very long time.

In 1923 Hitler was found guilty of High Treason and sentenced to five years in prison. The sentence allowed him to be eligible for parole in nine months. He used those nine months to dictate “Mein Kamp”, loosely translated as My Battle, My Campaign or My Combat.

Mein Kampf, told of the direction that Hitler thought the German nation should evolve.
He envisioned a strong Germany emerging onto the world scene in three phases. In Phase One, Germany would, through a massive re-armament program, move out from under the oppressive constraints of the Treaty of Versailles and form alliances with both the British Empire and Fascist Italy. In Phase Two, France and her allies in Eastern Europe would be defeated in a coming war by the combined forces of Germany, Britain and Italy. In Phase Three, would be a war to destroy what Hitler saw as the "Judeo-Bolshevik" regime in the Soviet Union. This he said would give Germany the necessary Lebensraum for the German nation to grow and prosper.

. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 with Volume 2 following the next year. It’s not as though Hitler kept his intentions a secret. He published them for the whole world to see. Why Joseph Stalin didn’t read Mein Kampf, and be wary of Hitler, is a question of great impact.

When Hitler moved to consolidate the German Reich he made moves that were always aimed at the goals laid out in Mein Kampf. The interesting thing in the early war years was his treatment of and affinity for England. He did not invade England as many thought he would. His actions seem to show that he was always hopeful the English would join him in his battle against the Soviet Union. To the day he died he held onto the idea that they would become Allies and join together to defeat Communism.

This seems surprising overlooked by historians in the diplomatic relations between Germany and Great Britain throughout the war. It also explains his lack of enthusiasm for crushing Great Britain but always seeming to wanting to punish them. Just enough to see the error of their ways and come join him in his Great Crusade.

As he moved into Poland the Western Allies responded. On 10 October 1939, the British refused Hitler's offer of peace; on 12 October the French did the same. Hitler was ready for the French reaction. On 19 October Franz Halder, chief of staff of the OKH, the Army High Command, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow"), the pre-war code name for campaigns in the Low Countries and the attack on France proper: the Aufmarschanweisung N°1, Fall Gelb, or "Instruction for the advance Number 1, Case Yellow". This plan was not accepted, what is of importance is not the plan but the timing. The Germans had a plan in place to attack France and Low Countries one week after France declared War on Germany.

That study had been put in motion long before the attack on Poland.

The same foresight was used with Hitler’s upcoming battle with communism. Planning for Operation Barbarossa started on  XX July 1940 with the intelligence brief prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Eberhardt Kinzel, head of the German Army Intelligence at Foreign Armies East (FHO). The brief took the LTC only four days to prepare.

The FHO was also responsible for the information of the armies of Scandinavia, the Balkans, China, Japan and the United States. The Gestapo was responsible for political intelligence.  This was the one and only military and economic assessment done before the operation. The information put out in that report was extremely poor. Poor, or not, both the Oberkommando des Heer (OKH) and Oberkommando des Wehrmacht (OKW) both based their assumptions from this report.

Hitler told the Army Chief of Staff Colonel General Franz Halder that he was considering war with the Soviet Union on 2 June 1940. At the time France had not fallen and there was considerable discussions to follow about the Battle of Britain and Operation Sealion.

Halder gave the task of developing an operational plan to Lieutenant General Erich Marcks. Within a month the General had his plan ready to present.