HISTORY 2S03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Red Army, Lebensraum, Hubris
23 Nov 2012
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Document Summary
After defeat of france, hitler thought britain would sue for peace. Intermarries with ideological views desire for lebensraum. Needed land in the east soviet union. Summer of 1940, these two factors come together one of the reasons british continue is because they hope for soviet assistance. Operation barbarossa planning begins in 1940 immediately after fall of france. Finalized december: aims to defeat ussr in a fast campaign. Army groups north, centre, south how the german army split for the attack giant force (3. 6 million men) trucks lorries tanks aircraft in large numbers. Stalin refuses to believe reports from the front believes it"s a provocation and tells front commands not to respond. Thesis advanced that soviets planned to attack germany and that was why soviet army in forward positions. They were anticipating some sort of blow, not the one that came, not their own offensive. Germans make huge gains but never quite gets to moscow or leningrad.
