Operational Logic And Identifying Soviet Operational Centers Of Gravity During Operation Barbarossa, 1941 by Major David J. Bongi

Author:Major David J. Bongi [Bongi, Major David J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786254047
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Verdun Press
Published: 2015-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

Operational Plans

The final plan for Operation Barbarossa Used a strategy of annihilation to defeat “Soviet Russia in a lightning campaign.”{51}. The original plan contained four phases. During the first phase, as outlined in Directive 21, Operation Barbarossa:

“the bulk of the Russian Army stationed in western Russia is to be destroyed in a series of daring operations spearheaded by armored thrusts. The organized withdrawal of intact units into the vastness of interior Russia must be prevented.”{52}

To do this, the German Army would destroy the bulk of the enemy in western Russia using a series of main effort penetrations by infantry and accompanied by infantry frontal attacks. The Germans would exploit these breakthroughs with armored forces, driving deeply into the enemy rear area enveloping enemy forces now pinned in their positions by infantry, thus forcing the enemy to fight in an inverted front. In this way, the Soviet forces would face destruction through a series of cauldron battles—the decisive maneuver of double envelopment ending with the annihilation.

In support of the campaign. Army Group North planned to attack towards Leningrad from East Prussia. This attack would cut off the enemy in the Baltic area and wedge them against the Baltic Sea. Army Group Center, advancing from northern German-occupied Poland, planned to breakthrough Russian defenses and attack in the direction of Minsk, encircling enemy forces and destroying them between the border and Minsk. The attack would continue towards Smolensk where a strong portion of Army Group Center’s mobile strength would support Army Group North destroying enemy forces in the Baltic and Leningrad area.{53} These two Army Groups comprised the German main effort for the invasion. Army Group South would advance from southern Poland and attack in the direction of Kiev toward the great bend in the Dnepr River. Its mission was to envelop and then destroy Soviet forces in Galicia and the western Ukraine.{54} The second phase of the campaign called for a fast pursuit. German forces would attack to a line that generally ran along the Volga River extending northward toward Archangel. this would place Soviet air power out of range and thus incapable of attacking German territory.

The mission of the German Air Force was to paralyze the enemy air force and to support the Army’s operations at the points of main effort. In particular, the Luftwaffe would support Army Group Center and along the north wing of Army Group South. The Navy’s focus was in the Baltic. There, it would defeat the Soviet Navy and prevent enemy forces from escaping prior to the capture of Leningrad.{55}

The third phase focused on the envelopment of remaining Soviet Forces in the vicinity of Moscow and the final phase was a thrust to the Volga and the Caucuses.

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