Operation Barberossa
5 Weeks That Made the Difference
Or Did They?
With Hitler's forces overrunning both Eastern and Western Europe, aid came from an unlikely distraction. By signing the Tripartite Pact, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia had allied his country with the axis powers ("Tripartite Pact"). But, the resulting anti-Nazi coup detat or overthrow of the government, would delay the initiation of Operation Barbarossa and thus ultimately spare the fate of Soviet Russia ("Did five weeks make the difference?").
Initially Operation Barbarossa was the brainchild of the Furher himself ("Operation Barbarossa"). According to Mien Kamph Hitler's original justification for attacking the Soviets was to gain lebensraum, or living space, for his Aryan, and Germanic "perfect race". Hitler had no second thought about taking the land from the ethnic Slavs because he thought of them as subhuman. With a new British funded government now in charge in Yugoslavia Hitler felt it necessary to put down the rebellion with two of his panzer divisions and delay the beginning of his attack on Russia ("Operation Barbarossa"). It is widely speculated that the 5 weeks it took to overrun Yugoslavia and neighboring British held Greece cost Hitler Russia and the war (Did five weeks make the difference?"). But, after much research I must retract and reject my assertion. Operation Barbarossa was doomed from the beginning. It needed to begin much earlier than even proposed by Hitler because of the shear vast expanse that is Russia. An additional five weeks would have done no good and only weakened the Nazi cause.
The primary factors that led to the failure of Operation Barbarossa and furthermore the fall of Nazi Germany could not have been avoided even if the Yugoslavian anti-Nazi coup had not happened. It was a combination of factors that contributed to the failure, time being one of them. But, 5 weeks were not the difference maker in operation Barbarossa. The odds were clearly staked against the...
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