During World War II, Hitler used a series of trajectories to cause Stalin to seriously misjudge the situation, resulting in the loss of up to 770,000 Soviet troops, which became the last pain point in his life.
Why, then, did Stalin misjudge? Was the Soviet Union really unprepared for war? How did Hitler deceive Stalin? In fact, Germany made the Soviet Union its main target from the outset.
As early as 1917, Hitler had publicly stated that the Russians were worth waiting for in his eyes, and that the Germans should expand in the country, acquire new territories, and treat the local people as slaves. But after Hitler came to power, in the face of this country that once made Napoleon collapse into the sand, he thought that if he rushed to attack, he would inevitably return home, so. Decided to deceive Stalin and show him a Germany that sincerely stood on the united front with the Soviet Union, and after the elimination of Britain, France and other countries, he would concentrate on attacking the Soviet Union. Thus, Hitler deceived Stalin twice.
For the first time, Hitler intended to convince Stalin that Germany was not hostile to the Soviet Union. So in the late 1930s, when the whole world was shrouded in the shadow of war, the Soviet Union and Germany experienced a brief honeymoon period. In May 1939, Germany took the initiative to show its overtures to the Soviet Union in the hope of making an initial test of the resumption of economic talks. It was at this time that Japan provoked the Nomonhan Incident in the Far East and launched an offensive against the Soviet Union, while Germany and Japan were negotiating a military alliance, which put the Soviet Union in danger of being attacked on its backs. Therefore, Stalin decided to accept Germany and signed a Soviet-German non-aggression pact with Germany in August 1939. But Stalin did not believe this at this time. Words were able to withstand the german torrent of steel and still actively prepare for war, so Hitler decided to increase the deception and make Stalin completely believe that they were not hostile. As a sign of friendship and sincerity, Germany signed an economic and trade loan agreement with the Soviet Union, providing the Soviet side with the most modern industrial equipment and a loan of up to 200 million US dollars. Hitler also ordered his foreign ministers to continue to establish good relations with the Soviet Union, and repeatedly stated on many occasions that Germany would not move east, let alone form an adversarial relationship with the Soviet Union. Not only that, but when Germany launched a blitzkrieg against Poland a few days later, it also invited the Soviet Union to complete the partition and occupation of Poland. In addition, at the end of 1939, due to the outbreak of the Soviet-Finnish War, the Soviet Union suffered strong condemnation from Britain, France and the United States, and suffered unprecedented diplomatic isolation. But at this time, Germany stepped forward to support the Soviet Union internationally, and in 1940 supported the integration of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and parts of Romania into the Soviet Union, increasing the Soviet Union's national territory by 460,000 square kilometers and increasing its population by more than 22 million. Germany's frequent overtures led Stalin to make a wrong judgment, Germany was not hostile to the Soviet Union, and strengthened cooperation with Germany, which also had disastrous consequences. In February 1940, the Soviet Union signed a trade agreement, in addition to selling raw materials such as grain, oil and cotton to Germany, the Soviet Union also provided copper, nickel, tin, cobalt and other non-ferrous metals, and even promised Germany to reduce the freight cost of the Trans-Siberian Railway by half, and was willing to sacrifice its own interests to buy goods for Germany to the world.
According to statistics, during the German war against Britain and France, the Soviet Union shipped a total of 1 million tons of grain, 900,000 tons of oil, and a large amount of wood and non-ferrous metals to Germany. Trade between the two countries soared from 61 million marks in 1939 to 607 million marks in 1940, and these supplies. After processing, they were all thrown into The Territory of England and France in another way. It can be said that in the early days of the war, the soviet union's materials provided Germany with the impetus to continue to launch a war of aggression, causing great harm. However, what the Soviet Union never expected was that France, which claimed to be Europe's first-class military power, actually raised the white flag after resisting for less than two months, and Britain was also blown up by German bombs. Only by fighting was Germany able to free up its hands and concentrate on the Soviet Union. Beginning on 25 May 1941, Nazi Germany began to send troops in large quantities to the east, and in less than a month 4 million German troops, 3,350 tanks, 7,200 artillery pieces and nearly 2,000 aircraft arrived in the former Poland and Czechoslovakia, near the Soviet border. Faced with a large German army, Stalin finally realized that the peace in Germany was only an illusion, and he was deceived, so he instructed the Soviet Union. Ask the Germans, what do you really want to do? But what he never expected was that Hitler was going to deceive him again. This time, Hitler intended to convince Stalin that Germany would not send troops in 1941.
