Skip to content
Germany–Soviet Union relations (1918–1941)

Operation Barbarossa

Ch. 1 of 8
— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

Contents

Operation Barbarossa

8 sections

  • Operation Barbarossa began at around 03:15 on Sunday, the 22nd of June 1941, when Axis artillery opened fire along a front stretching 2,900 kilometres across the western Soviet Union. More than 3.8 million troops poured across the border that morning, launching what would become the largest and costliest military offensive in human history. Around 10 million combatants took part in the opening phase alone, and by the time the operation formally ended on the 5th of December 1941, over 8 million casualties had been tallied on both sides.

    The invasion did not happen in isolation. It was the product of years of ideology, deception, and miscalculation. Hitler had hinted at his intentions as far back as 1925 in Mein Kampf, and the German High Command had been drawing up invasion blueprints since July 1940. Stalin, warned repeatedly by his own intelligence services, by British intelligence, and even by a tip passed through Chinese spy Yan Baohang, chose not to mobilise his forces for fear of provoking Germany.

    What did the planners on both sides actually believe? Why did the operation stall at Moscow's outskirts after sweeping across hundreds of kilometres? And how did this single campaign reverse the fortunes of Nazi Germany for the remainder of the war? Those are the questions that shape this story.

  • Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor who drowned in Asia Minor during the Third Crusade, had been a symbol for German nationalists since the 19th century. A medieval legend, revived by the nationalistic tropes of German Romanticism, held that Barbarossa was not dead but sleeping in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountains in Thuringia, waiting to awaken in Germany's greatest hour of need.

    Hitler had originally assigned the invasion a different codename: Operation Otto, an allusion to Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great's campaigns in Eastern Europe. In December 1940, he changed it to Barbarossa. In July 1937, Hitler had publicly praised Barbarossa as the emperor who first carried Germanic cultural ideas outward through imperial mission.

    For Hitler, the name carried a specific meaning: it signalled his belief that conquering the Soviet Union would usher in the Nazi "Thousand-Year Reich". The codename was not a bureaucratic label. It was a declaration of historical destiny, drawing on over a century of nationalist mythology and binding the invasion to the grandest possible vision of German civilisation's future.

  • On the 10th of February 1939, Hitler told his army commanders that the next war would be "purely a war of Weltanschauungen... totally a war of peoples, a racial war". That framing was not rhetorical flourish. It shaped every operational decision that followed.

    The Barbarossa Decree, issued on the 30th of March 1941, legally sanctioned the execution of all Communist political leaders and intellectual elites in Eastern Europe. The Nazi secret plan Generalplan Ost, prepared in 1941 and confirmed in 1942, called for ethnic cleansing, executions, and enslavement of populations across conquered territories, with most being expelled deep into Russia or killed. The plan had two parts: the Kleine Planung, covering actions during the war, and the Große Planung, covering post-war policies to be implemented gradually over 25 to 30 years.

    General Erich Hoepner, informing the 4th Panzer Group before the invasion, described the war as "an essential part of the German people's struggle for existence" and called for it to be "waged with unparalleled harshness". Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch told subordinates that troops should view the war as "a struggle between two different races".

    Historian Jürgen Förster observed that military commanders were not passive recipients of Hitler's ideology. They were "caught up in the ideological character of the conflict, and involved in its implementation as willing participants". Six months into the invasion, the Einsatzgruppen paramilitary death squads had murdered more than 500,000 Soviet Jews. That figure exceeded the total number of Red Army soldiers killed in battle by that point. On the 17th of June 1941, Reich Security Main Office chief Reinhard Heydrich had briefed between thirty and fifty Einsatzgruppen commanders on the policy of eliminating Jews in Soviet territories.

  • On the 23rd of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow. A secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and established that the two powers would partition Poland if Germany invaded. The rest of the world learned of the pact that same day but remained unaware of its partition provisions.

    The pact stunned observers because of the two countries' history of mutual hostility and their irreconcilable ideologies. Yet it produced two years of reasonably cordial diplomatic relations and a trade agreement in 1940 under which the Soviets received German military equipment and goods in exchange for raw materials, including oil and wheat, that helped Germany circumvent a British naval blockade.

