Operation Barbarossa

June 22 – December 5, 1941 · Eastern Front Theater

Phases

1. 1Jun 22 — Three Million MenJune 22 – July 9, 1941
2. 2Jul–Sep — The Great EncirclementsJuly – September 26, 1941
3. 3Oct–Nov — Typhoon: The Road to MoscowOctober 2 – November 30, 1941
4. 4Dec 5 — The CounterblowDecember 5, 1941 – January 1942

June 22 – July 9, 1941

At 3:15 AM the largest invasion force in history — over three million Axis soldiers, 3,600 tanks, 600,000 horses — crashes into a Soviet Union whose leader has refused every warning. The Red Air Force loses 1,200 aircraft by noon, most on the ground. Three army groups drive on three axes: Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev. At Brest the border fortress, cut off in the first hours, holds out for weeks — its defenders scratching “I am dying, but I do not surrender” into the walls.

• ➤Army Group North — Through the Baltics toward Leningrad
• ➤Army Group Center — The Moscow axis — Minsk falls in six days
• ➤Army Group South — Into Ukraine toward Kiev
• ●Brest Fortress — “I am dying, but I do not surrender”