Barbarossa Part II - 'We Only Have to Kick in the Door...'

Few single events in world history wreaked by human intent have had such catastrophic impact in terms of devastation and mass slaughter than Nazi Germany's decision to invade the Soviet Union in June Protected content the largest military force ever assembled.

In terms of the records, and especially since the opening up of the USSR's archives in the Protected content , we are now able to piece together a full, detailed and revealing account from all the participants' perspectives - a luxury few historians can ever enjoy.

This is Part II of a four-part series on the events from June to December Protected content , that set in process the foreshortening of Hitler's proclaimed 'Thousand Year Reich' by Protected content .

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Right from the start, the Operation Barbarossa offensive involved millions of men and tens of thousands of lethal war machines such as planes, tanks and big guns. It also impacted many millions more civilians, and the massacres thereof began right from Day One.

The Nazi war machine, tactically perfected and well experienced from its tally of European victories so far, suddenly found an enemy who, although often materially outclassed and operating with incompetence, fought back with a stubborn ferocity that stunned the Germans again and again - and bode ill for the future of the project.

In this episode we will study the development of this titanic struggle from June to August Protected content .