    Behind that facade, both sides were preparing for eventual conflict. After German-Soviet negotiations in Berlin from the 12th to the 14th of November 1940, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov received a draft treaty for Soviet entry into the Axis. Hitler had no intention of honouring it. In an internal order, he directed that all preparations for the East were to continue regardless of how those political conversations ended.

    On the 25th of November 1940, the Soviet Union submitted a written counter-proposal offering to join the Axis on certain terms. Germany did not respond. Historian Robert Service noted that Stalin was convinced the overall Soviet military strength was such that he had nothing to fear, and he believed Hitler was unlikely to open a two-front war while still fighting the British. When German soldiers swam across the Bug River the night before the invasion to warn the Red Army of an imminent attack, they were shot as enemy agents.

  • Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a prominent Soviet military theorist, had lobbied the Kremlin in 1930 for colossal investment in mass production of weapons, pressing for 40,000 aircraft and 50,000 tanks. His vision helped shape the Deep Battle Concept, promulgated in the 1936 Field Regulations, which represented a genuinely modern operational doctrine.

    Tukhachevsky was killed in 1937 during Stalin's Great Purge. He was not alone. Of the five Marshals of the Soviet Union appointed in 1935, only Kliment Voroshilov and Semyon Budyonny survived the purge. Fifteen of 16 army commanders were killed. Fifty of the 57 corps commanders were killed. In total, around 30,000 Red Army personnel were executed. About 80 percent of dismissed officers were eventually reinstated by 1941, but roughly 75 percent of all officers had been in their current positions for less than one year when the invasion began.

    The Soviet military had been rapidly expanding at the same time. Between January 1939 and May 1941, 161 new divisions were activated. By the 22nd of June 1941, the manpower of Soviet forces that had been mobilised stood at 5.3-5.5 million, with a reserve of 14 million more with basic military training still mobilising.

    On paper the numbers were formidable. The Soviet Air Force held approximately 19,533 aircraft in the summer of 1941, making it the largest air force in the world. The Soviet Union had around 23,000 tanks, of which around 14,700 were combat-ready. The most advanced Soviet models, the KV-1 and T-34, were superior to all current German tanks. Hitler later told some of his generals, "If I had known about the Russian tank strength in 1941 I would not have attacked."

    But maintenance was poor, ammunition and radios were in short supply, and the large armoured formations were spread across scattered garrisons with subordinate divisions sometimes 100 kilometres apart. Their reorganisation back into mechanised corps, begun after Soviet observers watched the German campaign in France, was still incomplete when Barbarossa commenced.

  • At 01:00 on the 22nd of June, Soviet military districts received NKO Directive No. 1, ordering them to bring forces to combat readiness but to avoid provocative actions. Many units did not receive the directive before the attack commenced. A German communist deserter named Alfred Liskow had crossed Soviet lines at 21:00 the previous evening to warn that the attack would begin at 04:00. Stalin was informed but apparently regarded it as disinformation. Liskow was still being interrogated when the artillery opened fire.

    At 05:30 Moscow time, German Ambassador Friedrich von der Schulenburg delivered the declaration of war to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. Around noon, Molotov broadcast the news to the Soviet population: "Without a declaration of war, German forces fell on our country, attacked our frontiers in many places... The enemy will be beaten. Victory will be ours."

    In Germany, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels read Hitler's announcement to a waking nation by radio. That same morning, Hitler told colleagues, "Before three months have passed, we shall witness a collapse of Russia, the like of which has never been seen in history."

    The Luftwaffe reported destroying 1,489 Soviet aircraft on the first day of the invasion. Hermann Göring distrusted the number and ordered it checked. Surveyors of the wreckage concluded the original figure was conservative: over 2,000 Soviet aircraft were estimated destroyed on day one alone. A Soviet archival document recorded the loss of 3,922 Soviet aircraft in the first three days against an estimated loss of 78 German aircraft. By the end of the first week the Luftwaffe had achieved air supremacy over all three army group fronts.

  • Army Group Centre was the strongest of the three groups, equipped with the most armour and air power. On the 27th of June, its 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups met near Minsk and captured the city the following day, completing the encirclement of almost all of the Western Front. The Germans reported capturing 324,000 Soviet troops, 3,300 tanks, and 1,800 artillery pieces. Western Front commander Dmitry Pavlov was relieved of command on the 30th of June and tried and executed on the 22nd of July on charges of cowardice and criminal incompetence.

