The Eastern Front
Patriotic 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 numbersofrank-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 ofWorld 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 Theater?
•Compare and contrast the Eastern European theater to the Western European theater.