There remains the puzzling question of how the 1941 German attack
achieved such overwhelming political and military surprise. In
retrospect, there were ample indications of impending hostilities.26
Communist railway workers in Sweden, resistance fighters in Poland,
and numerous other agents reported the massive buildup of forces in
the east. German high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft flew over
Soviet territory on more than 300 occasions, prompting
repeated diplomatic protests but little defensive action. German
espionage agents and German-backed Ukrainian guerrillas infested the
western Soviet Union in the spring of 1941. Beginning on 16 June, the
German Embassy in Moscow evacuated all nonessential personnel, and by
21 June no German merchant ship remained in Soviet-controlled ports.
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