Adolf Hitlers Felsennest, Wolfsschlucht, and Tannenberg (1940)

The name ‘Felsennest’ was taken from a 400-meter-high wooded hilltop overlooking the hamlet of Rodert. The installation covered some 30 hectares with bunkers and a string of anti-aircraft emplacements with an assortment of barrack-type buildings.

The installation included four bunkers, each with a 250-square-meter floor area, along with two fortified blockhouses and three barrack huts. Some 3,000 cubic meters of concrete were used to construct these buildings. Surrounding the installation was a chain-link security fence with wooden watch towers perched on high wooden legs. Inside the compound, known to its inhabitants as Sperrkreis I (Security Zone I), Hitler was to live with his usual entourage of generals, aides, and secretaries from the Chancellery in Berlin.

The largest and heaviest building was the Führerbunker. Inside Hitler's quarters it consisted of one working room, one bedroom, a few small rooms for aides, and a kitchen and bathroom. Attached to one end of the bunker was a building for his adjutants. At the other end was Jodl's cell. Keitel had a windowless air-conditioned concrete cell next to his. Other structures on site included a barrack-type building hut where the situation conferences were held and a windowless dining hut that had a long table that could seat twenty guests. On the long wall was a map of France.

From these buildings was a gravel path that led to a number of huts or bunkers. Even the mess hall was located in a pillbox. Once inside these buildings there were telephones, switchboards, radios, typewriters, and wireless and telegraph instruments. All these buildings served as working and living accommodation and were virtually undetected from the air.

In the hamlet and surrounding countryside, other hut and barrack-type buildings were erected to house all the Führer's secondary staff in what was known as Security Zone II. The area had been completely evacuated, and a large farmhouse in the village provided adequate working and living accommodation for fifteen officers and clerks, together with some forty ancillary personnel. Members of Hitler's personal entourage, including his bodyguard, occupied some parts of the building.

Many of those working in both security zones provide a very positive descriptive view of the life of the entire headquarters. Life in each compound was different in many ways. Only the officers in Security Zone II led a complete military existence. In the Führer's camp, however, it was common to see many individuals who were not military personnel. Those in Hitler's inner circle who were not soldiers wore field grey uniforms, often with badges of rank of their own choosing.

The day's routine in ‘Felsennest’ was very much like that at the Chancellery. During various times of the day, the three services would report to Security Zone I. Section L collected the reports, sorted them, added situation maps, and then sent them in an orderly manner to Jodl at Security Zone I, where he would prepare the briefing that took place in the briefing room with only Hitler and his closest staff present.

Here at these conferences Hitler and his officers discussed at length the first days of the German Army's attack through the Low Countries and then France.

At 'Felsennest,' Hitler was in the best of spirits. The breathtaking events that commanders and soldiers alike had put into practice staggered them. As General Kleist's panzers rattled and rumbled victoriously through northern France toward the Channel, on 17 May, Hitler left his headquarters and motored to Bastogne deep in the Ardennes to discuss the progress of the main drive to the Channel with the commander of Army Group A, General von Rundstedt. Before driving back to the headquarters, Hitler stayed for lunch and later made an appearance in front of an army unit, appearing exhilarated by the success of his troops.

However, upon his return to 'Felsennest,' he became anxious about reports of undefeated forces in France. It was not until 20 May that he finally received reassurance that the situation had been controlled. That evening, during a conference, he received a communiqué that panzers had arrived at the Channel coast. Success was now inevitable.

During this period of more or less calm at the headquarters, there were several overflights by enemy planes, but nothing that threatened the installation. Shortly after midnight on 25 May, a headquarters anti-aircraft battery opened fire at a plane that flew over the compound. The headquarters anti-tank batteries fired 384 rounds during the next night due to increased enemy activity. The Antiaircraft Group Munsterfeld reported spotting several aircraft, including bombers and small planes. They fired 570 rounds of MG34 machine-gun ammunition at the planes. At least one aircraft reportedly sustained damage, prompting another to drop bombs, though the impact was minimal. Over the next few nights, anti-aircraft batteries detected further sightings of enemy aircraft and shot down two bombers in the process.

