Figure 1.--

The NAZIs launched Operation Barbarossa, the massive invasion of the Soviet Union (June 22). The NAZI's launched Operation Barbarossa, a titanic effort to destroy the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941). After the partition of Poland with the NAZIs, Stalin had moved the Red Army out of fixed positions forward to occupy the Eastern Poland. The Wehrmacht fell upon these forward elements with great effectiveness and rapidly moved East, especially Arnmy Group North and Center. Army Group South in the Ukraine masde slower progress. Stalin knew that Hitler wanted the Ukraine. As a result he deployed a substantial portion of the Red army's armor there. In the south German and Romanian forces moved into the Soviet Ukraine. The Luftwaffe on the first day of Barbarossa bombed Kiev, Odessa and Lviv in the Ukraine. The Red Air Force commander in the Ukraine had managed to disperse air assetts. Thus the Soviet flyers put up a much stiffer fight than was the case in the north. [Roba, Karlenko, and Bernád.] The great tank battles of World War II took place on the Eastern Front. One of the first great tank battle occurred in the northwestern Ukraine--the Bloody Trangle (June 1941). The German Army Group South were surprised with the armored strength they encountered in the Ukraine. The Germans methodically and decisively defeated the Soviets who had not yet mastered armored tactics. The German victory opened the way to Moscow, but time table of Barbarossa was disrupted. [Kamenir] Army Group North and Center moved east much more rapidly. The speed of the initial German advance was staggering. Stalin after an initial confusion organized the resistance to the Germans. His military decessions contributed to the German success. He also instituted a scoarched earth policy to deny the NAZIs useful industriasl and agricultural facilities. The security forces before abandoning a city would shoot political prisoners they were holding. The NKVD shot an estimated 19,000 Ukrainian political prisoners in their custody at Lviv and other cities in the western Ukrainine before joining the retreat east.Mass graves are still being found in the Ukraine. ["Executions"] The Soviets gave priority to ship iductrial machiery east, but where possible people and llivestock were also evacuated. Crops and others resources that could not be moved were destroyed. Other actions such as destroying bridges amd plants and flooding mines were also carried out. An estimated 4 million people were moved east beyond the Urals. The speed of the German advance meant that larger scale population evacuations were not possible. The NAZIS took Lviv (June 30). The Germans moved into the Ukraine very rapidly. Initially there was little resistance. Ukrainians in the West treated the advancing German armies as liberators. The Ukrainians had been the subject of severe Soviet repression, including a dreadful enginnered famine. But Soviet reprssion was not as draconian as the genocide that the NAZIs had in mind. Within only a few weeks, the Ukranians began to understand NAZI intentions.

Sources

Kamenir, Victor J. The Bloody Triangle: The Defeat of Soviet Armor in the Ukraine, June 1941, 320p.

Roba, Jean-Louis, Dmitiry Karlenko, and Dénes Bernád. From Barbarossa to Odessa: The Luftwaffe and Axis Allies Strike South-East June - October 1941 Vol. II ( 2008 ).

Executions," New York Times (December 4, 2001). A short New York Times item read, "Officials have found evidence that Soviet forces summarily executed 513 people whose bodies were dumped in a mass grave in July 1941 near Lviv, now western Ukraine. Municipal archives yielded information on the mass grave in the registry of the Yanivske cemetery. Authorities have not yet made a decision on whether to carry out exhumations."

Created: 3:51 AM 7/14/2014
Last updated: 3:51 AM 7/14/2014