id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
concept-2691	Poteat, Emily	A firestorm of destruction: A State of the Field on Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s War on the Eastern Front	2022	13	.pdf	application/pdf	4710	186	43	Further, the struggle over the control of the panzer division between the Oberkommando des Heeres and Hitler needs to be reevaluated in the scholarship, as this event is typically treated as just another part of a failing strategic plan in Operation Barbarossa.50 By readdressing this hole in the historiography, scholars would gain another dimension to the dispute between Hitler and the OKH, while perhaps developing a deeper narrative to the failure of Operation Barbarossa. “A firestorm of destruction:” A State of the Field on Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s War on the Eastern Front Emily Alesia Poteat History On June 22, 1941 Operation Barbarossa shattered the façade of a German-Russian alliance when a 3.3 million-strong German invasion force flooded across the Soviet Union’s border.1 Immediately, the German Luftwaffe moved on key targets, raining explosives down on border defenses, bridges, command posts, power stations, and the like.2 With immediate successes, Operation Barbarossa appeared to be moving in the right direction for the Third Reich; however, the military operation was fraught with Hitler’s indecisive and erratic military planning.3 Hitler expected Operation Barbarossa to aid in his attempt to establish Germany as a great world power, and this was to be achieved through his policy of Lebensraum (living space).4 What resulted from this policy of “living space” was some of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War, and some of the greatest crimes of the war occurring in Hitler’s forces’ movement across the eastern front.5 Furthermore, Operation Barbarossa decisively assured Hitler and the Third Reich’s defeat early in the summer of 1941, and was a decisive turning point in World War II.	cache/concept-2691.pdf	txt/concept-2691.txt