    Hitler and his senior generals disagreed sharply over priorities. Hitler repeatedly stated his order as "Leningrad first, the Donbas second, Moscow third," while generals including Heinz Guderian, Fedor von Bock, and Franz Halder argued that a decisive blow could only be delivered at Moscow. Unable to persuade Hitler, Guderian was eventually sent to make the case for Moscow directly, but returned as a convert to Hitler's own plan, earning the disdain of his fellow commanders.

  • Army Group Centre began its drive on Moscow on the 2nd of October 1941. By then the operation had accumulated serious structural damage. Supply lines were strained. Poor roads made it difficult for wheeled vehicles and foot soldiers to keep pace with armoured spearheads. Neither Hitler nor the General Staff had anticipated a campaign lasting into winter, and adequate warm clothing and winterisation of tanks and artillery had not been arranged.

    The Red Army, battered but not destroyed, absorbed every blow and kept reorganising. German planners had modelled their expectations on the rapid collapse they had seen in Poland. Instead they encountered a war of attrition for which Germany was not prepared. By the 5th of December 1941, Army Group Centre's offensive had stalled at Moscow's outskirts. That same day the Soviets launched a major counteroffensive.

    The failure of Barbarossa to achieve its central objective changed the shape of the entire war. German forces could no longer attack along the entire front. Subsequent major offensives, including Case Blue in 1942 and Operation Citadel in 1943, both ultimately failed. German historian Andreas Hillgruber, writing in 1978, argued that the invasion plans were substantially coloured by hubris: the rapid defeat of France had inflated Wehrmacht confidence, while traditional German stereotypes cast Russia as a backward "Asiatic" country whose officer corps deserved contempt.

    Hitler had been warned before the invasion. General Friedrich Paulus had argued that occupying western Russia would create more of a drain than a relief for Germany's economic situation. General Georg Thomas had produced reports predicting a net economic drain unless the Soviet economy was captured intact and the Caucasus oilfields seized in the first blow. Thomas was pressured to revise his reports to fit Hitler's expectations. The Caucasus oilfields were never taken.

Up next

Molotov–Ribbentrop PactOperation Bagration

Updated

Common questions

When did Operation Barbarossa begin and end?

Operation Barbarossa began on the 22nd of June 1941 and ended on the 5th of December 1941. The invasion commenced at around 03:15 with a massive artillery barrage and air assault along a 2,900-kilometre front.

How many troops took part in Operation Barbarossa?

More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union at the start. Around 10 million combatants took part in the opening phase, and over 8 million casualties had been recorded by the end of the operation on the 5th of December 1941.

Why was Operation Barbarossa named after Frederick Barbarossa?

Hitler renamed the operation from Operation Otto to Operation Barbarossa in December 1940, honouring the medieval Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I. For Hitler, Barbarossa signified his belief that conquering the Soviet Union would usher in the Nazi Thousand-Year Reich. The name drew on a 19th-century German nationalist legend that Barbarossa slept in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountains and would awaken in Germany's greatest hour of need.

Why did Stalin fail to prepare for the German invasion?

Stalin believed Hitler was unlikely to open a two-front war while still fighting the British, and he feared that mobilising Soviet forces might provoke Germany. He received repeated warnings from his own intelligence services, from British intelligence, and from Soviet spy Richard Sorge, who provided the exact launch date, but he disregarded them. When German soldiers crossed the Bug River the night before the invasion to warn the Red Army, they were shot as enemy agents.

What was Generalplan Ost and how did it relate to Operation Barbarossa?

Generalplan Ost was a Nazi secret plan prepared in 1941 and confirmed in 1942 that called for the ethnic cleansing, execution, and enslavement of populations across conquered Eastern European territories. It envisaged Germanisation of the land west of the Urals over 25 to 30 years. The plan had two parts: the Kleine Planung covering actions during the war and the Große Planung covering post-war policies.

Why did Operation Barbarossa fail to capture Moscow?

Army Group Centre stalled at Moscow's outskirts by the 5th of December 1941 due to strained supply lines, poor roads, unprepared winter equipment, and determined Soviet resistance. Germany had expected a rapid collapse similar to the fall of France but instead encountered a war of attrition. Neither Hitler nor the General Staff had prepared warm clothing or winterised tanks and artillery for a prolonged campaign.

