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{{Short description|Theatre of war of European Axis and Soviet Union blocs}}
{{Expert}}
{{Redirect|Great Patriotic War|a discussion of the term itself|Great Patriotic War (term)}}
{{pov}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2023}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Eastern Front
| partof = the ]
| image = EasternFrontWWIIcolage.png
| image_size = 300px
| caption = '''Clockwise from top left''': Soviet ] tanks storming ], 1945; German ] tanks during the ], 1943; German ] dive bombers on the Eastern Front, 1943; ], 1942; ] signing the ], 1945; Soviet troops at the ], 1943
| date = {{nowrap|] – ]<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=06|day1=22|year1=1941|month2=05|day2=8|year2=1945}})}}
| place = Europe, east of Germany: ], in later stages: ] and ]
| territory = {{collapsible list|bullets=y|title=] of<br />]
|], ] and ]
|] and ]
|]
|]
|{{nowrap|] and ]}}
|]
|] ]
|] split between the Soviet Union (]) and ] (])
}}
| result = {{ublist|Soviet victory{{efn|As part of the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II}}}}
* Fall of ] (concurrently with the ])
* Beginning of the ] and creation of the ] and the ]
* Beginning of ]
| combatant1 = ''']''':{{plainlist|
* '''{{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}'''
* {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Romania}} {{small|(])}}}}
* {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}}{{efn|Hungary voluntarily participated in the conflict until March 1944, when it submitted to ]. In October the same year, a ] was ], which ensured Hungary's participation until the end of the conflict.}}
* {{flag|Finland}} {{small|(])}}
* {{flagcountry|Fascist Italy}} {{small|(])}}
* {{flagcountry|Slovak Republic (1939–1945)|name=Slovakia}}
* {{flagcountry|Independent State of Croatia}}{{efn|Croatia never declared war on the Soviet Union and did not consider itself at war with it<ref>Jozo Tomasevich. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. - Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. - P. 273</ref> and only recruited volunteers to the {{ill|Croatian legions|de|Kroatische Legion|ru|Хорватские формирования нацистской Германии и фашистской Италии}} of German and Italian armies and the '']''; ] of the ''Wehrmacht'' was the only '']''<ref>{{cite book | last=Stahel | first=D. | title=Joining Hitler's Crusade | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-316-51034-6|page=168}}</ref> Croatian unit to fight on the Eastern Front.}}
{{collapsible list|title={{nowrap|'''Support:'''}}
|{{flagcountry|Francoist Spain|1938}}{{efn|Although Spain officially remained neutral, it provided support to Germany through supplement of essential materials (see ]) and recruitment of volunteers at the Eastern Front (] and ]); see ]}} {{small|(until 1944)}}}}
}}
| combatant2 = ''']''':{{plainlist|
* '''{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}'''
* {{flagdeco|Poland|1928}} ]{{efn|The so-called "]" (under ]), composed of Poles in the USSR and loyal to the London-based ], was ], but shortly thereafter ] through ]. After diplomatic relations between the Polish government and the Soviet Union broke down in 1943, a ] was formed, which would grow into the ] and later ] that fought as part of the Soviet ]. Political leadership came from the ], which evolved into a ] rivaling the one in London.}} {{small|(from 1943)}}
* {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Czechoslovak government-in-exile}}}}{{efn|A battalion composed of Czechs and Slovaks in the Soviet Union (refugees, defectors, part of the ethnic minority in the USSR) was established in 1942 and was sent at the front in 1943<ref name="ino"/> and would eventually grow to a ], loyal to the ] in London, which fought as part of the ].}} {{small|(from 1943)}}
*{{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Democratic Federal Yugoslavia}}{{efn|In 1943, the USSR began forming Yugoslav units of the Red Army which began operating in 1944;<ref name="ino">{{cite book|title=Иностранные войска, созданные Советским Союзом для борьбы с нацизмом|isbn=9785046032826|year=2024|publisher=Центрполиграф|language=Russian}}</ref> while for the most part Yugoslav troops fought in the Balkans, a number of Red Army operations involving Yugoslav troops took place in Eastern Europe on the general Eastern Front (e.g. ], ])}} {{small|(from 1944)}}}}
}}
'''Former Axis powers''':{{plainlist|
* {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Kingdom of Romania}} {{small|(])}}}}
* {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} {{small|(])}}
* {{flag|Finland}} {{small|(])}}
* {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}}{{efn|By the beginning of 1945, Hungary had had two rivalling governments, the ] in the Nazi-occupied territory, and the {{ill|Provisional National Government of Hungary|lt=Debrecen government|ru|Временное национальное правительство (Венгрия)}} in the Soviet-occupied territory; in January 1945, the USSR began forming small Hungarian volunteer units loyal to the Debrecen government, the largest of which was the ].<ref>Gosztony, Peter. ''Stalins Fremde Heere'', Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1991. {{ISBN|3-7637-5889-5}}</ref><ref name="ino"/>}} {{small|(1945)}}}}
{{clist|title={{nowrap|'''Support:'''}}
|{{flag|United States|1912}}{{efn|Support provided through ] and ]}}
|{{flag|British Empire}}{{efn|Support provided through ], as well as by the presence of ] (with ] and ]) on the Eastern Front.}}
|{{nowrap|{{flag|Free France}}{{efn|Support provided by the presence of ] as part of ] on the Eastern Front.}} {{small|(from 1943)}}}}
|{{flagcountry|Mongolian People's Republic|1940}}{{efn|see ]}}
|{{flagdeco|Tuvan People's Republic}} ]{{efn|see ]}}
}}
| commander1 = {{clist|title='''Axis leaders:'''
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ''']'''{{KIA|Death of Adolf Hitler}}
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{nowrap|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]}}
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Nazi Germany}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Finland}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Finland}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Finland}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Fascist Italy (1922-1943)}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Fascist Italy (1922-1943)}} ]
}}
| commander2 = {{clist|title='''Allied leaders:'''
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ''']'''
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagicon|Soviet Union|1936}} ]{{Executed}}
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]{{KIA}}
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{nowrap|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]}}
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]{{KIA}}
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Soviet Union|1936}} ]{{KIA}}
|{{flagdeco|Poland|1928}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Poland|1928}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Poland|1928}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Romania}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} ]
|{{flagdeco|Finland}} ]
}}
| strength1 = {{plainlist|
* '''1941'''<br />3,767,000 troops
* '''1942'''<br />3,720,000 troops
* '''1943'''<br />3,933,000 troops
* '''1944'''<br />3,370,000 troops
* '''1945'''<br />1,960,000 troops}}
| strength2 = {{plainlist|
* '''1941'''<br />(Front) 2,680,000 troops
* '''1942'''<br />(Front) 5,313,000 troops
* '''1943'''<br />(Front) 6,724,000 troops
* '''1944'''<br />6,800,000 troops
* '''1945'''<br />6,410,000 troops}}
| casualties1 = '''Total:'''<br />5.1 million dead {{Bulletedlist|4.5 million killed or missing in action|600,000 died in captivity}}<br />4.5 million captured<br />See ].
| casualties2 = '''Total:'''<br />8.7–10 million dead {{Bulletedlist|6.5–6.7 million killed or missing in action|2.2–3.3 million died in captivity}}<br />4.1 million captured<br />See ].
| casualties3 = '''Civilian casualties''':<br />18–24 million civilians dead<br />See ].
| notes =
}}
{{Campaignbox World War II}}
{{Campaignbox Axis–Soviet War}}
{{History of the Soviet Union}}


The '''Eastern Front''', also known as the ''']'''{{efn|{{Langx|ru|Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́|Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná}}}} in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the '''German–Soviet War'''{{efn|{{Langx|de|Deutsch-Sowjetischer Krieg}}; {{Langx|uk|Німе́цько-радя́нська війна́|Niméts'ko-radiáns'ka viiná}}}} in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a ] of ] fought between the European ] and ], including the ] (USSR) and ]. It encompassed ], ], ] (]), and ] (]), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated ] attributed to World War II, around 30&nbsp;million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9&nbsp;million children.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ed9jDwAAQBAJ&q=World+War+2+eastern+front |title=The Eastern Front: The Germans and Soviets at War in World War II |date=15 August 2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-8117-6784-2 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="30m" /> The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the ], eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of ] and the Axis nations.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bellamy|2007|p=xix}}: "That conflict, which ended sixty years before this book's completion, was a decisive component – arguably the single most decisive component – of the Second World War. It was on the eastern front, between 1941 and 1945, that the greater part of the land and associated air forces of Nazi Germany and its Axis partners were ultimately destroyed by the Soviet Union in what, from 1944, its people – and those of the fifteen successor states – called, and still call, the Great Patriotic War"</ref> It is noted by historian ] that "More than 80 percent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Geoffrey |first=Roberts |title=Victory at Stalingrad |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0582771857 |edition=1st |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref>
The '''Eastern Front''' of ] was the ] covering the conflict in eastern Europe, notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life. Many sources include the ] of ] in this World War II theatre but this article concentrates on the much larger conflict which was fought from June ] to May ] in which the two principal ] nations were ] and the ]. It resulted in the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial ], the Soviet occupation of ], and the ].


The Axis forces, led by Nazi Germany, began their advance into the Soviet Union under the codename ] on 22 June 1941, the opening date of the Eastern Front. Initially, Soviet forces were unable to halt the Axis forces, which ]. Despite their many attempts, the Axis failed to capture Moscow and soon focused on the oil fields in the ]. German forces invaded the Caucasus under the '']'' ("Case Blue") plan on 28 June 1942. The Soviets successfully halted further Axis advance ] — the bloodiest battle in the war — costing the Axis powers their morale and regarded as one of the key turning points of the front.
] over the ] after the ], May 1945]]


Seeing the Axis setback from Stalingrad, the Soviet Union routed its forces and ] at its expense. The Axis defeat ] terminated the German offensive strength and cleared the way for Soviet offensives. Its setbacks caused many countries friendly with Germany to defect and join the Allies, such as ] and ]. The Eastern Front concluded with the ], followed by the signing of the ] on 8 May, a day that marked the end of the Eastern Front and the War in Europe.
In ], the conflict is referred to as the '''Great Patriotic War''' (Великая Отечественная Война, ''Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna)'', a name which alludes to the ]&ndash;]ic '']'' on Russian soil in ]. The Russo-Finnish ] may be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Some scholars of the conflict use the term '''Russo-German War''', while others use '''Soviet-German War''' or '''German-Soviet War'''.


The battles on the Eastern Front of World War II constituted the largest military confrontation in history.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-eastern-front/100150/|title= World War II: The Eastern Front|date= 18 September 2011|website= The Atlantic|access-date= 26 November 2014}}</ref> In pursuit of its "'']''" settler-colonial agenda, Nazi Germany waged a ] (''Vernichtungskrieg'') throughout Eastern Europe. Nazi military operations were characterised by vicious brutality, ], wanton destruction, mass deportations, forced starvations, wholesale terrorism, and massacres. These also included the genocidal campaigns of {{lang|de|]}} and ], which aimed to the extermination and ethnic cleansing of more than a hundred million Eastern European natives. German historian ] called the Eastern Front "the most atrocious war of conquest, enslavement, and annihilation known to modern history",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nolte |first=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Nolte |url=https://archive.org/details/threefacesoffasc0000nolt_x2l1 |title=Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism |publisher=Holt, Rinehart & Winston |year=1966 |edition=1st |pages=358 |language=en}}</ref> while British historian Robin Cross expressed that "In the Second World War no theatre was more gruelling and destructive than the Eastern Front, and nowhere was the fighting more bitter".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cross |first=Robin |url=https://archive.org/details/battleofkurskope0000cros/page/n5/mode/1up |title=The Battle of Kursk: Operation Citadel 1943 |publisher=Penguin Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=9780141391090 |pages=viii |language=en}}</ref>
==Overview==
] poster ''Mother Russia Is Calling You to the Front''.]]


The two principal belligerent powers in the Eastern Front were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though they never sent ground troops to the Eastern Front, the ] and the ] both provided substantial material aid to the Soviet Union in the form of the ] program, along with naval and air support. The joint ] across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the ] are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish ] is generally also considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.
The war between Germany and the Soviet Union began on ] ], when Germany invaded the Soviet-occupied portion of ], and ended on ] ], when Germany's armed forces ] following the ]. Germany was able to call on the manpower of three other ] - ], ] and ] - to support them at the front and the subsequently occupied territories, with some assistance from anti-communist ] as well as a ]. The Soviet Union had help from partisans in many countries in ], notably those in Poland and ]. In addition the ] and ] Polish armies, armed and trained by the Soviets, fought alongside the ] at the front.


==Background==
The Eastern Front was by far the largest and bloodiest ] of World War II, and generally accepted as the most costly conflict in human history at anywhere from 25-30 million dead as a result. It involved more land combat than all other World War II theatres combined. The Red Army and other forces of the USSR inflicted about 75% of losses - around 2.5 million men - suffered by German land forces (the '']'' and '']''). Germany's ] (including ]) lost at least 800,000 soldiers fighting the USSR with a further 1.4 million taken ]. The USSR, for its part, lost at least 8.7 million soldiers. Most Germans who were taken prisoner were ], the last of whom were freed in ] after lengthy negotiations, though half a million POWs died in captivity.
{{See also|Anschluss|Munich Agreement|Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact}}
Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with ] of ] (1914–1918). ] had lost substantial territory in ] as a result of the ] (March 1918), where the ]s in Petrograd conceded to German demands and ceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and other areas, to the ]. Subsequently, when Germany in its turn ] to the ] (November 1918) and these territories became independent states under the terms of the ] at ], Soviet Russia was in the midst of ] and the Allies did not recognise the Bolshevik government, so no Soviet Russian representation attended.<ref name="Hankey2015">{{cite book|author= Donald Hankey|title= The Supreme Control at the Paris Peace Conference 1919 (Routledge Revivals): A Commentary|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=MPzOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA50|date= 3 June 2015|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 978-1-317-56756-1|page= 50}}</ref>


] had declared his intention to invade the Soviet Union on 11 August 1939 to ], ] Commissioner, by saying:
The Eastern front resulted in such staggering losses and disregard for human life almost entirely on the ] premise for the war. To hardline Nazis in Berlin, the war against the Soviet Union was one of a struggle of ] against ], and the ] against the "]" ]. From the beginning of the conflict, Hitler referred it as a "war of annihliation". Aside from the ideological conflict, the sheer mindframe of Germany and the Soviet Union's leaders, Hitler and ] respectively, helped attribute to the escalation of terror and murder on an unprecedented scale. Hitler sought to enslave the Slavic race and wipe out the large Judeo population of Eastern Europe. Stalin disregarded human life in order to achieve his goal of victory. This included terrorization of his own people, as well as ] of entire races. All these factors resulted in tremendous brutality both to combatants and civilians, which was not paralleled on the ].


<blockquote>
The war inflicted huge losses and suffering onto the civilian populations of the affected countries. Behind the front lines, ] against civilians in German-occupied areas were routine, including the ]. German and German-allied forces treated civilian populations with exceptional brutality, massacring villages and routinely killing civilian hostages. Both sides practiced widespread ] tactics. Once the war shifted to ethnic German territory, ] of German women was commonplace. After the war, following the ] agreements between the Allies, the ] of ] and ] were ] of the ], in what became one of the largest ]s of people in world history.
Everything I undertake is ]. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the ] so that they can't starve us out, as happened in the last war.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=McKale|first=Donald M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4IuvfX194C&q=Everything+I+undertake+is+directed+against+the+Russians.+If+the+West+is+too+stupid+and+blind+to+grasp+this,+then+I+shall+be+compelled+to+come+to+an+agreement+with+the+Russians,+beat+the+West+and+then+after+their+defeat+turn+against+the+Soviet+Union+with+all+my+forces.+I+need+the+Ukraine+so+that+they+can't+starve+us+out,+as+happened+in+the+last+war&pg=PA124|title=Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II|date=2006-03-17|publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing|isbn=978-1-4616-3547-5|page=124|language=en}}</ref>
</blockquote>
The ] signed in August 1939 was a ] between Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret ] aiming to return ] to the pre–World War I ] by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to the Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}} The Eastern Front was also made possible by the ] in which the Soviet Union gave Germany the resources necessary to launch military operations in Eastern Europe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ericson|first1=Edward|title=Feeding the German Eagle: Soviet Military Aid to Nazi Germany, 1933–1941|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0-275-96337-3|pages=34–35|year=1999}}</ref>


On 1 September 1939 ], starting ]. On 17 September, the ] ], and, as a result, ] among Germany, the Soviet Union and Lithuania. Soon after that, the Soviet Union demanded significant territorial concessions from Finland, and after Finland rejected Soviet demands, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 in what became known as the ] – a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on 13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its independence but losing its eastern parts in ].<ref name=malksoo/>
Much of the combat took place in or close by populated areas, and the actions of both sides contributed to massive loss of civilian life.


In June 1940 the Soviet Union ] the three ] (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).<ref name=malksoo>{{cite book|author= Mälksoo, Lauri|year= 2003|title= Illegal Annexation and State Continuity: The Case of the Incorporation of the Baltic States by the USSR|location= Leiden, Boston|publisher= Brill| isbn= 90-411-2177-3}}</ref> The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ostensibly provided security to the Soviets in the occupation both of the Baltics and of ] (Northern ] and ], June–July 1940), although Hitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union, cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian territory as having violated Germany's understanding of the pact. Moscow partitioned the annexed Romanian territory between the Ukrainian and ]s.
==Background==

The ] of August 1939 had established a ] between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret ] described how ], ], ], ], ] and ] would be divided between them. In the ] of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and in June 1940 the Soviet Union, threatening to use force if her demands are not fulfilled, won the diplomatic wars against ] and three ] which '']'' allowed it to peacefully ] '']'', and to return the ], ], and ]n territories in the North and North-Eastern regions of Romania (Northern ] and ]).
==Ideologies==
{{Main|Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941}}

===German ideology===
{{Main|Mein Kampf|Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazism and race}}
Hitler had argued in his autobiography '']'' (1925) for the necessity of '']'' ("living space"): acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, in particular Russia.<ref>"We National Socialists consciously draw a line under the direction of our foreign policy war. We begin where we ended six centuries ago. We stop the perpetual Germanic march towards the south and west of Europe, and have the view on the country in the east. We finally put the colonial and commercial policy of the pre-war and go over to the territorial policy of the future. But if we speak today in Europe of new land, we can primarily only to Russia and the border states subjects him think." Charles Long, 1965: (pdf, 12 Seiten; 695&nbsp;kB)</ref> He envisaged settling Germans there, as according to Nazi ideology the Germanic people constituted the "]", while exterminating or deporting most of the existing inhabitants to ] and using the remainder as ].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Robert |last=Gellately |title=Reviewed work(s): Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan by Czeslaw Madajczyk; Der "Generalplan Ost." Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik by ] and Sabine Schleiermacher |journal= ] |volume= 29 |issue= 2 |pages=270–274 |date=June 1996 |jstor=4546609 |doi=10.1017/S0008938900013170}}</ref>
Hitler as early as 1917 had referred to the Russians as inferior, believing that the ] had put the ] in power over the mass of ], who were, in Hitler's opinion, incapable of ruling themselves and had thus ended up being ruled by Jewish masters.<ref name="Megargee2007">{{cite book|last= Megargee |first= Geoffrey P.|author-link= Geoffrey Megargee|title= War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QSpUZ6t6BPwC&pg=PA4|year=2007|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-4482-6|page=4}}</ref>

The Nazi ], including ],<ref>{{cite web
|url = http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/SS2.htm
|title = Speech of the Reichsfuehrer-SS at the meeting of SS Major-Generals at Posen 4 October 1943
|author = Heinrich Himmler
|work = Source: Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. IV. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pp. 616–634
|publisher = Stuart Stein, University of the West of England.
|quote = Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death … interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves for our Kultur ...
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090302202411/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/SS2.htm
|archive-date = 2 March 2009
}}</ref> saw the war against the Soviet Union as a struggle between the ideologies of ] and ], ensuring territorial expansion for the Germanic ] (superhumans) - who according to Nazi ideology were the ] '']'' ("master race") - at the expense of the Slavic '']'' (subhumans).<ref>{{cite journal |first= John |last=Connelly |title=Nazis and Slavs: From Racial Theory to Racist Practice |journal= ] |volume= 32 |issue= 1 |pages= 1–33 |date= 1999 |jstor= 4546842 |doi= 10.1017/S0008938900020628 |pmid= 20077627 |s2cid= 41052845 }}</ref> ] officers told their troops to target people who were described as "Jewish Bolshevik subhumans", the "Mongol hordes", the "Asiatic flood" and the "red beast".<ref>{{cite book|last= Evans|first= Richard J.|title= In Hitler's Shadow: West German Historians and the Attempt to Escape from the Nazi Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZgiAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA59|year= 1989 |publisher= Pantheon Books|isbn=978-0-394-57686-2|pages=59–60}}</ref> The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, seeing the Soviet enemy as sub-human.<ref>{{cite book|last = Förster| first = Jürgen| author-link = Jürgen Förster | year = 2005 | title = Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy | publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson | page = 127}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=December 2023}}

Hitler referred to the war in radical terms, calling it a "]" ({{langx |de| Vernichtungskrieg}}) which was both an ideological and racial war. The Nazi vision for the future of Eastern Europe was codified most clearly in the {{lang | de | ]}}. The populations of occupied Central Europe and the Soviet Union were to be partially deported to West Siberia, enslaved and eventually exterminated; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanized" settlers.<ref>{{cite journal |first= Jonathan |last= Steinberg |title= The Third Reich Reflected: German Civil Administration in the Occupied Soviet Union, 1941–4 |journal= ] |volume=110 |issue=437 |pages= 620–651 |date=June 1995 |jstor=578338 |doi=10.1093/ehr/CX.437.620}}</ref> In addition, the Nazis also sought to rid themselves of the large Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/wansee-transcript.html |access-date= 5 January 2009 |title=The Wannsee Protocol |work=Literature of the Holocaust |publisher=University of Pennsylvania}} citing {{cite book |editor-first=John |editor-last=Mendelsohn |title=The Wannsee Protocol and a 1944 Report on Auschwitz by the Office of Strategic Services |volume=11 |series=The Holocaust: Selected Documents in Eighteen Volumes |location=New York |publisher=Garland |date=1982 |pages=18–32}}</ref> as part of their ].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Christian |last=Gerlach |author-link = Christian Gerlach |title=The Wannsee Conference, the Fate of German Jews, and Hitler's Decision in Principle to Exterminate All European Jews |journal=] |volume=70 |issue=4 |date=December 1998 |pages=759–812 |doi= 10.1086/235167|s2cid=143904500 |url=http://boris.unibe.ch/74383/1/235167.pdf }}</ref>

Psychologically, the German surge to the east in 1941 marked a high point in some Germans' feeling of {{lang | de | Ostrausch}} - an intoxication with the idea of colonising the East.<ref>
{{cite book
|last1 = Lower
|first1 = Wendy
|author-link1 = Wendy Lower
|date = 18 May 2006
|title = Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UwDmUJWdcJkC
|publisher = University of North Carolina Press
|page = 71
|isbn = 9780807876916
|access-date = 22 December 2023
|quote = ''Ostrausch'' (a colonizing high or intoxication with the East) .
}}
</ref>

After Germany's initial success at the ] in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. In a speech at the ] on 3 October, he announced, "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."<ref>{{Internet Archive film | youtube-KFiOi_UnX98 | Adolf Hitler's Speech on Operation Barbarossa }}</ref> Thus the German authorities expected another short '']'' and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. However, following the decisive Soviet victory at the ] in 1943 and the resulting dire German military situation, ] began to portray the war as a German defence of Western civilisation against destruction by the vast "] hordes" that were pouring into Europe.

===Soviet situation===
] and ] in 1940]]
{{See also|Great Purge|Purge of the Red Army in 1941|Spanish Civil War|Battles of Khalkhin Gol}}

Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive ] and economic growth under the leadership of ]. Stalin's central tenet, "]", manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralised ] from 1929 onwards. This represented an ideological shift in Soviet policy, away from its commitment to the international communist ], and eventually leading to the dissolution of the ] (Third International) organisation in 1943. The Soviet Union started a process of militarisation with the ] that officially began in 1928, although it was only towards the end of the second five-year plan in the mid-1930s that military power became the primary focus of Soviet industrialisation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Alexander |year=2016 |title=The Red Army and the Second World War |place=UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02079-5 |pages=34–44 }}</ref>

In February 1936 the ] brought many communist leaders into the ] government in the ], but in a matter of months ] initiated the ] of 1936–1939. This conflict soon took on the characteristics of a ] involving the Soviet Union and ] from different countries on the side of the predominantly socialist and communist-led<ref>{{cite book |last=Bolloten |first=Burnett |title=The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0F20CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA483 |year=2015 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-2447-1 |page=483|orig-date=1991}}</ref> Second Spanish Republic;<ref name="Jurado 2006, page 5">{{cite book |last=Jurado |first=Carlos Caballero |title=The Condor Legion: German Troops in the Spanish Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZKHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |year=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-0716-8 |pages=5–6}}</ref> while ], ], and ] took the side of ], the military rebel group led by General ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lind |first=Michael |title=Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvg1lr79qcEC&pg=PA59 |year=2002 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-87027-4 |page=59}}</ref> It served as a useful testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the ] to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War.

Nazi Germany, which was an ] régime, formalised its ideological position on 25 November 1936 by signing the ] with ].<ref name="weinberg">{{cite book |last=Weinberg |first=Gerhard L. |author-link=Gerhard Weinberg |title=The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVgmAQAACAAJ&pg=PA346 |year=1970 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-391-03825-7 |page=346}}</ref> Fascist Italy joined the Pact a year later.<ref name="Jurado 2006, page 5" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Spector |first=Robert Melvin |title=World Without Civilization: Mass Murder and the Holocaust, History and Analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ5Ceq6l0M0C&pg=PA257 |year=2005 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-2963-8 |page=257}}</ref> The Soviet Union negotiated ] and with ] with the aim of containing Germany's expansion.<ref>{{cite web |title=Maksim Litvinov |date=27 December 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maksim-Litvinov |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica}}</ref> The German '']'' of Austria in 1938 and the ] (1938–1939) demonstrated the impossibility of establishing a collective security system in Europe,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Max |last=Beloff |title=Soviet Foreign Policy, 1929–41: Some Notes |journal=] |volume=2 |issue=2 |year=1950 |pages=123–137 |doi=10.1080/09668135008409773}}</ref> a policy advocated by the Soviet ministry of foreign affairs under ].<ref>{{cite journal |author-link=Albert Resis |first=Albert |last=Resis |title=The Fall of Litvinov: Harbinger of the German–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact |journal=] |volume=52 |issue=1 |year=2000 |pages=33–56 |doi=10.1080/09668130098253|s2cid=153557275 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Teddy J. |last=Uldricks |title=Stalin and Nazi Germany |journal=] |volume=36 |issue=4 |year=1977 |pages=599–603 |doi=10.2307/2495264|jstor=2495264 |s2cid=159765625 |doi-access=free }}</ref> This, as well as the reluctance of the British and French governments to sign a full-scale anti-German political and military alliance with the USSR,<ref name="carley">{{cite journal |first=Michael Jabara |last=Carley |title=End of the 'Low, Dishonest Decade': Failure of the Anglo–Franco–Soviet Alliance in 1939 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=45 |issue=2 |year=1993 |pages=303–341 |doi=10.1080/09668139308412091}}</ref> led to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany in late August 1939.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Derek |last=Watson |title=Molotov's Apprenticeship in Foreign Policy: The Triple Alliance Negotiations in 1939 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=52 |issue=4 |year=2000 |pages=695–722 |doi=10.1080/713663077|s2cid=144385167 }}</ref> The separate ] between what became the three prime ] would not be signed until some four years after the Anti-Comintern Pact.

