Soviet Storm: WWII in the East

Operation Barbarossa (1x1)

: 19, 2011

Just a few officers of the Soviet Command doubted that there would be war with Germany. But what was the timing? The scout reports were controversial. In April 1940 Hitler signed the operation Barbarossa, and heavy war machinery started making its way to the boundaries of the USSR. However, the very first battles in June 1941 at the border at the Brest Fortress, near Kiev and Minsk broke the German design of Blitzkrieg, a ‘lightning war’. Massive losses sustained by the retreating Red Army could well be explained but the mistakes had to be paid for by both the soldiers and generals. And German panzer groups were dashing to reach Moscow.