Were the Germans well prepared for Operation Barbarossa?

Question

Why?

Answer 1

Commanders always have doubts and misgivings, though they often keep them private, and because of that you'll find published objections, including the diversion of some planned units that got hung up in the Balkans, but I'd say overall, they were as prepared as they needed to be. You have to keep in mind that they had some significant intelligence failures. They actually destroyed/captured more divisions of Soviet troops in the first months of the campaign than they thought the Soviets had. I'd say if you're able to deal with 120% of your opponent's forces, you're prepared. They also seem to have missed the existence of the T34 altogether. Oops. But those things aren't something you can plan for.

Answer 2

It was a massive military operation, true. But it was also an epic strategic blunder. By invading Russia, Hitler bought Stalin into the war, within 2 years Germany was on the retreat until the Russian army was in Berlin. Hitler did have amazing armies, and gifted generals. Unfortunately his ego and the fear his generals had of him allowed him to make huge strategic blunders that cost him the war, because he would not listen to them. The disaster at Stalingrad was a turning point in the war, and end of Barbarossa. Good for all of us Hitler did ignore the advice of his generals Model, Paulus etcetera, if he listened to his generals the war may have been a different outcome entirely. It is interesting that Hitler decided to abandon operation Sealion (invasion of the UK) in favour of invading the USSR. But then the Royal Navy was a huge deterrent and the USSR has tempting strategic resources. In the opening phases of Barbarossa, the wehrmacht was exptremely succesful and made huge gains, apparently so great that the huge open spaces of the steppe and the distances involved challenged the mental well being of the soldiers involved. A|lthough Stalingrad was a turning point, the German army was at the gates of Moscow the previous winter and the russian army succesfully stalled the advance at the gates of Moscow, after this it was decided to sweep south for the oil fields of the Caucasus. It was a VERY close thing for the Soviets, but they prevailed. The architect of Barbarossa was ultimately its shortcoming...Adolf Hitler.

Answer 3

Bearbrain answered this fairly well.

Germany was as prepared as they could be. There is a debate that supplies and some troops were diverted to support Italy, and Africa, and that the start date for Barbarossa was set delayed.
Another point of arguement is that Hitler stopped Army Group center before Moscow, and diverted the majority of the armed units to Army Group South to secure the oil feilds in the that area. This re-deployment took away Army Groups Centers armed spearhead for nearly 2 months. So when operation reconminced their was not enough time to take Moscow.
The plan required for Moscow to be taken in the Summer and expectataions were that this wold happened.
The Gremans were not prepared to fight a winter war. They had hoped to winter in the cities.
The Soveits were able to follow the tried and proved old tatic of trading space for time, and forcing the enemy to advance over burnt land. Making the enemy bring his own supplies from his base of supplies and relying on the severity of winter.
Entire russian armies surrender to the germans many even offered to join the germans to liberate russia from the Soveits. Hitler believed that the Germans were so superior to the Slav's the only use he had for them were that of about a slave.
So the Germans were prepared to execute there plan, but they failed to follow that plan, and the plan was not for a winter campaign, which may have been unrealistic.

Answer 4

I believe they were well prepared for the original plan.

However under Hitlers direct command too many tactical and strategic changes came in to play that affected the rest of the operations.

Diversion of forces, changes in objectives and the increased time needed to accomplish those goals ended up costing the Germans dearly.

Had the Generals been allowed to run the operation with a free hand then the odds are the German army would have broken though to Moscow's heart and taken her, Stalingrad would have been secured and the path to the oil Hitler needed so badly would have been open.

granted it would not have been the end for the Soviets, they would have been able to create a strong line a little further to the east, but it would have been a massive blow to moral and the prestige of Stalin.

The Germans had superior equipment technology and soldiers. however their dependence on Hitler's leadership proved their down fall.

Some one mentioned the german tanks and equipment were not suitable for the russian winter and that is correct but had the time table been kept the winter would never have been a factor.

Answer 5

Goering screwed up Hitler with his over optimistic view of fighting the English.
Take Dunkirk..Hitler could have smashed the British and French fighter but because of the bad weather he held back the SS and the regular army back to the the Air force under Goering to have the complete annihilation of the Allies..but that was a mistake and most of these soldiers of the allies escaped to fight another day.
Just like in the Iraq wars, Viet Nam, Korea the Americans had air superiority but they did not win the war on the ground. England would never had surrendered like France . Hitler at the final days realized in his bunker that he should have killed all the Generals like Stalin killed all his generals in 1939.
After1942 the Germans stopped slowed down war production as there economy would not hold up the pace. Study the history books on German war production. In 1942 the Germans were winning the war and Hitler did not want to change a winning team even though he disposed his elitist Generals like Rommel..Jealousy? Hitler was only a Corporal in WWI..not even a pimple on the *** of a good German.

Answer 6

Absolutely not and that is why the campaign ultimately failed for the same reasons as Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
The 5 main reasons were
The army was ill-equipped for the Russian winter.
The Germans relied heavily on tanks which were far less maneuverable in deep snow than when the invasion began.
The supply lines were so long that it was easy for the Russians to
create havoc with their logistics
The geographical size of the country-its immense land mass was just too large-even for the German army
German resources were stretched to the limit because their army was already fighting on two other fronts-The Western Front and North Africa.

Answer 7

I wouldn't say so! They somehow expected the Soviets not to put up a serious resistance and they underestimated just about everything: from manpower to firepower, from economical capacities to weather conditions, from the possiboility of the Western Allies to help the Soviets to the capacity of the Red Army Generals (like Zhukov) left after the Abwehr-inspired purge of Tukhachevsky and his people.