Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the USSR, is launched. 158 Army Divisions, with a strength of about 4 million soldiers, Germans, Italians, Romanians, Hungarians and Finns attack on a 2,900 km front stretching from the Arctic Circle to the Balkans.
This is the largest recorded invasion in history. The operation will last over 5 months. It would crush the Soviet army and annihilate the Soviet air force in the classic blitzkrieg pattern (over 3,000 aircraft destroyed in the first 4 days and over 21,000 by the end of the operation).
Soviet losses are estimated at 800,000 dead and 3,300,000 prisoners, but despite her titanic efforts and gigantic numbers, the “Barbarossa” force will not succeed in achieving its predetermined objective, capturing Moscow or completely dismantling the resistance of the Soviet edifice. The latter will withstand the frightful strain and attrition, and after the fierce defense before Moscow and Leningrad, will cheer up and recover.
The attack was a personal shock to Stalin, who believed in the power of the Ribetrop-Molotov Pact for cooperation and the partition of Eurasia and had himself taken the first steps by attacking Finland and Poland, seizing areas of Mongolia and Romania. From now on, he will join forces with the Western Allies, managing after 1943 to turn the balance.
