Barbarossa - Part 3
With such actions 'legitimised' against them, the Russians inevitably reacted and so sprang up the individuals and groups known as partisans. With whole armies surrounded and surrendering, many men found themselves cut off from all military discipline, and behind the enemy lines. They had heard Stalin call on all Russians, over the radio on 3rd July, to fight to the last in the battle against Germany and when they realized just exactly how the Germans were fighting this war, they were ready, in self-defence if for no other reason. There were atrocities on both sides but the Russians, at least, had more justification in their attempts to help drive the Germans out of their country. In calling on the people, however, Stalin used words such as " ... a merciless struggle against all deserters ... we must destroy spies, diversionists and enemy paratroopers ..." and so he continued his psychopathic hunting down and killing of any one at all who opposed or questioned him. Two generals were shot for mistakes made by him, and twenty others committed suicide for the lost battles of the opening phase of the war.
On 3rd October, Hitler returned to Berlin and announced that the collapse of Russia had already taken place. With the Leningrad forces surrounded, the armies in front of Moscow contained in two small pockets, and the southern armies dispersed, it looked as though Russia was, indeed, finished. But Hitler had, again, interfered in strategy with effects that were just about to show their full impact. In late July, as the first rush had produced such astonishing results, and it appeared that Moscow could be taken within the next few weeks, the High Command attempted to change Hitler's original plan of the major offensives to the north and south, to one of taking Moscow now that Bock's Army Group was only 200 miles away, near Smolensk. When Hitler was approached, he exploded. It was his intention, he said to seize the Dnieper Basin and Ukraine for the food supplies needed by Germany, and beyond that there were the Russian oilfields. He also wanted Leningrad destroyed so that he could link up with the Finnish forces. In a directive of 21st August, he made the whole order quite clear and the Army, reluctantly, had to follow it. Units were diverted south to reinforce Runstedt around Kiev and, in a huge victory, the Russian armies there were encircled and surrendered, a total of 650,000 men. This seemed justification enough, especially when the reaminder of Bock's armour reached Leningrad and brought the city to the point of surrender. But, just at that point, Hitler at last gave in to the constant badgering of the generals and agreed to resume the march on Moscow. Early in September, Bock's armour started to be shipped back to him and Leningrad was able to hold on; in fact, although reduced to rubble, it never surrendered.
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