Cold Barbarossa

By Lorena Solari 

Because of the bad performance that the USSR had in their war with Finland, the Axis power was sure that they could defeat the Red Army before the cold winter. Hitler´s plan was designed carefully to invade this big territory, he learned from Napoleon’s failure and planned a massive attack in the spring of 1941. The performance of Germany at the begging was really good, but, why did the USSR could defeat the Germans?

By November 1941 the German army had pushed 960 km inside the Soviet Union, having the control of important cities like Kiev. But what Germany really wanted was Moscow, the center of communism. Because of the advantage that Hitler had, he assumed that Stalin´s regime was going to finish. And when he started to attack, Stalin was caught by surprise, fact that led Hitler advance to Moscow. But the German army was weak and had not enough supplies. Finally, the USSR surrounded Moscow and defeated Germany. A consequence, Hitler was forced to move to Stalingrad, where he finally lost the whole eastern campaign. Germany had a carefully designed plan, but the Red Army had a weapon that was the most important of the battle: the “General Winter.”

What can a strong winter can do? The German army had a strategically made plan, but a historically extreme winter can change it in a surprise way. What this winter can do, at first is to unable the forces to move. The paths are filled with snow and make very difficult to proceed (Some people affirm that the soldiers need skis for a better mobilization). Another consequence of winter is that the machines freeze, and special lubricants are required for the vehicles and guns. Also, winter makes days shorter, another disadvantage that affects quickness. The soldiers that are not used to this type of climate may use special clothing that includes special gloves and shoes. And finally, the wounded soldiers needed to be hospitalized before they die as consequence of exposure.

But what is worst, the encouragement for keeping on the battle becomes worst. In the case of Germany, the plan was to defeat Russia before winter, reason why the supplies they had were calculated for spring and autumn. And when all seemed to be lost a soviet counterattack defeated the Germans. The USSR was affected by the winter too, but they did thought in the possibility of a strong winter and were conformed of soldiers used to the climate. German conditions where extremely bad, and this is proved in the testimony of a German soldier:

“We had no gloves. We had no winter shoes. We had no equipment whatsoever to fight or withstand the cold…. We lost a considerable part of our equipment…. Due to the cold we lost a lot of people who got frost-bitten, and we had not even the necessary amount of ointments, or the most simple primitive things to fight in…. Guns didn´t fire anymore. Even our wireless equipment didn´t work properly anymore because the batteries were frozen hard….”

Is amazing how our own nature can play an important role on war, ensuring the victory for a country, and acting as a decisive weapon. In my opinion, winter was the most important advantage that the USSR could have.