USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa; Russian: , romanized: Operatsiya Barbarossa) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War.

Detailed explanation-2: -Barbarossa was the largest military ground invasion in history, with some 3.8 million troops, thousands of tanks and aircraft, and more than half a million horses advancing across the entirety of Eastern Europe, from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea.

Detailed explanation-3: -In ten years’ time, the plan effectively called for the extermination, expulsion, Germanization or enslavement of most or all East and West Slavs living behind the front lines of East-Central Europe. The “Small Plan” was to be put into practice as the Germans conquered the areas to the east of their pre-war borders.

Detailed explanation-4: -Schlieffen wished to emulate Hannibal by provoking an Entscheidungsschlacht (“decisive battle”), using a massive force, in a single act, to bring a swift and conclusive victory. He decided that France was the enemy to be defeated first, with Russia held off until the French were annihilated.