The Ultimate Operation Barbarossa Quiz | European War

Answer: Frederick

Frederick Barbarossa is best known for his campaigns in Northern Italy against the Papacy and his involvement in the Third Crusade. However, on the way to Palestine for the Third Crusade, he drowned swimming in the river, exhausted from marching through Turkey and his army never reached the Holy Land.

Fun Fact: Barbarossa means "Red Beard" in Italian.

Answer: December 18, 1940

Known as Fuhrer Directive 21, the plan had been set for May 15th, but fighting in the Balkans and Crete had delayed the attack to postpone till June 22nd.

The Soviet Union had been warned from various sources of the date of the attack, but Stalin refused to believe these reports, dismissing them as attempts to provoke the USSR.

Answer: True

"Dortmund" was radioed to front line on the night of June 21st. The operation began a few hours later, before dawn broke on June 22nd.

Answer: Brest

Brest is in Belarus on the modern border with Poland. Although the fort itself fell in a week, the Soviet defenders held out for a month in the fort's sewers until being overwhelmed. (Some accounts report the Soviets holding out as late as November).

Answer: 4,500

In the four Panzer Groups alone, the Germans could muster around 3,500 armored vehicles, though at least 40% were obsolete Panzer I's and Panzer II's. An additional 1,000 vehicles were allocated to other units in the Axis, but were used mostly as infantry support, as most were self-propelled guns.

Answer: Sevastopol

The Sevastopol airbase was well defended with the help of the anti-aircraft batteries, forts, and the nearby warships. Three weeks after the invasion, Soviet bombers from Sevastopol and other parts of the Crimea bombed the Romanian oil refineries. This prompted Hitler to allow Army Group South to march into the Crimean peninsula, contrary to the original Barbarossa plan.

Answer: Heinz Guderian

Guderian believed that if the Panzer Groups were diverted elsewhere on the front, the army would not have enough time to seize Moscow before the harsh Russian winter set in. Hitler's counter-argument was that the stiff resistance in Ukraine would expose Army Group Center's southern flank should it continue its assault on Moscow. Hitler had also argued that if he captured Ukraine, he would control at least half of the Soviet Union's grain production.

Answer: It is the largest military encirclement in history

The encirclement of Kiev trapped no fewer than 500,000 Soviet soldiers when the 1st and 2nd Panzer Groups met on September 16th at Lokhvitsa. The pocket dwarfed those of Minsk (250,000 soldiers) and Uman (100,000 men).

Answer: Operation Typhoon

Operation Taifun (Typhoon) began on October 2, 1941, aimed at outflanking Moscow with three Panzer Groups. Although the Germans inflicted heavy casualties within two weeks (especially at Bryansk and Vyazma), it took too long to remove encircled pockets, and the dreaded October rains began to fall earlier than expected, turning the terrain to mud.

By the time the Operation was called off in December, Army Group Center had as few as 40 tanks left from an estimated 1,000 at the beginning of the operation.

After Typhoon failed, the dream of defeating the Soviet Union swiftly had ended, and the tide began to turn against Nazi Germany, which was now faced with the prospect of fighting a long war of attrition - something that Germany was not in a good position to do.

Answer: 4.5 million

After Operation Barbarossa was implemented, the world witnessed the beginning on the greatest and bloodiest military campaign in history, covering 3½ years, 1,200 square miles of territory, and around 14 million military and civilian deaths.