The Great Purge of the Soviet Union was an unprecedented "purge campaign" in the Soviet Union on the eve of World War II. The campaign spread throughout all areas of the Soviet government, especially the Soviet army suffered huge losses, and from the second half of 1937 to 1938, a total of 35,000 generals of the Soviet army were persecuted.
Old photographs of the Great Purge of the USSR
Hitler, who was far away in Germany, learned that a large number of excellent military commanders of the Soviet army had been persecuted, and he was ecstatic and laughed strangely at the same time!
So why did Hitler, the war maniac, laugh strangely?
Most people will say that it was because the Soviet command system was persecuted, which was very beneficial to Hitler's future invasion of the Soviet Union!
In fact, this answer is only half correct, because the reason for the persecution of military generals in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge is related to the Gestapo's "decapitation operation"!
How powerful was Hitler's "decapitation operation"? Let's look at a set of data: from 1937 to 1938, during the Great Purge of the Soviet Union, more than 30,000 outstanding Soviet generals were purged, including 3 of the 5 marshals, 14 of the 16 commanders of the military districts, 60 of the 67 corps commanders, and 136 of the 199 division commanders.
From this set of astonishing data, it can be seen that the command system of the Soviet Red Army was almost completely destroyed, which was one of the main reasons for the gradual defeat and retreat of the Soviet army after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war.
Five marshals before the Great Purge of the USSR
Therefore, hitler's "decapitation operation" planned by Hitler is too powerful, and the insidious Hitler directed a classic counter-plot!
So, how exactly was Hitler's "beheading operation" planned and implemented?
First, Hitler planned the "beheading operation"
At the end of 1936, Hitler was secretly preparing a surprising plan to suppress the Soviet Union.
On Christmas Eve of that year, heydrich, the leader of the Nazi Gestapo, secretly arrived at Hitler's official residence.
Hitler and Heydrich secretly discussed a surprising plan in their offices to disrupt the internal affairs of the Soviet Union and deal a fatal blow to the Soviet army chain of command.
Hitler plots "Operation Decapitation"
At first, this seemingly impossible plan made Heydrich feel helpless, but then Hitler mentioned a person and had Stalin, the soviet leader who was trying to maintain his dominance, contradict this person, thus triggering a great purge within the Soviet army!
Hitler Hitler was Tukhachevsky, one of the five Marshals of the Soviet Red Army, who asked Heinrich to falsify evidence that Soviet Marshal Tukhachevsky had rebelled and triggered Stalin's purge of the army.
Old photograph of Marshal Tukhachevsky of the Red Army of the Soviet Union
Hitler's plan, which hitler personally planned and directed, was the "decapitation operation" created by the historical Gestapo leader Heinrich.
My point here is that after hitler, the war maniac, successfully ascended to power, prepared to provoke a world war, used intrigue and trickery to tie Germany to the chariot again, and prepared to use counter-tactics to deal an unprecedented blow to the command system of the Soviet army! Hitler's "decapitation operation" was too powerful! As a result, more than 30,000 Soviet generals were purged!
Second, the elaborate "decapitation operation"
After Heinrich left Hitler's residence, he began to prepare for the "decapitation operation" with all his might.
Gestapo leader Heinrich. Maitreya
Heinrich asked his Gestapos to find a way to get the signed letters and approvals of Marshal Tukhachevsky of the Red Army.
Heinrich then invited a group of experts to begin a tense and orderly production of perjury in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters.
Through letters and approvals from Marshal Tukhachevsky of the Soviet Red Army, these Nazi experts forged a large amount of evidence in Tukhachevsky's tone and handwriting that the Soviet marshal was preparing to rebel.
Nazi experts perjury
When all is well, Heinrich is ready to start this amazing conspiracy!
Finally, a fatal blow
In 1937, Operation Decapitation began to be carried out in secret, and Nazi spies began to fire smoke bombs in the Soviet Union and other European countries.
Intentionally, unintentionally, it was revealed that the Soviet Union was going to have a major earthquake in the political arena, and then the German spies created an inadvertent incident to make the Soviet high-level aware of the rumors that the Soviet Red Army Marshal Tukhachevsky was going to rebel.
Under the covert operation of Nazi spies, rumors finally reached the ears of Stalin, the supreme ruler of the Soviet Union.
Coupled with the forged documents that Heinrich had the Gestapo deliberately leak, they fell into the hands of the Soviet high command!
The Great Purge of the Soviet Army
As a result, the Soviet top brass finally intervened, the Marshal of the Soviet Red Army Tukhachevsky was demoted, and then a great purge campaign against the Soviet military began!
Hitler's "decapitation operation" shook the foundations of the Soviet army, so Hitler laughed bizarrely! This eventually led to the collapse of a million Soviet troops after the outbreak of the Soviet-German War!
It is worth mentioning that after the outbreak of the war, Stalin regretted the great purge within the army at the supreme military conference of the Soviet Army, and became fooled by the Germans!
Old photograph of Stalin
The above is the context of Hitler's "decapitation operation", here I think that the war maniac Hitler's counter-plan is too powerful, without a single shot, so that the Soviet Red Army lost a large number of army command personnel, on the other hand, it can also be seen that Hitler used all kinds of conspiracies and tricks in order to start the war.