June 23, 1941: The Beginning of Operation Barbarossa

This Universal newsreel concerns Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany which began on the previous day (June 22, 1941), nullifying the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact signed in August 1939. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill attempted to warn the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin multiple times that an invasion was imminent but Stalin believed that it was a ploy by the British government to get the U.S.S.R. to enter the war on the side of the Allies. Although this proved to be a fatal mistake on Stalin#s part, he was a major turning point in the war. The events of June 22, 1941 led directly to the Battle of Stalingrad, the single bloodiest battle in human history in which two million people died.

There's only partial sound, I'm afraid.

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• Universal
• newsreel
• Operation
• Barbarossa
• Nazi
• Germany
• invasion
• Soviet
• Union
• World
• War
• Two
• 1941
• Joseph
• Stalin