All sources

182 references cited across the entry

  1. 1BookArchitects of Annihilation: Auschwitz and the Logic of DestructionGötz Aly et al. — Princeton University Press — 2002
  2. 2BookA Magyar Királyi Honvédség részvétele a Szovjetunió elleni támadásban, 1941. június-decemberViktor Andaházi Szeghy — Belvedere Meridionale — 2016
  3. 3BookThe Eastern Front: Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Kursk, Leningrad, Bagration, BerlinDuncan Anderson et al. — Amber Books — 2018
  4. 4BookThird Axis Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945Mark Axworthy — Arms and Armour Press — 1995
  5. 5VideoThe Battle for RussiaPBS — 1996
  6. 6BookOperation Barbarossa: The Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military SimulationNigel Askey — Lulu Publishing — 2014
  7. 7BookThe Second World War on the Eastern FrontLee Baker — Pearson Longman — 2009
  8. 8JournalConscious Action and Intelligence FailureUri Bar-Joseph et al. — Fall 2009
  9. 9BookThe Historical Encyclopedia of World War IIFacts on File — 1989
  10. 10BookWehrmacht und sexuelle Gewalt. Sexualverbrechen vor deutschen Militärgerichten, 1939–1945Birgit Beck — Schöningh Verlag — 2004
  11. 11BookA World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945Birgit Beck — Cambridge University Press — 2005
  12. 12BookThe Second World WarAntony Beevor — Back Bay Books — 2012
  13. 13BookAbsolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World WarChris Bellamy — Vintage Books — 2007
  14. 14BookBarbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941Christer Bergström — Classic Publications — 2007
  15. 15BookWarlords: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and StalinDa Capo Press — 2007
  16. 16BookVon Rundstedt: The Soldier and the ManGünther Blumentritt — Odhams Press — 1952
  17. 17BookThe Attack on the Soviet UnionClarendon Press — 1998
  18. 18BookThe Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden LifeRoman Brackman — Frank Cass Publishing — 2001
  19. 19BookWhy Was Barbarossa Delayed? The Second World War: Europe and the MediterraneanSquare One Publishing — 2002
  20. 20BookMoscow 1941: A City and Its People at WarRodric Braithwaite — Profile Books — 2010
  21. 21Kanzlerin Merkel: Jahrestag des Überfalls von Nazi-Deutschland auf die damalige Sowjetunion ist Tag der Scham (19 June 2021)BRD — 2021
  22. 22JournalHimmler and the 'Terrible Secret' among the ExecutionersRichard Breitman — 1991
  23. 23JournalHitler and Genghis KhanRichard Breitman — 1990
  24. 24BookOrdinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in PolandChristopher R. Browning — HarperCollins — 1998
  25. 25Evidence for the Implementation of the Final SolutionChristopher Browning — University of the West of England — 2000
  26. 26BookThe Racial State: Germany 1933–1945Michael Burleigh et al. — Cambridge University Press — 1991
  27. 27BookThe Third Reich: A New HistoryMichael Burleigh — Pan Macmillan — 2000
  28. 28MagazineGermany's Assault on the Soviet Union: Barbarossa (1941-1942)John Burtt — Strategy & Tactics Press — 2016
  29. 29BookThe Law of Blood: Thinking and Acting as a NaziJohann Chapoutot — The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press — 2018
  30. 30BookThe Third Reich: A History of Nazi GermanyThomas Childers — Simon & Schuster — 2017
  31. 31Operation Barbarossa: The Biggest of All Time (June 18, 2021)Robert Citino — 2021
  32. 32BookKursk: The Greatest Battle: Eastern Front 1943Lloyd Clark — Headline Review — 2012
  33. 33JournalStalingrad: Hitler's NemesisFrederic F. Clairmont — 2003
  34. 34BookThe Story of the Second World WarHenry Commager — Brassey's Publishing — 1991
  35. 35BookThe German Army, 1933–1945: Its Political and Military FailureMatthew Cooper — Bonanza Books — 1984
  36. 36BookDie Waffen-SS: Neue ForschungenMartin Cüppers — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014
  37. 37ThesisSoviet Intelligence on the Eve of War, 1939–1941Steven Czak — 2014
  38. 38VideoHitler Strikes EastNM Productions (for IMG Media) — 2009
