Do Now: Friday 4/26/13

•“Weighing his Options”

•Read and compare the offers that Stalin had to choose from.

•Answer the corresponding questions.

Siege of Leningrad 1941

• Operation Barbarossa June 22, 1941• LARGEST German military operation of WWII• GOALS:

• Destruction of Soviet military force• Permanent elimination of Communism• Seizure of prime land within Soviet borders (lebensraum)

• Annihilation of Communists & Jews• Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads)

• Rid those deemed to be dangerous of long-term German rule of Soviet territory

• Soviets refused warnings of German troop buildup along their western borders

Siege of Leningrad 1941

Fail to collapse as Germans anticipatedSoviets suffered catastrophic losses in first 6 weeks

Germans reach Leningrad late September 1941Reach outskirts of Moscow early DecemberEXPECTED fast Soviet surrender

Germans = exhaustedNOT PREPARED FOR WINTER

Not enough food, supplies, medicineAdvanced faster than their supply lines

December 6, 1941 massive Soviet counter attackDrove Germans back from Moscow in panic

Winter of 1942-43

• Battle for Stalingrad in summer 1942 TURNINGPOINT

• Germans halted at Stalingrad on Volta River mid-November 1942

• Encircled German troops (220,000 soldiers)• February 1943 – Germany’s surviving troops (91,000) surrendered

• By 1944 Soviets pushed Germans back to East Prussia

• By January 1945 banks of the Oder in eastern Germany