3-023-555 - British Pathe Ltd/Heritage Images

Adolf Hitler Saluting German Troops, 1941. Second World War. Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. '...the Hitler method was showing huge results. All along the front, powerful armoured wedges had thrust into the masses of the Red Army...During these first weeks...it seemed the defeat of the Soviet Union was both certain and very near..."All we have to do", Hitler had said, "is kick in the door and the whole rotten edifice will come crashing down"...For the invader, victory after victory...On October 3rd, fifteen weeks after the launching of Barbarossa, he announced: "I declare today, and I declare it without reservation, the enemy in the east has been struck down and will never rise again".' History proved him wrong. From "Time To Remember - Operation Barbarossa", 1941 (Reel 3); documentary film about events of 1941, on the Eastern Front and at Pearl Harbour.