On 9 July it began its attack towards the Soviet defenses along the Luga River in Leningrad oblast. [249] Operations were now slowed down to allow for resupply; the delay was to be used to adapt strategy to the new situation. [354], Burning houses suspected of being partisan meeting places and poisoning water wells became common practice for soldiers of the German 9th Army. [143] In early 1941, Stalin's own intelligence services and American intelligence gave regular and repeated warnings of an impending German attack. [119], The Germans deployed one independent regiment, one separate motorized training brigade and 153 divisions for Barbarossa, which included 104 infantry, 19 panzer and 15 motorized infantry divisions in three army groups, nine security divisions to operate in conquered territories, four divisions in Finland[j] and two divisions as reserve under the direct control of OKH. believe that Stalin, despite providing an amicable front to Hitler, did not wish to remain allies with Germany. [212] The Luftwaffe reportedly destroyed 1,489 aircraft on the first day of the invasion[213] and over 3,100 during the first three days. Hayreddin's brother Oru was the first to be known as Barbarossa. Khir, who had been his brothers lieutenant, then assumed the title Khayr al-Dn. [201], In Germany, on the morning of 22 June, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels announced the invasion to the waking nation in a radio broadcast with Hitler's words: "At this moment a march is taking place that, for its extent, compares with the greatest the world has ever seen. [137], Beginning in July 1940, the Red Army General Staff developed war plans that identified the Wehrmacht as the most dangerous threat to the Soviet Union, and that in the case of a war with Germany, the Wehrmacht's main attack would come through the region north of the Pripyat Marshes into Belorussia,[138][129] which later proved to be correct. [227], On 2 July, the southern section of Army Group South the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies, alongside the German 11th Army invaded Soviet Moldavia, which was defended by the Southern Front. To this day, Hayrettin and Oruc are known as the Barbarossa brothers, and the pair have inspired numerous depictions of pirates since. By the third week of February 1941, 680,000 German soldiers were gathered in assembly areas on the Romanian-Soviet border. [73], Stalin's reputation as a brutal dictator contributed both to the Nazis' justification of their assault and their faith in success due to the fact that many competent and experienced military officers had been killed in Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s, leaving the Red Army with an inexperienced leadership compared to that of their German adversary. [147], In early-1941 Stalin authorized the State Defense Plan 1941 (DP-41), which along with the Mobilization Plan 1941 (MP-41), called for the deployment of 186 divisions, as the first strategic echelon, in the four military districts[k] of the western Soviet Union that faced the Axis territories; and the deployment of another 51 divisions along the Dvina and Dnieper Rivers as the second strategic echelon under Stavka control, which in the case of a German invasion was tasked to spearhead a Soviet counteroffensive along with the remaining forces of the first echelon.
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