Whenever I ask people what they think of Operation Barbarossa, the first thing that they will say is, “What is Operation Barbarossa?” Unknown to them (yet), Barbarossa was undisputedly the bloodiest theatre of war ever. It is the centre of gravity of the Second World War.
Barbarossa, to put it simply, is the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. It was named after a Teutonic knight who carved out an empire in the East. Yet it is questionable that Barbarossa himself would have known that such a costly conflict would be named after him. Welcome aboard the Berlin—Moscow Express. It is good to have you here.