Operation Barbarossa
Hitler invades east
Operation Barbarossa was Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the largest military offensive in history.
The campaign opened the Eastern Front of World War II, where most of the war's fighting and casualties would occur.
Initial German advances were dramatic, but the invasion ultimately failed, marking a turning point that led to Germany's defeat.
Fast, overwhelming military campaign
- WehrmachtNazi Germany's armed forces
- LuftwaffeGerman military aviation
- panzerGerman armored fighting vehicle
- encirclementSurrounding enemy forces completely
pincer movement · Waffen-SS · air superiority · supply lines · logistics · artillery · reconnaissance · frontline
Soviet ground forces
- StalinSoviet autocrat, mid-century
- MoscowRussia's capital city
- LeningradFormer Soviet city name
- StalingradRenamed Soviet industrial city
Great Patriotic War · T-34 · partisans · scorched earth · Molotov · commissar · NKVD · collective farms
Fascist territorial expansion doctrine
- oil fieldsAreas yielding crude petroleum
- CaucasusMountain range, Black to Caspian
- HitlerNazi Germany's totalitarian leader
- overextensionExceeding sustainable capacity
two-front war · mud season · underestimation · ideological warfare
blitzkrieg
Fast, overwhelming military campaign
- WehrmachtNazi Germany's armed forces
- LuftwaffeGerman military aviation
- panzerGerman armored fighting vehicle
encirclement · pincer movement · Waffen-SS · air superiority · supply lines · logistics · artillery · reconnaissance · frontline · flank
Red Army
Soviet ground forces
Stalingrad · Great Patriotic War · T-34 · partisans · scorched earth · Molotov · commissar · NKVD · collective farms · Smolensk
Lebensraum
Fascist territorial expansion doctrine
- oil fieldsAreas yielding crude petroleum
- CaucasusMountain range, Black to Caspian
- HitlerNazi Germany's totalitarian leader
two-front war · overextension · mud season · underestimation · ideological warfare
Stalingrad
Renamed Soviet industrial city
- failureLack of success
- stalemateMutual obstruction preventing progress
- attritionGradual reduction through loss
overreach · hubris · miscalculation · decisive · pivotal · watershed · reversal · momentum shift
- World War IIAllies, Nazi, Hitler, Axis, Third Reich
- WWIID-Day, Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Hiroshima, Holocaust
- WWII EuropeNormandy, Operation Overlord, Battle of Britain, D-Day, Utah Beach
- Code NamesOperation Overlord, Operation Desert Storm, Manhattan Project, Castle Bravo, Iraqi Freedom
- Eastern FrontStalingrad, Kursk, Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev
- invasionincursion, invasion force, invasion fleet, invasion route, ground invasion
Operation BarbarossaBattle of Stalingrad
Decisive Soviet-German urban siege
defensive war · Great Patriotic War · defense in depth · strategic retreat · scorched earth policy
Operation BarbarossaD-Day
1944 Normandy invasion
Operation Overlord · Battle of Stalingrad · Normandy landings
Operation BarbarossaBattle of Stalingrad
Decisive Soviet-German urban siege
operate, operating, operative, operations, operated, operational, barbarity, barbarous, operatives