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Operation Barbarossa

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Operation Barbarossa   >   Weather

   
 

Weather in Operation Barbarossa


German troops advancing through snow
Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia faced considerably obstacles quite apart from Russian resistance and the huge distances involved.
  • Twice a year, in Spring and Autumn, there was a mud season known as rasputitsa: In Spring, melting snow releases huge amounts of water. In Autumn, the water comes from heavy rains. In both periods, rivers become swollen and more difficult to cross, large flatlands become muddy and marshy, and unpaved roads (and there were very few paved roads in Russia in 1941) become virtually impassable. In short, the rasputitsa slows military advances, and offers considerable advantages to the defender.

    In the case of Operation Barbarossa, the late arrival of the Spring rasputitsa was one of the factors which caused the campaign to start relatively late, on June 22nd. This of course left the Germans with less time to complete their invasion. Additonally, the Autumn rasputitsa hit the campaign at crucial moment, greatly delaying the German attack on Moscow (which the Germans themselves had already delayed by attacking Kiev).

  • Russia is well-known for its harsh Winters, and the Germans were well aware of this before the invasion. For this reason, they hoped to complete their invasion before the onset of Winter. In the event however, they failed to do so, and the final stages of Operation Typhoon, and the Soviet counteroffensive took place in some of the severest Winter weather imaginable. The German difficulties were exacerbated by the fact that the Winter of 1941-1942 was one of the harshest Russian Winters ever recorded.




 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
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