Operation Barbarossa - who knows ?

[Ricky B]

I am at work and don't have my normal resources. However, here is a discussion I have never seen before that summarizes the situation quite well:

http://leav-www.army.mil/fmso/documents/barbaros.htm

Key points, as it is a long writeup:
1. "The first echelon of the covering forces, 56 divisions, were deployed 20-80 kilometers. from the border. Their second echelon, composed of the mechanized corps and rifle corps, numbered 52 divisions and were located 50-100 kilometers from the border."

2. "The reserves of the western military districts, which might have provided additional forces for these frontier battles, were deployed behind the covering forces and numbered 62 divisions. In the month prior to the outbreak of war these units were on the move, many of them having been dedicated to support of the second strategic echelon. Located at 100-400 kilometers from the border..."

3. "Out of a total of 170 divisions and 2 brigades assigned to the four western military districts, only 56 were assigned to the first echelon and most of these were rifle divisions."

So this covers the full strength of the units assigned to face the general German front, with fewer than 1/3 of the divisions assigned being "close" to the border. Now this source is nearly 20 years old but I have not seen anything new since then to prove it incorrect on any significant points. There are the revisionists that say the Soviets were deployed for an attack but that is just plain false.

Just doing the math on Soviet losses supports the view that the Soviets did NOT assign the bulk of their forces to the frontier, as their losses grew after the first couple of weeks of war, rather than shrinking, as most of their forces were further back. If they were on the border, the bulk of their army would have been destroyed in the first 2 weeks and losses would have been significantly higher than they actually were in the very initial period of the war.

The division numbers above do not cover all of the Soviet army either, just those assigned to the fronts facing Germany and Rumania.

Rick