A. The German Attack on Russia
1. Hitler had long planned to extend German “living space” in Russia and the Ukraine and ordered his generals to start planning for the invasion in 1940.
2. Operation Barbarossa
§Planned to begin in mid-May 1940 so the Germans would have control of Russia before winter set in.
§The Soviet Union was not prepared and were taken by surprise
§By November, the German army stood at the gates of Leningrad and an attack on Moscow seemed imminent.
§Hitler stalled in August as he debated strategy and the German army withered when winter set in.
§This planned blitzkrieg ended in a war of attrition with casualties in the millions on both sides.
B. Hitler’s Plans for Europe
1. The Third Reich
a. Hitler’s plan to resurrect German greatness, as the other two German empires were those forged by Charlemagne in the ninth century and Bismarck in the nineteenth.
2. Administration of conquered territories
a. some areas were formally annexed
b. some ruled by German officials
c. some ruled through puppet governments
d. pockets of Germans became the ruling class Poland
e. frontier colonies ruled by German war veterans emerged
3. Racial policies in conquered lands
a. People perceived as genetically similar to Germans like those in Scandinavia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands were to be absorbed and “Germanified.”
b. Others, like the Poles and Slavs, were treated essentially like slaves
C. The Tide Turns
1. Battle of Stalingrad
§German soldiers remained throughout Russia even after the winter set in and thwarted the attempt to take Moscow.
§The goal of German occupation of Russia was to take control of the oil fields near the Caspian Sea.
§Stalingrad, a city on the Volga River to the northwest of the Caspian Sea was the scene of some of the most ferocious fighting in World War II.
§While the Russians lost more soldiers defending Stalingrad than the US did in the entire war, they were successful in destroying the entire German army.
§Stalingrad marks a major turning point in the war.