  39. 39BookThe Oxford Guide to World War IIOxford University Press — 1995
  40. 40BookRear Area Security in Russia the Soviet Second Front Behind Enemy LinesDept. of the Army — Department of the Army — 31 July 1951
  41. 41BookOperation Barbarossa: The History of a CataclysmJonathan Dimbleby — Oxford University Press — 2021
  42. 42BookThe Soviet Economy and the Red Army, 1930–1945Walter S. Jr. Dunn — Praeger — 1995
  43. 43BookThe Russian FrontJames Dunnigan — Arms & Armour Press — 1978
  44. 44BookJatkosota Päivä PäivältäIlkka Enkenberg — Readme.fi — 2021
  45. 45BookFeeding the German Eagle: Soviet Economic Aid to Nazi Germany, 1933–1941Edward Ericson — Praeger Publishing — 1999
  46. 46JournalThe Soviet Response to Surprise Attack: Three Directives, 22 June 1941J. Erickson — 1972
  47. 47BookIn Hitler's ShadowRichard J. Evans — Pantheon — 1989
  48. 48BookDie Südostdeutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftMichael Fahlbusch — German Historical Institute — 1999
  49. 49BookChinese Spies: From Chairman Mao to Xi JinpingRoger Faligot — C. Hurst and Co. Publishers Ltd. — 2019
  50. 50BookMoscow 1941: Hitler's First DefeatRobert Forczyk — Osprey — 2006
  51. 51BookLeningrad 1941–44: The Epic SiegeRobert Forczyk — Osprey — 2009
  52. 52BookTank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941–1942Robert Forczyk — Pen and Sword — 2014
  53. 53JournalBarbarossa Revisited: Strategy and Ideology in the EastJürgen Förster — Winter 1988
  54. 54BookRussia: War, Peace and DiplomacyJürgen Förster — Weidenfeld & Nicolson — 2005
  55. 55BookOstkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the EastStephen Fritz — University Press of Kentucky — 2011
  56. 56BookDeutsche Basatzung in der Sowjetunion, 1941–1944: Vernichtungskrieg / Reaktionen / ErinnerungJörg Ganzenmüller — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014
  57. 57BookThe Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy, 1933–1945Robert Gellately — Clarendon Press — 1990
  58. 58BookThe Second World War: A Complete HistoryMartin Gilbert — Henry Holt and Company — 1989
  59. 59BookWhen Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped HitlerUniversity Press of Kansas — 1995
  60. 60BookStumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World WarDavid Glantz — University Press of Kansas — 1998
  61. 61JournalForgotten Battles of the German-Soviet War (1941–45), Part 3: The Winter Campaign (5 December 1941–April 1942): The Moscow CounteroffensiveDavid M. Glantz — 2000
  62. 62The Soviet-German War 1941–1945: Myths and Realities: A Survey EssayDavid Glantz — Clemson University — 2001
  63. 63BookSlaughterhouse: The Encyclopedia of the Eastern FrontDavid Glantz — The Military Book Club — 2002
  64. 64BookBarbarossa Derailed: The Battle for Smolensk, Volume 1David Glantz — Helion & Company — 2010a
  65. 65BookBarbarossa Derailed: The Battle for Smolensk, Volume 2David Glantz — Helion & Company — 2010b
  66. 66BookOperation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia 1941David Glantz — The History Press — 2011
  67. 67BookWhen Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped HitlerUniversity Press of Kansas — 2015
  68. 68BookGrand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of RussiaGabriel Gorodetsky — Yale University Press — 2001
  69. 69VideoSiege of LeningradStar Media — 2011
  70. 70BookPanzer LeaderHeinz Guderian — Da Capo Press — 2002
  71. 71BookDas Reichskommissariat Ostland: Die Kulturpolitik Der Deutschen Verwaltung Zwischen Autonomie Und Gleichschaltung 1941–1944Hans-Dieter Handrack — Gauke — 1981
  72. 72BookThe Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and WonVictor Davis Hanson — Basic Books — 2017
  73. 73BookOperation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945Christian Hartmann — Oxford University Press — 2013
  74. 74BookRed Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War IIVon Hardesty — University Press of Kansas — 2012
  75. 75BookInferno: The World at War, 1939–1945Max Hastings — Vintage — 2012
  76. 76BookThe Secret War: Spies, Ciphers, and Guerrillas, 1939–1945Max Hastings — Harper — 2016
  77. 77JournalToo Little, Too Late: An Analysis of Hitler's Failure in August 1942 to Damage Soviet Oil ProductionJoel Hayward — July 2000
  78. 78BookWar of Extermination: The German Military in World War IIHannes Heer — Berghahn Books — 2000
  79. 79BookHitler and Russia: The Third Reich in a Two-Front War, 1937–1943Trumbull Higgins — Macmillan Publishing — 1966
  80. 80BookThe Destruction of the European JewsRaul Hilberg — Quadrangle Books — 1961
  81. 81BookPerpetrators, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe, 1933–1945Raul Hilberg — Harper Collins — 1992
  82. 82BookThe Foreign Policy of the Third ReichKlaus Hildebrand — University of California Press — 1973
  83. 83BookHitlers StrategieAndreas Hillgruber — Bernard & Graefe Verlag für Wehrwesen — 1965
  84. 84JournalDie "Endlösung" und das deutsche Ostimperium als Kernstück des rassenideologischen Programms des NationalsozialismusAndreas Hillgruber — 1972
  85. 85BookThe Red Army and the Second World WarAlexander Hill — Cambridge University Press — 2016
  86. 86BookTrials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10Heinrich Himmler — US Government Printing Office — 1940
  87. 87SpeechDer Führer an das deutsche Volk 22. Juni 1941Adolf Hitler — 22 June 1941
  88. 88Journal'The World Will Hold Its Breath': Reinterpreting Operation BarbarossaRichard D. Jr. Hooker — Spring 1999
  89. 89JournalViktor Suvorov and Operation Barbarossa: Tukhachevskii RevisitedDavid Humpert — 2005
  90. 90BookBelieve and Destroy: Intellectuals in the SS War MachineChristian Ingrao — Polity — 2013
  91. 91Treaties, States parties, and Commentaries – Part VIII: Execution of the Convention – Article 82International Committee of the Red Cross
  92. 92BookExploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940–1941Alex J. Kay — Berghahn Books — 2006
  93. 93BookThe Second World WarJohn Keegan — Viking — 1989
  94. 94BookHitler, 1936–1945: NemesisIan Kershaw — W.W. Norton & Company — 2001
  95. 95BookFinland in the Twentieth Century: A History and an InterpretationD.G. Kirby — University of Minnesota Press — 1980
  96. 96BookOperation Barbarossa 1941: Army Group NorthRobert Kirchubel — Osprey Publishing — 2005
  97. 97BookOperation Barbarossa 1941: Army Group CenterRobert Kirchubel — Osprey Publishing — 2007
  98. 98BookOperation Barbarossa 1941: Army Group SouthRobert Kirchubel — Osprey Publishing — 2003
  99. 99BookOperation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet RussiaRobert Kirchubel — Bloomsbury Publishing — 2013
  100. 100BookFrom Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939–1941Yuri Kirshin — Berghahn Books — 1997
  101. 101BookOccupied Economies: An Economic History of Nazi-Occupied Europe, 1939–1945Berg — 2012
  102. 102BookSoviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth CenturyG. F. Krivosheev — Greenhill Books — 1997
  103. 103JournalDid Stalin Plan to Attack Hitler in 1941? The Historiographical Controversy Surrounding the Origins of the Nazi-Soviet WarChristopher J. Kshyk — 2015
  104. 104BookHitler's Death Squads: The Logic of Mass MurderHelmut Langerbein — Texas A & M University Press — 2003
  105. 105BookPerpetrators: The World of the Holocaust KillersGuenter Lewy — Oxford University Press — 2017
  106. 106BookEnduring the Whirlwind: The German Army and the Russo-German War 1941–1943Gregory Liedtke — Helion and Company — 2016
  107. 107BookA Companion to Russian HistoryNikita Lomagin — Wiley-Blackwell — 2009
  108. 108BookWorld War II InfographicsJean Lopez et al. — Thames & Hudson — 2019
  109. 109BookHitler's GeneralsKenneth Macksey — Weidenfeld & Nicolson — 1989
  110. 110BookHitler's Arctic WarChris M. Mann et al. — Ian Allan Publishing — 2002
  111. 111JournalCrossing the Rubicon: Soviet Plans for Offensive War in 1940–1941Evan Mawdsley — 2003
  112. 112Book"Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany and Occupied Eastern Europe with Special Regard to Occupied Poland, 1939–1945Diemut Majer — Johns Hopkins University Press — 2003
