Strategic Blunders:Hitler’s Military Strategies in Operation Barbarossa (Term Paper Sample)

Strategic Blunders: Hitler’s Military Strategies in Operation Barbarossa
By: Mohamed A. Saad
“DIRECTIVE No. 21: OPERATION BARBAROSSA: The German Wehrmacht must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign (Operation Barbarossa) even before the conclusion of the war against England. For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available units, with the reservation that the occupied territories must be secured against surprises.”[Hitler, A. (1940, December 18) .Directive No. 21 Operation Barbarossa.]
The Directive no. 21, issued by Adolf Hitler to the German army called for the Germans’ attempt at invading the Soviet Union through Operation Barbarossa in the WWII, 22nd of June, 1941. Operation Barbarossa is considered to be the largest battle ever fought in history, as 3 million soldiers were involved on each side. The German army initially penetrated Russia as deep as the outskirts of Leningrad and Moscow. However, the German troops were defeated and more than five million casualties were suffered from both nations. More devastating to Germany, Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, which witnessed the spectacular growth of Red Army who would eventually invade Berlin in 1945. The Eastern Front essentially led to the Allied powers victory in WWII, yet at the cost of at least 26 million Soviets and 4 million Germans deaths, accounting for eighty percent of the battles fought in the war. If it were not for Operation Barbarossa’s failure, or even Hitler calling for it in the first place, the War would have seen a different fate. This paper argues that Hitler’s leadership was the main reason behind Germany’s failure in Operation Barbarossa, eventually leading to the dreadful Eastern Front defeat. Through analyzing the traditional military strategies of Sun Tzu, we can see that Hitler’s leadership abandoned Sun Tzu’s principles of military strategy laid out in 6th Century BCE, as he committed four strategic mistakes that were responsible for the German defeat.