5. The Lopsided Casualties of Operation Barbarossa
To make matters worse for the desperate Soviet forces, Stalin fancied himself a talented generalissimo, and meddled too much. One blunder among many that led to lopsided losses was his order to counterattack, issued to units that were in no position to do so. In another blunder that also led to catastrophically lopsided losses, Stalin demanded that units stay put in untenable positions, and fight to the last man. That led to a series of massive encirclements, in which the Germans would capture up to 700,000 Soviets per encirclement. By the end of 1941, the Germans had captured 3.4 million Soviet POWs, most of whom perished in captivity.
Soviet losses were catastrophic: they suffered over six million military casualties, plus millions of civilians, in the first six months of the war. Such lopsided figures were greater than any country has ever suffered in a similar period. It took superhuman efforts and sacrifice for them to recover, claw their way back up, and win in the end. Stalin deserves much credit because he managed to keep the USSR in the fight, long after any other country would have thrown in the towel. However, Stalin deserves even more credit – or blame – for the catastrophic screwups and lopsided losses at the start of the war.
