3 - Defense and Surrender of Smolensk

Summary

On June 16, 1941, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary: “The Führer estimates the campaign to last about four months; I estimate less. Bolshevism will fall like a deck of cards. We stand before a victory without parallel…. What we have fought against our whole life long, we will now destroy. I said this to the Führer, and he completely agreed…. The Führer said: ‘And if we win, no one will ask us about our methods.’” Six days later, in the middle of the longest day of the year, the German Army launched its operational invasion, code-named Barbarossa (after Frederick I, “Red Beard,” Holy Roman Emperor). Operation Barbarossa set in motion a calamity that is hardly imaginable. At the same time, it was less than a surprise. Indeed, Soviet generals had been acutely aware of the military buildup on the German side. And although Stalin refused to accept the possibility that Hitler would attack, according to David Glantz, he had tried to orchestrate a covert partial mobilization of his armies beginning in April 1941. This mobilization, however, fell well behind schedule.

Hitler declared publicly that the war must now—on June 22, 1941— begin, since “Moscow has not only broken our friendship agreement but has betrayed us terribly…. After months of being condemned to silence, the hour has come to finally speak the truth…. FOR OVER TWO DECADES THE JEWISH-BOLSHEVIK REGIME FROM MOSCOW HAS TRIED TO SET FIRE NOT ONLY TO GERMANY BUT TO ALL OF EUROPE.”