Operation Barbarossa

• Surprise attack "Red Beard" June 1941 by the Germans
• Breaks non-agression pact
• 2000 mile long front
• Blitzkrieg tactics surprise Red Army
• Nazis briefly seen as liberators
• Russian peasants began scorched earth policy (burning all crops and shelters)
• Leningrad was besieged, captured Kiev, reached Crimea and on the outskirts of Moscow
• Cold winter weather halts Germans
• almost 2million Red Army troops taken prisoner

Summary

In 1941, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Russia, which broke the Soviet-Nazi non aggression pact.The Red Army was surprised by Blitzkrieg tactic. Luckily for the Russians the cold weather stalled the Germans and so did the tactic of scorched earth.