70 years ago today: Operation Barbarossa started 22. June 1941.

[LarryHW.]

For sure, Hitler did not have an accurate picture of either the size the Soviet military or even the quality of some of the key weapons that were just coming on line (the T-34 tank). In 1942, Hitler told Finnish Marshalll Mannerhiem that he was amazed at the sheer number of tanks the Soviets could produce and that, had he known the full extent of Soviet capablities in these areas, he might not have attacked when he did. A recording of this coversation is available. The Japanese had no intention of opening a second against the USSR. The Japanese plate was very full. Also, Japanese and Soviet troops had battled for a short time in 1938. The Japanese were badly bloodied and had no desire to repeat the experience. BTW, the Soviet troops in that conflict were led by a then-little known man named Zhukov.

Yes, I too agree and I thank you for your good comments. I'm sorry to belabor this point, but I still wonder whether Hitler and the OKW knew of the existence of the Soviet forces on Stalin's eastern border? It would seem to me that they should have known it, but if so, how did they regard the threat? And secondly, was there any discussion among the Germans about asking the Japanese to open a second front, thus drawing off potential pressure from Operation Barbarossa? Interesting topic!

Br. James

[LarryHW.]

Best investment the US ever made. In the total scheme of things, and the total amount of weaponry and ammunition employed on the Russian front, these number are actually modest. (By way of context, the Reichstag building in Berlin took hits from one million bullets. Tank losses ran into the thousands in key battles.) The allied aid was most helpful in its timing, helping to tide the Soviets over until they could get their far eastern factories fully running. The one key exception was in trucks. Even at the time, it was known that the Soviet army had large numbers of Ford and especially Chevrolet trucks.

The old 'Conspiracy of Lies' theory. A old book now largely discredited but the damage has already been done.

And when talking about the Economic powerhouses these few Lend-lease
facts will boggle you mind a bit

MOTOR TRANSPORT VEHICLES 433,967

37mm ammo 9,731,622 rounds
75mm ammo 3,322,287 rounds

smokeless powder 280,546 tons
TNT 271,550 tons

Tanks and AFVs
light tanks M3~M5 1,676
med tanks M3~M4 5,489
SPA M13~m17 1,807
M2~M3A1 3,742

Plus spares such as 600000 spark-plugs

oh yeah

11,450 aircraft
1000 rail trucks
1,600+ locomotives

I could keep going and going and going. This is just from the US

Canada sent them over 5000 AFVs as well

The main point is that the Soviets tried to hide the above facts, and very effectively I might add as it is usually hard to spot any lend lease
equipment in official photos.

Fortunately time as a changing and many Russian historians are writing about the effect of lend lease . This site is an example airforce.ru

[Edward]

"Fremde Heere Ost" made a very bad job and Hitler and the OKW underestimated the strenght of the Red Army by far. Later Hitler told one of his Advisors "If I had known how many tanks and airplanes the Red Army has - I had never attacked".

There is another major question for me: How could this war became so cruel? This is hard to understand because the relationship between Russians and Germans were mostly very good in history.

Warfare is brutal. That there were two such extreme ideologically opposed states (NS and Communism) at war carrying out ever greater ruthless policies against the other insured escalating brutality.

Good relations for the most part, but from the below examples not always.

1. Teutonic Order vs Novgorod

2. Fred and Catherine

3. 1914-18

4. 1941-45