The Eastern FrontPatriotic War 1941-1945

Overview • Stalin as a military leader • Purging the Red Army• USSR: Relationship with Germany• Disregarded signs of Nazi invasion• Soviet Soldier Life• Nazi Germany v Communist Russia• Soviet Victory • Weather

• Women • Will to fight (or death)• Key Battles • War Crimes• The Cost • Recap • Questions

Stalin as a Military Leader

• As commander in chief, Stalin presided over the _______________________________________ charged with…

• ________________, ______________________, and coordination of all _____________________________.

• Stalin possessed certain characteristics that helped and hurt him in being a Military leader

• including a _______________________________________, the ability to get to the root of the matter, and ______________________________________________

• he lacked _______________________________ and _____________________________________

• Stalin relied on the ________________________ of throwing masses of soldiers into frontal attacks that resulted in the ____________________________

Stalin as a leader

• His goal of uniting the nation with him as the leader grew to _________________________________

• Stalin enacted a series of purges known as “______________________________”

• Millions of people were sent to _____________________, _________________________, or ___________________________________, out of fear that they were ______________________ __________________________________

• State police the NKVD

• Were at the _____________________________________

• It was found out after his death that Stalin had been suffering from atherosclerosis (fatty tissue build-up in the arteries) of the brain, possibly explaining his deranged “terror.”

Red Army Purge

• For decades, the __________________________ was recognized as the start of the ____________________________

• Approximately ________________________ military personal would be “lost” over the course of __________________________

• The numbers of rank-and-file affected are __________________________.

• Although the upper ranks were certainly hit harder by the purge,

• _____________________________________ suffered as well.

• As was true for the violence of the wider Great Terror, much of the military purge was driven by a wave of denunciations from below.

USSR: Relationship with Germany

• The two countries entered into ‘friendly relations” through a ______________________________________

• It was signed August 23, 1939 in Moscow, by Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, and Vyacheslav Molotov, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs

• The news of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, came as a great surprise to the Soviet public who were used to _________________________ that was ____________________

• Caused great concern for the ____________________________________________ countries as well

Disregard for warnings about the Nazi Invasion

• The German invasion is said to be one of the _____________________________ attacks in Military history…

• _________________________________________ about it

• Hitler saw the _____________________ as an ___________________________________

• He saw _______________as the perfect area to grow the _________________________________

• Russian spies gave several warnings to Stalin in the months leading up to the invasion

• He did not

__________________________________________________________________

• He did not become concerned even when the _________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________

• He also was not worried when Nazi spy plans were “_____________________” flying in Russian air space

Life of a Soviet Soldier

• What is missing on the Soldiers that are on the boats?____________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• What else do you notice that happens in the following scene?________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nazi Germany vs. Soviet Union

• Fight on land

• ______________________________________ June 22, 1941

• German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe struck Soviet forces across a wide front along the German-Soviet frontier

• The attack would also bring in ____________________________________________________________ ___________________________________ forces

• Axis military enjoyed ________________________________

• Pushed deep into the Soviet Union

• _________________________________________________________________________

• Winter hits the Axis troops

• _________________________________________________________________________

• Germany resumed the offensive in 1942, only to suffer a major defeat at ___________________________.

• ___________________________, in 1943, ended the Wehrmacht’s offensive ambitions.

• 1943, 1944, and 1945 saw the pace of Soviet conquest gradually accelerate, with the monumental offensives of late 1944 shattering the German armed forces.

• Fight in the Air

• Russia launched a few attacks against German cities in the first days of the war

• German Luftwaffe concentrated on ____________________________________________________________.

• Germany did launch a few large air raids against Russian cities, but did not maintain anything approaching a strategic campaign

• Fight at Sea

• Soviet and Axis forces fought in the ____________________________________________________________ for most of the conflict

• In the north, Soviet air and naval forces ________________________________________________________

• ______________________________, German and Romanian ships struggled against the Soviet Black Sea Fleet

• In the Baltic, Russian __________________________________________________________ conflict against Germany and Finland for the first three years

Soviet Victory: Weather

• Hitler’s plan called for the conquering of the Soviet Union ______________________________________ hit

• This did not happen

• When Nazi troops began their invasion it was _____________________________________________

• When their progression into the Soviet Union slowed, winter was coming, the Nazi troops had out _____________________________________________________________

• Nazi Troops were _____________________________________, low on___________, _______________ and most importantly did not have the _______________________________________________

• By the end of 1941 100,000 cases of frostbit had been reported by soldiers

• German machinery had never been tested in the unbearable cold of Russia

• The weather caused the _________________________________________________________

• Guns and artillery would be ____________________________________________

• The Soviets had ________________________________________________, guns and heavy machinery that could function perfectly in the cold

• The soviets also had ________________________________that allowed for them to continue fighting even in the ____________________________________________

Soviet Victory: Women

• Nearly ________________________________ Soviet women took up arms and served on the front lines of World War II as __________________________________________________________________________.