  113. 113BookThunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941–1945Evan Mawdsley — Bloomsbury Academic — 2015
  114. 114BookWorld War II: A New HistoryEvan Mawdsley — Cambridge University Press — 2020
  115. 115BookDer Krieg als Kreuzzug: Das Deutsche Reich, Hitlers Wehrmacht und die EndlösungArno J. Mayer — Rowohlt — 1989
  116. 116BookHitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied EuropeMark Mazower — Penguin — 2009
  117. 117BookInside Hitler's High CommandGeoffrey Megargee — University Press of Kansas — 2000
  118. 118BookУпущенный шанс Сталина. Советский Союз и борьба за Европу: 1939–1941Mikhail Ivanovich Meltyukhov — Veche — 2000
  119. 119BookJoining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941Henrik Meinander — Cambridge University Press — 2018
  120. 120BookFrom Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939–1941Manfred Menger — Berghahn Books — 1997
  121. 121BookWhy Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in EuropeSteven Mercatante — Praeger — 2012
  122. 122BookIvan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945Catherine Merridale — Picador Publishing — 2006
  123. 123NewsHitler's Russian BlunderDrew Middleton — 21 June 1981
  124. 124BookThe Story of World War IIDonald L. Miller et al. — Simon and Schuster — 2001
  125. 125BookCross of Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German War Machine, 1918–1945John Mosier — Henry Holt & Co. — 2006
  126. 126BookThe Bread of Affliction: The Food Supply in the USSR During World War IIWilliam Moskoff — Cambridge University Press — 2002
  127. 127BookEroberungen. Sexuelle Gewalttaten und intime Beziehungen deutscher Soldaten in der Sowjetunion, 1941–1945Regina Mühlhäuser — Hamburger Edition Verlag — 2010
  128. 128BookDeutsche Basatzung in der Sowjetunion, 1941–1944: Vernichtungskrieg / Reaktionen / ErinnerungRegina Mühlhäuser — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014
  129. 129BookHitler's Wehrmacht, 1935–1945Rolf-Dieter Müller — University Press of Kentucky — 2016
  130. 130BookWhat Stalin Knew: The Enigma of BarbarossaDavid E. Murphy — Yale University Press — 2005
  131. 131BookA War To Be Won: Fighting the Second World WarWilliamson Murray et al. — Belknap Press of Harvard University Press — 2000
  132. 132BookFinland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941–45Vesa Nenye et al. — Osprey — 2016
  133. 133BookThe Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third ReichRichard Overy — Penguin — 1996
  134. 134BookThe Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's RussiaRichard Overy — W.W. Norton & Company — 2006
  135. 135BookThe German Wars: A Concise History, 1859–1945Michael A. Palmer — Zenith Press — 2010
  136. 136BookThe Complete Black Book of Russian JewryDavid Patterson — Transaction — 2003
  137. 137BookThe Oxford Illustrated History of the Third ReichDieter Pohl — Oxford University Press — 2018
  138. 138BookDeutsche Basatzung in der Sowjetunion, 1941–1944: Vernichtungskrieg / Reaktionen / ErinnerungBabette Quinkert — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014a
  139. 139BookDeutsche Basatzung in der Sowjetunion, 1941–1944: Vernichtungskrieg / Reaktionen / ErinnerungBabette Quinkert — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014b
  140. 140BookStalin and his HangmenDonald Rayfield — Penguin Books — 2004
  141. 141What Was the Turning Point of World War II?Laurence Rees — 2010
  142. 142BookThe Holocaust: A New HistoryLaurence Rees — PublicAffairs — 2017
  143. 143BookHitler's War Aims: Ideology, the Nazi State, and the Course of ExpansionNorman Rich — W.W. Norton — 1973
  144. 144BookThe Carolingians: A Family Who Forged EuropePierre Riché — University of Pennsylvania Press — 1993
  145. 145BookThe Storm of War: A New History of the Second World WarAndrew Roberts — Harper Perennial — 2011
  146. 146JournalPlanning for War: The Red Army and the Catastrophe of 1941Cynthia Roberts — 1995
