Barbarossa is the name of the plan to attack the USSR, adopted by the leadership of the Third Reich. Its essence was to quickly win a victory over the country and establish in it the most severe terror, involving not only the seizure of territories, but also the destruction of its inhabitants.
The main provisions of the Barbarossa plan
The plan for the capture of the USSR began to be developed under the leadership of General Paulus on July 21, 1940, i.e. at a time when Germany managed to occupy France and achieve her surrender. The plan was finally approved on December 18th. It was assumed that the victory over the USSR would be won as soon as possible - even before the British suffered defeat. To achieve this, Hitler ordered tanks to be sent to the main enemy forces in order to quickly destroy the land army and prevent the troops from retreating inland.
It was assumed that this would be quite enough for victory, and in the shortest possible time the USSR would be forced to surrender. According to calculations, the implementation of the plan should have taken no more than 5 months. Thus, the Wehrmacht assumed that even before the onset of winter, the enemy would be defeated, which means that the Germans would not have to face the harsh Russian cold.
In the very first days of the invasion, the troops of the Third Reich had to advance so far that the soldiers of the USSR could not attack objects located in the previously occupied territories. Further, it was supposed to cut off the Asian part of the country from the European one, destroy the industrial centers with the help of the Luftwaffe forces and bomb the Baltic Fleet, undertaking several powerful raids on military bases. So that the USSR air forces could not interfere with the implementation of the plan, they were also supposed to be quickly destroyed.
The subtleties of the Barbarossa plan
According to the plan, not only the Germans were to participate in the operation. It was assumed that soldiers from Finland and Romania would also fight, moreover, the former would destroy the enemy on the Hanko Peninsula and cover the German offensive from Norway, and the latter would provide assistance in the rear. Of course, both the Finns and the Romanians had to act under German command and carry out all orders given to them.
The task of the ground forces was to attack the territory of Belarus, destroy the enemy in the Leningrad direction and in the Baltic. Then the soldiers had to capture Leningrad and Kronstadt and, as soon as possible, destroy all the enemy's defensive forces located on the way to Moscow. The Air Force at this time had to capture or destroy stations, train stations, railway tracks and bridges, as well as make several powerful raids on enemy military bases.
Thus, in the very first weeks, the Germans had to capture the largest cities and destroy the centers of communications, after which the victory over the USSR, according to the plan, became only a matter of time and did not require large sacrifices.