==Forces==
{{See also|Aufbau Ost (1940)|Lossberg study}}
]]]

The war was fought between Germany, its allies and ], against the ] and its allies. The conflict began on 22 June 1941 with the ] offensive, when ] forces crossed the borders described in the ], thereby invading the Soviet Union. The war ended on 9 May 1945, when Germany's armed forces ] following the ] (also known as the ]), a strategic operation executed by the Red Army.

The states that provided forces and other resources for the German war effort included the Axis Powers – primarily Romania, Hungary, Italy, pro-Nazi Slovakia, and Croatia. ] Finland, which had fought the ] against the Soviet Union, also joined the offensive. The ''Wehrmacht'' forces were also assisted by ] ] in places like Western Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Among the most prominent volunteer army formations was the ], sent by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to keep his ties to the Axis intact.<ref name="Payne2011">{{cite book|author=Stanley G. Payne|title=The Franco Regime, 1936–1975|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6Ie_HYgjUwC&pg=PA282|date=27 September 2011|publisher=University of Wisconsin Pres|isbn=978-0-299-11073-4|page=282}}</ref>

The Soviet Union offered support to the anti-Axis partisans in many ''Wehrmacht''-occupied countries in Central Europe, notably those ] and ]. In addition, the ], particularly the ] and ] Polish armies, were armed and trained, and would eventually fight alongside the Red Army. The ] forces also contributed to the Red Army by the formation of the ] (''Groupe de Chasse 3'' or 3rd Fighter Group) unit to fulfil the commitment of ], leader of the Free French, who thought that it was important for French servicemen to serve on all fronts.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Comparative strengths of combat forces, Eastern Front, 1941–1945<ref>{{cite book|last1=Glantz|first1=David M.|last2=House|first2=Jonathan M.|title=When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WS2ArgEACAAJ&pg=PA301|edition=second|series=Modern War Studies|year=2015|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-2121-7|pages=301–303}}</ref>{{sfn|Glantz|1998|p=107}}{{sfn|Glantz|House|1995|p=68}}
|-
!style="width: 10%;"|Date
!style="width: 45%;"|Axis forces
!style="width: 45%;"|Soviet forces
|-
|22 June 1941 || 3,050,000 Germans, 67,000 (northern Norway); 500,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians<br />Total: '''3,767,000''' in the east (80% of the German Army) || 2,680,000 active in Western Military Districts out of '''5,500,000''' (overall); 12,000,000 mobilizable reserves
|-
|7 June 1942 || 2,600,000 Germans, 90,000 (northern Norway); 600,000 Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians<br />Total: '''3,720,000''' in the east (80% of the German Army)|| 5,313,000 (front); 383,000 (hospital)<br />Total: '''9,350,000'''
|-
|9 July 1943 || 3,403,000 Germans, 80,000 (northern Norway); 400,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians and Hungarians<br />Total: '''3,933,000''' in the east (63% of the German Army)|| 6,724,000 (front); 446,445 (hospital);<br />Total: '''10,300,000'''
|-
|1 May 1944 || 2,460,000 Germans, 60,000 (northern Norway); 300,000 Finns, 550,000 Romanians and Hungarians<br />Total: '''3,370,000''' in the east (62% of the German Army)|| '''6,425,000'''
|-
|1 January 1945 || 2,230,000 Germans, 100,000 Hungarians<br />Total: '''2,330,000''' in the east (60% of the German Army) || '''6,532,000''' (360,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs)
|-
|1 April 1945 || 1,960,000 Germans<br />Total: '''1,960,000''' (66% of the German Army)|| '''6,410,000''' (450,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs)
|}
The above figures includes all personnel in the German Army, i.e. active-duty ], ], ] ground forces, personnel of the naval coastal artillery and security units.<ref>{{cite conference |last=Glantz |first=David M. |title=The Soviet-German War, 1941–1945: Myths and Realities |conference=Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs, Clemson University |date=11 October 2001 |url=http://sti.clemson.edu/publications-mainmenu-38/commentaries-mainmenu-211/doc_download/189-the-soviet-german-war-1941-1945-myths-and-realities-a-survey-essay |access-date=2 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408141332/http://sti.clemson.edu/publications-mainmenu-38/commentaries-mainmenu-211/doc_download/189-the-soviet-german-war-1941-1945-myths-and-realities-a-survey-essay |archive-date=8 April 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Askey |first=Nigel |title=The Myth of German Superiority on the WW2 Eastern Front |date=30 October 2017 |website=operationbarbarossa.net/ |url=http://www.operationbarbarossa.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Essay-alt-view-TIK-presentation.pdf |quote=For example, my own extensive study of German forces in 1941 (Volume IIA and IIB of 'Operation Barbarossa: the complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis') shows the entire German force on the Eastern Front (up to 4 July 1941) had around 3,359,000 men (page 74, Vol IIB). This includes around 87,600 in the Northern Norway command (Bef. Fin.), and 238,700 in OKH Reserve units (some of which had not yet arrived in the East). It includes all personnel in the German Army (including the security units), Waffen SS, Luftwaffe ground forces and even naval coastal artillery (in the East). This figure compares very well with the figure in the table (around 3,119,000) derived from Earl Ziemke's book (which is used as the Axis source in the chart)}}</ref> In the spring of 1940, Germany had mobilised 5,500,000 men.<ref>{{cite book |last=Frieser |first=Karl-Heinz |date=1995 |title=Blitzkrieg-Legende: Der Westfeldzug 1940, Operationen des Zweiten Weltkrieges |trans-title=The Blitzkrieg Legend |language=de |location=München |publisher=R. Oldenbourg |page=43}}</ref> By the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht consisted of c. 3,800,000 men of the Heer, 1,680,000 of the Luftwaffe, 404,000 of the ], 150,000 of the Waffen-SS, and 1,200,000 of the Replacement Army (contained 450,400 active reservists, 550,000 new recruits and 204,000 in administrative services, vigiles and or in convalescence). The Wehrmacht had a total strength of 7,234,000 men by 1941. For Operation Barbarossa, Germany mobilised 3,300,000 troops of the Heer, 150,000 of the Waffen-SS<ref>{{cite book|last=Muller-Hillebrand|first=Burkhart|title=Das Heer 1933–1945: Entwicklung des organisatorischen Aufbaues. Die Blitzfeldzüge 1939–1941|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EASitwAACAAJ&pg=PA102|volume=2|year=1956|publisher=Mittler & Sohn|page=102}}</ref> and approximately 250,000 personnel of the Luftwaffe were actively earmarked.<ref>{{cite book|last=Post|first=Walter|title=Unternehmen Barbarossa: deutsche und sowjetische Angriffspläne 1940/41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BegAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA249|year=2001|publisher=E.S. Mittler|isbn=978-3-8132-0772-9|page=249}}</ref>
]
By July 1943, the Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 troops. Of these, 3,900,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 180,000 in Finland, 315,000 in Norway, 110,000 in Denmark, 1,370,000 in western Europe, 330,000 in Italy, and 610,000 in the Balkans.<ref>Materialien zum Vortrag des Chefs des Wehrmachtführungsstabes vom 7.11.1943 "Die strategische Lage am Anfang des fünften Kriegsjahres", (referenced to KTB OKW, IV, S. 1534 ff.)</ref> According to a presentation by ], the Wehrmacht was up to 7,849,000 personnel in April 1944. 3,878,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 311,000 in Norway/Denmark, 1,873,000 in western Europe, 961,000 in Italy, and 826,000 in the Balkans.<ref>"Strategische Lage im Frühjahr 1944", Jodl, Vortrag 5 May 1944. (referenced to BA-MA, N69/18.)</ref> About 15–20% of total German strength were foreign troops (from allied countries or conquered territories). The German high water mark was just before the ], in early July 1943: 3,403,000 German troops and 650,000 Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian and other countries' troops.{{sfn|Glantz|1998|p=107}}{{sfn|Glantz|House|1995|p=68}}

For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, ], and the ]. Hitler had always intended to renege on his pact with the Soviet Union, eventually making the decision to invade in the spring of 1941.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Weinberg|first=Gerhard L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWjtDwAAQBAJ&q=Political+conversations+designed+to+clarify+the+attitude+of+Russia+in+the+immediate+future+have+been+started.+Regardless+of+the+outcome+of+these+conversations,+all+preparations+for+the+East+previously+ordered+orally+are+to+be+continued.+%5BWritten%5D+directives+on+that+will+follow+as+soon+as+the+basic+elements+of+the+army's+plan+for+the+operation+have+been+submitted+to+me+and+approved+by+me.+%E2%80%94Adolf+Hitle&pg=PA199|title=A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II|date=2013-07-11|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-511-25293-8|page=199|language=en}}</ref>

Some historians say Stalin was fearful of war with Germany, or just did not expect Germany to start a ], and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Another viewpoint is that Stalin expected war in 1942 (the time when all his preparations would be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe it would come early.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardesty|first=Von|title=Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power, 1941–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-lmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA16|year=1982|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|isbn=978-0-87474-510-8|page=16}}</ref>

British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicott show that Nazi Germany—unlike Imperial Germany—was prepared for only a short-term war (Blitzkrieg).<ref>{{cite journal |first=A. S. |last=Milward |title=The End of the Blitzkrieg |journal=] |volume=16 |issue=3 |year=1964 |pages=499–518 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.1964.tb01744.x |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024|jstor=2592851 }}</ref> According to Edward Ericson, although Germany's own resources were sufficient for the victories in the West in 1940, massive Soviet shipments obtained ] were critical for Germany to launch Operation Barbarossa.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Edward E. III |last=Ericson |title=Karl Schnurre and the Evolution of Nazi–Soviet Relations, 1936–1941 |journal=] |volume=21 |issue=2 |year=1998 |pages=263–283 |jstor=1432205 |doi=10.2307/1432205 }}</ref>

]
Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making repeated ] flights over the border; the Soviet Union responded by assembling its divisions on its western border, although the Soviet mobilisation was slower than Germany's due to the country's less dense road network. As in the ] on the ] or ], Soviet troops on the western border received a directive, signed by ] ] and ] ], that ordered (as demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any (offensive) actions without specific orders"{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} – which meant that Soviet troops could open fire only on their soil and forbade counter-attack on German soil.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and civilian leadership largely by surprise.

The extent of warnings received by Stalin about a German invasion is controversial, and the claim that there was a warning that "Germany will attack on 22 June without declaration of war" has been dismissed as a "popular myth". However, some sources quoted in the articles on Soviet spies ] and ], say they had sent warnings of an attack on 20 or 22 June, which were treated as "disinformation". The ] in Switzerland also sent warnings, possibly deriving from Ultra codebreaking in Britain. Sweden had access to internal German communications through breaking the crypto used in the ] crypto machine also known as the Geheimschreiber and informed Stalin about the forthcoming invasion well ahead of June 22, but did not reveal its sources. {{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Soviet intelligence was fooled by German disinformation, so sent false alarms to Moscow about a German invasion in April, May and the beginning of June. Soviet intelligence reported that Germany would rather invade the USSR after the fall of the British Empire<ref>Source: L. E. Reshin, "Year of 1941", vol. 1, p. 508.</ref> or after an unacceptable ultimatum demanding German occupation of Ukraine during the German invasion of Britain.<ref>Source: L. E. Reshin, "Year of 1941", vol. 2, p. 152.</ref>

===Foreign support and measures===
] by the ] and ] played a significant part in damaging German industry and tying up German air force and air defence resources, with some bombings, such as the ], being done to facilitate specific Soviet operational goals. In addition to Germany, hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on their eastern allies of ] and ], primarily in ].

British and Commonwealth forces also contributed directly to the fighting on the Eastern Front through their service in the ] and ], as well as in the provision of early material and intelligence support.

{| class="wikitable floatright" style=text-align:right;
|+Allied shipments to the Soviet Union<ref>Hans-Adolf Jacobsen: ''1939–1945, Der Zweite Weltkrieg in Chronik und Dokumenten''. Darmstadt 1961, p. 568. (German Language)</ref>
|-class="hintergrundfarbe6"
!Year
!Amount<br />(tons)
! colspan=2 | %
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|1941
|360,778
|{{decimal cell|2.1}}
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|1942
|2,453,097
|{{decimal cell|14}}
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|1943
|4,794,545
|{{decimal cell|27.4}}
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|1944
|6,217,622
|{{decimal cell|35.5}}
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|1945
|3,673,819
|{{decimal cell|21}}
|-class="hintergrundfarbe2"
|'''Total'''
|'''17,499,861'''
| {{decimal cell|'''100'''}}
|}

====Soviet Union====
Among other goods, Lend-Lease supplied:<ref name="Weeks">{{cite book|last=Weeks|first=Albert L.|title=Russia's Life-Saver: Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R. in World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-BN64vwKSkQC&pg=PA8|year=2004|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-6054-1}}</ref>{{rp|8–9}}
* 58% of the USSR's high octane aviation fuel
* 33% of their motor vehicles
* 53% of USSR domestic production of expended ordnance (artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives)
* 30% of fighters and bombers
* 93% of railway equipment (locomotives, freight cars, wide gauge rails, etc.)
* 50–80% of rolled steel, cable, lead, and aluminium
* 43% of garage facilities (building materials and blueprints)
* 12% of tanks and SPGs
* 50% of TNT (1942–1944) and 33% of ammunition powder (in 1944)<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923103208/http://www.anews.com/p/67498308/ |date=23 September 2017 }} (in Russian). "In 1944, we received about one third of the ammunition powder from the Lend-Lease. Almost half of TNT (the main explosive filler for most kinds of ammunition) or raw materials for its production came from abroad in 1942–44."</ref>
* 16% of all explosives (From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports.)<ref name="ReferenceA">Ivan Ivanovich Vernidub, Boepripasy pobedy, 1998</ref>

Lend-Lease aid of military hardware, components and goods to the Soviet Union constituted to 20% percent of the assistance.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|122}} The rest were foodstuff, nonferrous metals (e.g., copper, magnesium, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, aluminium), chemical substances, petroleum (high octane aviation gasoline) and factory machinery. The aid of production-line equipment and machinery were crucial and helped to maintain adequate levels of Soviet armament production during the entire war.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|122}} In addition, the USSR received wartime innovations including penicillin, radar, rocket, precision-bombing technology, the long-range navigation system ], and many other innovations.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|123}}

Of the 800,000 tons of nonferrous metals shipped,<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|124}} about 350,000 tons were aluminium.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|135}} The shipment of aluminium not only represented double the amount of metal that Germany possessed, but also composed the bulk of aluminium that was used in manufacture of Soviet aircraft, that had fallen in critically short supply.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|135}} Soviet statistics show, that without these shipments of aluminium, aircraft production would have been less than one-half (or about 45,000 less) of the total 137,000 produced aircraft.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|135}}

Stalin noted in 1944, that two-thirds of Soviet heavy industry had been built with the help of the United States, and the remaining one-third, with the help from other Western nations such as Great Britain and Canada.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|129}} The massive transfer of equipment and skilled personnel from occupied territories helped further to boost the economic base.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|129}} Without Lend-Lease aid, Soviet Union's diminished post invasion economic base would not have produced adequate supplies of weaponry, other than focus on machine tool, foodstuff and consumer goods.{{Clarify|date=June 2019}}<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|129}}

In the last year of war, Lend-Lease data show that about 5.1&nbsp;million tons of foodstuff left the United States for the Soviet Union.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|123}} It is estimated that all the food supplies sent to Russia could feed a 12,000,000-man strong army a half pound of concentrated food per day, for the entire duration of the war.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|122–3}}

The total Lend-Lease aid provided during the Second World War had been estimated between $42–50&nbsp;billion.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|128}} The Soviet Union received shipments in war materials, military equipment and other supplies worth of $12.5&nbsp;billion, about a quarter of the American Lend-Lease aid provided to other Allied countries.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|123}} However, post-war negotiations to settle all the debt were never concluded,<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|133}} and as of date, the debt issues is still on in future American-Russian summits and talks.<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|133–4}}

Prof. Dr. Albert L. Weeks concluded, "As to attempts to sum up the importance of those four-year-long shipments of Lend-Lease for the Russian victory on the Eastern Front in World War II, the jury is still out – that is, in any definitive sense of establishing ''exactly'' how crucial this aid was."<ref name="Weeks"/>{{rp|123}}

====Nazi Germany====
] at the height of German military expansion, 1942]]
Germany's economic, scientific, research and industrial capabilities were among the most technically advanced in the world at the time. However, access to (and control of) the ]s, raw materials and production capacity required to entertain long-term goals (such as European control, German territorial expansion and the destruction of the USSR) were limited. Political demands necessitated the expansion of Germany's control of natural and human resources, industrial capacity and farmland beyond its borders (conquered territories). Germany's military production was tied to resources outside its area of control, a dynamic not found amongst the Allies.

During the war, as Germany acquired new territories (either by direct annexation or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Overall, ] made the largest contribution to the German war effort. Two-thirds of all French trains in 1941 were used to carry goods to Germany. In 1943–44, French payments to Germany may have risen to as much as 55% of French GDP.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-second-world-war/economics-of-the-war-with-nazi-germany/E2F3FE2B9549A00F2E992673C5C8B28D|chapter=The economics of the war with Nazi Germany|first1=Adam|last1=Tooze|first2=Jamie|last2=Martin|title=The Cambridge History of the Second World War|editor-first1=Adam|editor-last1=Tooze|editor-first2=Michael|editor-last2=Geyer|date=26 October 2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=3|pages=27–55|doi=10.1017/CHO9781139626859.003|isbn=978-1-139-62685-9}}</ref> ] lost 20% of its national income in 1940 and 40% in 1943.{{sfn|Braun|1990|p=121}} Axis allies such as ] and ], ], Finland, ] and ] benefited from Germany's net imports. Overall, Germany imported 20% of its food and 33% of its raw materials from conquered territories and Axis allies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2932p3/revision/4|title=Employment and living standards - Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 - OCR B - GCSE History Revision - OCR B|website=BBC Bitesize}}</ref>

On 27 May 1940, Germany signed the "Oil Pact" with Romania, by which Germany would trade arms for oil. Romania's oil production amounted to approximately 6,000,000 tons annually. This production represents 35% of the total fuel production of the Axis, including synthetic products and substitutes, and 70% of the total production of crude oil.<ref>A History of Romanian Oil, Vol. II, p. 245</ref> In 1941, Germany only had 18% of the oil it had in peacetime. Romania supplied Germany and its allies with roughly 13&nbsp;million barrels of oil (about 4&nbsp;million per year) between 1941 and 1943. Germany's peak oil production in 1944 amounted to about 12&nbsp;million barrels of oil per year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://peakoil.com/consumption/china-today-is-foreign-oil-dependent-like-germany-in-ww2|title=China today is foreign oil dependent like Germany in WW2 &#124; Peak Oil News and Message Boards|website=peakoil.com}}</ref>

Rolf Karlbom estimated that ] share of Germany's total consumption of ] may have amounted to 43% during the period of 1933–43. It may also be likely that "Swedish ore formed the raw material of four out of every ten German guns" during the Hitler era'.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/03585522.1968.10411499 | volume=16 | title=Swedish iron ore exports to Germany, 1933–44 | year=1968 | journal=Scandinavian Economic History Review | pages=171–175 | last1 = Karlbom | first1 = Rolf| issue=2 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Forced labour===
{{Main|Forced labour under German rule during World War II}}
The use of foreign ] and slavery in Germany and throughout ] during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale.<ref>Ulrich Herbert, ''Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labour in Germany under the Third Reich'' (1997)</ref> It was a vital part of the ] of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12&nbsp;million foreign people from almost twenty European countries; about two-thirds came from Central and Eastern Europe.<ref name=BeyerSchneider>{{Cite book |author=John C. Beyer |author2=Stephen A. Schneider |title=Forced Labour under Third Reich |publisher=Nathan Associates }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824092603/http://www.nathaninc.com/sites/default/files/Pub%20PDFs/Forced%20Labor%20Under%20the%20Third%20Reich,%20Part%20One.pdf |date=24 August 2015 }} and {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403025028/http://www.nathaninc.com/sites/default/files/Pub%20PDFs/Forced%20Labor%20Under%20the%20Third%20Reich%2C%20Part%20Two.pdf |date=3 April 2017 }}.</ref> Counting deaths and turnover, about 15&nbsp;million men and women were forced labourers at one point during the war.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 30036339|title = Exploitation, Criminality, Resistance. The Everyday Life of Foreign Workers and Prisoners of War in the German Town of Osnabrck, 1939-49|journal = Journal of Contemporary History|volume = 40|issue = 3|pages = 483–502|last1 = Panayi|first1 = Panikos|year = 2005|doi = 10.1177/0022009405054568|s2cid = 159846665}}</ref> For example, 1.5&nbsp;million French soldiers were kept in POW camps in Germany as hostages and forced workers and, in 1943, 600,000 French civilians were forced to move to Germany to work in war plants.<ref>Ulrich Herbert, "Forced Laborers in the 'Third Reich'", ''International Labor and Working-Class History'' (1997) {{cite web|url=http://projekte.geschichte.uni-freiburg.de/herbert/uhpub/forcedlaborers.html |title=Forced Laborers in the "Third Reich" - an Overview |access-date=20 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415124110/http://projekte.geschichte.uni-freiburg.de/herbert/uhpub/forcedlaborers.html |archive-date=15 April 2008 }}</ref>


The defeat of Germany in 1945 freed approximately 11&nbsp;million foreigners (categorised as "displaced persons"), most of whom were forced labourers and POWs. In wartime, the German forces had brought into the Reich 6.5&nbsp;million civilians in addition to Soviet POWs for unfree labour in factories.{{r|BeyerSchneider}} In all, 5.2&nbsp;million foreign workers and POWs were repatriated to the Soviet Union, 1.6&nbsp;million to Poland, 1.5&nbsp;million to France, and 900,000 to Italy, along with 300,000 to 400,000 each to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Belgium.<ref>William I. Hitchcock, ''The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe'' (2008), pp 250–56</ref>
For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered ], ], and the ].


==Conduct of operations==
Adolf Hitler had always intended to renege on the pact with the Soviet Union and invade. He had argued in '']'' of the necessity of ] (''Lebensraum'') in Eastern Europe. He envisaged settling Germans as a master race in western Russia, while deporting most of the Russians to ] and using the remainder as ]. After ] of the ], Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for conquest: "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."
{{Main|Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II}}


] on 22 June 1941.]]
] was fearful of war with Germany, thereby being reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Even though Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making clandestine ] flights over the border, Stalin ignored the warnings of his own as well as foreign intelligence. Moreover, on the very night of the invasion, Soviet troops received a directive undersigned by ] ] and ] ] that commanded (as it was demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any actions without specific orders". The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and leadership largely by surprise.
While German historians do not apply any specific periodisation to the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front, all Soviet and Russian historians divide the war against Germany and its allies into three periods, which are further subdivided into eight major ] of the Theatre of war:<ref>{{cite AV media |last=Glantz |first=David M. |author-link=David Glantz |title=The Soviet–German War, 1941–1945: Myths and Realities |publisher=] |date=25 March 2010 |via=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Clz27nghIg| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/7Clz27nghIg| archive-date=2021-10-28}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* '''First period''' ({{langx|ru|Первый период Великой Отечественной войны}}) (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
# Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1941 ({{langx|ru|Летне-осенняя кампания 1941 г.}}) (22 June – 4 December 1941)
# Winter Campaign of 1941–42 ({{langx|ru|Зимняя кампания 1941/42 г.}}) (5 December 1941 – 30 April 1942)
# Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1942 ({{langx|ru|Летне-осенняя кампания 1942 г.}}) (1 May – 18 November 1942)
* '''Second period''' ({{langx|ru|Второй период Великой Отечественной войны}}) (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
# Winter Campaign of 1942–43 ({{langx|ru|Зимняя кампания 1942–1943 гг.}}) (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)
# Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943 ({{langx|ru|Летне-осенняя кампания 1943 г.}}) (1 July – 31 December 1943)
* '''Third period''' ({{langx|ru|Третий период Великой Отечественной войны}}) (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)
# Winter–Spring Campaign ({{langx|ru|Зимне-весенняя кампания 1944 г.}}) (1 January – 31 May 1944)
# Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1944 ({{langx|ru|Летне-осенняя кампания 1944 г.}}) (1 June – 31 December 1944)
# Campaign in Europe during 1945 ({{langx|ru|Кампания в Европе 1945 г.}}) (1 January – 8 May 1945)


===Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941===
==Operations==
]: the German invasion of the ], 21 June 1941 to 5 December 1941:
===Invasion: Summer 1941===
]: the German invasion of the ], ] ] to ] ]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 9 July 1941}} {{legend|#fff8d5|to 9 July 1941}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 1 September 1941}} {{legend|#ffd2b9|to 1 September 1941}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 9 September 1941}} {{legend|#ebd7ff|to 9 September 1941}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 5 December 1941}} {{legend|#ccffcd|to 5 December 1941}}]]
]]
''Main article: ]''


{{Main|Operation Barbarossa}}
At 04:45 on ] ], four million German, Italian, Romanian and other ] troops burst over the borders and stormed into the Soviet Union. For a month the three-pronged offensive was completely unstoppable as the '']'' forces ] hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving ] divisions while the panzers charged on, following the '']'' ].
]'s announcement of the German invasion, 22 June 1941]]
Operation Barbarossa began just before dawn on 22 June 1941. The Germans cut the wire network in all Soviet western military districts to undermine the Red Army's communications.<ref name="ZHU">{{cite book | last =Zhukov | first =Georgy | title =Vospominaniya i razmyshleniya| publisher =Agenstvo pechati Novosti | year = 1972| location = Moscow}}</ref> Panicky transmissions from the Soviet front-line units to their command headquarters were picked up like this: "We are being fired upon. What shall we do?" The answer was just as confusing: "You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?"<ref>{{cite book|last=Regan|first=Geoffrey|title=Military Anecdotes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QJwkAAAACAAJ&pg=PA210|year=1992|publisher=Andre Deutsch|isbn=978-0-233-05077-5|page=210}}</ref>


At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divisions, including fourteen ]s and ten motorised, were deployed against the Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Black Sea. They were accompanied by ten Romanian divisions, three Italian divisions, two Slovakian divisions and nine Romanian and four Hungarian ]s.<ref>{{cite book | editor-last =Zhilin | editor-first =P.A. | title =Velikaya Otechestvennaya voyna| publisher =Izdatelstvo politicheskoi literatury| year = 1973| location = Moscow}}</ref> On the same day, the ], ] and ] were renamed the ], Western and Southwestern Fronts respectively.<ref name="ZHU" />
Army Group North's objective was ] via the Baltic States. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and 4th Panzer Group, this formation drove through ], ], ] and the Russian cities of ] and ].


To establish air supremacy, the ''Luftwaffe'' began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields, destroying much of the forward-deployed Soviet Air Force airfield fleets consisting of largely obsolescent types before their pilots had a chance to leave the ground.<ref>Shirer (1990), p. 852</ref> For a month the offensive conducted on three axes was completely unstoppable as the ] forces ] hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving ] armies while the panzers continued the offensive. Luftwaffe also dropped hundreds of Russian-speaking parachutists behind the offensive lines to bring back information of Soviet troops reserves' disposition.<ref>Helen Fry, "'The Walls Have Ears'", Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-23860-0, 2019, p. 81</ref>
Army Group Centre comprised two Panzer groups (2nd and 3rd), which rolled east from either side of ] and converged ahead of ], followed by 2nd, 4th and 9th Armies. The combined Panzer force reached the ] in just six days, 650&nbsp;km (400&nbsp;miles) from their start lines. The next objective was to cross the ], which was accomplished by ]. Following that, their next target was ], which fell on ], but the ] blocked the German advance until mid-September, effectively disrupting the ''blitzkrieg''.


