Himmler and his senior commanders went to great lengths to improve the quality of SS training. The army was persuaded to open several of its specialist training schools to the Waffen-SS, so that flak gunners, artillery men, medical orderlies, radio men and other specialists could be taught advanced skills on a par with their army counterparts. Senior Waffen-SS officers were also dispatched to army staff colleges to improve their tactical and administrative skills.

The build-up for Barbarossa

During the autumn of 1940, Hitler took the strategic decision to attack the Soviet Union. This was to be a war for racial supremacy, which Hitler said would lead to the eradication of the Jewish-Communist conspiracy that was threatening to destroy his "Thousand Year" Reich. This new empire would give him the Lebensraum or "living space" that a Greater Germany required.

The refusal of the British to surrender after Dunkirk and the subsequent Battle of Britain in mid-1940 was dismissed as little more than a side-show by Hitler, who looked to the East to fulfil his ambitions. The detailed planning for Operation Barbarossa, as the invasion would be codenamed, took place in great secrecy. Not even the senior Waffen-SS commanders were told until a few weeks before the attack. This resulted in their training programmes being redoubled, and they also began to intensify the political and racial indoctrination of their troops. On a daily basis they were bombarded with Hitler's racial theories and hardened in preparation for the coming battle.

Balkan diversion

All through the spring of 1941, the build-up of troops and supplies continued relentlessly along the Soviet border. This build-up was interrupted by the Italian invasion of Greece, which had got bogged down during the winter of 1940 and brought British forces ashore to support the Greek Army. Neighbouring Yugoslavia was now wavering about its allegiance to the German cause, so Hitler ordered contingency plans to prevent Southeast Europe going over to the British. German panzer units in Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria were alerted to prepare for the occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece in a lightning offensive to last no longer than six weeks. Six panzer divisions (1200 tanks) and three motorized divisions were massed by the Germans around Yugoslavia, backed up by almost 1000 bombers and fighters.

An easy advance

During February and March, the Leibstandarte and Das Reich were moved to Bulgaria and Romania respectively to spearhead the Balkans invasion, Operation Punishment. The onslaught began on 6 April with air attacks on key targets in the Yugoslav capital that lasted for two days, resulting in the deaths of 17,000 civilians.

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