Invasion of the Soviet Union - Operation Barbarossa, 1941

ALLIES:

British

Fighters: Fairey Fulmar; Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIB
Bombers: Fairey Albacore

Soviet

Fighters: Curtiss Tomahawk Mk.IIB¹; Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIB; LaGG-3; Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3; Petlyakov Pe-3; Polikarpov I-5; Polikarpov I-15; Polikarpov I-152; Polikarpov I-153; Polikarpov I-16; Yakovlev Yak-1

Bombers: Ilyushin DB-3; Ilyushin DB-3F (Il-4); Ilyushin Il-2 Stormovik; Petlyakov Pe-2; Petlyakov Pe-8 (TB-7); Sukhoi Su-2; Tupolev SB; Tupolev TB-3; Yermolayev Yer-2
Reconnaissance: Amtorg GST; Beriev MBR-2; Chetverikov Che-2; Kharkov R-10; Petlyakov Pe-2R; Polikarpov R-5; Polikarpov U-2; Yakovlev Yak-2

Hitler launched his fateful surprise attack against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. Romania and Slovakia followed with their own declarations of war against the Soviet Union and contributed military forces to the campaign, as did Italy. Germany's other allies were not so enthusiastic. Bulgaria was wary of Soviet military power, and never declared war on the Soviets. Hungary had signed the Tripartite Pact to become a member of the Axis in November, 1940, and had participated with Germany in the invasion of Yugoslavia in April of 1941 in order to regain territory it had lost to Yugoslavia after WWI. But the Hungarians had no interest in attacking the Soviet Union. That changed, however, after the Hungarian city of Kosice was bombed on June 26th, 1941. The Soviet Union was believed to be responsible, and so Hungary declared war on the Soviets, and eventually contributed forces to the campaign. (The true identity of the planes that bombed Kosice is a continuing controversy. Most historians believe they were probably Soviet Tupolev SB bombers that were sent to bomb nearby Slovakia, but hit the wrong target. But others believe they were part of a deceptive German scheme to provoke Hungary into joining the war against the Soviets. This faction says the planes were either captured Soviet Tupolev SB bombers piloted by Germans, or Romanian PZL P.37 bombers.)

Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact to join the Axis, but was a co-belligerent with Germany against the Soviet Union. Finland had been forced to cede territory to Stalin in early 1940 as a result of the Winter War. The Finns remained wary of the Soviets, and after Hitler occupied neighboring Norway in the summer of 1940, Finland became more isolated. Hitler needed a way to send troops and munitions overland to the northern part of Norway, so the Finns agreed to allow the Germans to truck men and supplies across northern Finland. The German troops made them feel more secure against the Soviet Union and the Finns also received German military equipment in exchange. The presence of the German troops in Finland, however, violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that Hitler had signed with Stalin in 1939. Formally known as the, "Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics," it was presented to the world as a non-aggression treaty between the two nations. But the pact included a secret territorial protocol dividing eastern Europe into two spheres of influence. Finland was supposed to be in the Soviet sphere. After the Germans launched their surprise attack against the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Soviets launched a "pre-emptive" attack against Finland on June 25th, citing the presence of the German troops in Finland. The Finns responded with a declaration of war against the Soviets. The Finns called it the Continuation War, because they viewed it as an opportunity to regain territories lost to the Soviets as a result of the Winter War.

By 1944 it was clear to Germany's allies that Germany was losing the war. The successful Allied invasion of Sicily and the subsequent heavy bombing campaign against the Italian mainland had already forced Italy to surrender and switch sides in September, 1943. (Although Mussolini survived to run a fascist puppet state, the Italian Social Republic, in German-occupied northern Italy until the end of the war.) Hungary was the next to waiver, and sought to negotiate a separate peace with the western Allies, so Hitler occupied Hungary in March, 1944, and installed a pro-German prime minister. When Soviet troops approached the borders of Slovakia in August, 1944, there was a national uprising against the fascist Slovakian government. German troops put down the uprising. When Soviet troops reached the borders of Romania in August, the Romanians switched sides and joined the Allies. The Bulgarians did the same thing when Soviet troops entered their country in September. The Soviets had launched an offensive against Finland in June, causing the Finns to switch sides in September too. Soviet troops crossed the Hungarian border that same month, and in October the Hungarian government announced an armistice with the Soviet Union. But German troops in Hungary installed another, even more cooperative, government and forced it to renounce the armistice. The lone German ally to remain loyal to the end was Croatia, a small fascist state created after Yugoslavia was dismembered by the Germans in 1941. The Croatians, however, continued fighting due to a well-founded fear of retribution from Tito's Yugoslavian partisans, not from any loyalty to Hitler. Croatia, in fact, did not surrender until a week after the Germans surrendered in May, 1945.