]'s objective was ] via the Baltic states. Comprising the ] and ] and the ], this formation advanced through the Baltic states, and the Russian ] and ] regions. ] seized the moment and controlled most of Lithuania, northern Latvia and ] prior to the arrival of the German forces.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Riho |last1=Rõngelep |first2=Michael Hesselholt |last2=Clemmesen |title=Tartu in the 1941 Summer War |journal=Baltic Defence Review |date=January 2003 |volume=9 |issue=1 }}</ref><ref name=kaasik>{{cite book|author1=Peeter Kaasik |author2=Mika Raudvassar |year=2006|pages=495–517|chapter=Estonia from June to October, 1941: Forest Brothers and Summer War|editor1=Toomas Hiio |editor2=Meelis Maripuu |editor3=Indrek Paavle |title=Estonia 1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity|location=Tallinn|title-link=Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity }}</ref>
Army Group South, with 1st Panzer Group, 6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked with advancing through ] and into ]. Their progress, however, was rather slow, with only the corridor towards ] secure by mid-July. 11th Army, aided by two Romanian armies, fought its way through ] towards ]. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend. When it joined up with the southern elements of Army Group South at ], the group ] in a huge pocket.


]'s two panzer groups (the ] and ]), advanced to the north and south of ] and converged east of ], followed by the ], ], and ]. The combined panzer force reached the ] in just six days, {{convert|650|km|mi|abbr=on}} from their start lines. The next objective was to cross the ], which was accomplished by 11 July. Their next target was ], which fell on 16 July, but the ] and slowing of the ''Wehrmacht'' advance by the North and South Army Groups forced Hitler to halt a central thrust at Moscow and to divert the 3rd Panzer Group north. Critically, ]'s 2nd Panzer Group was ordered to move south in a giant pincer manoeuvre with Army Group South which was advancing into Ukraine. Army Group Centre's infantry divisions were left relatively unsupported by armour to continue their slow advance to Moscow.<ref name="wilt">{{cite journal |first=Alan F. |last=Wilt |title=Hitler's Late Summer Pause in 1941 |journal=] |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=187–191 |date=December 1981 |jstor=1987464 |doi=10.2307/1987464}}</ref>
As the ] withdrew behind the Dnieper and ] rivers, the Soviet hierarchy turned its attention to moving as much of the region's heavy industry as it could, dismantled and packed onto flatcars, away from the ], re-establishing it in more remote areas behind the ] and in ]. Most civilians could not be evacuated along with the equipment and were left behind to the mercy of the invading forces.


] archive]]
With the capture of Smolensk and the advance to the ], Army Groups Centre and North had completed their first major objective: to get across and hold the "land bridge" between the Dvina and Dnieper. The route to ], now only 400&nbsp;km (250&nbsp;miles) away, was wide open.


The German generals argued for an immediate drive towards Moscow, but Hitler overruled them, citing the importance of Ukrainian grain and heavy industry if under German possession, not to mention the massing of Soviet reserves in the ] area between Army Group Centre's southern flanks and the bogged-down Army Group South to the south. The order was issued to 2nd Panzer Group to turn south and advance towards Kiev. This took the whole of August and into September, but when 2nd Panzer Group joined up with 1st Panzer Group at ] on ] 665,000 Soviet prisoners were taken and ] on ]. This decision caused a severe leadership crisis. The German field commanders argued for an immediate offensive towards Moscow, but Hitler ], citing the importance of Ukrainian agricultural, mining and industrial resources, as well as the massing of Soviet reserves in the ] area between Army Group Centre's southern flank and the bogged-down Army Group South's northern flank. This decision, Hitler's "summer pause",<ref name="wilt" /> is believed to have had a severe impact on the outcome of the ] later in the year, by slowing down the advance on Moscow in favour of encircling large numbers of Soviet troops around Kiev.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Russel H. S. |last=Stolfi |title=Barbarossa Revisited: A Critical Reappraisal of the Opening Stages of the Russo–German Campaign (June–December 1941) |journal=] |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=27–46 |date=March 1982 |jstor=1906049|doi=10.1086/244076 |hdl=10945/44218 |s2cid=143690841 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>


], with the ], the ], ] and ], was tasked with advancing through ] and into Ukraine. Their progress, however, was rather slow, and they took heavy casualties in the ]. At the beginning of July, the ] and ] Romanian Armies, aided by elements of the German 11th Army, fought their way through Bessarabia towards ]. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend (western ]). When it joined up with the southern elements of Army Group South at ], the Group ] in a huge encirclement. Advancing armoured divisions of Army Group South met with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group near ] in 16 September, cutting off large numbers of Red Army troops in the pocket east of Kiev.<ref name="wilt" /> 400,000 Soviet prisoners were captured as Kiev was surrendered on 19 September.<ref name="wilt" />
===Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941===
''Main articles: ] and ]'' ] poster reminding Russians about the traditions of ], ], and ].]]


On 26 September, the Soviet forces east of Kiev surrendered and the Battle of Kiev ended.
Hitler then decided to resume the advance to Moscow, renaming the Panzer Groups to Panzer Armies for the occasion. ], which was set in motion on ], saw 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from ] (captured ]) to the ] at ], while the 4th Panzer Army (transferred from Army Group North to Centre) and 3rd Panzer Armies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pockets at ] and ]. Army Group North positioned itself in front of ] and attempted to cut the rail link at ] to the east. Thus began the 900-day ]. North of the ], a German-Finnish force set out for ] but could get no further than the Litsa river, where they settled down.


As the Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper and ] rivers, the Soviet ] (high command) turned its attention to evacuating as much of the western regions' industry as it could. Factories were dismantled and transported on flatcars away from the ] for re-establishment in more remote areas of the ], ], ] and south-eastern Siberia. Most civilians were left to make their own way east, with only industry-related workers evacuated with the equipment; much of the population was left behind to the mercy of the invading forces.
Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the ] coast, also advancing through ], ] and ]. The 11th Army moved into the ] and had taken control of all of the ] by autumn (except ], which held out until ] ]). On ] the Germans ], the gateway to the ]. However, the German lines were over-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city and behind the ]; the first significant German ] of the war.


Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate a ] to deny the Germans and their allies basic supplies as they advanced eastward. To carry out that order, ] were formed in front-line areas, having the authority to summarily execute any suspicious person. The destruction battalions burned down villages, schools, and public buildings.<ref name=paavle>{{cite book|author=], Peeter Kaasik|year=2006|pages=469–493|chapter=Destruction battalions in Estonia in 1941|editor=] |editor2=Meelis Maripuu |editor3=Indrek Paavle |title=Estonia 1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity|location=Tallinn|title-link=Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity}}</ref> As a part of this policy, the ].<ref name="Social Catastrophe">{{cite book|last=Gellately|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Gellately|title=Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z42C6L-fxjUC&pg=PA391|year=2007|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|isbn=978-1-4000-4005-6|page=391}}</ref>
Just as Operation Typhoon got going, the Russian weather struck. For the second half of October it rained solidly, turning what few roads there were into endless mud that trapped German vehicles, horses and men alike. With 160&nbsp;km (100&nbsp;miles) still to go to Moscow, there was worse to come when the temperature plunged and snow started falling. The vehicles could move again, but the men could not, freezing with no winter clothing. The German leadership, expecting the campaign to be over in a few months, had not equipped their armies for winter fighting.


===Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941===
One last lunge on ] saw the Germans attempting to throw a ring around Moscow. On ] the 4th Panzer Army got within 30&nbsp;km (19&nbsp;miles) of the ] when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at ], while the 2nd Panzer Army, try as it might, could not take ], the last Russian city that stood in its way of the capital. After a meeting held in ] between the head of the ], ] ], and the heads of three ] and armies, it was decided to push forward to ] since it was better, as argued by head of ], ] ], for them to try their luck on the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while their opponent gathered more strength.
] soldiers pulling a car from the mud during the ] period, November 1941]]
{{Main|Siege of Leningrad|Battle of Moscow|Battle of Rostov (1941)}}


Hitler then decided to resume the advance on Moscow, re-designating the panzer groups as panzer armies for the occasion. Operation Typhoon, which was set in motion on 30 September, saw the 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from ] (captured 5 October) to the ] at ], while the 4th Panzer Army (transferred from Army Group North to Centre) and 3rd Panzer armies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pockets at ] and ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Second World War|last=Gilbert|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Gilbert|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=1989|isbn=0-297-79616-X|location=London|pages=|url=https://archive.org/details/secondworldwar00gilb_0/page/242}}</ref> Army Group North positioned itself in front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the rail link at ] to the east.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Total War|last1=Calvocoressi|first1=Peter|last2=Wint|first2=Guy|publisher=Penguin|year=1972|location=Harmandsworth, England|page=179}}</ref> This began the 900-day ]. North of the ], a German–Finnish force ] but could get no further than the ], where they settled down.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Hitler's arctic war: the German campaigns in Norway, Finland and the USSR 1940–1945|last=Chris.|first=Mann|date=2002|publisher=Allan|others=Jörgensen, Christer.|isbn=0-7110-2899-0|location=Surrey|oclc=58342844|pages=81–86}}</ref>
However, by ] it became clear that '']'' was too weak to capture Moscow and the attack was put on hold. ] ] thus began his ], employing fresh, well-trained Siberian ] transfered from the east following the guarantee of neutrality from Japan.

Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the ] coast, also advancing through ], ], and ]. The combined German and Romanian forces moved into the ] and took control of all of the ] by autumn (except ], which ] until 3 July 1942). On 21 November, the Wehrmacht ], the gateway to the Caucasus. However, the German lines were over-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city and behind the ]; the first significant German ] of the war.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stopped at Stalingrad|url=https://archive.org/details/stoppedatstaling00hayw|url-access=limited|last=Hayward|first=Joel|publisher=University Press of Kansas|year=1998|isbn=0-7006-1146-0|location=Lawrence, Kansas|pages=–11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Second World War|last=Liddell Hart|first=B. H.|publisher=Cassell|year=1970|isbn=0-330-23770-5|location=London|page=176}}</ref>

The onset of the winter freeze saw one last German lunge that opened on 15 November, when the Wehrmacht attempted to encircle Moscow. On 27 November, the 4th Panzer Army got to within {{convert|30|km|mi|abbr=on}} of the ] when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at ]. Meanwhile, the 2nd Panzer Army failed to take ], the last Soviet city that stood in its way to the capital. After a meeting held in ] between the head of the ''OKH'' (]), General ] and the heads of three ] groups and armies, decided to push forward to ] since it was better, as argued by the head of ], ] ], for them to try their luck on the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while their opponent gathered more strength.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Barbarossa|last=Clark|first=Alan|publisher=Cassell|year=1965|isbn=0-304-35864-9|location=London|pages=172–180}}</ref>

However, by 6 December it became clear that the ''Wehrmacht'' did not have the strength to capture Moscow, and the attack was suspended. ] thus began his ], employing freshly mobilised ],<ref>{{cite journal |first=Louis |last=Rotundo |title=The Creation of Soviet Reserves and the 1941 Campaign |journal=Military Affairs |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=21–28 |date=January 1986 |jstor=1988530 |doi=10.2307/1988530}}</ref> as well as some well-trained Far-Eastern divisions transferred from the east following ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blood, Tears and Folly|last=Deighton|first=Len|publisher=Pimlico|year=1993|isbn=0-7126-6226-X|location=London|page=479}}</ref>


===Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941=== ===Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941===
] ] to ] ]]] ]
''Main article: ], ]'' {{Main|Battle of Moscow|Second Battle of Kharkov|Winter Campaign of 1941–42|Bombing of Gorky in World War II}}


The Soviet counter-offensive during the Battle of Moscow had removed the immediate German threat to the city. According to ], "the success of the December counter-offensive in the central strategic direction was considerable. Having suffered a major defeat the German striking forces of Army Group Centre were retreating." ]'s objective in January 1942 was "to deny the Germans any breathing space, to drive them westward without let-up, to make them use up their reserves before spring comes..."<ref name=GeorgyZhukov>{{Cite book |last=Zhukov |first=Georgy |title=Marshal of Victory, Volume II |publisher=Pen and Sword Books Ltd. |year=1974 |isbn=978-1-78159-291-5 |pages=52–53}}</ref>
During the autumn, Zhukov had been transferring fresh and well-equipped Soviet forces from Siberia and the far east to Moscow (these troops had been stationed there in expectation of a Japanese attack, but ] master ] ] indicated that the Japanese had decided to attack ] and ] instead). On ] ], these reinforcements attacked the German lines around Moscow, supported by new ]s and ]s. The new Soviet troops were prepared for winter warfare, and they included several ]. The exhausted and freezing Germans were routed and driven back between 100 and 250&nbsp;km (60 to 150&nbsp;miles) by ] ].


The main blow was to be delivered by a ] orchestrated by the Northwestern Front, the ] and the Western Front. The overall objective according to Zhukov was the "subsequent encirclement and destruction of the enemy's main forces in the area of ], Vyazma and Smolensk. The ], the ] and the right wing forces of the Northwestern Front were to rout the Army Group North." The Southwestern Front and ] were to defeat Army Group South. The ] and ] were to take back the Crimea.<ref name=GeorgyZhukov/>{{rp|53}}
], December 1941]]


The 20th Army, part of the ], the 22nd Tank Brigade and five ski battalions launched their attack on 10 January 1942. By 17 January, the Soviets had captured Lotoshino and Shakhovskaya. By 20 January, the ] and ] Armies had captured Ruza, Dorokhovo, Mozhaisk and Vereya, while the ] and ] Armies were at Domanovo.<ref name=GeorgyZhukov/>{{rp|58–59}}
A further Soviet attack was mounted in late January, focusing on the junction between Army Groups North and Centre between ] and ], and drove a gap between the two German army groups. In concert with the advance from ] to the south-west of Moscow, it was intended that the two offensives converge on Smolensk, but the Germans rallied and managed to hold them apart, retaining a ] at Rzhev. A Soviet ] on German-held ] was spectacularly unsuccessful, and those paratroopers who survived had to escape to the partisan-held areas beginning to swell behind German lines. To the north, the Soviets surrounded a German ] in ], which held out with air supply for four months, and established themselves in front of ], ] and ].


The Wehrmacht rallied, retaining a ] at Rzhev. A Soviet ] by two battalions of the 201st Airborne Brigade and the 250th Airborne Regiment on 18 and 22 January was designed to "cut off enemy communications with the rear." Lt.-Gen. ]'s 33rd Army aided by Gen. Belov's 1st Cavalry Corps and ] attempted to seize Vyazma. This force was joined by additional paratroopers of the 8th Airborne Brigade at the end of January. However, in early February, the Germans managed to cut off this force, separating the Soviets from their main force in the rear of the Germans. They were supplied by air until April when they were given permission to regain the Soviet main lines. Only part of Belov's Cavalry Corps made it to safety however, while Yefremov's men fought "a losing battle."<ref name=GeorgyZhukov/>{{rp|59–62}}
In the south the Red Army crashed over the ] at ] and drove a 100-km (60-mile) deep salient. The intent was to pin Army Group South against the ], but as the winter eased the Germans were able to counter-attack and cut off the over-extended Soviet troops in the ].

By April 1942, the Soviet Supreme Command agreed to assume the defensive so as to "consolidate the captured ground." According to Zhukov, ''"During the winter offensive, the forces of the Western Front had advanced from 70 to 100&nbsp;km, which somewhat improved the overall operational and strategic situation on the Western sector."''<ref name=GeorgyZhukov/>{{rp|64}}

To the north, the Red Army surrounded a German ] in ], which ], and established themselves in front of ], ], and ]. Further north still, the ] was unleashed on the ]. Initially this made some progress; however, it was unsupported, and by June a German counterattack cut off and destroyed the army. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General ], later defected to Germany and formed the ROA or ]. In the south the Red Army lunged over the ] at ] and drove a {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}} deep salient. The intent was to pin Army Group South against the Sea of Azov, but as the winter eased the Wehrmacht counter-attacked and cut off the over-extended Soviet troops in the ].


===Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942=== ===Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942===
]: German advances from ] ] to ] ] ]: German advances from 7 May 1942 to 18 November 1942:
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 7 July 1942}} {{legend|#fff8d5|to 7 July 1942}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 22 July 1942}} {{legend|#ffd2b9|to 22 July 1942}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 1 August 1942}} {{legend|#ebd7ff|to 1 August 1942}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 18 November 1942}} {{legend|#ccffcd|to 18 November 1942}}]]
]]
''Main articles: ], ], ]''


{{Main|Case Blue|Battle of Voronezh (1942)|Battle of Caucasus|Battle of Stalingrad}}
Although plans were made to attack Moscow again, on ] ], the offensive re-opened in a different direction. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the ] and then following the ] southeastwards. The grand plan was to secure the Don and ] first and then drive into the Caucasus towards the ]s, but operational considerations and Hitler's vanity made him order both objectives to be attempted simultaneously. Rostov was recaptured on ] when 1st Panzer Army joined in, and then that group drove south towards ]. As part of this, Operation Shamil was executed, a plan whereby a group of ]s dressed up as Soviet ] troops to destabilise Maikop's defenses and allow the 1st Panzer Army to enter the oil town with little opposition.


Although plans were made to attack Moscow again, on 28 June 1942, the offensive re-opened in a different direction. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the ] and then following the ] southeastwards. The grand plan was to secure the Don and ] first and then drive into the Caucasus towards ], but operational considerations and Hitler's vanity made him order both objectives to be attempted simultaneously. Rostov was recaptured on 24 July when the 1st Panzer Army joined in, and then that group drove south towards ]. As part of this, Operation Shamil was executed, a plan whereby a group of ]s dressed up as Soviet ] troops to destabilise Maikop's defences and allow the 1st Panzer Army to enter the oil town with little opposition.
]


Meanwhile, 6th Army was driving towards ], for a long period unsupported by 4th Panzer Army who had been diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don. By the time 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the Stalingrad offensive, Soviet resistance (comprising the 62nd Army under ]) had stiffened. A leap across the Don brought German troops to the Volga on ] but for the next three months the '']'' would be fighting the ] street-by-street. Meanwhile, the 6th Army was driving towards ], for a long period unsupported by 4th Panzer Army, which had been diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don. By the time the 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the Stalingrad offensive Soviet resistance (comprising the 62nd Army under ]) had stiffened. A leap across the Don brought German troops to the Volga on 23 August but for the next three months the ''Wehrmacht'' would be fighting the Battle of Stalingrad street-by-street.


Towards the south 1st Panzer Army had reached the Caucasian foothills and the ]. At the end of August Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th Armies were redeployed from their successful task of clearing the Azov ]. They took up position either side of Stalingrad to free German troops for the proper fighting. Mindful of the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Romania and ] over ], the Romanian army in the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th Army. Thus all of Hitler's allies were in it &mdash; including a ]n contingent with 1st Panzer Army and a ]n ] attached to 6th Army. Towards the south, the 1st Panzer Army had reached the Caucasian foothills and the ]. At the end of August Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were redeployed from their successful task of clearing the Azov ]. They took up position on either side of Stalingrad to free German troops for the main offensive. Mindful of the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Romania and Hungary over ], the Romanian army in the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th Army. Thus, all of Hitler's allies were involved – including a ] contingent with the 1st Panzer Army and a ] attached to 6th Army.


The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past ] and to the main prize of ]. Instead they switched the direction of their advance to come at it from the south, crossing the Malka at the end of October and entering North ]. In the first week of November, on the outskirts of ], the 13th Panzer Division's spearhead was snipped off and the Panzer troops had to fall back. The offensive into Russia was over. The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past ] and to the main prize of ]. Instead, they switched the direction of their advance to approach it from the south, crossing the Malka at the end of October and entering ] and entered the suburbs of Ordzhonikidze on 2 November.


===Stalingrad: Winter 1942=== ===Stalingrad: Winter 1942===
{{Main|Battle of Stalingrad|Operation Little Saturn|Operation Mars|Third Battle of Kharkov|Battle for Velikiye Luki (1943)}}
], ] and ]: Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, ] ] to March ]]]
[[File:Eastern Front 1942-11 to 1943-03.png|thumb|Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, 18 November 1942 to March 1943:
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 12 December 1942}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 18 February 1943}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to March 1943 (Soviet gains only)}}]]


While the German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had congregated on either side of the city, specifically into the Don ]s, and it was from these that they struck in November 1942. ] started on 19 November. Two Soviet fronts punched through the Romanian lines and converged at ] on 23 November, trapping 300,000 Axis troops behind them.<ref>Shirer (1990), p.925–926</ref> A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sector known as ] was supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a costly failure, with German tactical defences preventing any breakthrough.
''Main articles: ], ], ], ], ]''


The Germans rushed to transfer troops to the Soviet Union in a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensive could not get going until 12 December, by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weak to break out towards it. ], with three transferred panzer divisions, got going briskly from ] towards the Aksai river but became bogged down {{convert|65|km|mi|abbr=on}} short of its goal. To divert the rescue attempt, the Red Army decided to smash the Italians and come down behind the relief attempt if they could; that operation starting on 16 December. What it did accomplish was to destroy many of the aircraft that had been transporting relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly limited scope of the Soviet offensive, although still eventually targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time to see sense and pull Army Group A out of the Caucasus and back over the Don.<ref>Shirer (1990), p.927–928</ref>
While the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had congregated on either side of the city, specifically into the Don ]s that the Romanians had been unable to reduce, and it was from these that they struck on ] ]. In ], two Soviet fronts punched through the Romanians and converged at ] on ], trapping 300,000 Axis troops behind them. A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sector known as ] was supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a failure, with German tactical flair winning the day.


On 31 January 1943, the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian 2nd Army had also been wiped out. The Red Army advanced from the Don {{convert|500|km|mi|abbr=on}} to the west of Stalingrad, marching through Kursk (retaken on 8 February 1943) and Kharkov (retaken 16 February 1943). To save the position in the south, the Germans decided to abandon the Rzhev salient in February, freeing enough troops to make a successful ] in eastern Ukraine. ]'s counteroffensive, strengthened by a specially trained ] equipped with ], opened on 20 February 1943 and fought its way from ] ] in the third week of March, when the spring thaw intervened. This left a glaring Soviet bulge in the front centered on Kursk.
]]]


===Kursk: Summer 1943===
The Germans rushed to transfer troops to Russia for a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensive could not get going until ], by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weak to break out towards it. ], with three transferred Panzer divisions, got going briskly from ] towards the ] but bogged down 65&nbsp;km (40&nbsp;miles) short of its goal. To divert the rescue attempt the Soviets decided to smash the Italians and come down behind the relief attempt if they could, that operation starting on ]. What it did accomplish was to destroy many of the aircraft that had been transporting relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly limited scope of the Soviet offensive, although still eventually targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time to see sense and pull Army Group A out of the Caucasus and back over the Don.
{{Main|Battle of Kursk}}


] and ], 19 February 1943 to 1 August 1943:
On ] ], the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian contingent had also been wiped out. The Soviets advanced from the Don 500&nbsp;km (300&nbsp;miles) to the west of Stalingrad, marching through ] (retaken on ] ]) and ] (retaken ] ]). In order to save the position in the south, the decision was taken in February to abandon the Rzhev salient, freeing enough German troops to make a successful ] in eastern Ukraine. ]'s counteroffensive, strengthened by a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped with ]s, opened on ] ], and fought its way from ] ] in the third week of March, upon which the spring thaw intervened. This had left a glaring bulge in the front centered on Kursk.
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 18 March 1943}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 1 August 1943}}]]


After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad, Hitler had delegated planning authority for the upcoming campaign season to the ] and reinstated Heinz Guderian to a prominent role, this time as Inspector of Panzer Troops. Debate among the General Staff was polarised, with even Hitler nervous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. He knew that in the intervening six months the Soviet position at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with ] guns, ]s, ], ], ], ], ] and ].<ref name="Mastny 1365–1388">{{cite journal
===Kursk: Summer 1943 ===
| last =Mastny
] and ], ] ] to ] ]]]
| first =Vojtech
''Main article: ]''
| author-link =Vojtech Mastny (historian)
| title =Stalin and the Prospects of a Separate Peace in World War II
| journal =]
| volume =77
| issue =5
| pages =–1388
| date =December 1972
| url =https://archive.org/details/MastnystalinAndProspectsOfSeparatePeaceInWorld
| jstor =1861311
| doi =10.2307/1861311
}}</ref>


After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad, Hitler had deferred planning authority for the upcoming campaign season to the ] and reinstated ] to a prominent role, this time as Inspector of Panzer Troops. Debate among the general staff was polarised, with even Hitler nervous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. He knew that in the intervening six months the Russian position at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with ] guns, ]s, ], ], ], ]es, ] and ]. But if one last great '']'' offensive could be mounted, just maybe the Soviets would ease off and attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the ]. The advance would be executed from the Orel salient to the north of Kursk and from ] to the south. Both wings would converge on ], and by that means restore the lines of Army Group South to the exact points that it held over the winter of 1941&ndash;1942. However, if one last great ''blitzkrieg'' offensive could be mounted, then attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the ]. Certainly, the peace negotiations in April had gone nowhere.<ref name="Mastny 1365–1388"/> The advance would be executed from the Orel salient to the north of Kursk and from ] to the south. Both wings would converge on the area east of Kursk, and by that means restore the lines of Army Group South to the exact points that it held over the winter of 1941–1942.


In the north, the entire German 9th Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient and was to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could not even get past the first objective at ], just {{convert|8|km|mi|abbr=on}} into the advance. The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the Soviet minefields, frustratingly so considering that the high ground there was the only natural barrier between them and flat tank country all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance was then switched to ], to the west of Olkhovatka, but the 9th Army could not break through here either and went over to the defensive. The Red Army then launched a counter-offensive, ].
Although the Germans knew that the Red Army's massive reserves of manpower had been bled dry in the summer of 1941 and 1942, the Soviets were still re-equipping, simply by drafting the men from the regions recaptured.


On 12 July, the Red Army battled through the demarcation line between the 211th and 293rd divisions on the ] and steamed towards ], right behind them and behind Orel. The southern offensive, spearheaded by ], led by Gen. Col. ], with three Tank Corps made more headway. Advancing on either side of the upper Donets on a narrow corridor, the II SS Panzer Corps and the ] battled their way through minefields and over comparatively high ground towards ]. Stiff resistance caused a change of direction from east to west of the front, but the tanks got {{convert|25|km|mi|abbr=on}} before encountering the reserves of the ] outside ]. Battle was joined on 12 July, with about one thousand tanks being engaged.
Under pressure from his generals, Hitler bit the bullet and agreed to the attack on Kursk, little realising that the '']'''s intelligence on the Soviet position there had been undermined by a concerted '']'' misinformation and ] campaign mounted by the ] in ]. When the Germans began the operation, it was after months of delays waiting for new tanks and equipment, by which time the Soviets had reinforced the Kursk salient with more anti-tank firepower than had ever been assembled in one place before or since.


