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Real Time History

Season 2026 · Episode 25

Was Operation Barbarossa Doomed to Fail?

0.023mOctober 16, 2026

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 with Operation Barbarossa, observers expected a quick German victory - and so did Adolf Hitler and the Wehrmacht leadership. But many of the assumptions of the German plan would turn out to be flawed.

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Episodes

Episode 1Red Army vs. Mujahedeen: Soviet-Afghan War Tactics 1980-85
Episode 2Cabanatuan: The Great US Ranger Raid to Save 500 POWs
Episode 3Why Argentina Lost the Falklands War
Episode 4Great Powers Invasion of China: Boxer War 1900-01
Episode 5Striking at the Heart of America: The Saigon Embassy Raid 1968
Episode 6Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003: The Invasion
Episode 7Who Destroyed the Japanese Economy in WW2?
Episode 8Germany's Forgotten WW1 Gamble: Operation Albion 1917
Episode 9Why The Soviet Union Lost In Afghanistan
Episode 10Why Did the US Declare war on Great Britain in 1812?
Episode 11Afghanistan's Downfall - Civil War 1989-1993
Episode 12How China, Russia, Japan and the West Struggled Over East Asia 1894-1905
Episode 13Taliban Trojan Horse: The Battle of Qala-i-Jangi 2001
Episode 14Rommel's Rampage - Battle for North Africa Spring 1941
Episode 15SAS Desert Raiders in North Africa 1942
Episode 16Japan's Downfall: Pacific War from Tarawa to Okinawa
Episode 17The Battle of Fallujah and the Iraqi Insurgency 2003-04
Episode 18Stealing Royal Navy Ships: The Jesse Elliott Raid 1812
Episode 19Rise of the Taliban: Afghan Civil War 1994-2000
Episode 20Operation Crusader and the Battle for North Africa 1941
Episode 212001 Invasion of Afghanistan: Ousting the Taliban
Episode 222001 Invasion of Afghanistan: Ousting the Taliban
Episode 23The Failed US Invasion of Canada 1812
Episode 24Soviet War in Afghanistan 1979-1989 (Full Documentary)
Episode 25Was Operation Barbarossa Doomed to Fail?