Why Operation Barbarossa Ultimately Failed
It achieved none of its goals
Operation Barbarossa was the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was named for Emperor Fredrick Barbarossa, and the goal was to knock the Soviet Union out of the war as quickly as possible. Operation Barbarossa has gone down as one of the gravest military miscalculations in history. The operation was a rollercoaster with grand initial success and then ultimate failure. But why did Germany’s grand plan fail? How did they miscalculate so badly?
Operation Barbarossa was too ambitious in its goals and it left the Germans too far afield when the Soviet Union failed to surrender in a timely manner.
Erroneous Assessment of Russia’s Fighting Spirit
The Germans erroneously believed that the Soviet Union would capitulate quickly. It is easy to look back and say that this was a foolish thought. But the Germans were working from recent and historical experience. Poland and France had both capitulated within a matter of weeks after suffering a large number of casualties. In World War I, the Russian Empire collapsed after a series of defeats on the Eastern Front of that conflict. There was good reason to believe that the Soviet Union would throw in the towel just like Poland, France, and the Russian Empire before them.
