Why wasn't Heeresgruppe Nord able to encircle the Soviet Northwestern Front?

Discussions on High Command, strategy and the Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) in general.
HistoryGeek2019
Member
Posts: 399
Joined: 06 Aug 2019, 04:55
Location: America

Re: Why wasn't Heeresgruppe Nord able to encircle the Soviet Northwestern Front?

#31

Post by HistoryGeek2019 » 16 Oct 2019, 01:45

Interestingly, the OKW plan for Barbarossa drawn up by Jodl called for Army Group Center to swing north after reaching Smolensk in order to complete the encirclement and destruction of the Soviet forces in the Baltic States. According to David Stahel in his book on Barbarossa, Hitler discussed this with Jodl and intended for such a swing to the north all along, but Halder carefully rephrased the final order for Barbarossa to give Army Group Center the flexibility to drive straight for Moscow, which was Halder's obsession for the entire campaign, in defiance of Hitler's orders to focus on destroying the Red Army in the westernmost regions of the USSR before moving on to "exploitation" objectives such as Moscow and the Donetz basin.

User avatar
Aida1
Member
Posts: 4506
Joined: 04 Aug 2019, 09:46
Location: Brussels

Re: Why wasn't Heeresgruppe Nord able to encircle the Soviet Northwestern Front?

#32

Post by Aida1 » 16 Oct 2019, 17:47

HistoryGeek2019 wrote:
16 Oct 2019, 01:45
Interestingly, the OKW plan for Barbarossa drawn up by Jodl called for Army Group Center to swing north after reaching Smolensk in order to complete the encirclement and destruction of the Soviet forces in the Baltic States. According to David Stahel in his book on Barbarossa, Hitler discussed this with Jodl and intended for such a swing to the north all along, but Halder carefully rephrased the final order for Barbarossa to give Army Group Center the flexibility to drive straight for Moscow, which was Halder's obsession for the entire campaign, in defiance of Hitler's orders to focus on destroying the Red Army in the westernmost regions of the USSR before moving on to "exploitation" objectives such as Moscow and the Donetz basin.
Moscow was not obsession. It was an objective to go for in order to provoke a decisive battle with the red army besides the obvious importance of Moscow.


User avatar
BDV
Member
Posts: 3704
Joined: 10 Apr 2009, 17:11

Re: Why wasn't Heeresgruppe Nord able to encircle the Soviet Northwestern Front?

#33

Post by BDV » 17 Oct 2019, 01:25

Aida1 wrote: Moscow was not obsession. It was an objective to go for in order to provoke a decisive battle with the red army besides the obvious importance of Moscow.
It did provoke a decisive battle, alright.
Nobody expects the Fallschirm! Our chief weapon is surprise; surprise and fear; fear and surprise. Our 2 weapons are fear and surprise; and ruthless efficiency. Our *3* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency; and almost fanatical devotion

Post Reply

Return to “German Strategy & General German Military Discussion”