June 22 ... What the owl warned about. Military intelligence

Hitler"s decision on conducting operations by the German armed forces was not irreversible, but the Wehrmacht preparation mechanism for hostilities “launched” as soon as the Fuhrer and the Supreme Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces ”. There was a paradoxical situation when the Wehrmacht command began to deploy troops in accordance with the adopted directives, however, the very conduct of these operations, as well as the terms of their conduct (which did not always end with their implementation), were determined solely by Hitler.
Inadequate perception by the command of the Wehrmacht by the start of the Operation Barbarossa - at a time when this date was not yet indicated by Hitler - the transfer of the deadlines for the operation, or rather readiness for its conduct, all this led to disastrous in the dates reported by intelligence. The terms of aggression against the Soviet Union - the beginning, mid -May, "from May 15 to the beginning of June" - were reflected in intelligence reports and were, on the one hand, reliable, since they came from the environment of the direct sources of information, and on the other, they did not correspond to the real situation things, since Hitler had not yet made a final decision