Barbarossa - the name of the plan for the attack on the USSR, adopted by the leadership of the Third Reich. Its essence was to quickly defeat the country and establish in it the most severe terror, involving not only the seizure of territories, but also the destruction of the inhabitants.
Key points of the Barbarossa plan
The plan to capture the USSR began to be developed under the leadership of General Paulus on July 21, 1940, i.e. at a time when Germany managed to occupy France and achieve its surrender. The plan was finally approved on December 18. It was assumed that the victory over the USSR would be won as soon as possible - even before the British were defeated. To achieve this, Hitler ordered tanks to be sent to the main enemy forces in order to quickly destroy the ground army and not allow troops to retreat deep into the country.
It was assumed that this would be quite enough for victory, and in the shortest possible time the USSR would be forced to capitulate. According to estimates, the implementation of the plan should have taken no more than 5 months. Thus, the Wehrmacht assumed that even before the onset of winter, the enemy would be defeated, which means that the Germans would not have to face severe Russian cold.
In the very first days of the invasion, the troops of the Third Reich had to advance so far that the Soviet soldiers could not attack objects located in previously occupied territories. Further, it was supposed to cut off the Asian part of the country from the European one, destroy industrial centers with the help of the Luftwaffe forces and bomb the Baltic Fleet by taking several powerful raids on military bases. So that the air forces of the USSR could not interfere with the implementation of the plan, they were also supposed to be quickly destroyed.