• Female troops eventually earned a reputation as some of the _____________________________________

_________________________________________.

• Anxious to prove their worth in combat, women regularly signed up for some of the most hazardous combat positions

Soviet Victory: Ordered to Fight

• August 1941, Stalin issues “_______________________”

• Any troops that surrendered or allowed themselves to be captures would be seen as traitors in the eyes of the Soviet government and would executed if the returned to Russia

• July 1942, “________________________”

• “________________________________________________”… cowards would be shot on sight

• Created special units that would be at the back of an army to shoot and kill any retreating Soviet troops

• They would kill as many as __________________________________ Soviet soldiers

• Around __________________ at the Battle of Stalingrad

Key Battles: The siege of Leningrad

• Lasted almost ___________________________________ and cost the lives of an estimated _______________ city residents

• It began on _______________________________ when German troops completed their encirclement of the city.

• Hunger and cold became the city's greatest enemies

• Food supplies were cut

• By November, individual rations were lowered to 1/3 of the daily amount needed by an adult.

• The ________________________________

• Froze Lake Ladoga to the city's east and created a _______________________________________ of trucks hauled a meager amount of food and supplies.

• It also provided an _______________________________ for thousands of the city's weak and elderly.

• The loss of population through death and evacuation decreased the strain on the remaining inhabitants.

• Food rations were increased and the city's situation stabilized.

• By ________________________________, the Red Army had pushed the German army beyond Leningrad allowing the city to celebrate the end of its siege.

Key Battles: Stalingrad

• _____________________________________________________________

• Key Victory of the Allies and extremely humiliating loss for the Axis power

• Specifically Hitler

• ________________________________ moves to take Stalingrad (September 3rd 1942)

• ________________________________________

• Late September Nazi Army raises flag over the middle of the city

• _____________________________________________________________________________________

• __________________________ Nazi’s are low on men and supplies

• Red Army counterattacks and surrounds the city

• ________________________________________________

• ________________________________________________

• Any hope of fighting out of the encirclement is dashed

• __________________________________ The remaining men of the Nazi 6th armies surrenders,

• _______________________ Nazi with losses in the _____________________ range

Key Battles: Kursk

• Some ___________________________, _____________ men and ______________ aircraft clashed in one of the most strategically important engagements of World War II

• An unsuccessful German ________________________ against Soviet forces in______________

• Germans had almost broken the Soviet’s down by March of 1943 but the Spring thaw happened causing the armies to halt and regroup

• German forces went on the attack in July

• The goal was to wreck the Soviet forces

• _____________________________________________________________________________________

• On July 5, the Germans struck on both sides of the salient to begin the biggest battle of World War II.

• Ninth German Army, after initial success, became entirely bogged down in its attack from the north

• The South campaign saw success but it too became bogged down

• German armor failed to gain ___________________________; instead, Soviet defenses tied the Germans into a massive battle of attrition not only on the ______________________________________________________.

• At great cost, including the loss of much of their armor, the Germans had failed,

• The operational balance on the Eastern Front had swung entirely in favor of the Soviets

War Crimes: Germany & Soviet Union

• The struggle for the Eastern Front was bigger and costlier than the fighting in the West

• but it was also ________________________________________________________

• Both sides flouted international law and practiced institutionalized acts of cruelty against ________________ ____________________________________________________________

• The Germans wiped out villages during their advance through Russia

• Jews and other minorities were regularly rounded up and shot or poisoned in mobile gassing vans.

• Other cities were __________________________________ into submission most famously Leningrad.

• The Red Army responded by giving no quarter during the Soviet push to Berlin in 1945

• hundreds of thousands of _____________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________

• According to some studies, Soviet troops may have also been responsible for the rape of some two million German women during the last days of the war

The Cost

• Soviet side, some ____________________ died in action, with another ________________________ dying in German POW camps

• The Germans lost __________________soldiers in action, and another _____________________________ to the Soviet camp system

• Around _________________________________________ are thought to have been killed.

• In part because of the horrific occupation policies of the German (and the Soviets), and in part because of a lack of food and other necessities of life.

• ***Statistics of this magnitude are inevitably imprecise, and scholars on all sides of the war continue to debate the size of military and civilian losses.***

• There is little question, however, that the war in the _____________________________________ conflict ever endured by humankind.

• There is also little question that the ___________________________________________________, causing the vast majority of German casualties during World War II as a whole.

Recap! Videos

Answer these questions

• Describe the relationship between Nazi Germany and The Soviet Union prior to 1941.

• Describe the leadership of Stalin.

• Explain the impact of the Allied victory in the Eastern Theater and how that changed the outcome of WWII.

• What helped the Soviet Union win the Eastern T heater?

• Compare and contrast the Eastern European theater to the Western European theater.