Link to the Lesson

Adolf Hitler planned the war with the Soviet Union since 1940. At that time, a plan to attack the USSR was created and its code name was „Barbarossa”Barbarossa Plan„Barbarossa”. Its implementation was supposed to create a new „living space” (LebensraumLebensraumLebensraum) for the Germans in the vast areas to the Urals. Initially, the war against the USSR was intended to break out in the spring of 1941, but the German intervention in the Balkans postponed this term to June 22, 1941.

An unexpected attack was a complete surprise for the USSR. The OffensiveOffensiveOffensive of the German forces crashed the unprepared Red Army and burst into the country for several hundred kilometres, capturing thousands of soldiers. In September the German frontFrontfront reached Leningrad. Its siege lasted nearly three years. The Germans moving at a rapid pace reached Moscow in mid‑November. They did not manage to conquer it, because of the winter and unfavourable weather conditions. The enormous resistance and the return of the Soviet army from the Far East made it possible to counter‑attack and push the enemy away from the capital.

The Blitzkrieg assumed by the Barbarossa planBarbarossa planthe Barbarossa plan failed. In the spring of 1942 the next stage of the war began. Another German offensiveOffensiveoffensive started, and its aim was to take over the strategic areas of the Caucasus. The German army was detained at Stalingrad. The battle lasted for over half a year (July 1942‑February 1943), claimed nearly a million victims on both sides, and ended up with the defeat of the German army. This allowed the Russians to move to a counter‑offensive and to expel the Third Reich army to Ukraine. In attempting to regain the initiative, the German command made another attempt to break out the frontFrontfront. Their strike near Kursk (summer 1943) went down in history as one of the greatest armoured battles. The Germans suffered huge losses (about 500,000 soldiers were killed and over 2,500 tanks and guns were destroyed), and began a retreat on the whole line of the frontFrontfront.

The victory on the Kursk Arc initiated the Soviet attack. In the following months, the Red Army and the allied forces liberated further areas. In March 1944 they entered the lands of the pre‑war Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and then, other Central and Eastern European countries. In January 1945, the last stage of the fights began, in which the western Polish and Czechoslovak lands were freed, and the Odra was crossed. On May 2, 1945, the Red Army seized Berlin, where on the night of 8 to 9 May 1945, in the headquarters of Marshal Gieorgija Zhukov, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the capitulationcapitulationcapitulation of Germany.. Find information about them.

Task 2

It was not without significance that the Russians recovered from the shock after being offered assistance by the USA and Great Britain and concluding relevant agreements with these powers. However, it must be remembered that the entire Soviet industry was turned into the tracks of the war economy. On the eastern front rocket batteries mounted on the chassis of trucks known as Katyusha became famous. Find out more about this weapon.

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Fotografia czarno-biała przedstawiająca Radziecką Katiuszę wystrzeliwującą rakietę. Katiusza to szynowa wyrzutnia rakietowa zamontowana na podwoziu ciężarówki.

Task 3

Wyjaśnij znaczenie działań na froncie niemiecko - radzieckim prowadzonych w latach 1942‑1943.

Wyjaśnij znaczenie działań na froncie niemiecko - radzieckim prowadzonych w latach 1942‑1943.

On the basis of the map, set up a calendar of war operations on the Eastern Front with a short commentary in sequence.

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Mapa przedstawiająca działania wojenne podczas II wojny światowej.

Keywords

USSR, the Third Reich, the Second World War, aggression, Barbarossa

Glossary