Georeferencing and Digitizing Operation Barbarossa Map

 Georeferencing and Digitizing in ArcGIS Pro: Operation Barbarossa

Kendrick Wittmer

Date: 2/5/2025

    Operation Barbarossa was the Nazi Germany led Axis powers invasion into the Soviet Union. While the operation was ultimately a failure as the Axis powers failed to reach the A-A line and capture the Soviet cities of Stalingrad, Moscow, and Leningrad, the Nazis made great progress in the beginning months of the operation due to their "Blitzkrieg" strategy. In this assignment, we were provided a paper map drawn by Nazi forces early into the operation which shows the assumed positions of advancing Nazi forces and defending Soviet forces. The goal of this assignment was to use the Georeferencing tool in ArcGIS pro to project the paper map onto a basemap using known cities, rivers, or other landmarks as tie points. The largest issue involving this objective had to do with a large fold at the top of the map. Fortunately, the majority of the area of interest was below this fold. Below is an image of the Georeferenced map. 

    The next step was to digitize the map. I created polygon feature classes for the Nazi and Soviet forces, a polyline feature class for the frontline where the two forces meet, and a point feature class for major cities within the area.

    This assignment provided an opportunity to work with real-world data in a completely new way. Working with data from over 80 years ago opened my mind to the large scope of applications for which ArcGIS can be used.