Barbarossa
BARBAROSSA
The
Russian-German Conflict 1941-45
by ALAN CLARK
When BARBAROSSA begins, the world will hold its
breath.
HITLER, OKW CONFERENCE MINUTES, 3RD FEBRUARY, 1941
A SIGNET BOOK
PUBLISHED BY THE NEW AMERICAN
LIBRARY
For my father
Copyright © 1965 by ALAN CLARK
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
without permission. For information address William Morrow &
Company, Inc., 425 Park Avenue South, New York, Now York 10016.
Published as a SIGNET BOOK
by arrangement with William
Morrow & Company, Inc.,
who have authorized this softcover
edition.
A hardcover edition is available from William Morrow &
Company, Inc.
FIRST PRINTING, FEBRUARY, 1966
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
LIST OF MAPS AND CHARTS
PREFACE
BOOK I | The "Eastern Marshals"
1
The State of the Wehrmacht
Brauchitsch appeals to
Hitler after the Polish campaign | His attempt to preserve the
executive independence of the Army | Hitler's reaction | The power
structure within the Third Reich | Historical background to the
Army's decline | Origins of Hitler's ascendancy | The Deutschland
Compact | The Blomberg scandal | The Fritsch scandal | Creation of
OKW | The effect on strategic planning | Hitler's contempt for the
General Staff | Its justification | Seeds of treason in the Army |
The generals temporise | Hitler's decision to attack Russia Apparent
political justification | Professional opinion divided | Shift in the
strategic balance | The final directives issued.
2
Mother Russia
The enigma of the Red Army | The
problems of defending European Russia | The Stalin Line | The Soviet
chain of command | The Red Army's subservience to Stalin | Historical
background, the purges | The Red Army's tactical doctrines | Its
dispositions | Its composition | Its numerical strength | The
Osoaviakhim
| Hitler's estimate of Russian strength.
3
The Clash of Arms
The Russians taken by surprise |
Their violent reaction | Ruinous encirclement battles | The Germans
reach the Dnieper, but are disconcerted by the resistance | Halder's
birthday party | Hitler comes to tea | He digresses on the postwar
pattern | Plans for administering the occupied East | The
Ostministerium
| The influence of personal rivalries | The SS
and the Army in conflict | Character of the Reich Commissars | Kube
and Koch | Attempted interference by Ribbentrop | Lohse and the
Baltic territories | Poor relations between Kluge and Guderian |
Hitler's concern | Guderian presses on in defiance of orders | Delays
in front of Leningrad | General Köstring's cautious assessment.
4
The First Crisis
Differences of strategic opinion |
The
Wehrmacht
loses momentum | The condition of the Red Army |
A new OKW directive | Members of the General Staff divided among
themselves | Hitler's attitude ambivalent | Guderian's advance |
Russian plans dislocated | Extravagant Russian countermeasures, and
individual bravery | The German Army feeling the strain | Only
Guderian drives on | The "centre-thrust controversy" |
Great risks attend an isolated armoured thrust | Timoshenko's
counterattack at Roslavl | Intervention by Kluge | Guderian's
insubordination | The Novy Borisov conference | The consequences |
The "Gomel Plan" | A general strategic indecision remains |
Tactical victory at Roslavl | The Führer to visit Army Group
Centre.
5
The Lötzen Decision
All is not well at Army
Group Centre | Schlabrendorff and Tresckow | Rationale of the
plotters | Character of Bock | Hitler interviews the commanders | His
decision | Timoshenko at his last gasp | But the Panzer force worn
out | Halder's contempt for Hitler | The generals know best | Fatal
delays | Russians gradually patch up their front | Friction between
Guderian and OKH | Halder busies himself | Army Group Centre in
disarray | A reproof from the Führer | Guderian flies to Lötzen
| Brauchitsch loses his nerve | Hitler reaffirms his strategy |
Halder's "nervous collapse" | Importance of the dispute.
6
Leningrad: Hypothesis and Reality
Germans cross the
Luga | Popov without reserves | Counterattack by the Soviet 48th Army
| Preparations in Leningrad | The curious affair of the Leningrad
Military Soviet | German solutions for the "Leningrad problem"
| Suggested alternatives for massacre | The Finns are reluctant |
Hitler decides to close down the Northern theatre, but Leeb has his
own ideas | His personal motives | Progress of the assault | Halder's
agitation | Hitler gives qualified approval, but the Germans are
exhausted | Serious effect on the campaign as a whole | Could
Leningrad have been stormed?
7
Slaughter in the Ukraine
The
Stavka
appoints
Budënny | His indifferent qualifications, but great numerical
strength | First encirclement at Uman | Kleist breaks into the Donetz
| Bock regroups for the Kiev battle | Budënny's inertia | Local
victories of the Russian cavalry | Guderian attacks from the north |
Budënny's alibi | Will not hold up | Further friction between
Guderian and OKH | The encirclement completed | Budënny
dismissed | His army fights to the end.
8
The Start of the Moscow Offensive
The Germans are
baffled | The quality of their enemy | Strategic prospects | The
generals disagree | Brauchitsch addresses the Chiefs of Staff |
Russian strength at its lowest ebb | The Siberians the only reserves
left | But the Soviet intelligence system excellent | Genesis of the
Partisan movement | German reaction | A typical incident | The
Vyazma-Bryansk operation | The appointment of Zhukov.