] was one of the largest tank battles ever fought. It was part of the wider ].|alt=]]
In the north, the entire 9th Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient and was to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could not even get past the first objective at ], just 8&nbsp;km (5&nbsp;miles) into the advance. The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the Soviet ], frustratingly so considering that the high ground there was the only natural barrier between them and flat tank country all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance was then switched to ], to the west of Olkhovatka, but the 9th Army could not break through here either and went over to the defensive. The Soviets simply soaked up the German punishment and then struck back. On ] the Red Army ploughed through the demarcation line between the 211th and 293rd Divisions on the ] and steamed towards ], right behind them and behind Orel.


After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealised by Soviet ]s as the largest tank battle of all time. The ] at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, albeit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked elements of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank losses on both sides have been the source of controversy ever since. Although the 5th Guards Tank Army did not attain its objectives, the German advance had been halted.
]s'' of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division '']'' at the start of the ]]]
The southern offensive, spearheaded by ], led by ], with three Tank Corps made more headway. Advancing on either side of the upper Donets on a narrow corridor, the ] and the ] battled its way through minefields and over comparatively high ground towards ]. Stiff resistance caused a change of direction from east to west of the front, but the tanks got 25&nbsp;km (15&nbsp;miles) before encountering the reserves of the ] outside ]. Battle was joined on ], with about one thousand tanks doing battle. After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealized from the soviet ]s as the biggest tank battle of all time. Newer investigations show a different picture. The "tank battle" of Prochorovka was an unsuccessful and chaotic attack from parts of the soviet 5. Guards Tank Army, appr. 250 tanks, against the defensive positions of the II. SS corps. The fierce frontal attack was unexpected, but lacked a good plan and was smashed by the german defenders. Nearly all attacking soviet tanks - appr. 400 on the whole southern sector on the 12. - were destroyed. The germans lost only a handful of tanks, but personal losses in the infantery units, battling in furious infights against the attacking ], were noticeable. At the end of the day both sides had fought each other to a standstill, but regardless of the standstill in the north ] intended to continue the attack with the 4. tank army. But all in all the Soviets could absorb the fearful losses of men and equipment that they did, and even though German casualties were much lower their strategic advance in Operation Citadel had been halted. Under the impression of the unsuccesful ] operations in the south the Red Army started the strong offensive operation in the northern Oriel salient and achieved a breaktrough in the back of the german 9. army. Also worried by the Allies' ] on ], Hitler took fright and withdrew the II. SS Panzer Corps from the southern face of the Kursk salient, and that was the end of the Germans' final attack in Russia.


At the end of the day both sides had fought each other to a standstill, but regardless of the German failure in the north Manstein proposed he continue the attack with the 4th Panzer Army. The Red Army started the strong offensive operation in the northern Orel salient and achieved a breakthrough on the flank of the German 9th Army. Also worried by the Allies' ] on 10 July, Hitler made the decision to halt the offensive even as the German 9th Army was rapidly giving ground in the north. The Germans' final strategic offensive in the Soviet Union ended with their defence against a major Soviet counteroffensive that lasted into August.
The ] represented a scaled-up version of the battles of ] &mdash; infantry advancing under ] fire, and tanks advancing on batteries of anti-tank guns. Much of the German equipment was new and untested, with undertrained crews. The new ] units, though sporting a highly effective ], had no hull mounted machine gun to protect against infantry, and were quickly targeted by the Soviet anti tank guns, which were positioned in hemispherical concave bulges, forming semicircles of high velocity crossfire. Moreover, these positions were protected by small two-man ]s armed with ] tank mines, machine gun nests, and mortar fire, ensuring than the ''Wehrmacht'' infantry could not effectively defend the tanks. The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940 and 1941 the ''Wehrmacht'' was able to launch, and subsequent offensives would represent only a shadow of previous German offensive might. Following the defeat, Hitler would not trust his generals to the same extent again, and as his own mental condition deteriorated the quality of German strategic decision fell correspondingly.


The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940 and 1941 that the ''Wehrmacht'' was able to launch; subsequent offensives would represent only a shadow of previous German offensive might.
===Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943===
''Main articles: ], ]''
] ] to ] ]
{{legend|#fff8d5|to 1 December 1943}}
{{legend|#ffd2b9|to 30 April 1944}}
{{legend|#ebd7ff|to 19 August 1944}}
{{legend|#ccffcd|to 31 December 1944}}
]]
The Soviet juggernaut got rolling in earnest with the advance into the Germans' Orel salient. The diversion of Hitler's favourite '']'' from Belgorod to Karachev could not halt the tide, and a strategic decision was made to abandon Orel (retaken by the Red Army on ] ]) and fall back to the Hagen line in front of ]. To the south, the Soviets blasted through Army Group South's Belgorod positions and headed for Kharkov once again. Though intense battles of movement throughout late July and into August 1943 saw the ]s blunting Soviet tanks on one axis, they were soon outflanked on another line to the west as the Soviets advanced down the ], and Kharkov had to be evacuated for the final time on ].


===Autumn and winter 1943–44===
The German forces on the ], now constituting the 1st Panzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army, were by August too weak to sustain a Soviet onslaught on their own front, and when the Soviets hit them they had to fall back all the way through the ] industrial region to the Dnieper, losing the industrial resources and half the farmland that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union to exploit. At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was meant to be the ''Ostwall'', a line of defence similar to the ] of fortifications along the West German frontier. Trouble was, it hadn't been built yet, and by the time Army Group South had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdrawing across the Dnieper during September, the Soviets were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units paddled their way across the 3-km (2-mile) wide river and established ]s. A second attempt by the Soviets to gain land using parachutists, mounted at ] on ], proved as luckless as at Dorogobuzh eighteen months previously, and the paratroopers were soon repelled &mdash; but not before still more Red Army troops had used the cover they provided to get themselves over the Dnieper and securely dug in. As September proceeded into October, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew and grew, and important Dnieper towns started to fall, with ] the first to go, followed by ]. Finally, early in November the Soviets broke out of their bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital, at that time the third largest city in the Soviet Union.
{{Main|Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket|Battle of Smolensk (1943)|Lower Dnieper Offensive|Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive|Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive|Battle of Narva (1944)}}
]" rocket launcher]]


The Soviet multi-stage summer offensive started with the advance into the Orel salient. The diversion of the well-equipped ''Großdeutschland Division'' from Belgorod to Karachev could not counteract it, and the Wehrmacht began a withdrawal from Orel (retaken by the Red Army on 5 August 1943), falling back to the Hagen line in front of Bryansk. To the south, the Red Army broke through Army Group South's Belgorod positions and headed for Kharkov once again. Although intense battles of movement throughout late July and into August 1943 saw the Tigers blunting Soviet tank attacks on one axis, they were soon outflanked on another line to the west as the Soviet forces advanced down the ], and Kharkov was abandoned for the final time on 22 August.
Eighty miles west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, still convinced that the Red Army was a spent force, was able to mount a successful riposte at ] during the middle of November, blunting the Soviet bridgehead via a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SS Panzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle enabled Army Group South also to recapture Korosten and just gain some time to rest - but on ] the retreat began anew when First Ukrainian Front (renamed from Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish-Soviet border was reached on 3 January 1944. To the south, Second Ukrainian Front (ex ]) had crossed the Dnieper at ] and continued westwards. In the second week of January 1944 they swung north, meeting Vatutin's tank forces who had swung south from their penetration into Poland and surrounding ten German divisions at Korsun-Shevenkovsky, west of ]. Hitler's insistence on holding the Dnieper line was now, even when facing the prospect of catastrophic defeat, was compounded by his conviction that the Cherkassy pocket could break out and even advance to Kiev, but Manstein was more concerned about being able to advance to the edge of the pocket and then implore the surrounded forces to break out. By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under furious shellfire and pursued by Soviet tanks and cavalry, the surrounded German troops, among whom were the ], fought their way across the river to safety, losing half their number and all their equipment. Surely the Russians would not attack again, with the spring approaching - but in March 3rd Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive. Having already isolated the Crimea by severing the neck of the ], Malinovsky's forces advanced across the mud to the ]n border, not stopping on the river ].


The German forces on the ], now comprising the 1st Panzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army, were by August too weak to repulse a Soviet attack on their own front, and when the Red Army hit them they retreated all the way through the ] industrial region to the Dnieper, losing half the farmland that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union to exploit. At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was meant to be the ''Ostwall'', a line of defence similar to the ] (Siegfried Line) of fortifications along the German frontier in the west.
One final move in the south completed the 1943-44 campaigning season, which had wrapped up an advance of over 500 miles. In March, 20 German divisions of '']'' ]'s ] were encircled in what was to be known as ] near Kamenets-Podolskiy. After two weeks hard fighting, the 1st Panzer managed to escape the pocket, suffering only light to moderate casualties. At this point, Hitler sacked several prominent generals, Manstein included. April saw the capture of ] in April 1944, followed by 4th Ukrainian Front's campaign to recapture the Crimea, which culminated with the recapture of ] on 10 May.


The main problem for the Wehrmacht was that these defences had not yet been built; by the time Army Group South had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdrawing across the Dnieper during September, the Soviet forces were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units paddled their way across the {{convert|3|km|mi|abbr=on}} wide river and established bridgeheads. A second attempt by the Red Army to gain land using parachutists, mounted at ] on 24 September, proved as disappointing as at Dorogobuzh eighteen months previously. The paratroopers were soon repelled – but not until still more Red Army troops had used the cover they provided to get themselves over the Dnieper and securely dug in.
Along Army Group Centre's front, August 1943 saw this force pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, ceding comparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk and more importantly, Smolensk, on ] cost the Wehrmacht the keystone of the entire German defensive system. The 4th and 9th Armies and 3rd Panzer Armies still held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling Soviet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North's front, there was barely any fighting at all until January ], when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second Baltic Fronts struck. In a lightning campaign, Leningrad was liberated and ] was recaptured; by February the Red Army had reached the borders of ] after a 75-mile advance.


As September ended and October started, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew. Important Dnieper towns started to fall, with ] the first to go, followed by ]. Finally, early in November the Red Army broke out of its bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital, at that time the third largest city in the Soviet Union.
===Eastern Front in Summer 1944===
''Main articles: ], ], ], ]''


{{convert|80|mi|km|round=10|order=flip}} west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, still convinced that the Red Army was a spent force, was able to mount a successful riposte at ] during the middle of November, weakening the Soviet bridgehead by a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SS Panzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle also enabled Army Group South to recapture Korosten and gain some time to rest. However, on ] the retreat began anew when the First Ukrainian Front (renamed from the Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish–Soviet border was reached on 3 January 1944.
''Wehrmacht'' planning was convinced that the Soviets would attack again in the south, where the front was fifty miles from ] and offered the most direct route to ]. Accordingly they denuded of troops Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union. Starting on ] ], a massive Soviet attack, ], consisting of four Soviet army groups totaling over 120 divisions smashed into the thinly-held German line. The Germans had transferred units to France to counter the ] two weeks before. The Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in ] over the enemy. At the points of attack, the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviets were overwhelming. More than 2.5 million Soviet troops went into action against the German Army Group Centre, which could boast a strength of less than 800,000 men. The Germans crumbled. The capital of ], ], was taken on ], trapping 50,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar ] border. The rapid progress cut off and isolated the German units of ] fighting in ]. ''Bagration'' was by any measure one of the largest single operations of the war. It cost the Red Army 765,815 dead, missing, wounded and sick, as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The Germans lost approximately 445,000 casualties, a large part of whom were captured.


]
The neighbouring ] was launched on ] ], rapidly routing the German forces in the western Ukraine. The Soviet advance in the south continued into ] and following a coup against Axis-allied government of Romania on ], the Red army occupied ] on ]. In Moscow on ], Romania and the Soviet Union signed an ] on terms Moscow virtually dictated. The Romanian surrender tore a hole in the southern German Eastern Front causing the loss of the whole of the ].


To the south, the Second Ukrainian Front (ex ]) had crossed the Dnieper at ] and continued westwards. In the second week of January 1944 they swung north, meeting Vatutin's tank forces which had swung south from their penetration into Poland and surrounding ten German divisions at Korsun–Shevchenkovsky, west of ]. Hitler's insistence on holding the Dnieper line, even when facing the prospect of catastrophic defeat, was compounded by his conviction that the Cherkassy pocket could break out and even advance to Kiev, but Manstein was more concerned about being able to advance to the edge of the pocket and then implore the surrounded forces to break out.
In Poland, as the Red Army approached the ] launched the ]. During the ], the Soviet Army halted at the ], unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance. An attempt by the communist controlled ] to relieve the city was unsupported by Red Army and thrown back in September with heavy losses. Despite assistance from Polish Home Army towards USSR, in territories taken over by the Soviet ], Polish units who followed behind would either be shot or sent to ]s. Most Polish officers and Polish soldiers who could not or would not join the Red Army were ].


By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under shellfire and pursued by Soviet tanks, the surrounded German troops, among whom were the ], fought their way across the river to safety, although at the cost of half their number and all their equipment. They assumed the Red Army would not attack again, with the spring approaching, but on 3 March the Soviet Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive. Having already isolated the Crimea by severing the ], Malinovsky's forces advanced across the mud to the Romanian border, not stopping on the river ].
In ], the ] started as an armed struggle between German ''Wehrmacht'' forces and rebel Slovak troops in August to October 1944. It was centered at ].


One final move in the south completed the 1943–44 campaigning season, which had wrapped up a Soviet advance of over {{convert|500|mi|km|order=flip}}. In March, 20 German divisions of '']'' ]'s ] were encircled in what was to be known as ] near Kamenets-Podolskiy. After two weeks' of heavy fighting, the 1st Panzer managed to escape the pocket, at the cost of losing almost the entire heavy equipment. At this point, Hitler sacked several prominent generals, Manstein included. In April, the Red Army took back Odessa, followed by 4th Ukrainian Front's campaign to restore control over the Crimea, which culminated in the capture of Sevastopol on 10 May.
On 8 September 1944 the Red Army begun an attack on the ] on the Slovak-Polish border. Two months later, the Russians won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 85,000 Red Army soldiers lay dead, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and ].


Along Army Group Centre's front, August 1943 saw this force pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, ceding comparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk, and more importantly Smolensk, on 25 September cost the ''Wehrmacht'' the keystone of the entire German defensive system. The 4th and 9th armies and 3rd Panzer Army still held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling Soviet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North's front, there was barely any fighting at all until January 1944, when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second Baltic Fronts struck.<ref name="glantz"/>
===Eastern Europe: January&ndash;March 1945===
] ] to ] ]]]
''Main article: ]''


In a lightning campaign, the Germans were pushed back from Leningrad and ] was captured by Soviet forces. After a {{convert|75|mi|km|order=flip|adj=on|round=10}} advance in January and February, the Leningrad Front had reached the borders of Estonia. To Stalin, the Baltic Sea seemed the quickest way to take the battles to the German territory in ] and seize control of Finland.<ref name="glantz">{{cite book|last=Glantz|first=David M.|author-link=David Glantz|title=The Battle for Leningrad: 1941–1944|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4uRmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2002|publisher=University Press of Kansas|isbn=978-0-7006-1208-6}}</ref> The Leningrad Front's ], a main ] port, were stopped in February 1944. The German army group "Narwa" included ], defending the ].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Bulletin of International News|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4siAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA825|year=1944|publisher=Royal Institute of International Affairs. Information Department.|page=825|chapter=Estonia}}</ref><ref name="vm">{{cite web|title=The Otto Tief government and the fall of Tallinn|publisher=Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs|date=22 September 2006|url=http://www.tbilisi.vm.ee/estonia/history/aid-503|access-date=2 September 2016|archive-date=6 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306235141/https://www.tbilisi.vm.ee/estonia/history/aid-503}}</ref>
The Soviet Union finally entered ] in January ], after it was destroyed and abandoned by the Germans. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army ]s, the Red Army began an offensive across the ] River and from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Germans on average by nine to one in troops, ten to one in artillery, and ten to one in tanks and ]. After four days the Red Army broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilometres a day, taking the Baltic states, ], ], ], and drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of ] along the ] River. During the full course of the Vistula-Oder operation (23 days), the Red Army forces sustained 194,000 casualties and lost 1,267 tanks and assault guns.


===Summer 1944===
On ] ], Hitler renamed three army groups. ] became ]; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and ] became Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army Group Centre) was driven into an ever smaller pocket around ] in ].
{{Main|Crimean Offensive (1944)|Operation Bagration|Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive|Battle of Tannenberg Line|Warsaw Uprising|Slovak National Uprising|Battle of Romania (1944)|Battle of Debrecen|Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive}}
] soldiers ], July 1944]]


''Wehrmacht'' planners were convinced that the Red Army would attack again in the south, where the front was {{convert|50|mi|km|order=flip}} from ] and offered the most direct route to ]. Accordingly, they stripped troops from Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union. The Germans had transferred some units to France to counter the ] two weeks before. The Belorussian Offensive (codenamed ]), which was agreed upon by Allies at the ] in December 1943 and launched on 22 June 1944, was a massive Soviet attack, consisting of four Soviet army groups totalling over 120 divisions that smashed into a thinly held German line.
A ] by the newly created ], under the command of '']'' ], had failed by ], and the Soviets drove on to ] and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, three German attempts to relieve the encircled ] failed and the city fell on ] to the Soviets. Again the Germans counter-attacked, ] insisting on the impossible task of regaining the ] River. By ] the attack had failed and the Red Army counterattacked the same day. On ] they entered ] and captured ] on ].


They focused their massive attacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group North Ukraine as the Germans had originally expected. More than 2.3&nbsp;million Soviet troops went into action against German Army Group Centre, which had a strength of fewer than 800,000 men. At the points of attack, the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviet forces were overwhelming. The Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over their enemy. The Germans crumbled. The capital of ], Minsk, was taken on 3 July, trapping some 100,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar Polish border. ''Bagration'' was, by any measure, one of the largest single operations of the war.
On ], ], ] finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants of Army Group North continued to resist on the ] and ] beachheads until the end of the war in Europe. The East Prussian operation, though often overshadowed by the Vistula-Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin, was in fact one of the largest and costliest operations fought by the Red army through the war. During the period it lasted (13 January - 25 April), it cost the Red Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and assault guns.


By the end of August 1944, it had cost the Germans ~400,000 dead, wounded, missing and sick, from whom 160,000 were captured, as well as 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. In the operation, the Red Army lost ~180,000 dead and missing (765,815 in total, including wounded and sick plus 5,073 Poles),<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite book|last=Krivosheev|first=G. F.|author-link=Grigori F. Krivosheev|title=Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTTfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|year=1997|publisher=Greenhill Books|isbn=978-1-85367-280-4}}</ref> as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The offensive at Estonia claimed another 480,000 Soviet soldiers, 100,000 of them classed as dead.<ref name="laar">{{cite book|first=Mart |last=Laar|title=Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahingud Kirde-Eestis |trans-title=Sinimäed Hills 1944: Battles of World War II in Northeast Estonia |publisher=Varrak |location=Tallinn |year= 2006|language=et}}</ref><ref name="baxter">{{cite book|last=Baxter|first=Ian|title=Battle in the Baltics, 1944–45: The Fighting for Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia: a Photographic History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Nb6PQAACAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2009|publisher=Helion|isbn=978-1-906033-33-0}}</ref>
By early April, the ] freed up General ]'s ] (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder river. During the first two weeks of April the Soviets performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. General ] concentrated his ] (1BF) which had been deployed along the Oder river from ] in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the ]. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army which had been bottled up in a pocket near ] managed to escape across the Oder. To the south General ] shifted the main weight of the ] (1UF) out of ] north-west to the ] River. The three Soviet fronts had altogether 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the ]); 6,250 tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 ] pieces and ]; 3,255 ]-mounted ]s ], (nicknamed "Stalin Organs"); and 95,383 motor vehicles, many manufactured in the USA.


The neighbouring ] was launched on 17 July 1944, with the Red Army routing the German forces in Western Ukraine and retaking Lviv. The Soviet advance in the south continued into ] and, following a coup against the Axis-allied government of Romania on 23 August, the Red Army occupied ] on 31 August. Romania and the Soviet Union signed an ] on 12 September.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47701316 |title=Armistice Agreement Signed |newspaper=] |location=Northern Territory, Australia |date=14 September 1944 |access-date=15 April 2020 |page=1 |via=Trove }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47701380 |title=Terms Of Rumanian Armistice Announced |newspaper=] |location=Northern Territory, Australia |date=15 September 1944 |access-date=15 April 2020 |page=1 |via=Trove }}</ref>
===End of War: April&ndash;May 1945===
''Main articles: ], ]''


], ], mid-1944.]]
All that was left for the Soviets to do was to launch an offensive to capture what was to become ]. The Soviet offensive had two objectives. Because of ]'s suspicions about the intentions of the ] to hand over territory occupied by them in the post war Soviet ], the offensive was to be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west, to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the ] program. ] performed for Soviet soldiers on the doorsteps of the smouldering '']''.]]
The rapid progress of Operation Bagration threatened to cut off and isolate the German units of Army Group North bitterly resisting the Soviet advance towards ]. Despite a ferocious ], Estonia, the Soviet Leningrad Front failed to break through the defence of the smaller, well-fortified ] in ].<ref name="white">{{cite book |author=Estonian State Commission on Examination of Policies of Repression |editor-first=Vello |editor-last=Salo |title=The White Book: Losses inflicted on the Estonian nation by occupation regimes, 1940–1991 |publisher=Estonian Encyclopedia Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=9985-70-195-X |page=19 |url=http://www.riigikogu.ee/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/TheWhiteBook.pdf}}</ref><ref name="hiio">{{cite book|last=Hiio|first=Toomas |chapter=Combat in Estonia in 1944 |editor-first1=Toomas |editor-last1=Hiio |editor-first2=Meelis |editor-last2=Maripuu |editor-first3=Indrek |editor-last3=Paavle |title=Estonia, 1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6o-AQAAIAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2006|publisher=Estonian Foundation for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity|location=Tallinn|isbn=978-9949-13-040-5}}</ref>


On the ], the Red Army launched a ] against the Finnish lines on 9 June 1944 (coordinated with the Western Allied Invasion of Normandy). Three armies were pitted there against the Finns, among them several experienced guards rifle formations. The attack breached the Finnish front line of defence in Valkeasaari on 10 June and the Finnish forces retreated to their secondary defence line, the ]. The Soviet attack was supported by a heavy artillery barrage, air bombardments and armoured forces. The VT-line was breached on 14 June and after a failed counterattack in Kuuterselkä by the Finnish armoured division, the Finnish defence had to be pulled back to the ]. After heavy fighting in the battles of ] and ], Finnish troops finally managed to halt the Soviet attack.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}
The ] started on ] with an assault on the ]. After several days of heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF had punched holes through the German front line and were fanning out across East Germany. By the ] elements of the 1BF and 1UF had completed the ] of Berlin and the ] entered its final stages. On ] the 2BF broke through the German 3rd Panzer Army's line south of ]. They were now free to move west towards the ] and north towards the Baltic port of ]. The ] of the ] made contact with the ] of the ] near ], Germany at the ] river.


In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the ] (AK) launched ]. During the ], the Red Army were ordered to halt at the ]. Whether Stalin was unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance is disputed.<ref name="Nowak">{{cite journal | author =Jan Nowak-Jeziorański | date =31 July 1993 | title =Białe plamy wokół Powstania | journal =] | issue =177 | page =13 | url =http://szukaj.gazeta.pl/archiwum/1,0,130276.html?kdl=19930731GW&wyr=Nowak-Jeziora%25F1ski%2B | access-date =14 May 2007 | language =pl | author-link =Jan Nowak-Jeziorański }}{{Dead link|date=March 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
On ], as the Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married ] and then ] by taking ] and shooting himself. ], defence commandant of Berlin, surrendered the city to the Soviets on ]. Altogether, the Berlin operation (16 April - 8 May) cost the Red Army 361,367 casualties (dead, missing, wounded and sick) and 1,997 tanks and assault guns. German losses in this period of the war remain impossible to determine with any reliability.


In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as an armed struggle between German ''Wehrmacht'' forces and rebel Slovak troops between August and October 1944. It was centered at ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Czarnecka |first1=Daria |title=The Slovak National Uprising |url=https://enrs.eu/article/the-slovak-national-uprising |website=ENRS |access-date=18 July 2023}}</ref>
At 02:41 on the morning of ], ], at the ] headquarters, German Chief-of-Staff General ] signed the ] documents for all German forces to the Allies. It included the phrase ''All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on ] ]''. The next day shortly before midnight, Jodl repeated the signing in Berlin at Zhukov's headquarters. ].


===Autumn 1944===
In the Soviet Union the end of war is considered to be ], when the surrender took effect ] time. This date is celebrated as a ], ], or День Победы in the ] and some other post-Soviet countries.
{{Main|Baltic Offensive (1944)|Belgrade Offensive|Budapest Offensive}}
In the Autumn of 1944, the Soviets paused their offensive towards Berlin to first gain control over the Balkans.


On 8 September 1944 the Red Army began an attack on the ] on the Slovak–Polish border. Two months later, the Soviet forces won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 20,000 Red Army soldiers died, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and Czechs.
Some German armies initially refused to surrender and continued to ] until about ].

Under the pressure of the Soviet ], the German Army Group North ] to fight in the sieges of ], ] and ].

===January–March 1945===
{{Main|Vistula–Oder Offensive|East Pomeranian Offensive|Silesian Offensives|East Prussian Offensive|Vienna Offensive}}
]

The Soviet Union finally entered ] on 17 January 1945, after the city was destroyed and abandoned by the Germans. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army ], the Red Army launched the ] across the Narew River and from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Germans on average by 5–6:1 in troops, 6:1 in artillery, 6:1 in tanks and 4:1 in ]. After four days the Red Army broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilometres a day, taking the Baltic states, ], East Prussia, ], and drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of Berlin along the River ]. During the full course of the Vistula–Oder operation (23 days), the Red Army forces sustained 194,191 total casualties (killed, wounded and missing) and lost 1,267 tanks and assault guns.

On 25 January 1945, Hitler renamed three army groups. Army Group North became ]; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and ] became Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army Group Centre) was driven into an ever-smaller pocket around ] in East Prussia.

A limited counter-attack (codenamed ]) by the newly created ], under the command of {{lang|de|]}} Heinrich Himmler, had failed by 24 February, and the Red Army drove on to ] and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, the German attempts, in ], to relieve the encircled garrison at ] failed and the city fell on 13 February. On 6 March, the Germans launched what would be their final major offensive of the war, ], which failed by 16 March. On 30 March the Red Army entered ] and captured ] on 13 April.

The OKW - Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or High Command of the German Army - claimed German losses of 77,000 killed, 334,000 wounded and 192,000 missing, with a total of 603,000 men, on the Eastern Front during January and February 1945.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hastings|first=Max|title=Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–45|page=260|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKmeiZmEXJoC&pg=PP1|year=2005|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-375-71422-1}}</ref>

On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants of Army Group Centre continued to resist on the ] and ] until the end of the war in Europe. The ], though often overshadowed by the Vistula–Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin, was in fact one of the largest and costliest operations fought by the Red Army throughout the war. During the period it lasted (13 January – 25 April), it cost the Red Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and assault guns.

