Russia vs. Germany
The only successful attempt to conquer Russia was by the Mongolian army under the leadership of the great Genghis Khan in the 1200's. Many other historical figures have tried to repeat his accomplishments, which somehow eventually led to their downfall. Adolf Hitler was the most recent to try to duplicate Khan's achievements. The codename for Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union was Operation Barbarossa, named after a German emperor that won many military victories. It was the largest offensive force ever assembled for a single operation in military history. Despite impressive victories in most of Europe, Hitler terribly miscalculated his assault on the USSR because he underestimated the forces of the Soviet Union, attacked in the cold Russian winter, and fought on multiple fronts at once. On August 23, 1939, Hitler and Stalin shocked the world by signing a Nazi-Soviet pact. Hitler's intentions were to attack Poland and Western Europe without any fear from an invasion from the East. Stalin signed the pact to buy him some time while his nation mobilized for the inevitable war with Germany. The other alternative for Russia was to ally themselves with Britain and France, but he knew Hitler would attac
k him right away if he did. After the conquest of Western Europe, Hitler turned his divisions towards the Soviet Union in 1941. The largest battles took place on the Eastern Front, as did the greatest atrocities committed by the Germans. He attacked on June 22, and believed his Wehrmarcht would capture Moscow in eight weeks. The Germans attacked in three directions, North, West, and South of Russia. The north army was to capture Leningrad, and the central was to conquer Ukraine, and the south to capture Caucasus. Many high ranking German officers felt the Red Army could not successfully resist a German advance on the Soviet capital. To their dismay, Hitler insisted on giving Leningrad and Kiev priority. It was Hitler's belief that after the capture of Leningrad, army group center would be able to move towards a capture of Moscow, and he needed the resources Kiev would provide his army. Even though the Russians lost 650,000 men in Kiev, the largest number in any battle, it stopped the central armies offensive towards Moscow since they had to regroup. This delayed Operation Typhoon, which was the conquest of Moscow by the central army to October 2. By the time they reached the outskirts of Moscow, the Soviets were prepared and the Russian winter started to kick in. Many argue that Operation Barbarossa failed because of Mother Nature, not Mother Russia. As Napoleon armies experienced in the 1800's, Hitler's armies did too. At some times, the Russian climate would reach -50 degrees Celsius. The German armies were devastated by these harsh conditions and many German froze and bled to death. Supply lines to German soldiers were also a factor that led to Germany's downfall, because of the Soviets scorched earth tactics. The Russians would retreat slowly and burn every resource in site, so the enemy couldn't use the remaining sources. This hampered the mov
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Approximate Word count = 1266
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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