For the second phase of the French campaign, codenamed ‘Operation Red,' Hitler wanted to move his entire supreme headquarters to the small Belgian village of Bruly-de-Pesch. In May Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas had chosen the village together with Colonel Schmundt, Captain Engel, and Dr. Todt. Bruly-de-Pesch was situated some ten miles southwest of Covin, in Belgium. Three hutments were built, one for Hitler, one as a dining hall, and one for OKW Section L. A casino and a few other lightly constructed buildings were built near the Führerbunker in a small wood just west of the village of Bruly. The headquarters utilized the village church and school as offices. There was also a second casino and bunker and a landing strip for the Fiesler Storch light observation aircraft, which was located in a meadow south of the village.

The installation was codenamed ‘Waldwiese’ (Forest Meadow) and was surrounded by barbed-wire barriers and a fixed chain-link fence. Guarding the site were the FBB as well as field guns and anti-aircraft batteries, including the No. 604 Reserve Fortress Anti-aircraft Detachment. The total strength of the security force was twenty-six officers, 185 NCOs, and some 800 men. The troops were supported by six truck-mounted 2 cm guns and thirty-five light and two heavy MG34 machine-gun positions. This arsenal of weapons was further supplemented by four 3.7 cm anti-tank guns, twenty standard 2 cm, and eight railway 2 cm anti-aircraft guns.

Hitler arrived in Bruly-de-Pesch from his ‘Felsennest’ headquarters on 6 June and renamed the headquarters ‘Wolfsschlucht’ (Wolf's Gorge). In the early days of his struggle, he had been known as ‘Herr Wolf,' and now he wanted to use this name in reference to the code names for his Führerhauptquartier. Almost as soon as Hitler arrived, the village inn was taken over by some of the staff, who nicknamed it ‘Wolf's Palace.'

When the main body of Section L officers arrived by air, the last finishing touches were still to be made to the Führerbunker. The engineers completed the headquarters on schedule, despite an eight-day deadline.

Away from the anti-aircraft batteries and barbed-wire entanglements that menacingly dominated the headquarters, a special garden had been carefully laid out along with gravel paths. By the time Hitler arrived on 6 June, the cement of the Führerbunker was still wet. The map room was in a local school; Section L officers were in wooden huts, but living accommodation was in a country house nearby, since the village itself was occupied by Hitler's immediate entourage. OKH was located some miles away in a small village called Forges in the region of Chimay.

‘Wolfsschlucht’ was a very modest headquarters. While the staff and security forces used the village's buildings, Hitler himself occupied a basic hut. An air-raid shelter had also been built quickly for him, but he never used it, despite the frequent air-raid warnings.

The Führer never really felt at home at ‘Wolfsschlucht’ as he did at 'Felsennest.' The constant swarms of mosquitoes that relentlessly plagued his building and the surrounding forest worsened the situation. The new headquarters buzzed with high drama, and Hitler seemed more eager than ever to end the war. Christa Schroeder recalled that everyone was impatiently waiting for word that France had fallen.

During the daily war conferences, reports confirmed that "Operation Red" had successfully penetrated enemy lines along the whole front.

During the early evening of 14 June, news reached the headquarters that the first German troops, men of the 9th Infantry Division, had entered Paris. The troops reached the center of the city within an hour. Only 700,000 of the city's 1,000,000 inhabitants had remained. The remaining inhabitants had fled south of the city, desperately attempting to evade the German onslaught. Three days later, on 17 June, during a late morning military conference, a message arrived for Hitler: the French wanted an armistice. One of Jodl's staff officers recalled that when Hitler heard the news, he was so delighted he made a little hop. Astounded by Hitler's exhilaration, Keitel stepped forward and congratulated his Führer, telling him that he was the greatest field commander of all time. In the afternoon an excited Hitler flew to join his special train at Frankfurt am Main for a conference with Mussolini in Munich to discuss the armistice arrangements.

When Hitler arrived back at his headquarters, the terms of the new Armistice Treaty with France were discussed and worked out in the church and completed early on 21 June. That afternoon, Hitler left ‘Wolfsschlucht’ for a couple of days. On the first part of his journey, he motored through northern France, destined for the forest of Compiegne, where the Kaiser's representative, Marshal Foch, had surrendered to France twenty-two years before. Now in a forest clearing, the French would undergo the same indignities as the German generals did in 1918. Hitler, Göring, Ribbentrop, Hess, and von Brauchitsch took their seats on board the historic railway coach while the French delegates listened to Keitel reading out the conditions of the Armistice. Hitler was only present to observe the progress of the negotiations and later returned that evening to 'Wolfsschlucht,' the master of France.

The following day Hitler secretly flew with Keitel to Le Bourget airport, where a column of motor vehicles was waiting to take him to see the architectural wonders of Paris. The next morning they flew back to Belgium.

On 25 June, the Armistice with France was scheduled to go into effect an hour and thirty-five minutes past midnight. During the evening, the atmosphere at ‘Wolfsschlucht’ was relaxed. Hitler, with his architect, Albert Speer, his adjutants, and secretaries, sat at a bare wooden table in his requisitioned cottage. The lights in the dining room were ordered to be extinguished, and the window was promptly opened. Sitting in the pitch darkness, champagne glasses were passed around. At 1:35 a.m., buglers from the 1st Guards Company sounded the cease-fire. Overcome by emotion Keitel rose in the darkness, made a short speech, and then raised his glass to the Führer, their supreme commander. The generals then stood and clinked glasses while Hitler sat, filled with emotion. As a courtesy, he brought glass to his mouth but never touched a drop.

Over the coming days Hitler's victory had brought a stream of congratulations. Now that victory had been secured, in the last week of June, OKW prepared to leave ‘Wolfsschlucht’ and the surrounding areas to move deep into the Black Forest on Kniebis Mountain, near Freudenstadt, to one of the headquarters that had been prepared in 1939. It was known as ‘Installation T’ or ‘Tannenberg’ (Pine Mountain). On 19 June Hitler had in fact ordered ‘Tannenberg’ to be readied for his imminent arrival. Nine days later the Führer and what remained of his staff finally left ‘Wolfsschlucht’ forever and flew from Gros Caillou airfield to 'Tannenberg.'

Construction of ‘Tannenberg’ had begun on 1 October 1939, and in total some 2,340 cubic meters of concrete went into building two bunkers half sunk in the earth - one for Hitler and the other for communications. Additionally, several barracks and hutment-type buildings were erected, along with a chalet for Hitler, quarters for the OKW leadership, a casino, a tea house, a conference hut, and barracks for guards, the SS-Begleit-Kommando, and other security services.

Here at 'Tannenberg,' Hitler decided on a short stay before returning to the Chancellery so that he could visit the great forts of the French Maginot Line. This small headquarters was not one of Hitler's most attractively sited installations. The site itself had been built in an area of several acres and covered mainly with tall pine trees. A very dense pine forest surrounded the site, making it impossible to completely cordon it off with a fence or headquarters guards. Most of the buildings were located in the forest, north of the Black Forest High Road. Warlimont's Section L was located more than a mile away in the Alexander Schanze Gasthaus on the main road, much to the disapproval of the Führer because the location was outside the Security Zone and posed a threat to security. The landing strip was erected in easy reach of the installation and was in constant use because the OKH headquarters had moved to Fontainebleu.

At 'Tannenberg,' it rained heavily for most of his week-long stay. When there was the odd day of sunshine, Hitler could be seen walking through the forest of Security Zone I, flanked either by guests, party dignitaries, adjutants, or guards. When he was not strolling through the forest taking in the aromatic air or sitting in the tea house with his intimate circle, his time was spent in the conference hut speaking about the invasion of England. The proposals for the invasion of England were greeted unenthusiastically by Hitler, but nonetheless he ordered his service commanders to start invasion preparations in the hope that the threat would bring the British government to their senses. His staff also found a site where he could direct military operations against England.

A permanent installation had been built in Foret de la Reims in northern France, and the old site at Zeigenberg was also mentioned. Though Hitler showed no enthusiasm for the site in Reims, he did reluctantly agree on Zeigenberg but still showed no interest in directing a military invasion against England. One evening over at the tea house, Hitler openly revealed that he had no desire to conquer Britain or her precious empire but to unleash a superhuman crusade against the Bolsheviks in the east.

Whilst the operations staff continued to plan an invasion of southern England, Hitler had a number of private talks with von Brauchitsch, Halder, and Colonel von Lossberg, a member of Jodl's staff, about the possibilities of a Russian campaign. Bruchitsch, Halder, and Lossberg said they would immediately go to work on the subject. Lossberg ordered the intelligence services to use every means possible to dupe Britain into believing that Germany was preparing for war against her, and he code-named the campaign against Russia "Fritz" after his son.

On 5 July, Hitler and his headquarters staff finally left the bleak surroundings of ‘Tannenberg’ and boarded Führersonderzug ‘Amerika’ for Berlin. With the Führerhauptquartier scheduled to move into the Zeigenberg facility known as ‘Installation A’ ‘Adlerhorst’ (Eagles Nest), an advanced detachment of the FBB had left ‘Tannenberg’ in advance, while the rest of the FBB, including its commanding officer, Lieutenant Kurt Thomas, moved in a few days later. Only a small guard unit stayed behind at ‘Tannenberg’ until 13 July, when it was replaced by a guard unit from the V Army Corps in Stuttgart. Here the guard unit would remain waiting at ‘Tannenberg’ for the Führer's arrival.

In Berlin, a public holiday had been declared in the capital. Thousands of swastikas lined the thronging streets to the Chancellery, and roses carpeted the roads for Hitler's motorcade. As ‘Amerika’ pulled into Anhalt station under the sound of a military band, Dr. Goebbels himself broadcast the running commentary over the radio network. The headquarters staff fondly remembered the train's arrival as a truly memorable occasion. Many were glad to be back in the capital after spending weeks away. Yet, just three days later, on 8 July, ‘Amerika’ was off again, carrying Hitler south to Austria and Bavaria.

The final part of the journey was Berchtesgaden, where he stayed for a week to reflect on his future military plans. Here at the Berghof he assembled his military commanders and grudgingly spoke about the invasion plans of Britain. The code name for the invasion was ‘Operation Sea Lion.' Hitler requested that transport ships and their crews be moored along the Channel coast in full view of British reconnaissance, and Göring's Luftwaffe was to offer a token force that was evidently unable to secure an objective of fighting for air supremacy.

On 18 July Hitler returned to the Chancellery, where he continued to debate launching a cross-channel invasion force and repeating his powerful arguments in favor of attacking Russia. A week later he left the Chancellery for the Berghof, and once again at his mountain retreat he held a series of conferences with his OKW, army, and navy chiefs on ‘Operation Sea Lion.' He also spoke at length about Russia and instructed his principal commanders that a Russian campaign had to be definitely explored. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, it was concluded that the campaign in Russia would have to be launched in spring—May 1941. The Army would then have five clear months in which to defeat the Red Army.

Secretly, OKW's operations staff set to work planning ‘Operation Fritz' and, on 9 August, revealed the first directive to begin an eastern buildup.

Hitler ordered Halder, quite independently of Warlimont's operations team, to prepare the plan of campaign against the Soviet Union. For security reasons, members of staff who were not briefed on Hitler's plans of attacking Russia were made to believe, as was Admiral Raeder, that the growing troop movements transported to the Eastern Front were a vast camouflage to distract from the impending invasion of Britain.

The day Hitler and his staff arrived back at the Chancellery, news reached the Führer that Göring's air force had already taken to the skies for England. Over the coming days, Hitler and his closest staff focused on monitoring the progress of the air force's actions. The first reports were a disappointment to OKW. The unpredictable English summer, coupled with Hitler's lack of support for the Luftwaffe, constantly hindered air operations.

On the evening of 16 August, Hitler and his immediate entourage again left Berlin for the Berghof. A few days later, he returned to find the city under attack from British bombers. The days that followed saw Hitler in regular meetings with Göring in an effort to bring about a conclusion to the air war against Britain. Göring was determined to step up the air campaign and asked Hitler if he would lift the longstanding embargo on bombing the center of London. Whilst the Führer pondered on his new execution, Göring left Berlin that afternoon for his new Channel coast headquarters, confident that he had the Führer's full support.

It is uncertain whether Göring had been formally advised that Hitler's real ambition was to attack Russia instead of Britain. But Jodl's staff certainly noticed Göring's complete disinterest in preparing 'Fritz,' believing that an operation of that magnitude would never be carried out. Contrary to Göring's belief, Hitler was serious. He had already found a suitable site for his new Eastern Front headquarters. Todt had been instructed to build the giant fortress, which, because of its size and remarkable semi-underground construction, would take many months to complete. The site, known only to a handful of the Führer's closest staff, lay deep inside the East Prussian forest of Görlitz, a few miles east of the town called Rastenburg. Before sealing off the area, locals from the nearby town frequently visited it. The project of building the headquarters had been left in the capable hands of the Konstruktionburo, with chief engineer Peter Behrens heading the huge construction team of workers. During this initial construction stage, its identity was camouflaged under the code name ‘Anlage Nord’ (Camp North) and also ‘Chemische Werke Askania’ (Askania Chemical Works).

In September, while Hitler continued to manage the air war against Britain, Peter Behrens finalized the blueprints for the Führer's new headquarters in East Prussia. During this period, the battle over the skies of southeast England intensified. Unbowed British fighter pilots were staking their lives on a battle regarded by the Führer as a half measure.

Even as the battle raged and more Luftwaffe pilots were shot down, Hitler was seen by his staff to be more immersed in Lossberg's study 'Fritz,' and the first directive was redrafted.

For most of October, Hitler was not found at the Chancellery but on board 'Amerika,' devoting much of his time to dealing with politics, which took him to France and the borders of Spain and Italy. At the end of October, after spending a few days at the Berghof, he arrived in Berlin again. In November he once more turned his attention to Russia.

On 5 December the chiefs of staff of the three army groups that were to take part in the planned invasion of the Soviet Union met with Hitler, Brauchitsch, and Halder. Now, for the first time, "Fritz" became open knowledge in the Reich Chancellery. Those present in front of the Führer were well aware how serious the plans for war against their old arch enemy had become. For three long hours, they debated every phase of the upcoming operations. No general is known to have objected to Hitler's plans. Everyone gave the impression of being full of genuine enthusiasm for the campaign.

Confident and relieved that he had finally come to the decision to attack Russia, Hitler and his closest headquarters staff boarded ‘Amerika’ and set off to celebrate Christmas with the troops and Luftwaffe squadrons along the English Channel. On 23 December, the Führersonderzug shunted into Boulogne. As Hitler and his intimate circle sat down to eat in the dining car, British aircraft began attacking positions along the coast, including the town of Boulogne. The train was hastily moved to the relative safety of a nearby tunnel, but not before the flak crew had a chance to use their 2-cm flak guns. Two days later the train spent Christmas Day idling on the French coast between Calais and Dunkirk.

For the next several weeks, the forthcoming Russian campaign gradually absorbed much of the war staff. During this period, the high-level staff immersed themselves tirelessly in putting together the largest force ever assembled in military history. Numerous generals were seen visiting the Chancellery to discuss the plans. Brauchitsch and Halder were regular visitors.

As the first wave of divisions began moving toward the frontier with Russia, Hitler and OKW were momentarily forced to deal with developments in the Mediterranean where the dreams of Mussolini fighting an independent war had been brought to an abrupt end in North Africa. In a conference with his army and Luftwaffe chiefs, Hitler felt compelled to send a light infantry and a Panzer division to Libya with a German Corps staff.

On 6 February, the new commander of the Afrika-Korps arrived in the Chancellery. The man briefed to command the operation in Libya was none other than Hitler's old commander of his personal protection battalion, General Erwin Rommel. Bestowed with the formal title of Commander-in-Chief, German troops in Libya, Rommel and Hitler spoke at length about the precarious position of the Italians in the desert.

A few days later, Hitler left the Chancellery on board 'Amerika,' bound for the Berghof. During his stay he received the first encouraging reports on the progress of operations in North Africa and did not hesitate to sanction all Rommel's requests.

With news of the fighting in North Africa going well and British forces being driven from their positions, Hitler and his war staff turned their attention once more to the Balkans. Greece still appeared unwilling to offer peace terms to Italy, and it was agreed that the country had to be reluctantly occupied before "Barbarossa" could be safely launched. The Wehrmacht, however, required a clear road to Greece, and while Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria were willing to allow access, Yugoslavia wanted no German intervention in the Balkans.

Throughout March, while the headquarters staff prepared itself for the campaign in the East, Hitler spent most of his time away in the Chancellery trying to persuade the Yugoslav government to heed his demands and allow troops through the Balkans. By 26 March, Hitler could wait no longer for a political agreement and issued Directive No. 25 for the immediate invasion of Yugoslavia. He told Keitel and Jodl to work out military plans to swiftly occupy the Balkans so that the Wehrmacht could be prepared for the campaign against Russia, even though it had to be postponed by four weeks.

On 30 March, Hitler addressed the first all-service conference of senior commanders earmarked for the Eastern Front at the Chancellery. The conference was so important that Keitel had arranged for all the OKW's departmental heads to hear the Fuhrer's address as well. For two hours he elaborated on the ideological and military reasons for war with Russia. He demanded blind allegiance from both generals and soldiers to fight an unprecedented war of ideology. Unlike the western campaigns, he said, the Wehrmacht had to fight in the east with unmerciful harshness.

As he geared his generals for the inevitable showdown in the east, the Balkan campaign was finally put into action. On the afternoon of 9 April, German radio began broadcasting the first bulletins on the string of victories in the southeast. The news elated Hitler, and the following day, "Amerika" steamed its way to Munich. On 11 April, the train made its way to Vienna and then onto Graz. Here a tunnel took a single-track railway through the Alps. The OKW command train, 'Atlas,' halted on the far side of the 3,000-yard tunnel. Hitler's train stopped before entering the tunnel, near the little mountain station of Mönichkirchen at 7.20am.

Although the tunnel to the north of Mönichkirchen had been reserved for the Führersonderzug in the event of an enemy aircraft attack, this never happened, and the train was shunted to the station. SS guards immediately cordoned off the area and manned their guns. This heavily guarded area was to be Hitler's headquarters for the next two weeks. ‘Amerika’ was stationed, with the locomotive continuously steaming to enable immediate entry into the tunnel. This location was known as ‘Frühlingssturm’ (Spring Storm).

Hitler's only real contact with the outside world was through the OKW's communications system, the daily visits of his generals and ministers, and the showing of newsreels at the nearby Mönichkirchner Hof hotel. Apart from this, Hitler never ventured from his train beyond the station platform.

From ‘Amerika’ and the OKW Sonderzug 'Atlas,' Hitler and his headquarters staff guided the Yugoslav and then the Greek campaigns to their victorious conclusion. Belgrade fell on 12 April, and five days later, Yugoslavia surrendered.

On 26 April, ‘Amerika’ left Monichkirchen for the former Yugoslav frontier. Two days later, the Führer was back in the Chancellery. Within days, he had fixed Sunday, 22 June, as the new date for the opening of the attack in the east. On 4 May, he assembled his Reichstag deputies before leaving the Chancellery once more for the Führersonderzug.

Whilst Hitler was away, preparatory measures for the invasion continued in all sections of the German headquarters. Under Jodl's direction, Section L carried on collecting the massive amounts of reconnaissance data from the army, navy, and Luftwaffe. For the usual daily briefings, they put forward minor alterations to the plans to OKH so that these could be sent out accordingly to the various commands already in place along the Russian frontier.

On the first day of June, the last stages of the planning were put into motion. The last echelons of German troops were transported from Germany to the Eastern Front. In less than three weeks, ’Barbarossa’ would be unleashed. On 11 June, Hitler sent Schmundt to check if the new headquarters being built for him in East Prussia was ready. In addition to this new installation, two other sites in the east had also been hurriedly developed for Hitler's use: ‘Anlage Mitte’ (Camp Centre) near Tomasazow in Poland, and the other was sited north of a railroad between Strzyzow and Frysztak, west of Przemysl in southeastern Poland, and was named ‘Anlage Süd’ (Camp South). These two installations were merely artificial tunnels of reinforced concrete for the Führer, but they were never to be used.

Two days later, on 14 June, Hitler returned from the Berghof and assembled at the Chancellery all the commanders of army groups, armies, armored groups, and the naval and Luftwaffe commanders, together with their senior officers from the high commands of the three services and OKW, along with their immediate subordinates. Because the meeting involved the arrival of a significant number of senior officers, Hitler wanted to keep it secret and issued strict guidelines outlining which of the various entrances to the old and new Reich Chancelleries were to be used and the times at which everybody could arrive. Those taking part in the conference were divided by sectors of the front into individual groups and summoned by name to appear at stated intervals, whereupon Hitler warmly greeted them. Those that took part in the meeting with Hitler appeared confident, and when they left the Chancellery later that day, they were certain that Russia would succumb to the mighty blows of the German Army.

The Chancellery buzzed with high drama on the eve of the invasion, as the Wehrmacht stood poised along the Russian border. In front of his war staff, Hitler seemed anxious but optimistic. To try and relax, he retired to bed earlier than usual. Whilst he tried to sleep at 3:00 a.m. along a 930-mile front from the Baltic to the Black Sea, 3,000,000 soldiers—an assembly of unrivalled scale and strength the world had never seen before—began to inexorably pour across the vast land of the Soviet Union.

In Berlin, the news of ‘Barbarossa’ had roused everyone in the Chancellery from their beds. Later that morning, it was confirmed that German spearheads, with their brilliant coordination of all arms, were pulverising bewildered Russian border formations into submission. For the invasion, the German force was distributed into three army groups: Army Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, attacked along the East Prussia-Lithuania frontier; Army Group Centre, commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, spearheaded his powerful armoured force across the Polish-Russian frontier, both north and south of Warsaw; and Army Group South, commanded by Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was deployed down the longest stretch of the border with Russia. The front reached from central Poland to the Black Sea. It did not take long before all three army groups sliced through the Russian positions on every front and were driving at breakneck speed through the Soviet heartlands.

The encouraging reports confirmed what Hitler had believed all along. The Red Army found itself in total disarray, with uncoordinated infantry resistance and a nearly obliterated air force.

Overwhelmed by the initial successes of his army, he asked his staff to prepare to move to the new field headquarters in East Prussia, where he would direct the total obliteration of the Soviet Army. The move did not come as a surprise to the headquarters staff, and although they expected to be away the longest period of time in any field headquarters thus far, they had been confidently told they would be home before the winter. Nothing could prepare them for what was about to happen.