Along a 1,350-mile border stretching from the
Baltic Sea to the
Black Sea, German, Romanian and Italian forces consisting of 3,300 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces, 2,770 aircraft and three million men began the assault at approx. 3:30 am (Russian time) on 22 June 1941 with an unprecedented artillery barrage. The immediate results for the Soviet Union were devastating.
"Her losses, by mid-July, had reached staggering proportions. Of her air force, over 3,000 planes had been destroyed, most within the first five days, and that was a conservative figure ... Army Group Centre was able to show that it had taken 300,000 prisoners, 2,500 tanks and 1,400 guns, in the process virtually destroying four Soviet Armies. In the battle of the Smolensk pocket ... Army Group Centre was to take another 310,000 prisoners, 3,200 tanks and 3,100 guns."
— John Keegan, Barbarossa: Invasion of Russia 1941 (1970)
Within a month, one high-level Soviet general had been executed by his own government for "cowardice" and "criminal incompetence."
Historians consider Barbarossa to have ended on December 5, 1941 at the conclusion of
Operation Typhoon.
Leningrad Corridor (East Prussia and Baltic States)
Stavka Glavnogo Komandovaniya, or "Main Command of the Armed
Forces of the USSR", was a traditional council of high military and political
officers re-established by
Stalin the day after Barbarossa began.
The
Romanian Air Force was considered weak by the OKL, and therefore unlikely to play a great role in the ground fighting. Far more attention was given by the OKW to training and preparing the
Romanian Army. Hitler, on 18 June 1941, declared that the primary mission of the Romanian air arm was to defend Romania and the Romanian oilfields. Only when those forces were sufficient, could they divert the remaining forces to ground support operations for Barbarossa. On 21 June 1941, it possessed a balanced fleet of 53 Squadrons; 11 bomber (five modern), 17 fighter (nine modern), 15 reconnaissance, six liaison, two
flying boat, one transport and one air ambulance unit. On the 22 June, there was 160 fighters and 82 bombers in service. Total strength amounted to 380 aircraft. Only 30 of the Romanian fighters were Bf 109s, of the E model.[13] However, this small force did not remain inferior in numbers for along. Despite a weak inter-war economy, the aircraft industry was run very efficiently, and they were able to produce some very capable aircraft; such as the
IAR 37 and
IAR 39. Unlike the army that stagnated, it was able to garner the cream of the Romanian officer corps. With the right support, organisation and modern equipment, it was able to grow in number and match its enemies in quality. In air defence and ground support operations it performed well, but failed in strategic bomber and naval operations owing to a lack of doctrine.[14] Within a few weeks of Barbarossa beginning, it was able to put up 1,061 aircraft, including 400 trainers.[15] The modern combat aircraft were focused into one unified Air Combat Command, or GAL (Gruparea Aeriana Lupta), while the obsolete types were given the
Romanian Fourth Army, operating under the German
Army Group South.[16]
Soviet
Organisation
Since 1935, Soviet military aviation (
Voyenno-Vozdushnyye Sily or VVS) had been divided between the army (VVS KA) and the navy (VVS VMF). The VVS KA had been split into four different organisations owing to faulty conclusions drawn from the
Winter War. Owing to a lack of coordination in close support operations with the
Red Army, the entire VVS KA was subordinated to the field armies. The existence of too many different branches under separate commands in Soviet air power caused coordination problems (made worse by Axis bombing during Barbarossa). Most Soviet bomber units could not coordinate with fighter aviation, consequently they did not have fighter escort for long periods.[17]
The total strength of the VVS amounted to 61 divisions; 18 fighter, nine bomber and 34 mixed. Five brigades were also included.
The Front Air Forces were divided into Districts (later 'Fronts') and the home defence, the PVO. This element had 40.5 per cent of the Soviet air strength. The Army Air Forces comprised 43.7 per cent of the VVS' strength. The liaison squadrons were a collection of individual squadrons assigned to different army corps of the ground army (KAE). They comprised only 2.3 per cent.[17]
^Relieved by Hitler in December; later commanded all ground forces in the West.
^Died 17 January 1942 following crash of medical evacuation aircraft at Lemberg; a committed anti-Semite, he was posthumously implicated by the
Nuremberg Trials.
^ name="Osprey Publishing">Operation Barbarossa 1941 (1): Army Group South (Campaign) (v. 1)
Robert Kirchubel. Osprey Publishing. 2003. p. 31.
ISBN978-1-84176-697-3.
Plocher, Hermann (1968). The German Air Force versus Russia, 1941. Washington, DC: United States Air Force Studies.
ISBN978-0-405-00044-7.
Plocher, Hermann (1968). The German Air Force versus Russia, 1942. Washington, DC: United States Air Force Studies.
ISBN978-0-405-00045-4.
Statiev, Alexander (Oct 2002). "Antonescu's Eagles against Stalin's Falcons: The Romanian Air Force, 1920-1941". The Journal of Military History. 66 (4): 1085–1113.