Operation Barbarossa

Hitler's greatest miscalculation began 70 years ago today:

Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa, for Frederick I) was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941.  Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mi) front.  In addition to the large number of troops, it also involved 600,000 motor vehicles and 750,000 horses.   Planning for Operation Barbarossa started on 18 December 1940; the secret preparations and the military operation itself lasted almost a year, from spring to winter 1941. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmacht's strongest blow, and Adolf Hitler did not achieve the expected victory, but the Soviet Union's situation remained dire. Tactically, the Germans had won some resounding victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the country, mainly in Ukraine.  Despite these successes, the Germans were pushed back from Moscow and could never mount an offensive simultaneously along the entire strategic Soviet-German front again.
Operation Barbarossa's failure led to Hitler's demands for further operations inside the USSR, all of which eventually failed, such as continuing the Siege of Leningrad,  Operation Nordlicht, and Battle of Stalingrad, among other battles on the occupied Soviet territory.
Operation Barbarossa was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties.   Its failure was a turning point in the Third Reich's fortunes. Most important, Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, to which more forces were committed than in any other theatre of war in world history. Operation Barbarossa and the areas that fell under it became the site of some of the largest battles, deadliest atrocities, highest casualties, and most horrific conditions for Soviets and Germans alike — all of which influenced the course of both World War II and 20th century history.

We in the West tend to look at D-Day as the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, but this decision by Hitler, and the failure it engendered, sealed the fate of the Germans.  The army of the USSR suffered greatly in fending off and then grinding up the Nazis, and their sacrifices should be better remembered in the West.  U.S. equipment granted through Lend-Lease, helped keep the Soviets going, but their citizens and military lived (and died) through unimaginable conditions to turn the tide of the war.

Some stats:

Strength of the opposing forces on the Soviet Western border. 22 June 1941

	Germany and allies	Soviet Union	Ratio
Divisions	166	190	1 : 1.1
Personnel	4,306,800	3,289,851	1.3 : 1
Guns and mortars	42,601	59,787	1 : 1.4
Tanks (incl assault guns)	4,171	15,687	1 : 3.8
Aircraft	4,389	11, 537	1 : 2.6

The war on the Eastern Front went on for four years. The death toll may never be established with any degree of certainty. The most recent western estimate of Soviet military deaths is 7 million that lost their lives either in combat or in Axis captivity. Soviet civilian deaths remain under contention, though roughly 20 million is a frequently cited figure. German military deaths are also to a large extent unclear. The most recent German estimate (Rüdiger Overmans) concluded that about 4.3 million Germans and a further 900,000 Axis forces lost their lives either in combat or in Soviet captivity. Operation Barbarossa is listed among the most lethal battles in world history.

Military casualties for the Wehrmacht:

By Front (Per R. Overmans)

Front	Total Dead
Eastern Front until 12/31/44	2,742,909
Western Europe until 12/31/44	339,957
Final Battles in Germany 1945	1,230,045
Other (including Sea and Air War Germany)	245,561
Italy	150,660
The Balkans	103,693
Northern Europe	30,165
Africa	16,066
Prisoners of War	459,475
Total	5,318,531

Overmans believes that there is not sufficient data to breakout the 1,230,045 deaths in the 1945 Final Battles in Germany between the Western Allied invasion of Germany and Eastern Front in 1945, although he estimates that 2/3 of these casualties can be attributed to the Eastern Front. Soviet sources claimed that “In 1945 the German Army lost more than 1,000,000 men killed on the Soviet-German front alone.”
Russian figures for German losses on the Eastern Front Total 6,923,700: Killed 4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among Russian volunteers in the Wehrmacht. Deaths of POW were 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit.

All in all, the Soviets did a lot of Nazi-killing.

Update:  This also marks the 67th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Bagration, in which the Soviet army pushed the Nazis out of Belorussia and Eastern Poland in their drive to Berlin.