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Why did Hitler’s imperial dreams take Stalin by surprise?

15 May 2021

9:00 AM

15 May 2021

9:00 AM

Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War Jonathan Dimbleby

Viking, pp.620, 25

Barbarossa: And the Bloodiest War in History Stewart Binns

Wildfire, pp.400, 20

The most extraordinary thing, still, about Operation Barbarossa is the complete surprise the Wehrmacht achieved. In the early hours of 22 June 1941 the largest invasion force in history, ultimately some three million men, struck at the Soviet Union on a front of nearly 2,000 miles. When Stalin was woken with the news, he wouldn’t believe it.

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