German Panzer Troops Advance from Poland
On 22 June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa. Over three and a half million troops with 3,600 tanks and 2,700 planes invaded the Soviet Union on a front that extended from the Baltic coast to the shores of the Black Sea.
The Fuehrer directed the operation from the Wolfsschanze (The Wolf’s Lair), situated near Rastenburg in East Prussia. The Germans had assembled their enormous force without the Russians recognizing the danger. They were caught completely by surprise. By noon, the Luftwaffe had destroyed 1,200 Russian aircraft, mostly on the ground.
That evening, Winston Churchill declared Britain’s willingness to aid the Soviet Union. Britain had acquired a new and powerful ally. With Hitler focused on the East, defeat for the island nation no longer seemed inevitable.