In order to deceive Stalin, Hitler once again used his masterful deception. At his behest, the Intelligence Service of the German General Staff orchestrated and spread many rumors, interpreting the Eastern Jin Dynasty of the German army as the final preparation for a covert invasion of Britain, taking the largest pretense ever. In addition, Hitler carefully told Stalin that Germany not only wanted to attack the British mainland, but also intended to receive an attack from the Soviet Union on India, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Germany's dizzying intelligence made the Soviets suspicious and Stalin deeply entangled. On the one hand, he did not believe in Hitler's intention to attack Britain or even India's rhetoric, but on the other hand, he did not want the war to come early because of the fire with Germany, so Stalin decided to make a desperate bet and choose one of the possibilities of peace and war. But alas, he chose the wrong answer. On June 14, 1941, the Soviet Union issued a solemn statement refuting the idea that the Soviet-German war was about to erupt, and expressing its intention to severely condemn rumor-mongers and rumor-mongers. Until the night before the outbreak of the war, Stalin honestly fulfilled the Soviet-German brokerage contract and delivered a large number of strategic materials to Germany. But in fact, the German ministries were basically ready, and according to the Barbarossa plan drawn up before the war, it was decided to launch a full-scale offensive against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
In this operation, the German invasion forces will be divided into three army groups, each capturing specific areas and large cities. Army Group North, led by Marshal Loeb, had 29 divisions, with the goal of capturing and destroying the spiritual symbol of the Soviets. Army Group Center in Leningrad was led by Marshal Bork with the goal of attacking the Soviet capital Moscow, and Army Group South, led by Marshal Lundelstedt, with the goal of attacking Kiev, the agricultural heart of the Soviet Union, and into the oil-rich Caucasus. Therefore, just when Stalin was wishfully believing that the Soviets and Germans would continue to live in peace, the German army had gathered 5.5 million soldiers, 47,200 artillery, 4,300 tanks and 2,000 aircraft on the Soviet-German border, and only waited for the opportunity to attack with thunderous speed and give the Soviets a final blow. In fact, it was not until the last moments before the outbreak of the war that Stalin learned of the real intentions of the German army. On the night of June 21, a peace-loving German soldier risked being shot across the border and surrendered to Soviet border guards, bringing shocking news to the Soviets.
The Germans would launch an offensive in the early hours of the next day, and Zhukov, chief of the Soviet general staff, soon learned of the news and immediately asked to see Stalin. Until this time, however, Stalin still had a fluke mentality, and Zhukov repeatedly confirmed whether this defector from Germany was fake news passed by the Germans in order to provoke conflict, and finally decided to sign the first battle order after others repeatedly determined the authenticity of the news. But at this point the German attack was about to begin. In the early morning of June 22, 1941, millions of German troops poured into the Soviet Union like a tidal wave, and the tragic Soviet-German war officially began. According to Zhukov's post-war recollections, when he heard that Germany had declared war, Stalin turned pale and sat down for a long time. He finally realized that he had fallen into Hitler's trap. And because of Stalin's strategic misjudgment, the Soviet front, the soldiers were unprepared. Faced with the steel torrent of the German army, it was almost a touch, and in the first 17 days, the number of soldiers lost reached a staggering 770,000, and 11,700 tanks and 3,900 aircraft were also destroyed. To make matters worse, by September, as many as 660,000 elite troops of the Soviet Southwest Front were almost completely destroyed in the Battle of Kiev, and within half a year, the Soviet army lost a staggering 4 million troops. However, although Hitler turned Stalin around in front of the station, he underestimated the War Potential and the will to resist in the Soviet Union, which had exceeded the imagination of mobilization, supplemented the losses of front-line troops, and formed many new units to launch a Jedi counterattack against the German army. After the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the Soviets gradually took the initiative on the battlefield, and entered a strategic counteroffensive in the following autumn, culminating in the capture of the German capital Berlin on April 30, 1945. Victory in this war was achieved.