My memory is a little rusty but if im not mistaken, the Russians had 3 tanks armies in the south. Certainly a such a show of force may cause reason for alarm for the Germans facing them on the other side?

The Russians also played nothing short of a brilliant game of deception. I remember reading that during the day, tree branches would be tied to the wheels of Russian vehicles to raise the dust from the ground when driving down roads as to show the Germans that a large force was being amassed there. This would be done several times only by a few jeeps a few miles apart but would look mighty convincing for the Germans on the other side viewing their binoculars. The Russians also brought in 3 whole kitchens capable of feeding several hundred thousand men adding to the deception and helping with the belief of a pending attack not to mention a periodical artillery barage on the Germans. All of this forced the Germans to use more reconnaissance aircraft over the "would be attack" zone. The panzers from AGC were also moved to reinforce the south, but only after German generals were sure that the attack would come there and warned Hitler of the consequences if not moved. This left a skeleton force of less then 600 tanks in AGC.

Unless im mistaken, I also believe that in the speed in which this operation was carried out made it very difficult for the Germans to withdraw or even take an action as they were completely taken by surprise.

Leading to what many historians claim as the greatest offensive against the Germans in the entire war.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler