In December 1940 Hitler had decided upon a military plan that he believed would deliver all of Russia's industries and farm lands into his hands. He called it Barbarossa (Redbeard) from the nickname of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.
Operation Barbarossa was to begin in May, 1941. It consisted of three German army groups: Army Group North, Army Group South, and Army Group Center. Army Group North would take the Baltic, Army Group Center would drive toward Moscow, and Army Group South would take the Ukraine and Caucasus. The invading force consisted of over 3 million soldiers, 3,350 tanks, and 600,000 vehicles.
Unforeseen military developments in the Balkans delayed the onset of Operation Barbarossa for five weeks. Hitler was unconcerned about this since he believed the Russian Red Army would be overran long before winter. An over-confident Hitler proclaimed, "When Operation Barbarossa is launched, the world will hold its breath.".
The largest military campaign in history finally began on June 21, 1941 at 3:15 A.M. Russia was caught unprepared even though the Red Army was the numerically strongest army in the world. It was composed of 230 divisions of 14,000 soldiers each. Though strong in numbers they were weak in other areas. The Red Army had 20,000 tanks of which many were obsolete and an air force of 18,000 planes, most of which were obsolete. Also the Russian commanders had standing orders not to provoke the Germans.
The very first day the German Luftwaffe (air force) destroyed over 2000 Russian aircraft. The following day they had totally wiped out the entire Russian air force. The Germans were advancing quickly regardless of the Russian soldiers valiant refusal of surrender. The Germans captured the city of Minsk along with 15 Russian divisions. This led Stalin to call for a scorched earth policy. Still the Germans moved relentlessly onward. They took Smolensk and 300,000 more Russian soldiers.