096a - Operation Barbarossa - Biggest Land Invasion in History - WW2 - June 22 1941

by Panzer
Yeah?
Today,
June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa begins.
This Operation is the German invasion of the Soviet Union, and they are invading with the
largest invasion force in the history of warfare.
I'm Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Our most recent regular weekly episode came out just two days ago, so today I’m only
going to cover some events from June 21st and the morning of June 22nd.
In the early morning of the 21st, a submarine commander in the Soviet Red Navy reports the
sighting of a convoy of 32 German troop transports at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland.
That evening, General Maksim Purkayev phones Red Army Chief of Staff Georgy Zhukov to tell
him that a German Sergeant-Major has come to the Soviet border guards and is telling
them that the German troops are at their jumping off areas and they will attack in the morning.
That deserting soldier’s name, by the way, is Alfred Liskof, a dedicated communist who
swims across the Bug River to warn the Soviets.
Well, Purkayev calls Zhukov, and he calls Josef Stalin and then Stalin and Zhukov meet
Defense Commissar Semyon Timoshenko at the Kremlin.
Stalin says that the Germans may have sent this “turncoat” to provoke a conflict.
Timoshenko nixes this and tells Joe that the Germans have also cut the telephone lines
into the Soviet Union, and they really need to alert all their troops in the border districts.
Stalin says that it’s too early for that, but does agree to a directive to the Military
Councils in the border districts warning them that a sudden German attack might happen,
but he adds that they should not be incited by any provocations made by the Germans.
That directive goes out just after midnight.
What else is going on that night?
A few stories from that night courtesy of Martin Gilbert.
Adolf Hitler is with Albert Speer and Erich Raeder.
After dinner he speaks of his plans for building a German naval base near Trondheim, Norway-
the biggest dockyards in the Reich!
And they would build a city there too for 250,000 Germans to live in.
Hitler puts on the gramophone and plays his guests Franz Liszt’s “les Preludes”,
telling them they should get used to hearing it, because it’s going to be the victory
fanfare for Barbarossa.
He also talks of his plans for building huge monumental buildings in Berlin and other German
cities- those plans, he said, are now sealed in blood.
Because Russia will be the source of granite and marble in any quantities they should want.
At Novgorod-Volynsk, Soviet General Konstantin Rokossovsky is guest of honor at a concert
at his HQ, and when he gets the Moscow Directive, he orders his commanders to go to their units….
after the concert.