was operation Barbarossa a surprise attack?

Answer 1

Yes and no. Both Hitler and Stalin knew that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was signed 2 years earlier and split Poland between the two empires, would eventually be broken. But Stalin was convinced that Hitler would concentrate his forces on England and remove the Western front before starting an Eastern front. Hitler really had no desire to expend energy on England - he saw them as an ideological holdout, but they had little to offer Hitler. On the other hand, the Soviet Union had phenomenal oil reserves, farming land, and people (Slavs) who could be exploited as slaves. The goal was to take these resources, exploit them for the Germans while destroying their ideological opposite. The Soviet Union was always primary on Hitler's agenda.

The timing was perfect for Hitler too. While England still held on to independence (Hitler's blunder at Dunkirk where he let the British army escape), England was merely an annoyance. They could never stage an effective counter resistance, so effectively the Western front WAS closed. Meanwhile, 3 years earlier Stalin had his Great Purge, where he murdered approximately 1.2 million of his top strategists and military personnel. Hitler knew the Russian were extraordinarily weak and inexperienced. The average German commander had 12 years more experience than the Russian commanders, and based on the mass executions, the Russian commanders were reluctant to make a move without Stalin's approval. Stalin really believed he would have years to rebuild his army, and that Hitler would take years to mount an attack. Stalin even allowed the massive troop buildup on the border, thinking it was German preparations for an invasion of England. For months Germans planes made daily reconnaissance flights for bombing targets, and the Russians did nothing.

When the Germans stormed in, the Russians were completely overtaken. Stalin was so shaken that he locked himself in a room for 5 days. During that time, without direction from Stalin, the Soviets were massacred. When Stalin came out of seclusion, he drafted every male over 14 and ordered them to take a German bullet or a Soviet bullet (meaning fight to the death or be executed for retreating). Millions and millions of soldiers and civilians died in the city sieges and total destruction of the countryside. Finally, the shear numbers of Soviets held off the capture of Moscow and annihilation of the Soviet Union until winter. Hitler was completely unprepared for winter, thinking the offensive would be complete by then. The worst winter in 100 years struck, and the Germans went from conquerors to abject misery. Finally the Germans capitulated, starting the long, 4 year drive back to Germany and finally Berlin.

Answer 2

The only person who was surprised by Barbarossa was Stalin ... well, OK, a few of his Yes-Men Soviet Marshals that did not know their *ss from second base were surprised too.

Quite apart from Hitler's own words in Mein Kampf, the German preparations for Barbarossa were so flagrantly obvious that virtually all of Russia's frontier force commanders were frantically warning the Kremlin that they were about to be attacked. But Stalin did not want to believe it, so he refused to believe it. Even after the Panzers rolled into the Red Army's lines, even after the Luftwaffe had destroyed most of the Russian air force on the ground, Stalin kept insisting that his forces should not provoke the Nazis.

Answer 3

To Stalin and some of his Generals yes. Some Soviet Generals had an inclining. A train carrying Russian oil crossed into Germany just a few hours before the attack, as Stalin thought Hitler was going to abide by the non-agression pact they had signed after they split Poland up. The Russian Army waqs so underprepared that the Germans advanced into Russia faster than anticipated.

Answer 4

yep
hitler had signed a non agression pact with stalin in 1939, just before the poland blitzkrieg
then hitler and stalin together invaded poland and divided up the spoils
then his generals got way too overconfident, and fed hitler with a bunch of bs that russia coudl be easily defeated
hitler immediatley started making plans for winter equpiment (cuz it was liek june or sumthing) but his generals denied it, proudly stating that they would have taken over russia before hte end of the summer
they turned out to be extremely wrong and eventually at the real turning point of the war (whcih was the kursk not stalingrad..although the germans lost many thousands of soldiers at stalingrad the russians lost millions..they were both in bad shape...also at kursk they lost over 3000 tanks alltogether, and irreplaceable losses in many other materials such as aircraft trucks most importantly men..those 3000 tanks were more than the germans could manufacture again till the war ended..so the kursk sounded the death knell or watever it is)
so basicaly at the decisive point, the red army won
then they surged across the eastern front and destroyed nazi germany and hitlers mad little third reich
the end

Answer 5

Yes, because Stalin trusted Hitler to abide by the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact (which he, Stalin, intended to break later on, when he felt his army was prepared)

Answer 6

It grew to become right into a tremendous protection stress operation, genuine. notwithstanding it grew to become into additionally an epic strategic blunder. by utilizing invading Russia, Hitler offered Stalin into the conflict, interior of two years Germany grew to become into on the retreat till the Russian military grew to become into in Berlin. Hitler did have superb armies, and gifted generals. regrettably his ego and the terror his generals had of him allowed him to make huge strategic blunders that value him the conflict, because of the fact he does not pay attention to them. The disaster at Stalingrad grew to become right into a turning factor interior the conflict, and end of Barbarossa. good for everybody Hitler did ignore related to the suggestion of his generals type, Paulus etcetera, if he listened to his generals the conflict might have been a various effect completely. this is exciting that Hitler desperate to desert operation Sealion (invasion of the united kingdom) in favour of invading the U.S.. yet then the Royal military grew to become right into a huge deterrent and the U.S. has tempting strategic components. interior the hollow stages of Barbarossa, the wehrmacht grew to become into exptremely able and made huge constructive components, curiously so tremendous that the huge open areas of the steppe and the distances in contact challenged the psychological properly-being of the warriors in contact. A|lthough Stalingrad grew to become right into a turning factor, the German military grew to become into on the gates of Moscow the previous wintry climate and the russian military succesfully stalled the strengthen on the gates of Moscow, after this it grew to become into desperate to comb south for the oil fields of the Caucasus. It grew to become into an extremely close concern for the Soviets, yet they prevailed. The architect of Barbarossa grew to become into finally its shortcoming...Adolf Hitler.