HIST 388 Lecture 9: Hist 388 09
Document Summary
In 1941 yugoslavia refused to become a german satellite, and after a putsch hitler decided to invade it. Then he tried to enlist spain and vichy france and failed, and while he was on his train mussolini attacked albania and needed help. One could argue that the commitment that the german forces had to make in the. Balkans led to the delay of the attack on barbarossa hitler made this claim and blamed mussolini for its failure. The british were already trying to bomb the romanian oilfields so that the germans couldn"t get it this threatened the whole of barbarossa. The battle of stalingrad was the reason barbarossa failed; the main thrust was through the caucasus to reach these oilfields stalingrad had to be secured . Finally barbarossa was launched on the 22nd of june 1941 there were two simultaneous operations; the military one (by the army) and the genocidal one (ss and security police; einsatzgruppen or task forces)
