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OPPOSITE A Panzer III fords a river during Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941 one of the 3,000 Axis tanks forming the armour component of the greatest military invasion in history.
The German invasion of Russia
David Porter analyses the largest military invasion in history.
This is the second article of a two-part feature on the German invasion of Russia. Click here to read the first part.
Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia, evolved from General Marcks’ plan of August 1940, which prioritised the destruction of the bulk of the Red Army in Belorussia (modern Belarus) and the capture of Moscow.
This plan was heavily amended in successive studies, with Hitler downgrading the importance of taking Moscow in favour of capturing Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and the Ukraine. As finalised, the objectives of the three army groups were:
Army Group North was to advance from East Prussia through the Baltic States and join with the Finns to take L
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