The start date of the Great Patriotic War (1941, June 22) is the day on which, in violation of the non-aggression agreement, Nazi Germany invaded the territory of the Soviet Union. This battle is considered the most cruel and difficult of all fights in the history of Russia.
Officially, the beginning of World War II was not announced. The enemy invaded suddenly, early Sunday morning.
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War took place according to a previously developed detailed plan. It should be noted that before the attack, Germany possessed the human and industrial resources of the European countries it had previously captured. This, of course, strengthened the military-economic potential of the Germans.
The sudden and lightning start of World War II according to the "Barbaross Plan" was to lead to the imminent defeat of the Soviet Union. Germany intended in a short-term campaign to seize all the most important political and industrial centers and annex the European part of the USSR. Hitler did not doubt victory. He considered the Soviet Union an unstable, weak state.
The command of the fascist army sent instructions to all its military units , according to which all German officers should have suggested that the war was "liberating Russia from the Soviet yoke." In this information, the officers were warned about the need to keep silent about the subsequent alleged dismemberment of Russia.
About five and a half million German officers (190 divisions), about five thousand units of military aviation and four thousand tanks, more than forty-seven thousand mortars and guns were concentrated along the Soviet border. According to historians, this is the largest army of invasion.
At the disposal of the Soviet Union was about 170 divisions (about three million soldiers). Not inferior in the number of weapons and equipment, the army of the USSR had insufficient military training. In addition, many aviation and tank formations were reorganized or were only in the process of formation. The country did not have enough transport, communications were not provided enough. New models of aircraft, tanks and other equipment were under development.
Equally important are the transformations of Stalin on the eve of the outbreak of hostilities. The capacity of the army was dealt a serious blow by mass repressions against the commanding staff of the Soviet troops. In addition, despite the obvious preparatory measures of the German units, the mobilization of the Soviet army, the regrouping of formations and their putting them on alert, was not carried out until the German invasion.
When the inevitability of the attack became apparent, on June 21, in the evening, an order was sent to the border districts of the chief of the General Staff Zhukov and the people's commissar Tymoshenko. The directive talked about the proposal to take up firing positions and put the units on alert. This order did not reach many formations or did not reach when military operations had already begun.
In 1941, on June 22, at four o'clock in the morning, the Nazi forces struck artillery on the border regions of the Soviet Union, and then invaded the country. The German army fought in three strategically important areas - Kiev, Moscow and Leningrad.
An unexpected attack allowed Hitler’s army to gain a significant advantage at the initial stage of the war. Air raids and tank breakthroughs contributed to the advancement of the aggressor inland of the Soviet country.
The beginning of World War II was a disaster. A large number of connections and frontier posts, having taken the first blow on themselves, were lost. A huge number of Soviet soldiers were captured. After the battle began, Minsk fell a week later.
Despite the most difficult conditions in the Great Patriotic War, Soviet troops showed heroism and courage from the very first days of the battle.