  147. 147BookStalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953Geoffrey Roberts — Yale University Press — 2006
  148. 148BookStalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928–1953Geoffrey Roberts — Oxford University Press — 2014
  149. 149BookDer "Generalplan Ost." Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und VernichtungspolitikMechtild Rössler et al. — Akademie-Verlag — 1996
  150. 150BookThe Rise and Fall of the Soviet UnionRichard Sakwa — Routledge Publishing — 2005
  151. 151BookDie Waffen-SS: Neue ForschungenJan Erik Schulte et al. — Ferdinand Schöningh — 2014
  152. 152BookThe Russo-German War, 1941–45Albert Seaton — Praeger Publishers — 1972
  153. 153BookThe German Army, 1933–1945Albert Seaton — Meridian — 1982
  154. 154BookA History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir PutinRobert Service — Harvard University Press — 2005
  155. 155BookStriving for Military Stability in EuropeJane Sharp — Routledge — 2010
  156. 156BookHitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third ReichBen H. Shepherd — Yale University Press — 2016
  157. 157BookThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi GermanyWilliam Shirer — Simon & Schuster — 1990
  158. 158BookThe Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular CultureRonald Smelser et al. — Cambridge University Press — 2008
  159. 159BookLast Train from BerlinHoward Smith — Phoenix Press — 2000
  160. 160BookBloodlands: Europe between Hitler and StalinTimothy Snyder — Basic Books — 2010
  161. 161BookHitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, LegaciesRoderick Stackelberg — Taylor & Francis — 2002
  162. 162BookThe Routledge Companion to Nazi GermanyRoderick Stackelberg — Routledge — 2007
  163. 163BookOperation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the EastDavid Stahel — Cambridge University Press — 2009
  164. 164BookSwastika over the Acropolis: Re-interpreting the Nazi Invasion of Greece in World War IICraig Stockings et al. — Brill — 2013
  165. 165BookShattered Genius: The Decline and Fall of the German General Staff in World War IIDavid Stone — Casemate — 2011
  166. 166NewsÜberfall auf Sowjetunion 1941: Merkel nennt Jahrestag Anlass für SchamSüddeutsche Zeitung — 19 June 2021
  167. 167BookNeptune: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day LandingsCraig Symonds — Oxford University Press — 2014
  168. 168BookThe German Army 1939–45: Eastern Front 1941–43Nigel Thomas — Osprey Publishing — 2012
  169. 169BookHitler's War in the East, 1941–1945: A Critical AssessmentGerd R. Ueberschär et al. — Berghahn Books — 2008
  170. 170JournalThe Icebreaker Controversy: Did Stalin Plan to Attack Hitler?Teddy Uldricks — Autumn 1999
  171. 171BookHistorical Atlas of the HolocaustUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum — Macmillan Publishing — 1996
  172. 172BookFinland in the Second World War: Between Germany and RussiaOlli Vehviläinen — Palgrave — 2002
  173. 173BookThe Mediterranean, South-east Europe, and North Africa 1939–1941Detlef Vogel — Clarendon Press — 1995
  174. 174BookThe Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World WarJohn Waller — Tauris & Company — 1996
  175. 175BookStalin's Other War: Soviet Grand Strategy, 1939–1941Albert Weeks — Rowman & Littlefield — 2002
  176. 176BookDas Deutsche Reich und der Zweite WeltkriegBernd Wegner — Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt — 1990
  177. 177BookA World at Arms: A Global History of World War IIGerhard Weinberg — Cambridge University Press — 1994
  178. 178BookRussia at War, 1941–1945Alexander Werth — E.P. Dutton — 1964
  179. 179BookThe Wehrmacht: History, Myth, RealityWolfram Wette — Harvard University Press — 2007
  180. 180Journal'Eine neue Ordnung der ethnographischen Verhältnisse.' Hitlers Reichstagsrede vom 6. Oktober 1939Michael Wildt — 2006
  181. 181BookThe Ordeal of Total War, 1939–1945Gordon Wright — Harper & Row — 1968
  182. 182BookThe German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940–1945Earl F. Ziemke — U.S. Government Printing Office — 1959

Report an error

Queue