The First Day on the Eastern Front

Germany Invades the Soviet Union, June 22, 1941

Craig W.H. Luther

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780811767651
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Segunda Guerra Mundial

Sunday, June 22, 1941: three million German soldiers invaded the Soviet Union as part of Hitler’s long-planned Operation Barbarossa, which aimed to destroy the Soviet Union, secure its land as lebensraum for the Third Reich, and enslave its Slavic population. From launching points in newly acquired Poland, in three prongs—North, Central, South—German forces stormed western Russia, virtually from the Baltic to the Black Sea. By late fall, the invasion had foundered against Russian weather, terrain, and resistance, and by December, it had failed at the gates of Moscow, but early on, as the Germans sliced through Russian territory and soldiers with impunity, capturing hundreds of thousands, it seemed as though Russia would fall.

In the spirit of Martin Middlebrook’s classic First Day on the Somme, Craig Luther narrates the events of June 22, 1941, a day when German military might was at its peak and seemed as though it would easily conquer the Soviet Union, a day the common soldiers would remember for its tension and the frogs bellowing in the Polish marshlands. It was a day when the German blitzkrieg decimated Soviet command and control within hours and seemed like nothing would stop it from taking Moscow. Luther narrates June 22—one of the pivotal days of World War II—from high command down to the tanks and soldiers at the sharp end, covering strategy as well as tactics and the vivid personal stories of the men who crossed the border into the Soviet Union that fateful day, which is the Eastern Front in microcosm, representing the years of industrial-scale warfare that followed and the unremitting hostility of Germans and Soviets.

Table of contents

• Notes on Style
• List of Maps
• List of Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Planning for Armageddon—Adolf Hitler and His General Staff Prepare to Unleash War on Soviet Russia
• Chapter 2: On the Cusp of War—Berlin, Moscow, and the Eastern Front
• Photo Essay: Commanders and Weapons
• Intermezzo: Operation Barbarossa Begins—From the Baltic to the Black Sea
• Chapter 3: Armageddon Unleashed (I)—Army Group North Goes to War
• Chapter 4: Armageddon Unleashed (II)—Army Group Center Goes to War
• Photo Essay: The Front—Operation Barbarossa Begins, June 22, 1941
• Chapter 5: Armageddon Unleashed (III)—Army Group South Goes to War
• Chapter 6: Death from the Sky—The Luftwaffe Wreaks Havoc and Smashes the Soviet Air Force
• Chapter 7: Berlin, Moscow, and the First Twenty-One Hours of War on the Eastern Front
• Postscript: Reflections on Day One of the Most Destructive War in History and the Ultimate Failure of Operation Barbarossa
• Maps
• Appendices
• 2. Directive No. 21—Case Barbarossa (December 18, 1940)
• 3. German 6 Infantry Division: Personnel and Weapons (June 20, 1941)
• 4. Order of Battle of a German Panzer Division (June 1941)
• 5. 56 Infantry Division’s Order No. 1 for the Attack across the Bug River (June 19, 1941)
• 6. People’s Commissariat of Defense (NKO) Directives 1, 2, 3 (June 22, 1941)
• Notes
• Select Bibliography