The fall of Königsberg allowed Stavka to free up General ]'s ] (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder. During the first two weeks of April, the Red Army performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. General Georgy Zhukov concentrated his ] (1BF), which had been deployed along the Oder river from ] in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the ]. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army, which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed to escape across the Oder. To the south General ] shifted the main weight of the ] (1UF) out of ] north-west to the ] River.<ref name=Ziemke71>Ziemke, ''Berlin'', see ] page 71</ref> The three Soviet fronts had altogether some 2.5&nbsp;million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army); 6,250 tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars; 3,255 ]-mounted ] ]s, (nicknamed "Stalin Organs"); and 95,383 motor vehicles, many of which were manufactured in the United States.<ref name=Ziemke71 />

===End of the war: April–May 1945===
{{Main|Battle of Berlin|Battle of Halbe|Prague Offensive}}
].]]
] raised over the Reichstag (the ])]]

The Soviet offensive had two objectives. Because of Stalin's suspicions about the intentions of the ] to hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet ], the offensive was to be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west, to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the over-riding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and part of the ] program.<ref>Beevor, ''Berlin'', see ] Page 138</ref>

The offensive to capture central Germany and Berlin started on 16 April with an assault on the ]. After several days of heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF punched holes through the German front line and were fanning out across central Germany. By 24 April, elements of the 1BF and 1UF had completed the encirclement of the German capital and the Battle of Berlin entered its final stages. On 25 April the 2BF broke through the German 3rd Panzer Army's line south of ]. They were now free to move west towards the ] and north towards the Baltic port of ]. The ] of the ] made contact with the ] of the ] near ], Germany at the ] river.<ref name="Beevor217-233">Beevor, ''Berlin'', see ] pp. 217–233</ref><ref name=Ziemke81>Ziemke, ''Berlin'', see ] pp. 81–111</ref>

On 29 and 30 April, as the Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married ] and then ]. In his will, Hitler appointed Grand Admiral ] as new ] and Propaganda Minister ] as new ]; however, Goebbels also committed suicide, along with his wife ] and ], on 1 May 1945. ], defence commandant of Berlin, surrendered the city to the Soviet forces on 2 May.<ref name="Beevor-259">Beevor, ''Berlin'', see ] pp. 259–357, 380–381</ref> Altogether, the Berlin operation (16 April – 2 May) cost the Red Army 361,367 casualties (dead, wounded, missing and sick) and 1,997 tanks and assault guns. German losses in this period of the war remain impossible to determine with any reliability.<ref name="Khrivosheev-219-220">{{Harvnb|Krivosheev|1997|pp=219, 220}}.</ref>

Upon learning of Hitler and Goebbels's death, Dönitz (now President of the Reich) appointed ] as new "Leading Minister" of the German Reich.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wp9PEAAAQBAJ|title=After Hitler: The Last Ten Days of World War II in Europe|date=2015-10-06|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-451-47701-9|language=en}}</ref> Rapidly advancing Allied forces limited the jurisdiction of the new German government to an area around ] near the ] border, where Dönitz's headquarters were located, along with ]. Accordingly, this administration was referred to as the ].<ref>{{cite news|date=15 May 1945|title=Regime of Doenitz Urges Recognition|volume=94|work=The New York Times|issue=31888|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/05/15/archives/regime-of-doenitz-urges-recognition-foreign-minister-predicts-chaos.html}}</ref> Dönitz and Schwerin von Krosigk attempted to negotiate an armistice with the Western Allies while continuing to resist the Soviet Army, but were eventually forced to accept an unconditional surrender on all fronts.<ref>{{cite news|date=8 May 1945|title=Foreign Minister Bids Reich to Hope; Schwerin von Krosigk Begins Campaign to Regain Freedom for Germany|volume=94|work=The New York Times|issue=31881|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/05/08/archives/foreign-minister-bids-reich-to-hope-schwerin-von-krosigk-begins.html}}</ref>

At 2:41 am on 7 May 1945, at ] headquarters, German Chief-of-Staff General Alfred Jodl signed the ] documents for all German forces to the Allies at ] in France. It included the phrase ''All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945''. The next day shortly before midnight, Field Marshal ] repeated the signing in Berlin at Zhukov's headquarters, now known as the ]. ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ziemke |first1=Earl F. |title=THE U.S. ARMY IN THE OCCUPATION OF GERMANY 1944-1946 |date=1975 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |location=Washington D.C. |page=258 |url=https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/Occ-GY/ |access-date=20 February 2023 |chapter=15}}</ref>

In the Soviet Union the end of the war is considered to be 9 May, when the surrender took effect Moscow time. This date is celebrated as a ] – ] – in ] (as part of a two-day 8–9 May holiday) and some other post-Soviet countries. The ] was held in Moscow on 24 June.

The German Army Group Centre initially refused to surrender and continued to ] until about 11 May.<ref name="Ziemke-134">Ziemke, ''Berlin'', ] p. 134</ref> A small German garrison on the Danish island of Bornholm refused to surrender until they were bombed and invaded by the Soviets. The island was returned to the Danish government four months later.

The final battle of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, the Battle of Slivice, broke out on 11 May and ended in a Soviet victory on the 12th.

On 13 May 1945, all Soviet offensives ceased and the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II came to an end.

===Soviet Far East: August 1945===
{{Main|Soviet–Japanese War}}
After the German defeat, Stalin promised his allies Truman and Churchill that he would attack the ] within 90 days of the German surrender. The ] began on 8 August 1945, with an assault on the Japanese puppet states of ] and neighbouring ]; the greater offensive would eventually include northern ], ], and the ]. Apart from the ], it marked the only military action of the Soviet Union against Imperial Japan; at the ], it had agreed to Allied pleas to terminate the neutrality pact with Japan and enter the Second World War's Pacific theatre within three months after the end of the war in Europe. While not a part of the Eastern Front operations, it is included here because the commanders and much of the forces used by the Red Army came from the European Theatre of operations and benefited from the experience gained there.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Raymond L. |last=Garthoff |title=The Soviet Manchurian Campaign, August 1945 |journal=Military Affairs |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=312–336 |date=October 1969 |jstor=1983926 |doi=10.2307/1983926}}</ref>

==Results==
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The Eastern Front was the largest and bloodiest ] of World War II. It is generally accepted as being the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 30&nbsp;million killed as a result.<ref name=30m>According to {{harvnb|Krivosheev|1997}}, in the Eastern Front, Axis countries and German co-belligerents sustained 1,468,145 irrecoverable losses (668,163 KIA/MIA), Germany itself– 7,181,100 (3,604,800 KIA/MIA), and 579,900 PoWs died in Soviet captivity. So the Axis KIA/MIA amounted to 4.8 million in the East during the period of 1941–1945. This is more than a half of all Axis losses (including the Asia/Pacific theatre). The USSR sustained 10.5 million military losses (including PoWs who died in German captivity, according to Vadim Erlikman. ''Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik.'' Moscow 2004. {{ISBN|5-93165-107-1}}), so the number of military deaths (the USSR and the Axis) amounted to 15 million, far greater than in all other World War II theatres. According to the same source, total Soviet civilian deaths within post-war borders amounted to 15.7 million. The numbers for other Central European and German civilian casualties are not included here.</ref> The German armed forces suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front.<ref>{{cite book|last=Duiker|first=William J.|title=Contemporary World History|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gd0bCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT159|edition=sixth|year=2015|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-285-44790-2|page=138|chapter=The Crisis Deepens: The Outbreak of World War II}}</ref> It involved more land combat than all other World War II theatres combined.<ref name=":1" /> The largest military operation in history, ], the bloodiest battle in history, ], the most lethal siege in history, ],<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=Victor Davis |author-link=Victor Davis Hanson |title=The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won |publisher=Basic Books |year=2020 |isbn=978-1541674103 |edition=Reprint |location=New York |pages=3, 257, 308 |language=en}}</ref> and the single largest battle in the history, ], all occurred on the Eastern Front.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frieser |first=Karl-Heinz |author-link=Karl-Heinz Frieser |title=Germany and the Second World War: The Eastern Front 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-872346-2 |edition=1st |volume=VIII |location=Oxford |pages=83, 200 |language=en}}</ref> The distinctly brutal nature of warfare on the Eastern Front was exemplified by an often wilful disregard for human life by both sides. It was also reflected in the ideological premise for the war, which saw a momentous clash between two directly opposed ideologies.

Aside from the ideological conflict, the mindframe of the leaders of Germany and the Soviet Union, Hitler and Stalin, respectively, contributed to the escalation of terror and murder on an unprecedented scale. Stalin and Hitler both disregarded human life in order to achieve their goal of victory. This included the terrorisation of their own people, as well as ]s of entire populations. All these factors resulted in tremendous brutality both to combatants and civilians that found no parallel on the ]. According to ]: "By measure of manpower, duration, territorial reach and casualties, the Eastern Front was as much as four times the scale of the conflict on the Western Front that opened with the ]."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1809018,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528171454/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1809018,00.html | archive-date=28 May 2008 | magazine=] | title=Remembering a Red Flag Day | date=23 May 2008 | first=Jordan | last=Bonfante}}</ref> Conversely, ] ], the ], calculated that without the Eastern Front, the ] would have had to double the number of its soldiers on the Western Front.<ref name="gunther1950">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/rooseveltinretro00gunt | url-access=limited | title=Roosevelt in Retrospect | publisher=Harper & Brothers | last=Gunther |first=John | year=1950 | pages=}}</ref>

Memorandum for the President's Special Assistant ], Washington, D.C., 10 August 1943:

{{blockquote|In World War II, Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious. Similarly, Russia's post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces. <ref> {{cite web |title=The Executive of the Presidents Soviet Protocol Committee (Burns) to the President's Special Assistant (Hopkins) |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943/d317 |website=www.history.state.gov |publisher= ]}} </ref>}}

], in which about one million civilians died]]

The war inflicted huge losses and suffering upon the civilian populations of the affected countries. Behind the front lines, ] against civilians in German-occupied areas were routine, including those carried out as part of the Holocaust. German and German-allied forces treated civilian populations with exceptional brutality, massacring whole village populations and routinely killing civilian hostages (see ]). Both sides practised widespread ] tactics, but the loss of civilian lives in the case of Germany was incomparably smaller than that of the Soviet Union, in which at least 20&nbsp;million were killed. According to British historian ], "The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater: since a high proportion of those killed were young men of child-begetting age, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than post-1939 projections would have led one to expect."<ref>{{cite book|last=Hosking|first=Geoffrey A.|title=Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CDMVMqDvp4QC&pg=PA242|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02178-5|page=242}}</ref>

When the Red Army invaded Germany in 1944, many German civilians suffered from reprisals by Red Army soldiers (see ]). After the war, following the ] agreements between the Allies, the ] of East Prussia and ] were ] of the ], in what became one of the largest ]s of people in world history.

The Soviet Union came out of World War II militarily victorious but economically and structurally devastated. Much of the combat took place in or close to populated areas, and the actions of both sides contributed to massive loss of civilian life and tremendous material damage. According to a summary, presented by Lieutenant General ] at the ] in ], the property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated to a value of 679&nbsp;billion rubles. The largest number of civilian deaths in a single city was 1.2&nbsp;million citizens dead during the Siege of Leningrad.<ref name="ReferenceB">'']'', 9 February 1946, Volume 95, Number 32158.</ref>

The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, {{convert|40000|mi|km|order=flip}} of railroad, 4,100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries; leaving 25&nbsp;million homeless. Seven million horses, 17&nbsp;million cattle, 20&nbsp;million pigs, 27&nbsp;million sheep were also slaughtered or driven off.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Wild fauna were also affected. Wolves and foxes fleeing westward from the killing zone, as the Soviet army advanced between 1943 and 1945, were responsible for a ] epidemic that spread slowly westwards, reaching the coast of the ] by 1968.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bellamy|2007|pp=1–2}}</ref>


==Leadership== ==Leadership==
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2023}}
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were ideologically driven ] states in which the leader had near-absolute power. The character of the war was thus determined by the leaders and their ideology to a much greater extent than in any other theatre of World War II.
The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were both ideologically driven states (by ] and by Nazism, respectively), in which the foremost political ]s had ]. {{citation needed|date=October 2022}} The character of the war was thus determined by the political leaders and their ] to a much greater extent than in any other theatre of World War II.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}


===Adolf Hitler===
] led the armed forces of Germany during World War II]]
] led Germany during World War II.]]
] exercised a tight control over the war, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at ] in ], at ] in ], and under the garden of the ] in ]). At crucial periods in the war he held daily situation conferences, at which he used his remarkable talent for public speaking to overwhelm opposition from his generals and the OKW staff with rhetoric.


Hitler exercised tight control over the German war-effort, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at ] in East Prussia, at ] in Ukraine, and under the garden of the ] in Berlin). At crucial periods in the war he held daily situation-conferences at which he used his remarkable talent for public speaking to overwhelm opposition from his generals and from the OKW staff with rhetoric.
He believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941 when ] (commander-in-chief of the ]) and ] were appealing for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country. Some historians believe that this decision was a missed opportunity to win the war.


In part because of the unexpected degree of German success in the Battle of France (despite the warnings of the professional military) Hitler believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war-effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941, when ] (commander-in-chief of the ''Wehrmacht'') and Fedor von Bock appealed for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country. Some historians like Bevin Alexander in ''How Hitler Could Have Won'' regard this decision as a missed opportunity to win the war.{{full citation needed|date=October 2023}}
In the winter of 1941&ndash;1942 Hitler believed that his obstinate refusal to allow the German armies to retreat had saved ] from collapse. He later told ],


In the winter of 1941–1942 Hitler believed that his obstinate refusal to allow the German armies to retreat had saved Army Group Centre from collapse. He later told ]:
:I had to act ruthlessly. I had to send even my closest generals packing, two army generals, for example … I could only tell these gentlemen, "Get yourself back to Germany as rapidly as you can &mdash; but leave the army in my charge. And the army is staying at the front."


<blockquote>
The success of this ] outside Moscow led Hitler to insist on the holding of territory when it made no military sense, and to sack generals who retreated without orders. Officers with initiative were replaced with yes-men or fanatical Nazis. The disastrous encirclements later in the war &mdash; at ], ] and many other places &mdash; were the direct result of Hitler's orders. Many divisions became cut off in "fortress" cities, or wasted uselessly in secondary theatres, because Hitler would not sanction retreat or abandon voluntarily any of his conquests.
I had to act ruthlessly. I had to send even my closest generals packing, two army generals, for example ... I could only tell these gentlemen, "Get yourself back to Germany as rapidly as you can – but leave the army in my charge. And the army is staying at the front."
</blockquote>


The success of this ] outside Moscow led Hitler to insist on the holding of territory when it made no military sense, and to sack generals who retreated without orders. Officers with initiative were replaced with yes-men or with fanatical Nazis. The disastrous encirclements later in the war – at Stalingrad, ] and many other places – resulted directly from Hitler's orders. This idea of holding territory led to another failed plan, dubbed{{by whom|date=May 2018}} "''Heaven-bound Missions''", which involved fortifying even the most unimportant or insignificant of cities and the holding of these "fortresses" at all costs. Many divisions became cut off in "fortress" cities, or wasted uselessly in secondary theatres, because Hitler would not sanction retreat or voluntarily abandon any of his conquests.
Frustration at Hitler's leadership of the war was one of the factors in the attempted ] of ], but after the failure of the ] Hitler considered the army and its officer corps suspect and came to rely on the ] and Nazi party members to prosecute the war. His many disastrous appointments included that of ] to command ] in the defence of Berlin in 1945 &mdash; Himmler suffered a mental breakdown under the stress of the command and was quickly replaced by ].


Frustration at Hitler's ] in the war was one of the factors in the attempted ] of 1944, but after the failure of the ] Hitler considered the army and its officer corps suspect and came to rely on the '']'' (SS) and Nazi party members to prosecute the war.
Hitler's direction of the war was disastrous for the German army, though the skill, loyalty, professionalism and endurance of officers and soldiers enabled him to keep Germany fighting to the end. However, the Allied commanders who read the decrypted German command signals were always happier when Hitler was in charge. ] wrote of Hitler's signal to ] to continue the attack to the west during the ]:


Hitler's direction of the war ultimately proved disastrous for the German Army, though the skill, loyalty, professionalism and endurance of officers and soldiers enabled him to keep Germany fighting to the end. ] wrote{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} of Hitler's signal to ] to continue the attack to the west during the ]:
:From experience we had learned that when Hitler started refusing to do what the generals recommended, things started to go wrong, and this was to be no exception.


{{blockquote|From experience we had learned that when Hitler started refusing to do what the generals recommended, things started to go wrong, and this was to be no exception.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}}}
] led the Soviet Union during World War II]]
] bore the greatest responsibility for the disasters of the first two years of the war.


===Joseph Stalin===
The ] of the ] in the ] on Stalin's orders had killed or imprisoned the majority of the senior command, including ], the brilliant proponent of armoured ]. Stalin promoted obscurantists like ], who opposed the mechanization of the army and the production of ]s. Distrust of the military led to a system of "dual command", in which every high-ranking officer was paired with a ], a member of the ] who ensured that the officer was loyal and implemented Party orders.
] led the Soviet Union during World War II.]]


Stalin bore the greatest responsibility for some of the disasters at the beginning of the war (for example, the Battle of Kiev in 1941), but equally deserves praise for the subsequent success of the Soviet Red Army, which depended on the unprecedentedly ], which Stalin's internal policy had made the first priority throughout the 1930s.
Following the Soviet occupation of eastern ], the Baltic states and ] in 1939&ndash;1940, Stalin insisted that every fold of the new territories should be occupied: this move westward left troops far from their depots in salients that left them vulnerable to encirclement. There was an assumption that the coming war would be fought outside the borders of the Soviet Union and few plans were made for defence. As tension heightened in Spring 1941, Stalin was desperate not to give Hitler any provocation that could be used as an excuse for an attack; this caused him to refuse to allow the military to go onto the alert even as German troops gathered on the borders and German reconnaissance planes overflew installations. This refusal to take the necessary action was instrumental in the destruction of the Soviet air force, lined up on its airfields, in the first days of the war.
Stalin's ] of the Red Army in the late 1930s involved the legal prosecution of many of the senior command, many of whom the courts convicted and sentenced to death or to imprisonment.


The executed included ], a proponent of armoured blitzkrieg. Stalin promoted some ]s like ] who opposed the mechanisation of the army and the production of tanks, but on the other hand purged the older commanders who had held their positions since the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, and who had experience, but were deemed "politically unreliable". This opened up their places to the promotion of many younger officers that Stalin and the NKVD regarded as in line with ] politics. Many{{quantify|date=May 2018}} of these newly promoted commanders proved terribly inexperienced, but some later became very successful. Soviet tank-output remained the largest in the world.
Stalin's insistence on repeated counterattacks without preparation led to the loss of almost the whole of the Red Army's tank corps in 1941 &mdash; many tanks simply ran out of fuel on their way to the battlefield through faulty planning or ignorance of the location of fuel dumps.


From the foundation of the Red Army in 1918, political distrust of the military had led to a system of "dual command", with every commander paired with a ], a member of the ]. Larger units had military councils consisting of the commander, commissar and chief of staff – commissars ensured the loyalty of the commanding officers and implemented Party orders.
], considered by many as one of the most successful field commanders]]
Unlike Hitler, Stalin was able to learn lessons and improve his conduct of the war. He gradually came to realise the dangers of inadequate preparation and built up a competent command and control organization &mdash; the ] &mdash; under ], ] and ].


Following the ], of the ] and of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1939–1940, Stalin insisted on the occupation of every fold of the newly Sovietized territories; this move westward positioned troops far from their depots, in salients that left them vulnerable to encirclement. As tension heightened in spring, 1941, Stalin desperately tried not to give Hitler any provocation that Berlin could use as an excuse for a German attack; Stalin refused to allow the military to go on the alert – even as German troops gathered on the borders and German reconnaissance planes overflew installations. This refusal to take necessary action was instrumental in the destruction of major portions of the Red Air Force, lined up on its airfields, in the first days of the German–Soviet war.
At the crisis of the war, in autumn 1942, Stalin made many concessions to the army: unitary command was restored, as were insignia such as shoulderboards &mdash; stripped from tsarist officers after the ]. Elite divisions were given the traditional "Guards" title. But these concessions were combined with ruthless discipline: ], issued on ] ], threatened commanders who retreated without orders with punishment by ]. Infractions by military and '']s'' were punished with transferal to ]s and penal ], and the ]'s ] would shoot soldiers who fled.


At the crisis of the war, in the autumn of 1942, Stalin made many concessions to the army: the government restored unitary command by removing the Commissars from the ]. Order 25 of 15 January 1943 introduced ] for all ranks; this represented a significant symbolic step, since after the ] shoulderboards had connotations as a symbol of the old Tsarist régime. Beginning in autumn 1941, units that had proved themselves by superior performance in combat were given the traditional "Guards" title.{{Sfn | Glantz | 2005 | p = 181}}
As it became clear that the Soviet Union would win the war Stalin ensured that propaganda always mentioned his leadership of the war; the victorious generals were sidelined and never allowed to develop into political rivals. After the war the Red Army was once again purged: many successful officers were demoted to unimportant positions (including ], ] and ]); a few were tortured into confessions of treason and sent to the ]. No-one was allowed to detract from Stalin's ]. An exception being the appointment of Zhukov to the post of Deputy Defence Minister.


These concessions were combined with ruthless discipline: ], issued on 28 July 1942, threatened commanders who retreated without orders with punishment by ]. Infractions by military and '']s'' were punished with transferral to ]s and to penal ] which carried out especially hazardous duties, such as serving as ''tramplers'' to clear Nazi minefields.<ref>{{Citation | last = Toppe | first = Alfred | title = Night Combat | publisher = Diane | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-7881-7080-5 | page = 28}}</ref> The order stipulated to capture or shoot "cowards" and fleeing panicked troops at the rear where blocking detachments were ordered to be set up. In the first three months after Order No. 227 was promulgated 1,000 retreating troops were shot and 24,993 were sent to penal battalions.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2006|isbn=0-300-11204-1|page=132}}</ref> By October 1942 the idea of regular blocking detachments was quietly dropped, By 29 October 1944 the units were officially disbanded.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bdsa.ru/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%8B-%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE-%D0%B7%D0%B0-1944-%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4/784-636|title=ПРИКАЗ О РАСФОРМИРОВАНИИ ОТДЕЛЬНЫХ ЗАГРАДИТЕЛЬНЫХ ОТРЯДОВ|website=bdsa.ru|access-date=2019-03-07|archive-date=20 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220095346/http://bdsa.ru/%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%8B-%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE-%D0%B7%D0%B0-1944-%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B4/784-636}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army|last=Merridale|first=Catherine|publisher=New York : Metropolitan Books|year=2006|isbn=0-8050-7455-4|pages=|oclc=60671899|url=https://archive.org/details/ivanswarlifedeat00merr_0/page/158}}</ref>
==Occupation and repression==
], in 1942.]]
The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to ] and administer. Some Soviet citizens, especially in the non-Russian republics, greeted their conquerors as liberators from Stalinist repression. But they were soon to learn that their new masters were every bit as repressive and brutal as the old. Nascent national liberation movements among ] and ]s, and other were viewed by Hitler with suspicion; some were co-opted into the Axis armies and others brutally suppressed. None of the conquered territories gained any measure of self-rule. Instead, the ] ] saw the future of the East as one of ], with the natives killed, expelled, or reduced to slave labour.


As it became clear that the Soviet Union would win the war, Stalin ensured that propaganda always mentioned his leadership of the war; he sidelined the victorious generals and never allowed them to develop into political rivals. After the war the Soviets once again purged the Red Army (though not as brutally as in the 1930s) and demoted many successful officers (including Zhukov, ] and ]) to unimportant positions.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}}
Some captured regions, like the Baltic states, were incorporated into Greater Germany; in others Commissariats were established to extract the maximum in loot. In September 1941, ] was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat. His opening speech was clear about German policy: "I am known as a brutal dog … Our job is to suck from Ukraine all the goods we can get hold of … I am expecting from you the utmost severity towards the native population."


==Repression and genocide in occupied territories==
Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of '']'' (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them. Local ]s were encouraged to carry out their own ]s. In July 1941 ]'s SS unit began to carry out more systematic killings, including the massacre of 30,000 at ]. By the end of 1941 there were more than 50,000 troops devoted to rounding up and killing Jews. The gradual industrialization of killing led to adoption of the ] and the establishment of the ] extermination camps: the machinery of the ]. In three years of occupation, between one and two million Soviet Jews were killed. Other ethnic groups were targeted for extermination, including the ] and ]; see ].
{{See also|Generalplan Ost|German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|World War II German war crimes in the Soviet Union|Commissar Order|Hunger Plan}}


{{blockquote|... Hitler's first defeats on the ] drove him to endorse plans for the total extermination of the Jews, and almost simultaneously to openly intensify the ] slogans of anti-Bolshevist and ] propaganda. Then in 1943 came the call for total war. ] meant further suffering and murders inflicted on millions. Millions of people perished heirless and nameless.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Borejsza |first=Jerzy W. |title=A ridiculous hundred million Slavs: Concerning Adolf Hitler's world-view |publisher=Polskiej Akademii Nauk |year=2017 |isbn=978-83-63352-88-2 |location=Warsaw, Poland |pages=176 |translator-last=French |translator-first=David}}</ref>||Polish historian ]}}
The massacres of Jews and other ] were only a part of the deaths from the Nazi occupation. Many thousands of Soviet civilians were executed, but millions died from ] as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses. As they retreated from Ukraine and Belarus in 1943&ndash;1944, the German occupiers systematically applied a ] policy, burning towns and cities, destroying infrastructure, and leaving civilians to starve or die of exposure. Estimates of total civilian dead in the Soviet Union in the war range from seven million (]) to seventeen million (Overy).


]. A member of ''] D'' murders a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in ], in 1942.]]
The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged ]s fighting behind the front, motivated even anti-communists or non-Russian nationalists to ally with the Soviets, and greatly delayed the formation of German allied divisions consisting of Soviet POWs (see ]). These results and missed opportunities contributed to the defeat of the ''Wehrmacht''.
The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to pacify and administer. For the majority of people of the Soviet Union, the Nazi invasion was viewed as a brutal act of unprovoked aggression. While it is important to note that not all parts of Soviet society viewed the German advance in this way, the majority of the Soviet population viewed German forces as occupiers. In areas such as ], ], and ] (which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940) the ''Wehrmacht'' was tolerated by a relatively more significant part of the native population.

This was particularly true for the territories of Western Ukraine, recently rejoined to the Soviet Union, where the anti-Polish and anti-Soviet ] hoped in vain to establish the "independent state", relying on German armed force. However, Soviet society as a whole was hostile to the invading Nazis from the very start. The nascent national liberation movements among Ukrainians and ]s, and others were viewed by Hitler with suspicion; some, especially those from the Baltic States, were co-opted into the Axis armies and others brutally suppressed. None of the conquered territories gained any measure of self-rule.

Instead, the Nazi ideologues saw the future of the East as one of settlement by German colonists, with the natives killed, expelled, or reduced to slave labour. The cruel and brutally inhumane treatment of Soviet civilians, women, children and elderly, the daily bombings of civilian cities and towns, Nazi pillaging of Soviet villages and hamlets and unprecedented harsh punishment and treatment of civilians in general were some of the primary reasons for Soviet resistance to Nazi Germany's invasion. Indeed, the Soviets viewed Germany's invasion as an act of aggression and an attempt to conquer and enslave the local population.

] in ], Ukraine, 1942]]
Regions closer to the front were managed by military powers of the region, in other areas such as the Baltic states annexed by the USSR in 1940, Reichscommissariats were established. As a rule, the maximum in loot was extracted. In September 1941, ] was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat. His opening speech was clear about German policy: "I am known as a brutal dog ... Our job is to suck from Ukraine all the goods we can get hold of ... I am expecting from you the utmost severity towards the native population."

Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of '']'' (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916093736/http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/barbarossa/ |date=16 September 2012 }} on the ] website</ref>
] Rostov for keeping pigeons]]
The massacres of Jews and other ] were only a part of the deaths from the Nazi occupation. Many hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians were executed, and millions more died from ] as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses. As they retreated from Ukraine and Belarus in 1943–44, the German occupiers systematically applied a scorched earth policy, burning towns and cities, destroying infrastructure, and leaving civilians to starve or die of exposure.{{efn|On 7 September 1943, ] sent orders to ] "Ukraine" ] that "not a human being, not a single head of cattle, not a hundredweight of cereals and not a railway line remain behind; that not a house remains standing, not a mine is available which is not destroyed for years to come, that there is not a well which is not poisoned. The enemy must really find completely burned and destroyed land". He ordered cooperation with Infantry general Staff, also someone named Stampf, and sent copies to the Chief of Regular Police, Chief of Security Police & SS, ] Berger, and the chief of the partisan combating units.<ref>Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Supplement A'' pg 1270</ref>}} In many towns, the battles were fought within towns and cities with trapped civilians caught in the middle. Estimates of total civilian dead in the Soviet Union in the war range from seven million ('']''){{full citation needed|date=October 2023}} to seventeen million (Richard Overy).{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
], hanged by German forces in November 1941]]

The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged partisans fighting behind the front; it motivated even anti-communists or non-Russian nationalists to ally with the Soviets and greatly delayed the formation of German-allied divisions consisting of Soviet POWs (see ]). These results and missed opportunities contributed to the defeat of the ''Wehrmacht''.

] hanged by German forces in January 1943]]
Vadim Erlikman has detailed Soviet losses totalling 26.5&nbsp;million war related deaths. Military losses of 10.6&nbsp;million include six million killed or missing in action and 3.6&nbsp;million POW dead, plus 400,000 paramilitary and Soviet partisan losses. Civilian deaths totalled 15.9&nbsp;million, which included 1.5&nbsp;million from military actions; 7.1&nbsp;million victims of Nazi ] and reprisals; 1.8&nbsp;million deported to Germany for ]; and 5.5&nbsp;million ] and ] deaths. Additional famine deaths, which totalled one million during 1946–47, are not included here. These losses are for the entire territory of the USSR including territories annexed in 1939–40.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}}

Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population, including practically all its intellectual elite. Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day Belarus territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941. The Nazis imposed a brutal regime, deporting some 380,000 young people for slave labour, and killing hundreds of thousands (civilians) more.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://holocaustcontroversies.yuku.com/topic/1856/The-Nazi-struggle-against-Soviet-partisans|title=The Nazi struggle against Soviet partisans|website=Holocaust Controversies|date=17 March 2012 }}</ref> More than 600 villages like ] were burned with their entire population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.belarusguide.com/travel1/Khatyn.html|title=Khatyn WWI Memorial in Belarus|website=www.belarusguide.com}}</ref> More than 209 cities and towns (out of 270 total) and 9,000 villages were destroyed. Himmler pronounced a plan according to which {{frac|3|4}} of the Belarusian population was designated for "eradication" and {{frac|1|4}} of the racially 'cleaner' population (blue eyes, light hair) would be allowed to serve Germans as slaves.

] executing Soviet civilians, 1943]]
Some recent reports raise the number of Belarusians who perished in the war to "3 million 650 thousand people, unlike the former 2.2 million. That is to say not every fourth inhabitant but almost 40% of the pre-war Belarusian population perished (considering the present-day borders of Belarus)."<ref> belarusguide.com</ref>

Sixty percent of Soviet POWs died during the war. By its end, large numbers of Soviet POWs, forced labourers and Nazi collaborators (including those who were ] by the Western Allies) went to special NKVD "filtration" camps. By 1946, 80 percent of civilians and 20 percent of POWs were freed, others were re-drafted, or sent to labour battalions. Two percent of civilians and 14 percent of the ] were sent to the ].<ref>("Военно-исторический журнал" ("Military-Historical Magazine"), 1997, No.5. page 32)</ref><ref>Земсков В.Н. К вопросу о репатриации советских граждан. 1944–1951 годы // История СССР. 1990. No. 4 (Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4)</ref>

The official Polish government report of war losses prepared in 1947 reported 6,028,000 victims out of a population of 27,007,000 ethnic Poles and Jews; this report excluded ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian losses.

Although the Soviet Union had not signed the ], it is generally accepted that it considered itself bound by the provisions of the ].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jacob |last=Robinson |title=Transfer of Property in Enemy Occupied Territory |journal=] |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=216–230 |date=April 1945 |jstor=2192342 |doi=10.2307/2192342|s2cid=147065225 }}</ref> A month after the German invasion in 1941, an offer was made for a reciprocal adherence to Hague convention. This 'note' was left unanswered by Third Reich officials.<ref>Beevor, ''Stalingrad''. Penguin 2001 {{ISBN|0-14-100131-3}} p 60</ref>

Soviet repressions also contributed into the Eastern Front's death toll. Mass repression occurred in the occupied portions of Poland as well as in the Baltic states and Bessarabia. Immediately after the start of the German invasion, the NKVD massacred large numbers of inmates in most of their prisons in ] and Western Ukraine, while the remainder was to be evacuated in death marches.<ref>Robert Gellately. ''Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe.'' ], 2007 {{ISBN|1-4000-4005-1}} p. 391</ref>


==Industrial output== ==Industrial output==
] tanks being transported from the factory to the front]]
] tank rolls off the line at the ''Krasnoye Sormovo'' Factory No. 112 in Gorki. The Soviet Union manufactured 58,000 T-34s during the war.]]


The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of her war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. The Stalinist ]s of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialization of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, the trains that shipped troops to the front were used to evacuate thousands of factories from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of its war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. Stalin's five-year plans of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialisation of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, thousands of trains evacuated critical factories and workers from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. Once these facilities were reassembled east of the Urals, production could be resumed without fear of German bombing.


As the Soviet Union's manpower reserves ran low from 1943 onwards, the great Soviet offensives had to depend more on equipment and less on the expenditure of lives. The increases in production of war materiel were achieved at the expense of civilian living standards &mdash; the most thorough application of the principle of ] &mdash; and with the help of ] supplies from the ] and the ]. The Germans, on the other hand, could rely on a large slave workforce from the conquered countires. The increases in production of ] were achieved at the expense of civilian living standards – the most thorough application of the principle of ] – and with the help of ] supplies from the United Kingdom and the United States. The Germans, on the other hand, could rely on a large slave workforce from the conquered countries and Soviet POWs. American exports and technical expertise also enabled the Soviets to produce goods that they wouldn't have been able to on their own. For example, while the USSR was able to produce fuel of octane numbers from 70 to 74, Soviet industry only met 4% of demand for fuel of octane numbers from 90+; all aircraft produced after 1939 required fuel of the latter category. To fulfill demands, the USSR depended on American assistance, both in finished products and TEL.<ref>Alexander Matveichuk. Oil of Russia. Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. 2 November 2011.</ref>


Germany had far greater resources than did the USSR, and dwarfed its production in every matrix except for oil, having over five times the USSR's coal production, over three times its iron production, three times its steel production, twice its electricity production, and about 2/3 of its oil production.<ref>Walter Dunn, "The Soviet Economy and the Red Army", Praeger (30 August 1995), page 50. Citing K.F. Skorobogatkin, et al., "50 Let Voorezhennyk sil SSR" (Moscow: Voyenizdat, 1968), p. 457.</ref>
Germany's raw material production was higher than the Soviets', but the Soviets were more efficient at using what resources they had and chose to build low cost, low maintenance vehicles whilst the Germans built high cost, high maintenance vehicles.


German production of explosives from 1940 to 1944 was 1.595&nbsp;million tons, along with 829,970 tons of powder. Consumption on all fronts during the same period was 1.493&nbsp;million tons of explosives and 626,887 tons of powder.<ref>US Strategic Bombing Survey "Appendix D. Strategic Air Attack on the Powder and Explosives Industries", Table D7: German Monthly Production of Powders and Exploders (Including Extenders) and Consumption by German Armed Forces</ref> From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced only 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Germany outproduced the Soviet Union 3.16 to 1 in explosives tonnage.
Germany chose to build very expensive and very complicated vehicles and even though Germany produced many times more raw materials she could not compete with Soviets on quantity of military production (in 1943, the ] to ]). The Soviets incrementally upgraded existing designs, and simplified and refined manufacturing processes to increase production. Meanwhile, German industry was forced to engineer more advanced but complex designs such as the ], the ] or the ].


Soviet armoured fighting vehicle production was greater than the Germans (in 1943, the ] to ]). The Soviets incrementally upgraded existing designs, and simplified and refined manufacturing processes to increase production, and were helped by a mass infusion of harder to produce goods such as aviation fuel, machine tools, trucks, and high-explosives from Lend-Lease, allowing them to concentrate on a few key industries. Meanwhile, Germany had been cut off from foreign trade for years by the time it invaded the USSR, was in the middle of two extended and costly theatres at air and sea that further limited production (] and Defence of the Reich), and was forced to devote a large segment of its expenditures to goods the Soviets could cut back on (such as trucks) or which would never even be used against the Soviets (such as ships). Naval vessels alone constituted 10–15% of Germany's war expenditures from 1940 to 1944 depending on the year, while armoured vehicles by comparison were only 5–8%.<ref>Military Analysis Division, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey- European War, Volume 3, page 144. Washington, 1947.</ref>
{| {{prettytable}}

|+ Summary of German and Soviet production during the war.<sup><small>1</small></sup>
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of German and Soviet raw material production during the war<ref name="Russia's War">Richard Overy, ''Russia's War'', p. 155 and ''Campaigns of World War II Day By Day'', by Chris Bishop and Chris McNab, pp. 244–52.</ref>
|- |-
!rowspan="2"|Year !rowspan="2"|Year
!colspan="2"|Coal<br/>(million tonnes) !colspan="2"|Coal<br />(million tonnes, Germany includes lignite and bituminous types)
!colspan="2"|Steel<br/>(million tonnes) !colspan="2"|Steel<br />(million tonnes)
!colspan="2"|Aluminium<br/>(thousand tonnes) !colspan="2"|Aluminium<br />(thousand tonnes)
!colspan="2"|Oil<br/>(million tonnes) !colspan="6"|Oil<br />(million tonnes)
|-
!colspan="2"|Tanks and self-<br/>propelled guns
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|Italian
! style="background:#fff;"|Hungarian
! style="background:#fff;"|Romanian
! style="background:#fff;"|Japanese
|- |-
!style="background:#eeeeff"|German
!style="background:#ffeeee"|Soviet
!style="background:#eeeeff"|German
!style="background:#ffeeee"|Soviet
!style="background:#eeeeff"|German
!style="background:#ffeeee"|Soviet
!style="background:#eeeeff"|German
!style="background:#ffeeee"|Soviet
!style="background:#eeeeff"|German
!style="background:#ffeeee"|Soviet
|-
!1941 !1941
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|315.5 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|483.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|151.4 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|151.4
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|28.2 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|31.8
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|17.9 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|17.9
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|233.6 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|233.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|– | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|5.7 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5.7
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|33.0 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|33.0
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|5,200<sup><small>3</small></sup> | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.12
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|6,590 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.4
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5.5
|-
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|-
!1942 !1942
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|317.9 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|513.1
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|75.5 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|75.5
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|28.7 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|32.1
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|8.1 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8.1
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|264.0 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|264.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|51.7 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|51.7
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|6.6 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|6.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|22.0 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|22.0
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|9,300<sup><small>3</small></sup> | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.01
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|24,446 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.7
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5.7
|-
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|1.8
|-
!1943 !1943
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|340.4 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|521.4
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|93.1 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|93.1
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|30.6 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|34.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|8.5 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8.5
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|250.0 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|250.0
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|62.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|62.3
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|7.6 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7.6
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|18.0 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|18.0
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|19,800 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.01
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|24,089 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.8
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5.3
|-
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2.3
|-
!1944 !1944
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|347.6 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|509.8
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|121.5 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|121.5
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|25.8 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|28.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|10.9 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|10.9
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|245.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|245.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|82.7 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|82.7
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|5.5 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5.5
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|18.2 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|18.2
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|27,300 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|28,963 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|1
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|3.5
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|1
|- |-
!1945<ref name="Soviet numbers">Soviet numbers for 1945 are for the whole of 1945, including after the war was over.</ref>
!1945<sup><small>2</small></sup>
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|– | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|149.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|149.3
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|– | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|12.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|12.3
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|– | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|86.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|86.3
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|1.3 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|1.3
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|19.4 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|19.4
|align="right" style="background:#eeeeff"|– | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|align="right" style="background:#ffeeee"|15,400 | style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|0.1
|} |}


{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of Axis and Soviet tank and self-<br />propelled gun production during the war<ref name="Russia's War" />
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year


!colspan="6"|Tanks and self-<br />propelled guns
|-
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Italian
! style="background:#fff;"|Hungarian
! style="background:#fff;"|Romanian
! style="background:#fff;"|Japanese
|-
!1941
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|6,590
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|<ref name="German tank numbers">German figures for 1941 and 1942 include tanks only.</ref>5,200
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|595
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|595
|-
!1942
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|24,446
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|<ref name="German tank numbers" />9,300
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|1,252
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;" rowspan="3"|500
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|557
|-
!1943
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|24,089
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|19,800
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|336
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;" rowspan="2"|105
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|558
|-
!1944
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|28,963
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|27,300
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|353
|-
!1945<ref name="Soviet numbers" />
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|15,400
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|137
|}


{| class="wikitable"
Notes:
|+ Summary of Axis and Soviet aircraft production during the war<ref name="Russia's War" />
# Figures from Richard Overy, ''Russia's War'', page 155.
|-
# German numbers for 1945 if not stated are unknown. Soviet numbers for 1945 are for the whole of 1945 even after the war was over.
!rowspan="2"|Year
# German figures for 1941 and 1942 includes tanks only. (Self-propelled guns cost 2/3 of a tank (mainly because they have no turret), and they more appropriate in a defensive role. Therefore the Germans favored their production in the second half of the war.)


!colspan="6"|Aircraft
It should be noted that the Axis allies Italy, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria added to the German numbers, while Soviet production and upkeep was greatly assisted by the ] program from the United States and Britain.
|-
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Italian
! style="background:#fff;"|Hungarian
! style="background:#fff;"|Romanian
! style="background:#fff;"|Japanese
|-
!1941
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|15,735
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|11,776
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|3,503
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;" rowspan="5"|1,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5,088
|-
!1942
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|25,436
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|15,556
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2,818
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|6
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8,861
|-
!1943
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|34,845
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|25,527
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|967
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|267
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|16,693
|-
!1944
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|40,246
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|39,807
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|773
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|28,180
|-
!1945<ref name="Soviet numbers" />
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|20,052
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,544
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8,263
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Summary of German and Soviet industrial labour (including those classified as handworkers), and summary of foreign, voluntary, coerced and POW labour<ref>''The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia'' by ] p. 498.</ref>
|-
!rowspan="2"|Year

!colspan="2"|Industrial labour
!colspan="2"|Foreign labour
!colspan="2"|Total labour
|-
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|German
! style="background:#fff;"|Total Soviet
! style="background:#fff;"|Total German
|-
!1941
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|11,000,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|12,900,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|3,500,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|11,000,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|16,400,000
|-
!1942
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,200,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|11,600,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|50,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|4,600,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,250,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|16,200,000
|-
!1943
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,500,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|11,100,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|200,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|5,700,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,700,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|16,800,000
|-
!1944
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8,200,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|10,400,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|800,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|7,600,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|9,000,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|18,000,000
|-
!1945<ref name="Soviet numbers" />
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|9,500,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2,900,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|12,400,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|–
|}

Soviet production and upkeep was assisted by the Lend-Lease program from the United States and the United Kingdom. In the course of the war the US supplied $11&nbsp;billion of materiel through Lend-Lease. This included 400,000 trucks, 12,000 armoured vehicles (including 7,000 tanks), 11,400 aircraft and 1.75&nbsp;million tons of food.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506174749/http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/PDF/Chapter05.pdf |date=6 May 2017 }}, US Army Center of Military History, page 158.</ref> The British supplied aircraft including 3,000 Hurricanes and 4,000 other aircraft during the war. Five thousand tanks were provided by the British and Canada. Total British supplies were about four million tons.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001219165200/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/|archive-date=2000-12-19|title=Telegraph|website=The Telegraph}}</ref> Germany on the other hand had the resources of conquered Europe at its disposal; those numbers are however not included into the tables above, such as production in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and so on.

After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany geared completely towards a war economy, as expounded in a speech given by Joseph Goebbels (the Nazi propaganda minister), in the Berlin ], increasing production in subsequent years under ]'s (the ''Reich'' armaments minister) direction, despite the intensifying ].


==Casualties== ==Casualties==
{{Further|World War II casualties|World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|German casualties in World War II}}
The Eastern Front was unparalleled for its high intensity, ferocity, and brutality. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front. It was by far the deadliest single ] in World War II, with over 4 million deaths on the Axis Forces, Soviet military deaths were about 7 to 8 million (another 3 million Soviets died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 17 million. The genocidal death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured partisans by both sides, multiple atrocities by the Germans and the Soviets against the civilian population and each other, the wholesale use of weaponry on the battlefield against huge masses of infantry, and Joseph Stalin's draconian policies against supposed enemies. The multiple battles, and most of all, the use of ] tactics destroyed ], infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food.
]
]
The fighting involved millions of Axis and Soviet troops along the broadest land front in military history. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of the European portion of World War II with up to 8.7 to 10&nbsp;million military deaths on the Soviet side (although, depending on the criteria used, casualties in the Far East theatre may have been similar in number).{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|p=85}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007178 |title= Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War |publisher=] |encyclopedia=]|access-date=15 June 2011}}</ref><ref>Richard Overy, The Dictators</ref> Axis military deaths were 5&nbsp;million of which around 4,000,000 were German deaths.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_var_wvw.html|title=German military deaths to all causes EF|access-date=10 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502201829/http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_var_wvw.html|archive-date=2 May 2013}}</ref><ref>German losses according to: Rüdiger Overmans, ''Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Oldenbourg 2000. {{ISBN|3-486-56531-1}}, pp. 265, 272</ref>


Included in this figure of German losses is the majority of the 2&nbsp;million German military personnel listed as missing or unaccounted for after the war. Rüdiger Overmans states that it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one half of these men were killed in action and the other half died in Soviet custody.<ref>Rüdiger Overmans. ''Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Oldenbourg 2000. {{ISBN|3-486-56531-1}} p. 289</ref> Official OKW Casualty Figures list 65% of Heer killed/missing/captured as being lost on the Eastern Front from 1 September 1939, to 1 January 1945 (four months and a week before the conclusion of the war), with front not specified for losses of the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/1949/43/die-deutschen-verluste-im-zweiten-weltkrieg|title=Die deutschen Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg|first=Percy E. Schramm|last=Göttingen|date=21 November 2012|newspaper=Die Zeit}}</ref>
==See also== ] in ].]]

* ].
Estimated civilian deaths range from about 14 to 17&nbsp;million. Over 11.4&nbsp;million Soviet civilians within pre-1939 Soviet borders were killed, and another estimated 3.5&nbsp;million civilians were killed in the annexed territories.{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|p={{page needed|date=July 2021}}}} The Nazis exterminated one to two million Soviet Jews (including the annexed territories) as part of ].<ref name=gilbert>]. ''Atlas of the Holocaust'' 1988 {{ISBN|0-688-12364-3}}</ref> Soviet and Russian historiography often uses the term "irretrievable casualties". According to the ] of Defence order (No. 023, 4 February 1944), the irretrievable casualties include killed, missing, those who died due to war-time or subsequent wounds, maladies and ]s and those who were captured.
* ].

* ], Axis attack on the Soviet Arctic.
The huge death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured partisans, the large deficiency of food and medical supplies in Soviet territories, and atrocities committed mostly by the Germans against the civilian population. The multiple battles and the use of scorched earth tactics destroyed ], infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food.
* ], the Soviet campaign against ] in ].

* ].
{| class="wikitable"
* ]
|+ Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II<ref>Rüdiger Overmans, ''Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''. Oldenbourg 2000. {{ISBN|3-486-56531-1}}, {{cite web |url=http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_var_wvw.html |title=German military deaths to all causes EF |access-date=10 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502201829/http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_var_wvw.html|archive-date=2 May 2013 }}, ] The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004), {{ISBN|0-7139-9309-X}}, Italy: Ufficio Storico dello Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito. Commissariato generale C.G.V. . Ministero della Difesa – Edizioni 1986, Romania: G. I. Krivosheev (2001). Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil; statisticheskoe issledovanie. OLMA-Press. pp. Tables 200–203. {{ISBN|5-224-01515-4}}, Hungary: G. I. Krivosheev (2001). Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil; statisticheskoe issledovanie. OLMA-Press. pp. Tables 200–203. {{ISBN|5-224-01515-4}}. Hungarian wounded: . {{ISBN|078647470X}}, 9780786474707. p. 527. Soviet volunteer deaths: Percy Schramm Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht: 1940–1945: 8 Bde. ({{ISBN|9783881990738}} ) Pages 1508 to 1511. German prisoners: G. I. Krivosheev Rossiia i SSSR v voinakh XX veka: Poteri vooruzhennykh sil; statisticheskoe issledovanie OLMA-Press, 2001 {{ISBN|5-224-01515-4}} Table 198</ref>
|-

!colspan="6"|Forces fighting with the Axis
|-
!
! style="background:#fff;"|Total Dead
! style="background:#fff;"|]/]/]
! style="background:#fff;"|Prisoners taken by the Soviets
! style="background:#fff;"|Prisoners who died in Captivity
! style="background:#fff;"|] (not including DOW)
|-
!Greater Germany
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|est 4,137,000{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|pp=276–278}}
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|est 3,637,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2,733,739–3,000,060
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|500,000<ref>Rüdiger Overmans, Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene des Zweiten Weltkriege. Ullstein., 2000 Page 246 {{ISBN|3-549-07121-3}}</ref>
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
|-
!Soviet residents who joined German army
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|215,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|215,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|400,000+
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|118,127
|-
!Romania
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|281,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|226,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|500,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|55,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|
|-
!Hungary
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|300,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|245,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|500,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|55,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|89,313
|-
!Italy
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|82,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|55,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|70,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|27,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|
|-
!Finland<ref>Kurenmaa, Pekka; Lentilä, Riitta (2005). "Sodan tappiot". In Leskinen, Jari; Juutilainen, Antti. Jatkosodan pikkujättiläinen (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö. pp. 1150–1162. {{ISBN|951-0-28690-7}}.</ref>
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|63,204
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|62,731
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|3,500
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|473
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|158,000
|-
!Total
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|{{estimation}} 5,078,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|{{estimation}} 4,437,400
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|4,264,497–4,530,818
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|{{estimation}} 637,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II<ref>Vadim Erlikman, ''Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke: spravochnik''. Moscow 2004. {{ISBN|5-93165-107-1}};
Mark Axworthy, ''Third Axis Fourth Ally''. Arms and Armour 1995, p. 216. {{ISBN|1-85409-267-7}}</ref>
|-

!colspan="6"|Forces fighting with the Soviet Union
|-
!
! style="background:#fff;"|Total Dead
! style="background:#fff;"|KIA/DOW/MIA
! style="background:#fff;"|Prisoners taken by the Axis
! style="background:#fff;"|Prisoners who died in captivity
! style="background:#fff;"|WIA (not including DOW)
|-
!Soviet
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|8,668,400–10,000,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|6,829,600
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|4,059,000 (military personnel only)–5,700,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2,250,000–3,300,000<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ww2stats.com/pow_ger_dead_non.html |title=Non-Soviet POWs |access-date=9 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130422053802/http://ww2stats.com/pow_ger_dead_non.html|archive-date=22 April 2013 }}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_cm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005454&MediaId=133 |title=Gross-Rosen Timeline 1940–1945 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=15 January 2009 |website=Internet Wayback Machine |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. |access-date=5 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115200617/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_cm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005454&MediaId=133 |archive-date=15 January 2009 }}</ref> of which 1,283,200 confirmed{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|p={{page needed|date=July 2021}}}}
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|13,581,483{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|p=89}}
|-
!Poland
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|24,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|24,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|
|-
!Romania
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|17,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|17,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|80,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|
|-|-
!Bulgaria
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|10,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|10,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Unknown
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|
|-
!Total
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|Up to ~8,719,000 – 10,000,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|6,880,600
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|4,139,000–5,780,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|2,250,000–3,300,000
| style="text-align:right; background:#fff;"|13,581,483
|}
]
]
Based on Soviet sources Krivosheev put German losses on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 at 6,923,700 men: including killed in action, died of wounds or disease and reported missing and presumed dead{{snd}}4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among ]. Deaths of POW were 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit.{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|pp=276–278}}

According to a report prepared by the General Staff of the Army issued in December 1944, materiel losses in the East from the period of 22 June 1941 until November 1944 stood at 33,324 armoured vehicles of all types (tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and others). Paul Winter, ''Defeating Hitler'', states "these figures are undoubtedly too low".<ref>Paul Winter, Defeating Hitler, p. 234</ref> According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 42,700 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns on the Eastern front.<ref>Micheal Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts, p. 449</ref> Overall, Germany produced 3,024 reconnaissance vehicles,{{Unreliable source?|date=January 2019}} 2,450 other armoured vehicles, 21,880 armoured personnel carriers, 36,703 semi-tracked tractors and 87,329 semi-tracked trucks,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ww2-weapons.com/german-arms-production/|title=German arms production|date=5 September 2020|website=WW2 Weapons}}</ref> estimated 2/3 were lost on the Eastern Front.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}

The Soviets lost 96,500 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns, as well as 37,600 other armoured vehicles (such as armoured cars and semi-tracked trucks) for a total of 134,100 armoured vehicles lost.{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|pp=253–258}}

The Soviets also lost 102,600 aircraft (combat and non-combat causes), including 46,100 in combat.{{sfn|Krivosheev|1997|pp=359–360}} According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 75,700 aircraft on the Eastern front.<ref name=Micheal>. {{ISBN|078647470X}}, 9780786474707. P. 449</ref>

Polish Armed Forces in the East, initially consisting of Poles from Eastern Poland or otherwise in the Soviet Union in 1939–1941, began fighting alongside the Red Army in 1943, and grew steadily as more Polish territory was liberated from the Nazis in 1944–1945.

], January 1942]]

When the Axis countries of Central Europe were occupied by the Soviets, they changed sides and declared war on Germany (see ]s).

