Raspoutitsa
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspoutitsa
Dimanche le 22 juin 1941 les généraux de Hitler lancent l’opération Barbarossa , l’invasion militaire de l’Union soviétique. Le jour suivant mon grand-père rentre du travail au ministère de l’Aviation à #Wilhelmstraße et déclare : La guerre est perdue. Désormais l’enjeu est de survivre.
Pourtant
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op%C3%A9ration_Barbarossa#L'attaque_initiale
Cette attaque commence sans déclaration de guerre à 3 h 30 (par 2770 avions ) et vise 66 aérodromes soviétiques. Elle a des résultats désastreux pour l’Armée rouge, puisqu’elle donne à la Luftwaffe la maîtrise absolue du ciel soviétique pendant plusieurs semaines.
Ce qui m’a toujours étonné c’est l’aveuglement des états-majors alors que la folie de l’opération était évidente pour chacun maîtrisant les opérations mathématiques de base. La météo russe avait déjà fait échouer Napoléon 130 ans auparavant. Pourtant l’empereur avait arrangé des coalitions avec la majorité des pays d’Europe contrairement à l’Allemagne nazie qui était en guerre contre la quasi totalité de ses voisins.
The Treachery of the Climate : How German Meteorological Errors and the Rasputitsa Helped Defeat Hitler‘s Army at Moscow
▻https://www.tcc.fl.edu/media/divisions/library/citation-guide/turabianx2fchicago/Turabian-Sample-2012-Footnotes_ADA.pdf
A German infantryman walks toward the body of a killed Soviet soldier and a burning BT-7 light tank in the southern Soviet Union in in 1941, during the early days of Operation Barbarossa.
... on June 22, 1941, Hitler ordered his armies to mount Operation Barbarossa, a mammoth invasion of the Soviet Union:thelast major power incontinental Europe capable of resisting the Nazis.
...
Hitler blamed his generals for the failure of Operations Barbarossa and Typhoon and immediately sacked several dozen top commanders, but the Führer and his meteorologists bore the greater responsibility for the German defeat. More than any other factor, however, it was the Rasputitsa that halted the Moscow Blitzkrieg in its tracks and sabotaged the Germans‘ resupply effort. As Guderian observed that fateful fall, ―We have seriously underestimated the Russians, the extent of the country and the treachery of the climate. This is the revenge of reality.― By impeding the Nazi plan to decisively defeat the Red army before the onset of winter, the Russian Rasputitsap layed a critical role in the Nazis‘ ultimate defeat.
The Crucial Role of the Operational Artist : A Case Study of Operation Barbarossa
▻https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1039919.pdf
Operation Barbarossa helps one to understand that tactical success cannot prevent strategic failure if the responsible military leader, the operational artist, is not able to exercise operational art as the crucial bridge between tactical actions and the overall policy aim. The analysis of the planning and the execution phases of Operation Barbarossa is therefore relevant because it reveals the crucial function of the operational artist at the intersection of political aims and military actions and thereby calls for a new emphasis within today’s doctrinal understanding of operational art.
Effects of Climate on Combat in European Russia
▻http://www.allworldwars.com/Effects-of-Climate-on-Combat-in-European-Russia.html
This study was prepared by a committee of former German generals and general staff officers under the supervision of the Historical Division, EUCOM. The material, based on the personal experiences of the principal author and his associates, was written largely from memory, with some assistance from diaries, earlier studies, and documents. All the German officers involved had extensive experience on the Eastern Front during the period 1941-45. The principal author, for example [Raus], commanded in succession a panzer division, a panzer army, and an army group.