Operation BarbarossaDid you know that over 830,000 Germans died during Operation Barbarossa? Operation Barbarossa was the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union carried out by Hitler and carried out by Nazi troops. But the Nazis were not the only ones to suffer colossal losses. The Soviets had over 4,000,000 military casualties, but somehow the USSR defeated the Germans and managed to drive them from their land. This defeat certainly had a major effect on the outcome of World War II due to the enormous Nazi force assigned to Operation Barbarossa and their failure to take command of the USSR. The key points of Operation Barbarossa were: who planned it, why they planned it, the events that had important effects on the war and Germany's failure. Hitler authorized Operation Barbarossa on 18 December 1940; the invasion began on May 15, 1941. However, the invasion did not actually begin until June 22, 1941. The main reason Hitler wanted to invade the USSR was because the Soviets had large amounts of land and resources that would help them the war and believed he belonged to his country. At that time, the Nazis were short of resources and the offensive on Soviet territory would drastically reduce their economic pressure. There was a problem, however. Germany and the USSR were allies thanks to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, concluded just before the joint invasion of Poland. Germany attacked from the west, while the Soviets attacked from the east. This invasion triggered World War II, but the Nazis and Germans did not initially fight each other. This was due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; the secret pact also provided that in the event of war the two countries would not attack each other. Later, during World War II, Hitler realized that the Soviets... half-paper... of his army participated in Operation Barbarossa in hopes of gaining land resources, but instead lost a huge portion of his army and its morale. Over the course of this invasion, there were over 800,000 German casualties, over 4,000,000 Soviet casualties, and over 20,000,000 Soviet civilians died as a result of the invasion. Yes, once again 20,000,000 civilians died. Overall, Operation Barbarossa was a complete failure, ending with tens of millions dead and a country in utter dismay. At first it seemed that Hitler was right, but the Soviets managed to prevent him from taking command of the country. Batstore had made a huge mistake when he put this plan into action and paid the price; lost the Second World War. If he had not chosen to invade Russia, the war might have ended differently, but if Operation Barbarossa had been successful, he might have conquered much of Europe.