Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Adolf Hitler, one of the most notorious and ruthless personalities of the 20th century, was responsible for the deaths of over 6 million Jews as well as being the driving force behind the start of World War II. Had Hitler and his Nazi regime been able to allocate their troops more efficiently, the Nazis' ultimate goal of taking over the world and exterminating international Jewry might have been a plausible goal. As it was, Nazi troops were spread thin like butter by 1943, making defense on all fronts nearly impossible. But why did Hitler and his Nazi regime attack the Soviet Union in 1941 after signing the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939? By attacking the Soviet Union, Hitler was playing a number of strategic chess moves, which he hoped would increase his ability to win the war in the long run. Along with the strategic advantages that the Soviet invasion offered, Hitler also had many racially motivated, ideological goals which he hoped to accomplish by attacking Stalin's empire. The problem with the invasion was that Hitler failed to adequately calculate the obvious difficulties which the Nazi's would face while fighting against the Soviet Red Army, ultimately making the invasion of the Soviet Union a fatal decision for his Reich. Nazi troops were left ducking for cover, fighting a war on three different fronts. Had Hitler up-kept his truce with Stalin and the Soviets, history as we know it today quite possibly might have been very different.

Together with Germany and Italy, Japan completed the triangle of Axis powers. With similar fascist agendas, the Axis powers were on a path of conquest and expansion during the mid 20th century. Naturally, the all mighty United States, with its love for freedom and democracy, was the biggest threat to large scale domination by the three countries. From Hitler's point of view, a strong Japan was vital for future attacks on the US. Russia posed a great threat to Japanese supremacy and Hitler was willing to break the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact in order to ensure Japan's powerful position in the Pacific. "The elimination of Russia means, at the same time, a tremendous relief for Japan in East Asia, and thereby the possibility of a much stronger threat to American activities through Japanese intervention" (Adolf Hitler- 1941). On June 22, 1941 Hitler ordered the attack on Stalin's Soviet Union with what is known as operation "Barbarossa." The attacks came without an official declaration of war