Operation BarbarossaDid you know that more than 830,000 Germans died during Operation Barbarossa? Operation Barbarossa was the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union ordered 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 territory. This defeat certainly had a major effect on the outcome of World War II due to the massive 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 planned it. had major effects on the war and the failure of Germany. Hitler authorized Operation Barbarossa on December 18, 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 that the Soviets had large amounts of land and resources who would help them in the war and he believed he belonged to his country. By now, the Nazis were short of resources and the offensive on Soviet territory would significantly reduce their economic strain. There was a catch, however. Germany and the USSR were allied through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, concluded just before a joint invasion of Poland. Germany attacked from the West and the Soviets from the East. This invasion started World War II, but the Nazis and Germans did not fight each other at first. This was due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact; the secret pact also meant that in the event of war, the two countries would not attack each other. Later in World War II, Hitler realized that the Soviet ... middle of paper ... of his army had embarked on Operation Barbarossa in hopes of gaining land resources , but instead he had lost a huge portion of his army and morale. During this invasion, there were over 800,000 German casualties, over 4,000,000 Soviet casualties, and over 20,000,000 Soviet civilians died due to the invasion. Yes, again, 20,000,000 civilians died. Overall, Operation Barbarossa was a total failure, resulting in tens of millions of deaths and a country in complete disarray. At first it seemed that Hitler was right, but the Soviets managed to prevent them from taking command of their country. Hitter had made a huge mistake in implementing this plan and had paid the price; he lost World War II. If he had not chosen to invade Russia, the war might have ended differently, but if Operation Barbarossa had succeeded, he might have been able to capture more of Europe..