Operation Barbarossa
• Barbarossa “Red Beard” code name
German attack on Russia June 1941
• Complete surprise for Russia despite warnings
• Breaks non-aggression pact
• 2000 mile long front
• Blitzkrieg tactics surprise Red Army
• Nazis briefly seen as liberators
• Russian peasants began scorched
earth policy (burning all crops and
shelters)
• Leningrad was besieged, captured
Kiev, reached the Crimea and on the
outskirts of Moscow
• Cold winter weather halts Germans
• Almost 2 million Red Army troops taken prisoner
German attack on Russia June 1941
• Complete surprise for Russia despite warnings
• Breaks non-aggression pact
• 2000 mile long front
• Blitzkrieg tactics surprise Red Army
• Nazis briefly seen as liberators
• Russian peasants began scorched
earth policy (burning all crops and
shelters)
• Leningrad was besieged, captured
Kiev, reached the Crimea and on the
outskirts of Moscow
• Cold winter weather halts Germans
• Almost 2 million Red Army troops taken prisoner