Some Soviet citizens would side with the Germans and join ]'s ], ], ] and other ''Ostlegionen'' units. Most of those who joined were Soviet POWs. These ] were primarily used in the Eastern Front but some were assigned to guard the beaches of ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=D-Day: the Battle for the Normandy Beaches|last=Ambrose|first=Stephen|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1997|isbn=0-7434-4974-6|location=London|page=34}}</ref> The other main group of men joining the German army were citizens of the Baltic countries annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 or from Western Ukraine. They fought in their own ] units, including the ] and the ].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/nazi-foreign-legions/|title=Nazi Foreign Legions – History Learning Site|work=History Learning Site|access-date=2018-02-02|language=en-GB}}</ref>

The Soviet Union also used defectors from the Axis countries in combat. The Red Army had two divisions formed of Romanian POWs, the ] and the ]; during the ], some Hungarians joined the ] of the Red Army. The USSR did not have a full analogue of the Vlasov Army which would consist of Germans, however, members of the ], formed mostly of German POWs, were allowed to form small units known as Combat Groups ({{langx|de|Kampfgruppen}}) which participated in combat with the ''Wehrmacht'' in its rear areas and at the front as an auxiliary force of the Red Army and the Soviet partisans, although combat was not their main purpose.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kai Schoenhals|title=The Free Germany Movement: A Case of Patriotism Or Treason?|year=1989|isbn=9780313263903|pages=|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |url=https://archive.org/details/freegermanymovem0000scho}}</ref> In the Third Reich, members of the National Committee for a Free Germany were known as "Seydlitz Troops", under a name given after ] who had defected to the USSR because of the widespread myth that he had his own pro-Soviet military formation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Loeffel |first1=Robert |title=Family Punishment in Nazi Germany: Sippenhaft, Terror and Myth |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-34305-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Moorcraft|title=Churchill's German Special Forces: The Elite Refugee Troops Who Took the War to Hitler|year=2023|publisher=Pen and Sword Military |isbn=9781399061308}}</ref>

Hitler's notorious ] called for Soviet political commissars, who were responsible for ensuring that Red Army units remained politically reliable, to be summarily shot when identified amongst captured troops. Axis troops who captured Red Army soldiers frequently shot them in the field or shipped them to concentration camps to be used as forced labourers or killed.<ref>] The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004), {{ISBN|0-7139-9309-X}}</ref> Additionally, millions of Soviet civilians were captured as POWs and treated in the same manner. It is estimated that between 2.25 and 3.3&nbsp;million Soviet POWs died in Nazi custody, out of 5.25–5.7&nbsp;million. This figure represents a total of 45–57% of all Soviet POWs and may be contrasted with 8,300 deaths out of 231,000 British and U.S. prisoners, or 3.6%.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ww2stats.com/pow_ger_dead_non.html |title=1945 |access-date=9 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130422053808/http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_okh_dec45.html|archive-date=22 April 2013 }}</ref><ref name="auto"/> About 5% of the Soviet prisoners who died were of Jewish ethnicity.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}

==See also==
<!-- Commented out: ], statue located on ] memorial complex in ]]] -->
{{Div col}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* '']'' – a film from the '']'' propaganda film series
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ] – Japanese plan to invade the Soviet Far East in 1941
{{Div col end}}

===National and regional experiences===
{{Div col}}
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
{{Div col end}}

===Lists===
{{Div col}}
* ]
* ]
{{Div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}


==References== ==References==
{{Citation style|date=September 2022}}
* ], & Artemis Cooper, ''Stalingrad'', Viking, 1998.

* Antony Beevor, ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945'', Penguin, 2002.
===Citations===
* ], ''The Road to Stalingrad'', Harper &amp; Row, 1975.
{{Reflist}}
* John Erickson, ''The Road to Berlin'', Harper &amp; Row, 1982.

* John Erickson and ], ''Barbarossa, the Axis and the Allies'', Edinburgh University Press, 1994.
===Sources===
* ] and ], ''When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler'', University Press of Kansas, 1995.
*{{Cite book
* ], '']'', ], New York, 2001.
|last=Bellamy
* ], ''History of the Second World War'', Cassel &amp; Co; Pan Books, 1973.
|first=Chris
* ], ''Hitler's War'', Hodder &amp; Stoughton, 1977.
|title=Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
*
|publisher=Macmillan
* ]''Deutsche militarische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg''
|year=2007
* ], ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941&ndash;1945'', Penguin, 1997.
|isbn=978-0-375-41086-4
* ], ''The Russo-German War 1941&ndash;45'', Praeger, 1971.
}}
* F. W. Winterbotham, ''The Ultra Secret'', Orion, 1974.
*{{cite book |last=Braun |first=Hans-Joachim |title=The German Economy in the Twentieth Century |url=https://archive.org/details/germaneconomyint00brau |url-access=registration |publisher=Routledge |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-415-02101-2}}
*{{cite book | last1=Glantz |first1=David | author-link1=David Glantz |last2=House |first2=Jonathan |author-link2=Jonathan House |title=When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army stopped Hitler |location=Lawrence, Kansas |publisher=University Press of Kansas |year=1995 |isbn=0-7006-0899-0}}
*{{cite book |last1=Glantz |first1=David M. |title=Stumbling colossus: the Red Army on the eve of World War |date=1998 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |location=Lawrence, Kan. |isbn=978-0-7006-1789-0}}
*{{cite book |last1=Glantz |first1=David M. |title=Colossus reborn : the Red Army at war: 1941-1943 |date=2005 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |location=Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-1353-3}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|60em}}

* Anderson, Dunkan, et al. ''''. London: Amber Books Ltd., 2001. {{ISBN|0-7603-0923-X}}.
* ]. ''Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942–1943''. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. {{ISBN|0-14-028458-3}}.
* Beevor, Antony. ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945''. New York: Penguin Books, 2002, {{ISBN|0-670-88695-5}}
* Dick, C. J. ''From Defeat to Victory: The Eastern Front, Summer 1944'' volume 2 of "Decisive and Indecisive Military Operations" (University Press of Kansas, 2016)
* Erickson, John. ''The Road to Stalingrad. Stalin's War against Germany''. New York: Orion Publishing Group, 2007. {{ISBN|0-304-36541-6}}.
* Erickson, John. ''The Road to Berlin. Stalin's War against Germany''. New York: Orion Publishing Group, Ltd., 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-304-36540-1}}.
* Erickson, John, and David Dilks. ''Barbarossa, the Axis and the Allies''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-7486-0504-5}}.
* Glantz, David, '': Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay''.
* ]. '']'', Da Capo Press Reissue edition. New York: Da Capo Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-306-81101-4}}.
* ]. ''Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945''. Vintage Books USA, 2005. {{ISBN|0-375-71422-7}}
*{{cite book | last = Hill | first = Alexander | year = 2016 | title = The Red Army and the Second World War | place = UK | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-1-107-02079-5 }}
* International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg, Germany. , USGPO, 1947.
*{{Cite book
|last=Krivosheev
|first=Grigoriy
|title=Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century
|publisher=Greenhill Books
|year=1997
|isbn=1-85367-280-7
|ref=none
}}
* ] ''History of the Second World War''. United States of America: Da Capo Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-306-80912-5}}.
* Bengt Beckman. ''Svenska Kryptobedrifter''
* and David B. Hurt. '''', Philadelphia: Casemate, 2006. {{ISBN|1-932033-55-6}}.
* ] ''Thunder in the East: the Nazi–Soviet War, 1941–1945''. London 2005. {{ISBN|0-340-80808-X}}.
*{{Citation | last = Merridale | first = Catherine | title = Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945 | year = 2007 | orig-date = 2006 | place = New York | publisher = Macmillan | isbn = 978-0-312-42652-1 | author-link = Catherine Merridale }}.
* Müller, Rolf-Dieter and ]. '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716181615/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22785646 |date=16 July 2012 }}''. Berghahn Books, 1997. {{ISBN|1-57181-068-4}}.
* ]. ''Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945'', New Edition. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1998. {{ISBN|0-14-027169-4}}.
* Schofield, Carey, ''ed''. ''Russian at War, 1941–1945''. Text by Georgii Drozdov and Evgenii Ryabko, introd. by Vladimir Karpov pref. by Harrison E. Salisbury, ed. by Carey Schofield. New York: Vendome Press, 1987. 256 p., copiously ill. with b&2 photos and occasional maps. ''N.B''.: This is mostly a photo-history, with connecting texts. {{ISBN|0-88029-084-6}}
* Seaton, Albert. ''The Russo-German War, 1941–1945'', Reprint edition. Presidio Press, 1993. {{ISBN|0-89141-491-6}}.
* ]. (1960). ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany'' New York: Simon & Schuster.
* SvD 2010-10-23
* ] ''The Ultra Secret'', New Edition. Orion Publishing Group Ltd., 2000. {{ISBN|0-7528-3751-6}}.
* Ziemke, Earl F. ''Battle For Berlin: End of the Third Reich'', NY:Ballantine Books, London:Macdomald & Co, 1969.
* Ziemke, Earl F. ''The U.S. Army in the occupation of Germany 1944–1946'', USGPO, 1975
{{Refend}}

===Historiography===
*{{cite journal | last1 = Lak | first1 = Martijn | year = 2015 | title = Contemporary Historiography on the Eastern Front in World War II. | journal = Journal of Slavic Military Studies | volume = 28 | issue = 3| pages = 567–587 | doi = 10.1080/13518046.2015.1061828 | s2cid = 142875289 }}


==External links== ==External links==
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Letter to Benito Mussolini Explaining the Invasion of the Soviet Union}}
*
{{Wikisource|The Führer to the German People: 22 June 1941}}
*
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Order of the Day to the German Troops on the Eastern Front (2 October 1941)}}
*
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler Explains His Reasons for Invading the Soviet Union}}
* (photos, video, interviews, memorials. Written from a Russian perspective)
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Proclamation to the German Army on His Assumption of Direct Command}}
* The German Armed Forces 1919-1945
{{Wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Speech at the Berlin Sportpalast (30 January 1942)}}
* on the ] website
*
* by Alan Taylor, ''The Atlantic''
* Borodulin Collection. Excellent set of war photos
* (photos, video, interviews, memorials. Written from a Russian perspective)
*
*
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331093142/http://www.ww2oo.net/?Lang=E |date=31 March 2012 }}
* . '']'', 8 May 2015.
* from ]

===Videos===
* "Operation Typhoon": {{YouTube|e4XEbJOqTCo}}, lecture by ], author of ''Operation Typhoon. Hitler's March on Moscow'' (2013) and ''The Battle for Moscow'' (2015); via the official channel of ].
* "Fighting a Lost War: The German Army in 1943": {{YouTube|1SdO-btKuds}}, lecture by ], via the official channel of the ].
* "Kursk, The Epic Armored Engagement": {{YouTube|N6xLMUifbxQ}}, via the official channel of ]; session by the Robert Citino and Jonathan Parshall at the 2013 International Conference on World War II.
* "Mindset of WWII German Soldiers": {{YouTube|4eIn0IBsnBE}}—interview with the historian ] discussing his book ''Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing and Dying'', via the official channel of ], a programme of ], a Canadian public television station.
* "How the Red Army Defeated Germany: The Three Alibis": {{YouTube|zinPbUZUHDE}}—lecture by Jonathan M. House of the ], via the official channel of ].


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Latest revision as of 05:45, 23 December 2024

Theatre of war of European Axis and Soviet Union blocs "Great Patriotic War" redirects here. For a discussion of the term itself, see Great Patriotic War (term).

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Eastern Front
Part of the European theatre of World War II

Clockwise from top left: Soviet T-34 tanks storming Poznań, 1945; German Tiger I tanks during the Battle of Kursk, 1943; German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, 1943; German Einsatzgruppen death squad murdering Jews in Ukraine, 1942; Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, 1945; Soviet troops at the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943
Date22 June 1941 (1941-06-22) – 8 May 1945 (1945-05-08)
(3 years, 10 months, 2 weeks and 2 days)
LocationEurope, east of Germany: Central and Eastern Europe, in later stages: Germany and Austria
Result
  • Soviet victory
Territorial
changes		 Soviet occupation of
Central and Eastern Europe
Belligerents
Axis: Support: Allies: Former Axis powers: Support:
Commanders and leaders
Axis leaders: Allied leaders:
Strength
  • 1941
    3,767,000 troops
  • 1942
    3,720,000 troops
  • 1943
    3,933,000 troops
  • 1944
    3,370,000 troops
  • 1945
    1,960,000 troops
  • 1941
    (Front) 2,680,000 troops
  • 1942
    (Front) 5,313,000 troops
  • 1943
    (Front) 6,724,000 troops
  • 1944
    6,800,000 troops
  • 1945
    6,410,000 troops
Casualties and losses
Total:
5.1 million dead
  • 4.5 million killed or missing in action
  • 600,000 died in captivity

4.5 million captured
See below.		 Total:
8.7–10 million dead
  • 6.5–6.7 million killed or missing in action
  • 2.2–3.3 million died in captivity

4.1 million captured
See below.
Civilian casualties:
18–24 million civilians dead
See below.
Campaigns of World War II
Europe

Asia-Pacific

Mediterranean and Middle East

Other campaigns

Coups

Eastern Front
Naval warfare
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
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The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis nations. It is noted by historian Geoffrey Roberts that "More than 80 percent of all combat during the Second World War took place on the Eastern Front".

The Axis forces, led by Nazi Germany, began their advance into the Soviet Union under the codename Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, the opening date of the Eastern Front. Initially, Soviet forces were unable to halt the Axis forces, which came close to Moscow. Despite their many attempts, the Axis failed to capture Moscow and soon focused on the oil fields in the Caucasus. German forces invaded the Caucasus under the Fall Blau ("Case Blue") plan on 28 June 1942. The Soviets successfully halted further Axis advance at Stalingrad — the bloodiest battle in the war — costing the Axis powers their morale and regarded as one of the key turning points of the front.

Seeing the Axis setback from Stalingrad, the Soviet Union routed its forces and regained territories at its expense. The Axis defeat at Kursk terminated the German offensive strength and cleared the way for Soviet offensives. Its setbacks caused many countries friendly with Germany to defect and join the Allies, such as Romania and Bulgaria. The Eastern Front concluded with the capture of Berlin, followed by the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May, a day that marked the end of the Eastern Front and the War in Europe.

The battles on the Eastern Front of World War II constituted the largest military confrontation in history. In pursuit of its "Lebensraum" settler-colonial agenda, Nazi Germany waged a war of annihilation (Vernichtungskrieg) throughout Eastern Europe. Nazi military operations were characterised by vicious brutality, scorched-earth tactics, wanton destruction, mass deportations, forced starvations, wholesale terrorism, and massacres. These also included the genocidal campaigns of Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan, which aimed to the extermination and ethnic cleansing of more than a hundred million Eastern European natives. German historian Ernst Nolte called the Eastern Front "the most atrocious war of conquest, enslavement, and annihilation known to modern history", while British historian Robin Cross expressed that "In the Second World War no theatre was more gruelling and destructive than the Eastern Front, and nowhere was the fighting more bitter".

The two principal belligerent powers in the Eastern Front were Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though they never sent ground troops to the Eastern Front, the United States and the United Kingdom both provided substantial material aid to the Soviet Union in the form of the Lend-Lease program, along with naval and air support. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front. In addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War is generally also considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front.

Background

See also: Anschluss, Munich Agreement, and Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

Germany and the Soviet Union remained unsatisfied with the outcome of World War I (1914–1918). Soviet Russia had lost substantial territory in Eastern Europe as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), where the Bolsheviks in Petrograd conceded to German demands and ceded control of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and other areas, to the Central Powers. Subsequently, when Germany in its turn surrendered to the Allies (November 1918) and these territories became independent states under the terms of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 at Versailles, Soviet Russia was in the midst of a civil war and the Allies did not recognise the Bolshevik government, so no Soviet Russian representation attended.

Adolf Hitler had declared his intention to invade the Soviet Union on 11 August 1939 to Carl Jacob Burckhardt, League of Nations Commissioner, by saying:

Everything I undertake is directed against the Russians. If the West is too stupid and blind to grasp this, then I shall be compelled to come to an agreement with the Russians, beat the West and then after their defeat turn against the Soviet Union with all my forces. I need the Ukraine so that they can't starve us out, as happened in the last war.

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was a non-aggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to the Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. The Eastern Front was also made possible by the German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement in which the Soviet Union gave Germany the resources necessary to launch military operations in Eastern Europe.

On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Eastern Poland, and, as a result, Poland was partitioned among Germany, the Soviet Union and Lithuania. Soon after that, the Soviet Union demanded significant territorial concessions from Finland, and after Finland rejected Soviet demands, the Soviet Union attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 in what became known as the Winter War – a bitter conflict that resulted in a peace treaty on 13 March 1940, with Finland maintaining its independence but losing its eastern parts in Karelia.

In June 1940 the Soviet Union occupied and illegally annexed the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ostensibly provided security to the Soviets in the occupation both of the Baltics and of the north and northeastern regions of Romania (Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, June–July 1940), although Hitler, in announcing the invasion of the Soviet Union, cited the Soviet annexations of Baltic and Romanian territory as having violated Germany's understanding of the pact. Moscow partitioned the annexed Romanian territory between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republics.

Ideologies

Main article: Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941

German ideology

Main articles: Mein Kampf, Racial policy of Nazi Germany, and Nazism and race

Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf (1925) for the necessity of Lebensraum ("living space"): acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, in particular Russia. He envisaged settling Germans there, as according to Nazi ideology the Germanic people constituted the "master race", while exterminating or deporting most of the existing inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labour. Hitler as early as 1917 had referred to the Russians as inferior, believing that the Bolshevik Revolution had put the Jews in power over the mass of Slavs, who were, in Hitler's opinion, incapable of ruling themselves and had thus ended up being ruled by Jewish masters.

The Nazi leadership, including Heinrich Himmler, saw the war against the Soviet Union as a struggle between the ideologies of Nazism and Jewish Bolshevism, ensuring territorial expansion for the Germanic Übermenschen (superhumans) - who according to Nazi ideology were the Aryan Herrenvolk ("master race") - at the expense of the Slavic Untermenschen (subhumans). Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as "Jewish Bolshevik subhumans", the "Mongol hordes", the "Asiatic flood" and the "red beast". The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, seeing the Soviet enemy as sub-human.

Hitler referred to the war in radical terms, calling it a "war of annihilation" (German: Vernichtungskrieg) which was both an ideological and racial war. The Nazi vision for the future of Eastern Europe was codified most clearly in the Generalplan Ost. The populations of occupied Central Europe and the Soviet Union were to be partially deported to West Siberia, enslaved and eventually exterminated; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanized" settlers. In addition, the Nazis also sought to rid themselves of the large Jewish population of Central and Eastern Europe as part of their program aiming to exterminate all European Jews.

Psychologically, the German surge to the east in 1941 marked a high point in some Germans' feeling of Ostrausch - an intoxication with the idea of colonising the East.

After Germany's initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast on 3 October, he announced, "We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down." Thus the German authorities expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. However, following the decisive Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and the resulting dire German military situation, Nazi propaganda began to portray the war as a German defence of Western civilisation against destruction by the vast "Bolshevik hordes" that were pouring into Europe.

Soviet situation

Semyon Timoshenko and Georgy Zhukov in 1940
See also: Great Purge, Purge of the Red Army in 1941, Spanish Civil War, and Battles of Khalkhin Gol

Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialisation and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. Stalin's central tenet, "Socialism in One Country", manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralised five-year plans from 1929 onwards. This represented an ideological shift in Soviet policy, away from its commitment to the international communist revolution, and eventually leading to the dissolution of the Comintern (Third International) organisation in 1943. The Soviet Union started a process of militarisation with the first five-year plan that officially began in 1928, although it was only towards the end of the second five-year plan in the mid-1930s that military power became the primary focus of Soviet industrialisation.

In February 1936 the Spanish general election brought many communist leaders into the Popular Front government in the Second Spanish Republic, but in a matter of months a right-wing military coup initiated the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. This conflict soon took on the characteristics of a proxy war involving the Soviet Union and left wing volunteers from different countries on the side of the predominantly socialist and communist-led Second Spanish Republic; while Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Portugal's Estado Novo took the side of Spanish Nationalists, the military rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. It served as a useful testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War.

Nazi Germany, which was an anti-communist régime, formalised its ideological position on 25 November 1936 by signing the Anti-Comintern Pact with Imperial Japan. Fascist Italy joined the Pact a year later. The Soviet Union negotiated treaties of mutual assistance with France and with Czechoslovakia with the aim of containing Germany's expansion. The German Anschluss of Austria in 1938 and the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (1938–1939) demonstrated the impossibility of establishing a collective security system in Europe, a policy advocated by the Soviet ministry of foreign affairs under Maxim Litvinov. This, as well as the reluctance of the British and French governments to sign a full-scale anti-German political and military alliance with the USSR, led to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany in late August 1939. The separate Tripartite Pact between what became the three prime Axis Powers would not be signed until some four years after the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Forces

See also: Aufbau Ost (1940) and Lossberg study
Situation in Europe by May/June 1941, immediately before Operation Barbarossa

The war was fought between Germany, its allies and Finland, against the Soviet Union and its allies. The conflict began on 22 June 1941 with the Operation Barbarossa offensive, when Axis forces crossed the borders described in the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact, thereby invading the Soviet Union. The war ended on 9 May 1945, when Germany's armed forces surrendered unconditionally following the Battle of Berlin (also known as the Berlin Offensive), a strategic operation executed by the Red Army.

The states that provided forces and other resources for the German war effort included the Axis Powers – primarily Romania, Hungary, Italy, pro-Nazi Slovakia, and Croatia. Anti-Soviet Finland, which had fought the Winter War against the Soviet Union, also joined the offensive. The Wehrmacht forces were also assisted by anti-Communist partisans in places like Western Ukraine, and the Baltic states. Among the most prominent volunteer army formations was the Spanish Blue Division, sent by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to keep his ties to the Axis intact.

The Soviet Union offered support to the anti-Axis partisans in many Wehrmacht-occupied countries in Central Europe, notably those in Slovakia and Poland. In addition, the Polish Armed Forces in the East, particularly the First and Second Polish armies, were armed and trained, and would eventually fight alongside the Red Army. The Free French forces also contributed to the Red Army by the formation of the GC3 (Groupe de Chasse 3 or 3rd Fighter Group) unit to fulfil the commitment of Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, who thought that it was important for French servicemen to serve on all fronts.

Comparative strengths of combat forces, Eastern Front, 1941–1945
Date Axis forces Soviet forces
22 June 1941 3,050,000 Germans, 67,000 (northern Norway); 500,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians
Total: 3,767,000 in the east (80% of the German Army)		 2,680,000 active in Western Military Districts out of 5,500,000 (overall); 12,000,000 mobilizable reserves
7 June 1942 2,600,000 Germans, 90,000 (northern Norway); 600,000 Romanians, Hungarians, and Italians
Total: 3,720,000 in the east (80% of the German Army)		 5,313,000 (front); 383,000 (hospital)
Total: 9,350,000
9 July 1943 3,403,000 Germans, 80,000 (northern Norway); 400,000 Finns, 150,000 Romanians and Hungarians
Total: 3,933,000 in the east (63% of the German Army)		 6,724,000 (front); 446,445 (hospital);
Total: 10,300,000
1 May 1944 2,460,000 Germans, 60,000 (northern Norway); 300,000 Finns, 550,000 Romanians and Hungarians
Total: 3,370,000 in the east (62% of the German Army)		 6,425,000
1 January 1945 2,230,000 Germans, 100,000 Hungarians
Total: 2,330,000 in the east (60% of the German Army)		 6,532,000 (360,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs)
1 April 1945 1,960,000 Germans
Total: 1,960,000 (66% of the German Army)		 6,410,000 (450,000 Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, and Czechs)

The above figures includes all personnel in the German Army, i.e. active-duty Heer, Waffen SS, Luftwaffe ground forces, personnel of the naval coastal artillery and security units. In the spring of 1940, Germany had mobilised 5,500,000 men. By the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Wehrmacht consisted of c. 3,800,000 men of the Heer, 1,680,000 of the Luftwaffe, 404,000 of the Kriegsmarine, 150,000 of the Waffen-SS, and 1,200,000 of the Replacement Army (contained 450,400 active reservists, 550,000 new recruits and 204,000 in administrative services, vigiles and or in convalescence). The Wehrmacht had a total strength of 7,234,000 men by 1941. For Operation Barbarossa, Germany mobilised 3,300,000 troops of the Heer, 150,000 of the Waffen-SS and approximately 250,000 personnel of the Luftwaffe were actively earmarked.

German soldiers in a Panzer III tank; Kalmyk steppe north of Stalingrad, September 1942

By July 1943, the Wehrmacht numbered 6,815,000 troops. Of these, 3,900,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 180,000 in Finland, 315,000 in Norway, 110,000 in Denmark, 1,370,000 in western Europe, 330,000 in Italy, and 610,000 in the Balkans. According to a presentation by Alfred Jodl, the Wehrmacht was up to 7,849,000 personnel in April 1944. 3,878,000 were deployed in eastern Europe, 311,000 in Norway/Denmark, 1,873,000 in western Europe, 961,000 in Italy, and 826,000 in the Balkans. About 15–20% of total German strength were foreign troops (from allied countries or conquered territories). The German high water mark was just before the Battle of Kursk, in early July 1943: 3,403,000 German troops and 650,000 Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian and other countries' troops.

For nearly two years the border was quiet while Germany conquered Denmark, Norway, France, the Low Countries, and the Balkans. Hitler had always intended to renege on his pact with the Soviet Union, eventually making the decision to invade in the spring of 1941.

Some historians say Stalin was fearful of war with Germany, or just did not expect Germany to start a two-front war, and was reluctant to do anything to provoke Hitler. Another viewpoint is that Stalin expected war in 1942 (the time when all his preparations would be complete) and stubbornly refused to believe it would come early.

British historians Alan S. Milward and M. Medlicott show that Nazi Germany—unlike Imperial Germany—was prepared for only a short-term war (Blitzkrieg). According to Edward Ericson, although Germany's own resources were sufficient for the victories in the West in 1940, massive Soviet shipments obtained during a short period of Nazi–Soviet economic collaboration were critical for Germany to launch Operation Barbarossa.

German infantry in Russia, June 1943

Germany had been assembling very large numbers of troops in eastern Poland and making repeated reconnaissance flights over the border; the Soviet Union responded by assembling its divisions on its western border, although the Soviet mobilisation was slower than Germany's due to the country's less dense road network. As in the Sino-Soviet conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway or Soviet–Japanese border conflicts, Soviet troops on the western border received a directive, signed by Marshal Semyon Timoshenko and General of the Army Georgy Zhukov, that ordered (as demanded by Stalin): "do not answer to any provocations" and "do not undertake any (offensive) actions without specific orders" – which meant that Soviet troops could open fire only on their soil and forbade counter-attack on German soil. The German invasion therefore caught the Soviet military and civilian leadership largely by surprise.

The extent of warnings received by Stalin about a German invasion is controversial, and the claim that there was a warning that "Germany will attack on 22 June without declaration of war" has been dismissed as a "popular myth". However, some sources quoted in the articles on Soviet spies Richard Sorge and Willi Lehmann, say they had sent warnings of an attack on 20 or 22 June, which were treated as "disinformation". The Lucy spy ring in Switzerland also sent warnings, possibly deriving from Ultra codebreaking in Britain. Sweden had access to internal German communications through breaking the crypto used in the Siemens and Halske T52 crypto machine also known as the Geheimschreiber and informed Stalin about the forthcoming invasion well ahead of June 22, but did not reveal its sources.

Soviet intelligence was fooled by German disinformation, so sent false alarms to Moscow about a German invasion in April, May and the beginning of June. Soviet intelligence reported that Germany would rather invade the USSR after the fall of the British Empire or after an unacceptable ultimatum demanding German occupation of Ukraine during the German invasion of Britain.

Foreign support and measures

A strategic air offensive by the United States Army Air Force and Royal Air Force played a significant part in damaging German industry and tying up German air force and air defence resources, with some bombings, such as the bombing of the eastern German city of Dresden, being done to facilitate specific Soviet operational goals. In addition to Germany, hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs were dropped on their eastern allies of Romania and Hungary, primarily in an attempt to cripple Romanian oil production.

British and Commonwealth forces also contributed directly to the fighting on the Eastern Front through their service in the Arctic convoys and training Red Air Force pilots, as well as in the provision of early material and intelligence support.

