![]() The German forces would invade with a force of 166 divisions comprising of 4,306,800 men, 42,601 guns, 4,171 tanks & assault guns and 4,389 aircraft. The Soviet forces at the time were estimated to possess 199 divisions, of which consisted of 3,289,851 men, 59,787 guns, 15,687 tanks & assault guns along with 11,537 aircraft. As the two ambassadors made their way to the door of the Reichsministerium, Ribbentrop whispered urgently, "Tell them in Moscow, that I was against this attack". Immediately, the two men stood up in out rage with Dekanozov replying "You'll regret this insulting, provocative and thoroughly predatory attack on the Soviet Union. ![]() Ribbentrop informed the two Soviet representatives present in Berlin at the time that the Reich had been required to take defensive measures against "Soviet troop concentrations" and the "military violation of the Reich's borders". Confident in success they proceeded with their invasion anyway. Having sustained quite a fair amount of losses, she both had to bring her army up to strength and to replace the aging vehicles in the Panzer-Divisions (nonetheless, this was unable to be done, and obsolete weaponry such as the Panzer I was used anyway, though phased out as the war went on). The German Army buoyed up by its previous victories against Scandinavia, (Operation Weserübung) the Low Countries, France (Fall Gelb) and more recently the Balkans (Operation Marita) had been refitting after the Blitzkrieg campaigns of the early war. Operation Barbarossa began on midsummer's day, on 22 June 1941. Pitting the Sixth Army under Paulus against the 62nd Army under Chuikov, it was a battle fought in the ruins of a once magnificient city, that would end the lives of over one million men in all of the events within and surrounding it. A battle of such immense proportions and of such ferocious conflict, that to this day it is one remembered by many.
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