Barbarossan kulkuun ei vaikuttanut viivästys Balkanin takia vaan Smolenskin taistelut

No mitä Hitler sitten kertoi?

"Georgi Zhukovin mukaan Moskovan puolustus oli syksyllä 1941 täysin retuperällä, joten jos Hitler ei olisi vitkutellut sinne hyökkäämistä, olisi historiaa kirjoitettu eri tavalla."

Osan keskusta-armeijaryhmittymän panssareista Hitler ohjasikin pohjoiseen Leningradia kohti, osan auttamaan etelän armeijaryhmittymää Kiovan valtaamisessa. Franz Halder ja Walter von Brauchitsch omasta puolestaan hinkuivat hyökätä Moskovaan.

" ... In the first four weeks of the war, Army Group Center surged eastward some 400 miles through Belorussia and then captured Smolensk, a regional administrative city in western Russia only 234 miles from Moscow.

"At that point Hitler wasn’t really sure what to do next, but General Franz Halder, chief of staff of the Army High Command (OKH), and Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch, commander of the German Army, knew just what to do: take Moscow! However, Hitler, calling Moscow “merely a mark on a map,” demurred. Instead, he ordered Army Group Center (AGC) to send half of its armored forces, Panzer Group 2, south to help Army Group South (AGS) capture the Ukraine, and the other half of its armored forces, Panzer Group 3, north to help Army Group North (AGN) take Leningrad.

...

"On September 6, Hitler released Directive #35 for the continuation of the war in the East: “In the sector of Army Group Center. Prepare an operation against Army Group Timoshenko (Soviet West Theater) as quickly as possible so that we can go on the offensive in the general direction of Vyazma and destroy the enemy located in the region east of Smolensk by a double envelopment by powerful panzer forces concentrated on the flanks.”

...

"Ten days later, having received news of 2nd Panzer Army’s successful operations in Ukraine, Bock enlarged his army group’s mission. In addition to the encirclement east of Smolensk, Bock added another encirclement, this one in the area of Bryansk, to the south.

"By the fourth week of September, all the operations on the flanks had run their course, and the armored units were returned to AGC command to begin realigning for the continuation of the attack eastward. Panzer Group 3’s attack to the north had been only marginally successful, and AGN never did capture Leningrad. But Panzer Group 2 became an integral part of the AGS’s swift capture of the Ukraine, destroying six Soviet armies and eliminating 665,000 enemy troops."

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/battle-of-moscow-wwiis-first-critical-turning-point/


" "Kenraali Talvi" tuli Neuvostoliiton avuksi ja se pysäytti Wehrmachtin etenemisen. "

Muita tekijöitä olivat rasputitsa eli mutaisen maaston vitsaus sekä Wehrmachtin panssarijoukkoja kiusaava polttoainepula.

-Vertigo