Eastory

Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920) took place in the aftermath of the Great War. Republics of Estonia and Latvia seek to become independent states and have to oppose the Bolsheviks who want to make them part of Soviet Russia. Meanwhile Germany seeks to expand its influence in the region relying on the Freikorps and the local Baltic German nobility and the White Russian forces prepare to capture Petrograd - the former capital of Russia and to overthrow the Bolsheviks.

In the summer of 1941 German army was the strongest in Europe and was preparing to use its superiority to defeat the Soviet Union in a three-month lightning campaign. The Soviets, on the other hand, were preparing for a long war and had built up a strong war economy, but the modernization and expansion of the Red Army was still underway and its methods and organization were not yet fully tested in battle. Can the Wehrmacht damage the Soviet Union enough to prevent a recovery or can the Soviets hold until their long-term advantages start to have a strong impact on the war?

In the autumn of 1941 the Germans had underestimated Red Army's strength and began an offensive that was supposed to deliver a mortal blow to the Soviet Union. This miscalculation resulted in a situation where German troops found themselves in an unfavourable position. This gave the Red Army an opportunity to trap and destroy the German Army group Centre and decide the outcome of the war.

The initial Axis invasion of the Soviet Union had ended with their forces being overextended and the Red Army counterattacked them during the winter. The fighting eventually became a stalemate. During the summer of 1942 both sides planned to undertake a major offensive in order to inflict a decisive defeat on their opponent. The question was - who would be able to gain the initiative first.

The outbreak of World War I demonstrated changes in warfare and warplans of both sides were thrown into disarray. This video looks on a strategic level how Germany attempted to find its path to victory in this new situation.