During the winter of 1940-1941, Finnish and German general staffs established closer contacts. By late summer, to counterbalance Soviet pressure, the Finns had received German shipments of military equipment and supplies, and had concluded an agreement to permit German troops to transit Finland. Hitler realized that he had to call on his Axis allies for more troops and wage a coalition war on the Eastern Front.įinland: In June 1940, in the wake of Germany’s conquests elsewhere in Europe, Stalin’s Soviet Union occupied the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) in a power-play that renewed Soviet pressure on its northwestern neighbor, Finland – which had fiercely resisted a Soviet invasion during the 1939-40 Winter War before eventually succumbing to the Red Army and resuming an uneasy peace with Stalin. Surprised by critical logistical shortfalls, the Germans found themselves in a longer than anticipated war which became increasingly costly in casualties and materiel losses. Hitler and his military leaders debated over key objectives and underestimated Russian tenacity and depth of manpower. Unlike Germany’s lightning wars quickly won against Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries and France, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union on JOperation Barbarossa - began to unravel in western Russia’s vast spaces. Given the significant impact on that World War II turning-point battle played by the forces of Germany’s Romanian, Italian and Hungarian allies, this article complements and expands upon Armstrong’s “What Next General?” article by presenting an insightful overview of the various foreign armies supporting Germany and how they influenced Eastern Front combat operations. Armstrong’s “What Next General?” article “Manstein at Stalingrad, 1942,” which places readers in the role of German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein facing the daunting task of breaking through to relieve the beleaguered German 6th Army trapped by Soviet forces in Stalingrad. ArmstrongĮditor’s Note : The November 2012 issue of Armchair General magazine features Richard N. Hitler’s Foreign Armies On World War II’s Eastern Front By Richard N.
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