Exercises on Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa, started in June 1941 by Nazi Germany, organized the invasion of which country:

a) France

b) England

c) Poland

d) Soviet Union

e) Yugoslavia

What was the state of the Soviet Union when the Germans began their invasion of the country from June 1941?

a) the Germans encountered stiff resistance, with well-equipped border posts and soldiers attentive to German movements;

b) the Germans found the Soviet border unguarded and were able to make rapid advances;

c) the situation of the Soviet defense posts was mixed:some were equipped and others were not because, by order of Stalin, the Soviet Union was in the process of protecting its borders;

d) the Germans had difficulty crossing the borders, as they were well protected, but after ten days of battles, they managed to break through and start the advance into Soviet territory.

e) the Nazis found well-organized Soviet defensive positions, especially in the defensive points of the Baltic States. The region was only effectively conquered at the end of 1942.

The conquest of the Soviet Union was an obsession of Hitler, and once the plan for the conquest of the country was drawn up, there was unanimity as to how it should happen. What was the German strategy?

a) carry out a quick conquest in order to avoid organizing the Soviet defense and prevent the draining of German resources;

b) make a slow conquest, promoting a long and exhausting war that would weaken the Russians;

c) carry out the conquest by concentrating resources and troops in an onslaught against the city of Moscow;

d) initiate the invasion of the Soviet Union from the west, while Japanese troops would invade from the east, dividing and weakening the enemy's forces;

e) Germany only aimed to secure control of three crucial points of the Soviet Union:Stalingrad, Kiev and Leningrad.

By the end of 1941, the Nazis had still not achieved their goals in the Soviet Union. In the view of important members of the Nazi leadership, what was the situation of Germany in the conflict against the Soviets:

a) the members of the Nazi leadership, unanimously, maintained the belief in the final victory of Germany and, therefore, reinforced the importance of the conquest of Leningrad to obtain important resources;

b) members of the summit claimed that victory was possible as long as the Germans continued bombing England;

c) many of the members already knew that victory was not possible, as Germany did not have the resources to make victory possible;

d) at the end of 1941, there were no predictions made about the German possibilities, since Hitler did not allow them;

e) the general opinion was that victory was possible and within reach of the Germans.

LETTER D

Operation Barbarossa mobilized around 3.6 million Nazi soldiers and began the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The invasion of the Soviet Union, in addition to seeking to destroy Soviet Bolshevism, aimed at enslaving the Slavic people so that their work would support the German people and obtaining Soviet resources to maintain Germany's war economy.

LETER B

German troops found the Soviet Union's border defenses unguarded, and the army was partially demobilized. This happened because Stalin refused to believe the warnings about the German attack and chose to keep the borders unprotected, allowing the Germans to make considerable advances in the first weeks of the battles.

LETER A

The German strategy for the conquest of the Soviet Union was to try to repeat what had happened in France:a fulminating conquest. The speed of conquest of the Soviet Union was critical to preventing opposing armies from organizing their resistance forces, as well as preventing excessive draining of German resources.

LETTER C

Many members of the Nazi leadership, at the end of 1941, already demonstrated Germany's inability to deal with the dimension of the mission it had. Important names, such as Fritz Todt and Walter Rohland, already stated that Germany did not have the industrial and military capacity to maintain the conflict with the Soviet Union in the long term. Furthermore, members of the team responsible for economic affairs stipulated that victory in the war would only be possible through expenditures on the production of weapons of around 150 billion dollars until 1943. It was proposed to Hitler to put a diplomatic end to the conflict, but the Nazi dictator rejected the idea.