9
The Battle of Moscow
The Red Army state in October |
The FaU of Kalinin | Panic in "Moscow | Zhukov's problem | Rain
and wooded country delay the Germans | Superiority of the T34 |
Depression spreads in the German Army | Bayerlein's account |
Congestion of the German front The Orsha conference | Halder
determined to attack Moscow, but the
Stavka
now reinforcing
from the Far East | Zhukov's plan | The Germans' offensive starts
well, but the balance of strength against them | The temperature
plunges j Guderian protests | Bock and Brauchitsch are indisposed |
The German offensive loses coordination | But Hitler determined on
Moscow | His reasoning | One last heave . . . ! | The blizzards start
| Zhukov's attack begins | Suffering of the German troops | Hitler
saves the day—at a price.
BOOK II | Stalingrad
10
Planning and Preliminaries
The Russian offensive
peters out | The German generals vacillate over prospects, but Hitler
is decided | The Caucasus the key | Discrepancies between the various
orders | German strength in 1942 | Character of the Eastern theatre |
Improvements in the Panzer force | Russian shortages of raw material
and equipment | The fate of Western tank deliveries | Reorganisation
of the Russian armour | The Stavka accumulates a small reserve |
Decides to commit it at Kharkov Result disaster | Crippling effect on
the Red Army's summer prospect.
11
The Wehrmacht at High Tide
The German's offensive
opens | Their treatment of prisoners | The
Untermensch
philosophy | The Stavka plan | The Russians avoid encirclement, but
surrender much territory | German optimism | The diversion of Hoth |
Paulus tries to rush Stalingrad | The Russians in poor shape, but
Paulus' strength inadequate | Hoth at last arrives | The attacks of
early August, and their failure | Hitler orders all reinforcements to
be directed to Stalingrad.
12
Verdun on the Volga
The character of the Stalingrad
fighting | Mistaken German tactics | German morale shaken | The
assault of 13th September | Chuikov appointed to command the garrison
| Critical developments | Early techniques in street fighting |
Individual Russian accounts | The attack dies down Fighting for the
grain elevators | The ratio of committal moves against the Germans |
Some early dismissals | Wïetersheim and List | Quarrelling among
the Fuhrer's entourage | Halder dismissed | Schmundt visits Paulus
with exciting news | Paulus agrees to stage a final attack | But
selects the Russians' strongest point, and is defeated.
13
The Entombment of the 6th Army
The German dilemma |
Inaccurate intelligence reports | State of the Rumanian Army | But
the 6th Army still optimistic | Fighting continues in Stalingrad |
The day of the sniper | The last assault of the 6th Army |
Interrupted by Zhukov's counteroffensive | Capture of the bridge at
Kalach | Paulus isolated.
14
The Advent of General von Manstein
Significance of
the Russian victory | Manstein appointed to Army Group B | Kluge's
foreboding | Hourly deterioration of the German position | The
problem of relieving Stalingrad | Postwar writings have clouded the
issue | Paulus largely to blame | His destruction the primary Russian
objective | Manstein's efforts to assemble a relief force ]
Alternative approaches | Russians start to cross the Chir | Repulsed
by the llth Panzer | Manstein presses on with "Winter Tempest"
| Paulus' reluctance to co-operate | Time running out, but Holh
making good progress | The Russian counteroffensive develops | Rout
of the Italians | Hoth's last chance to reach Stalingrad, but Paulus
still reluctant | Manstein appeals to Hitler | Without success.
BOOK III | Zitadelle
15
Crisis and Recovery
Plight of the German Army | The
Russians also in poor shape | Manstein's efforts to extricate Army
Group A | Administrative difficulties | Paulus still holding down
strong Russian forces | Last days at Stalingrad | Trials of the
wounded | Paulus surrenders | Hitler's reaction | Hitler in chastened
mood | He summons Guderian and appoints him Inspector General of
Panzer Forces | Hitler conciliates Manstein, but declines to discuss
the question of the Supreme Command | The state of the Panzer forces
| Porsche | Guderian granted wide powers | Deterioration of the
southern front | Hitler again visits Manstein, but is placated.
16
The "Consolidation Period"
The Russians
overextended | Manstein's counteroffensive | First appearance of the
Tiger | Hitler visits Army Group Centre | A plot to assassinate him |
Operation Flash | Kluge vacillates | The "brandy bottles" |
Schlabrendorff keeps his nerve | Guderian's reorganisations,
obstructed by jealousy of other branches | The Vinnitsa conference |
The labour situation | Sauckel and the GBA | Protestations by some
army commanders | Goebbels dislikes Sauckel | Slave labour an
essential part of the German production machine.
17
The Greatest Tank Battle in History
The General Staff
obsessed by the Kursk salient | Hitler less enthusiastic | Personal
rivalries between the senior commanders a factor | The May conference
at Munich | Hitler fusses about the Panther | Guderian's personal
appeal to Hitler | The strength of Russian preparations | The Germans
still hesitating in June | A date is fixed | All the Panzers to take
part | Unimaginative German tactics | the
Panzerkeil
| The
Germans severely punished | Model's defeat | The Ferdinand a failure
| Hoth's second attempt also defeated | But gradual progress by
Gross
Deutschland
and the SS | The Russians unperturbed | Final death
ride by the Panzers | Collision with the Russian armoured reserve |
German inferiority in numbers and material | Hitler accepts defeat |
Guderian collapses, but rebuffs an approach by Tresckow.