Allied shipments to the Soviet Union
Year Amount
(tons) 		%
1941 360,778 2
 .1
1942 2,453,097 14
1943 4,794,545 27
 .4
1944 6,217,622 35
 .5
1945 3,673,819 21
Total 17,499,861 100

Soviet Union

Among other goods, Lend-Lease supplied:

  • 58% of the USSR's high octane aviation fuel
  • 33% of their motor vehicles
  • 53% of USSR domestic production of expended ordnance (artillery shells, mines, assorted explosives)
  • 30% of fighters and bombers
  • 93% of railway equipment (locomotives, freight cars, wide gauge rails, etc.)
  • 50–80% of rolled steel, cable, lead, and aluminium
  • 43% of garage facilities (building materials and blueprints)
  • 12% of tanks and SPGs
  • 50% of TNT (1942–1944) and 33% of ammunition powder (in 1944)
  • 16% of all explosives (From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports.)

Lend-Lease aid of military hardware, components and goods to the Soviet Union constituted to 20% percent of the assistance. The rest were foodstuff, nonferrous metals (e.g., copper, magnesium, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, aluminium), chemical substances, petroleum (high octane aviation gasoline) and factory machinery. The aid of production-line equipment and machinery were crucial and helped to maintain adequate levels of Soviet armament production during the entire war. In addition, the USSR received wartime innovations including penicillin, radar, rocket, precision-bombing technology, the long-range navigation system Loran, and many other innovations.

Of the 800,000 tons of nonferrous metals shipped, about 350,000 tons were aluminium. The shipment of aluminium not only represented double the amount of metal that Germany possessed, but also composed the bulk of aluminium that was used in manufacture of Soviet aircraft, that had fallen in critically short supply. Soviet statistics show, that without these shipments of aluminium, aircraft production would have been less than one-half (or about 45,000 less) of the total 137,000 produced aircraft.

Stalin noted in 1944, that two-thirds of Soviet heavy industry had been built with the help of the United States, and the remaining one-third, with the help from other Western nations such as Great Britain and Canada. The massive transfer of equipment and skilled personnel from occupied territories helped further to boost the economic base. Without Lend-Lease aid, Soviet Union's diminished post invasion economic base would not have produced adequate supplies of weaponry, other than focus on machine tool, foodstuff and consumer goods.

In the last year of war, Lend-Lease data show that about 5.1 million tons of foodstuff left the United States for the Soviet Union. It is estimated that all the food supplies sent to Russia could feed a 12,000,000-man strong army a half pound of concentrated food per day, for the entire duration of the war.

The total Lend-Lease aid provided during the Second World War had been estimated between $42–50 billion. The Soviet Union received shipments in war materials, military equipment and other supplies worth of $12.5 billion, about a quarter of the American Lend-Lease aid provided to other Allied countries. However, post-war negotiations to settle all the debt were never concluded, and as of date, the debt issues is still on in future American-Russian summits and talks.

Prof. Dr. Albert L. Weeks concluded, "As to attempts to sum up the importance of those four-year-long shipments of Lend-Lease for the Russian victory on the Eastern Front in World War II, the jury is still out – that is, in any definitive sense of establishing exactly how crucial this aid was."

Nazi Germany

Europe at the height of German military expansion, 1942

Germany's economic, scientific, research and industrial capabilities were among the most technically advanced in the world at the time. However, access to (and control of) the resources, raw materials and production capacity required to entertain long-term goals (such as European control, German territorial expansion and the destruction of the USSR) were limited. Political demands necessitated the expansion of Germany's control of natural and human resources, industrial capacity and farmland beyond its borders (conquered territories). Germany's military production was tied to resources outside its area of control, a dynamic not found amongst the Allies.

During the war, as Germany acquired new territories (either by direct annexation or by installing puppet governments in defeated countries), these new territories were forced to sell raw materials and agricultural products to German buyers at extremely low prices. Overall, France made the largest contribution to the German war effort. Two-thirds of all French trains in 1941 were used to carry goods to Germany. In 1943–44, French payments to Germany may have risen to as much as 55% of French GDP. Norway lost 20% of its national income in 1940 and 40% in 1943. Axis allies such as Romania and Italy, Hungary, Finland, Croatia and Bulgaria benefited from Germany's net imports. Overall, Germany imported 20% of its food and 33% of its raw materials from conquered territories and Axis allies.

On 27 May 1940, Germany signed the "Oil Pact" with Romania, by which Germany would trade arms for oil. Romania's oil production amounted to approximately 6,000,000 tons annually. This production represents 35% of the total fuel production of the Axis, including synthetic products and substitutes, and 70% of the total production of crude oil. In 1941, Germany only had 18% of the oil it had in peacetime. Romania supplied Germany and its allies with roughly 13 million barrels of oil (about 4 million per year) between 1941 and 1943. Germany's peak oil production in 1944 amounted to about 12 million barrels of oil per year.

Rolf Karlbom estimated that Swedish share of Germany's total consumption of iron may have amounted to 43% during the period of 1933–43. It may also be likely that "Swedish ore formed the raw material of four out of every ten German guns" during the Hitler era'.

Forced labour

Main article: Forced labour under German rule during World War II

The use of foreign forced labour and slavery in Germany and throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II took place on an unprecedented scale. It was a vital part of the German economic exploitation of conquered territories. It also contributed to the mass extermination of populations in German-occupied Europe. The Germans abducted approximately 12 million foreign people from almost twenty European countries; about two-thirds came from Central and Eastern Europe. Counting deaths and turnover, about 15 million men and women were forced labourers at one point during the war. For example, 1.5 million French soldiers were kept in POW camps in Germany as hostages and forced workers and, in 1943, 600,000 French civilians were forced to move to Germany to work in war plants.

The defeat of Germany in 1945 freed approximately 11 million foreigners (categorised as "displaced persons"), most of whom were forced labourers and POWs. In wartime, the German forces had brought into the Reich 6.5 million civilians in addition to Soviet POWs for unfree labour in factories. In all, 5.2 million foreign workers and POWs were repatriated to the Soviet Union, 1.6 million to Poland, 1.5 million to France, and 900,000 to Italy, along with 300,000 to 400,000 each to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Belgium.

Conduct of operations

Main article: Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II
A map of the South Western Front (Ukrainian) on 22 June 1941.

While German historians do not apply any specific periodisation to the conduct of operations on the Eastern Front, all Soviet and Russian historians divide the war against Germany and its allies into three periods, which are further subdivided into eight major campaigns of the Theatre of war:

  • First period (Russian: Первый период Великой Отечественной войны) (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
  1. Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1941 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1941 г.) (22 June – 4 December 1941)
  2. Winter Campaign of 1941–42 (Russian: Зимняя кампания 1941/42 г.) (5 December 1941 – 30 April 1942)
  3. Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1942 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1942 г.) (1 May – 18 November 1942)
  • Second period (Russian: Второй период Великой Отечественной войны) (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
  1. Winter Campaign of 1942–43 (Russian: Зимняя кампания 1942–1943 гг.) (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)
  2. Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1943 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1943 г.) (1 July – 31 December 1943)
  • Third period (Russian: Третий период Великой Отечественной войны) (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)
  1. Winter–Spring Campaign (Russian: Зимне-весенняя кампания 1944 г.) (1 January – 31 May 1944)
  2. Summer–Autumn Campaign of 1944 (Russian: Летне-осенняя кампания 1944 г.) (1 June – 31 December 1944)
  3. Campaign in Europe during 1945 (Russian: Кампания в Европе 1945 г.) (1 January – 8 May 1945)

Operation Barbarossa: Summer 1941

Operation Barbarossa: the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 21 June 1941 to 5 December 1941:   to 9 July 1941   to 1 September 1941   to 9 September 1941   to 5 December 1941
Main article: Operation Barbarossa
Moscovites gather by a loudspeaker to listen to Vyacheslav Molotov's announcement of the German invasion, 22 June 1941

Operation Barbarossa began just before dawn on 22 June 1941. The Germans cut the wire network in all Soviet western military districts to undermine the Red Army's communications. Panicky transmissions from the Soviet front-line units to their command headquarters were picked up like this: "We are being fired upon. What shall we do?" The answer was just as confusing: "You must be insane. And why is your signal not in code?"

At 03:15 on 22 June 1941, 99 of 190 German divisions, including fourteen panzer divisions and ten motorised, were deployed against the Soviet Union from the Baltic to the Black Sea. They were accompanied by ten Romanian divisions, three Italian divisions, two Slovakian divisions and nine Romanian and four Hungarian brigades. On the same day, the Baltic, Western and Kiev Special military districts were renamed the Northwestern, Western and Southwestern Fronts respectively.

To establish air supremacy, the Luftwaffe began immediate attacks on Soviet airfields, destroying much of the forward-deployed Soviet Air Force airfield fleets consisting of largely obsolescent types before their pilots had a chance to leave the ground. For a month the offensive conducted on three axes was completely unstoppable as the panzer forces encircled hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops in huge pockets that were then reduced by slower-moving infantry armies while the panzers continued the offensive. Luftwaffe also dropped hundreds of Russian-speaking parachutists behind the offensive lines to bring back information of Soviet troops reserves' disposition.

Army Group North's objective was Leningrad via the Baltic states. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and the 4th Panzer Group, this formation advanced through the Baltic states, and the Russian Pskov and Novgorod regions. Local insurgents seized the moment and controlled most of Lithuania, northern Latvia and southern Estonia prior to the arrival of the German forces.

Army Group Centre's two panzer groups (the 2nd and 3rd), advanced to the north and south of Brest-Litovsk and converged east of Minsk, followed by the 2nd, 4th, and 9th Armies. The combined panzer force reached the Beresina River in just six days, 650 km (400 mi) from their start lines. The next objective was to cross the Dnieper river, which was accomplished by 11 July. Their next target was Smolensk, which fell on 16 July, but the fierce Soviet resistance in the Smolensk area and slowing of the Wehrmacht advance by the North and South Army Groups forced Hitler to halt a central thrust at Moscow and to divert the 3rd Panzer Group north. Critically, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group was ordered to move south in a giant pincer manoeuvre with Army Group South which was advancing into Ukraine. Army Group Centre's infantry divisions were left relatively unsupported by armour to continue their slow advance to Moscow.

Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive

This decision caused a severe leadership crisis. The German field commanders argued for an immediate offensive towards Moscow, but Hitler over-ruled them, citing the importance of Ukrainian agricultural, mining and industrial resources, as well as the massing of Soviet reserves in the Gomel area between Army Group Centre's southern flank and the bogged-down Army Group South's northern flank. This decision, Hitler's "summer pause", is believed to have had a severe impact on the outcome of the Battle of Moscow later in the year, by slowing down the advance on Moscow in favour of encircling large numbers of Soviet troops around Kiev.

Army Group South, with the 1st Panzer Group, the 6th, 11th and 17th Armies, was tasked with advancing through Galicia and into Ukraine. Their progress, however, was rather slow, and they took heavy casualties in the Battle of Brody. At the beginning of July, the Third and Fourth Romanian Armies, aided by elements of the German 11th Army, fought their way through Bessarabia towards Odessa. The 1st Panzer Group turned away from Kiev for the moment, advancing into the Dnieper bend (western Dnipropetrovsk Oblast). When it joined up with the southern elements of Army Group South at Uman, the Group captured about 100,000 Soviet prisoners in a huge encirclement. Advancing armoured divisions of Army Group South met with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group near Lokhvytsa in 16 September, cutting off large numbers of Red Army troops in the pocket east of Kiev. 400,000 Soviet prisoners were captured as Kiev was surrendered on 19 September.

On 26 September, the Soviet forces east of Kiev surrendered and the Battle of Kiev ended.

As the Red Army withdrew behind the Dnieper and Dvina rivers, the Soviet Stavka (high command) turned its attention to evacuating as much of the western regions' industry as it could. Factories were dismantled and transported on flatcars away from the front line for re-establishment in more remote areas of the Ural Mountains, Caucasus, Central Asia and south-eastern Siberia. Most civilians were left to make their own way east, with only industry-related workers evacuated with the equipment; much of the population was left behind to the mercy of the invading forces.

Stalin ordered the retreating Red Army to initiate a scorched-earth policy to deny the Germans and their allies basic supplies as they advanced eastward. To carry out that order, destruction battalions were formed in front-line areas, having the authority to summarily execute any suspicious person. The destruction battalions burned down villages, schools, and public buildings. As a part of this policy, the NKVD massacred thousands of anti-Soviet prisoners.

Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941

Wehrmacht soldiers pulling a car from the mud during the rasputitsa period, November 1941
Main articles: Siege of Leningrad, Battle of Moscow, and Battle of Rostov (1941)

Hitler then decided to resume the advance on Moscow, re-designating the panzer groups as panzer armies for the occasion. Operation Typhoon, which was set in motion on 30 September, saw the 2nd Panzer Army rush along the paved road from Oryol (captured 5 October) to the Oka River at Plavsk, while the 4th Panzer Army (transferred from Army Group North to Centre) and 3rd Panzer armies surrounded the Soviet forces in two huge pockets at Vyazma and Bryansk. Army Group North positioned itself in front of Leningrad and attempted to cut the rail link at Mga to the east. This began the 900-day Siege of Leningrad. North of the Arctic Circle, a German–Finnish force set out for Murmansk but could get no further than the Zapadnaya Litsa River, where they settled down.

Army Group South pushed down from the Dnieper to the Sea of Azov coast, also advancing through Kharkov, Kursk, and Stalino. The combined German and Romanian forces moved into the Crimea and took control of all of the peninsula by autumn (except Sevastopol, which held out until 3 July 1942). On 21 November, the Wehrmacht took Rostov, the gateway to the Caucasus. However, the German lines were over-extended and the Soviet defenders counterattacked the 1st Panzer Army's spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of the city and behind the Mius River; the first significant German withdrawal of the war.

The onset of the winter freeze saw one last German lunge that opened on 15 November, when the Wehrmacht attempted to encircle Moscow. On 27 November, the 4th Panzer Army got to within 30 km (19 mi) of the Kremlin when it reached the last tramstop of the Moscow line at Khimki. Meanwhile, the 2nd Panzer Army failed to take Tula, the last Soviet city that stood in its way to the capital. After a meeting held in Orsha between the head of the OKH (Army General Staff), General Franz Halder and the heads of three Army groups and armies, decided to push forward to Moscow since it was better, as argued by the head of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, for them to try their luck on the battlefield rather than just sit and wait while their opponent gathered more strength.

However, by 6 December it became clear that the Wehrmacht did not have the strength to capture Moscow, and the attack was suspended. Marshal Shaposhnikov thus began his counter-attack, employing freshly mobilised reserves, as well as some well-trained Far-Eastern divisions transferred from the east following intelligence that Japan would remain neutral.

Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941

The Soviet winter counter-offensive, 5 December 1941 to 7 May 1942:  Soviet gains   German gains
Main articles: Battle of Moscow, Second Battle of Kharkov, Winter Campaign of 1941–42, and Bombing of Gorky in World War II

The Soviet counter-offensive during the Battle of Moscow had removed the immediate German threat to the city. According to Zhukov, "the success of the December counter-offensive in the central strategic direction was considerable. Having suffered a major defeat the German striking forces of Army Group Centre were retreating." Stalin's objective in January 1942 was "to deny the Germans any breathing space, to drive them westward without let-up, to make them use up their reserves before spring comes..."

The main blow was to be delivered by a double envelopment orchestrated by the Northwestern Front, the Kalinin Front and the Western Front. The overall objective according to Zhukov was the "subsequent encirclement and destruction of the enemy's main forces in the area of Rzhev, Vyazma and Smolensk. The Leningrad Front, the Volkhov Front and the right wing forces of the Northwestern Front were to rout the Army Group North." The Southwestern Front and Southern Front were to defeat Army Group South. The Caucasian Front and Black Sea Fleet were to take back the Crimea.

The 20th Army, part of the Soviet 1st Shock Army, the 22nd Tank Brigade and five ski battalions launched their attack on 10 January 1942. By 17 January, the Soviets had captured Lotoshino and Shakhovskaya. By 20 January, the 5th and 33rd Armies had captured Ruza, Dorokhovo, Mozhaisk and Vereya, while the 43rd and 49th Armies were at Domanovo.

The Wehrmacht rallied, retaining a salient at Rzhev. A Soviet parachute drop by two battalions of the 201st Airborne Brigade and the 250th Airborne Regiment on 18 and 22 January was designed to "cut off enemy communications with the rear." Lt.-Gen. Mikhail Grigoryevich Yefremov's 33rd Army aided by Gen. Belov's 1st Cavalry Corps and Soviet partisans attempted to seize Vyazma. This force was joined by additional paratroopers of the 8th Airborne Brigade at the end of January. However, in early February, the Germans managed to cut off this force, separating the Soviets from their main force in the rear of the Germans. They were supplied by air until April when they were given permission to regain the Soviet main lines. Only part of Belov's Cavalry Corps made it to safety however, while Yefremov's men fought "a losing battle."

By April 1942, the Soviet Supreme Command agreed to assume the defensive so as to "consolidate the captured ground." According to Zhukov, "During the winter offensive, the forces of the Western Front had advanced from 70 to 100 km, which somewhat improved the overall operational and strategic situation on the Western sector."

To the north, the Red Army surrounded a German garrison in Demyansk, which held out with air supply for four months, and established themselves in front of Kholm, Velizh, and Velikie Luki. Further north still, the Soviet 2nd Shock Army was unleashed on the Volkhov River. Initially this made some progress; however, it was unsupported, and by June a German counterattack cut off and destroyed the army. The Soviet commander, Lieutenant General Andrey Vlasov, later defected to Germany and formed the ROA or Russian Liberation Army. In the south the Red Army lunged over the Donets River at Izyum and drove a 100 km (62 mi) deep salient. The intent was to pin Army Group South against the Sea of Azov, but as the winter eased the Wehrmacht counter-attacked and cut off the over-extended Soviet troops in the Second Battle of Kharkov.

Don, Volga, and Caucasus: Summer 1942

Operation Blue: German advances from 7 May 1942 to 18 November 1942:   to 7 July 1942   to 22 July 1942   to 1 August 1942   to 18 November 1942
Main articles: Case Blue, Battle of Voronezh (1942), Battle of Caucasus, and Battle of Stalingrad

Although plans were made to attack Moscow again, on 28 June 1942, the offensive re-opened in a different direction. Army Group South took the initiative, anchoring the front with the Battle of Voronezh and then following the Don river southeastwards. The grand plan was to secure the Don and Volga first and then drive into the Caucasus towards the oil fields, but operational considerations and Hitler's vanity made him order both objectives to be attempted simultaneously. Rostov was recaptured on 24 July when the 1st Panzer Army joined in, and then that group drove south towards Maikop. As part of this, Operation Shamil was executed, a plan whereby a group of Brandenburger commandos dressed up as Soviet NKVD troops to destabilise Maikop's defences and allow the 1st Panzer Army to enter the oil town with little opposition.

Meanwhile, the 6th Army was driving towards Stalingrad, for a long period unsupported by 4th Panzer Army, which had been diverted to help 1st Panzer Army cross the Don. By the time the 4th Panzer Army had rejoined the Stalingrad offensive Soviet resistance (comprising the 62nd Army under Vasily Chuikov) had stiffened. A leap across the Don brought German troops to the Volga on 23 August but for the next three months the Wehrmacht would be fighting the Battle of Stalingrad street-by-street.

Towards the south, the 1st Panzer Army had reached the Caucasian foothills and the Malka River. At the end of August Romanian mountain troops joined the Caucasian spearhead, while the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were redeployed from their successful task of clearing the Azov littoral. They took up position on either side of Stalingrad to free German troops for the main offensive. Mindful of the continuing antagonism between Axis allies Romania and Hungary over Transylvania, the Romanian army in the Don bend was separated from the Hungarian 2nd army by the Italian 8th Army. Thus, all of Hitler's allies were involved – including a Slovakian contingent with the 1st Panzer Army and a Croatian Wehrmacht regiment attached to 6th Army.

The advance into the Caucasus bogged down, with the Germans unable to fight their way past Malgobek and to the main prize of Grozny. Instead, they switched the direction of their advance to approach it from the south, crossing the Malka at the end of October and entering North Ossetia and entered the suburbs of Ordzhonikidze on 2 November.

Stalingrad: Winter 1942

Main articles: Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Little Saturn, Operation Mars, Third Battle of Kharkov, and Battle for Velikiye Luki (1943)
Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, 18 November 1942 to March 1943:   to 12 December 1942   to 18 February 1943   to March 1943 (Soviet gains only)

While the German 6th and 4th Panzer Armies had been fighting their way into Stalingrad, Soviet armies had congregated on either side of the city, specifically into the Don bridgeheads, and it was from these that they struck in November 1942. Operation Uranus started on 19 November. Two Soviet fronts punched through the Romanian lines and converged at Kalach on 23 November, trapping 300,000 Axis troops behind them. A simultaneous offensive on the Rzhev sector known as Operation Mars was supposed to advance to Smolensk, but was a costly failure, with German tactical defences preventing any breakthrough.

The Germans rushed to transfer troops to the Soviet Union in a desperate attempt to relieve Stalingrad, but the offensive could not get going until 12 December, by which time the 6th Army in Stalingrad was starving and too weak to break out towards it. Operation Winter Storm, with three transferred panzer divisions, got going briskly from Kotelnikovo towards the Aksai river but became bogged down 65 km (40 mi) short of its goal. To divert the rescue attempt, the Red Army decided to smash the Italians and come down behind the relief attempt if they could; that operation starting on 16 December. What it did accomplish was to destroy many of the aircraft that had been transporting relief supplies to Stalingrad. The fairly limited scope of the Soviet offensive, although still eventually targeted on Rostov, also allowed Hitler time to see sense and pull Army Group A out of the Caucasus and back over the Don.

On 31 January 1943, the 90,000 survivors of the 300,000-man 6th Army surrendered. By that time the Hungarian 2nd Army had also been wiped out. The Red Army advanced from the Don 500 km (310 mi) to the west of Stalingrad, marching through Kursk (retaken on 8 February 1943) and Kharkov (retaken 16 February 1943). To save the position in the south, the Germans decided to abandon the Rzhev salient in February, freeing enough troops to make a successful riposte in eastern Ukraine. Manstein's counteroffensive, strengthened by a specially trained SS Panzer Corps equipped with Tiger tanks, opened on 20 February 1943 and fought its way from Poltava back into Kharkov in the third week of March, when the spring thaw intervened. This left a glaring Soviet bulge in the front centered on Kursk.

Kursk: Summer 1943

Main article: Battle of Kursk
German advances at Kharkov and Kursk, 19 February 1943 to 1 August 1943:   to 18 March 1943   to 1 August 1943

After the failure of the attempt to capture Stalingrad, Hitler had delegated planning authority for the upcoming campaign season to the German Army High Command and reinstated Heinz Guderian to a prominent role, this time as Inspector of Panzer Troops. Debate among the General Staff was polarised, with even Hitler nervous about any attempt to pinch off the Kursk salient. He knew that in the intervening six months the Soviet position at Kursk had been reinforced heavily with anti-tank guns, tank traps, landmines, barbed wire, trenches, pillboxes, artillery and mortars.

However, if one last great blitzkrieg offensive could be mounted, then attention could then be turned to the Allied threat to the Western Front. Certainly, the peace negotiations in April had gone nowhere. The advance would be executed from the Orel salient to the north of Kursk and from Belgorod to the south. Both wings would converge on the area east of Kursk, and by that means restore the lines of Army Group South to the exact points that it held over the winter of 1941–1942.

In the north, the entire German 9th Army had been redeployed from the Rzhev salient into the Orel salient and was to advance from Maloarkhangelsk to Kursk. But its forces could not even get past the first objective at Olkhovatka, just 8 km (5.0 mi) into the advance. The 9th Army blunted its spearhead against the Soviet minefields, frustratingly so considering that the high ground there was the only natural barrier between them and flat tank country all the way to Kursk. The direction of advance was then switched to Ponyri, to the west of Olkhovatka, but the 9th Army could not break through here either and went over to the defensive. The Red Army then launched a counter-offensive, Operation Kutuzov.

On 12 July, the Red Army battled through the demarcation line between the 211th and 293rd divisions on the Zhizdra River and steamed towards Karachev, right behind them and behind Orel. The southern offensive, spearheaded by 4th Panzer Army, led by Gen. Col. Hoth, with three Tank Corps made more headway. Advancing on either side of the upper Donets on a narrow corridor, the II SS Panzer Corps and the Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier divisions battled their way through minefields and over comparatively high ground towards Oboyan. Stiff resistance caused a change of direction from east to west of the front, but the tanks got 25 km (16 mi) before encountering the reserves of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army outside Prokhorovka. Battle was joined on 12 July, with about one thousand tanks being engaged.

The Battle of Prokhorovka was one of the largest tank battles ever fought. It was part of the wider Battle of Kursk.

After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealised by Soviet historians as the largest tank battle of all time. The meeting engagement at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, albeit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked elements of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank losses on both sides have been the source of controversy ever since. Although the 5th Guards Tank Army did not attain its objectives, the German advance had been halted.

At the end of the day both sides had fought each other to a standstill, but regardless of the German failure in the north Manstein proposed he continue the attack with the 4th Panzer Army. The Red Army started the strong offensive operation in the northern Orel salient and achieved a breakthrough on the flank of the German 9th Army. Also worried by the Allies' landing in Sicily on 10 July, Hitler made the decision to halt the offensive even as the German 9th Army was rapidly giving ground in the north. The Germans' final strategic offensive in the Soviet Union ended with their defence against a major Soviet counteroffensive that lasted into August.

The Kursk offensive was the last on the scale of 1940 and 1941 that the Wehrmacht was able to launch; subsequent offensives would represent only a shadow of previous German offensive might.

Autumn and winter 1943–44

Main articles: Battle of the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket, Battle of Smolensk (1943), Lower Dnieper Offensive, Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive, and Battle of Narva (1944)
Loading a Soviet "Katyusha" rocket launcher

The Soviet multi-stage summer offensive started with the advance into the Orel salient. The diversion of the well-equipped Großdeutschland Division from Belgorod to Karachev could not counteract it, and the Wehrmacht began a withdrawal from Orel (retaken by the Red Army on 5 August 1943), falling back to the Hagen line in front of Bryansk. To the south, the Red Army broke through Army Group South's Belgorod positions and headed for Kharkov once again. Although intense battles of movement throughout late July and into August 1943 saw the Tigers blunting Soviet tank attacks on one axis, they were soon outflanked on another line to the west as the Soviet forces advanced down the Psel, and Kharkov was abandoned for the final time on 22 August.

The German forces on the Mius, now comprising the 1st Panzer Army and a reconstituted 6th Army, were by August too weak to repulse a Soviet attack on their own front, and when the Red Army hit them they retreated all the way through the Donbas industrial region to the Dnieper, losing half the farmland that Germany had invaded the Soviet Union to exploit. At this time Hitler agreed to a general withdrawal to the Dnieper line, along which was meant to be the Ostwall, a line of defence similar to the Westwall (Siegfried Line) of fortifications along the German frontier in the west.

The main problem for the Wehrmacht was that these defences had not yet been built; by the time Army Group South had evacuated eastern Ukraine and begun withdrawing across the Dnieper during September, the Soviet forces were hard behind them. Tenaciously, small units paddled their way across the 3 km (1.9 mi) wide river and established bridgeheads. A second attempt by the Red Army to gain land using parachutists, mounted at Kaniv on 24 September, proved as disappointing as at Dorogobuzh eighteen months previously. The paratroopers were soon repelled – but not until still more Red Army troops had used the cover they provided to get themselves over the Dnieper and securely dug in.

As September ended and October started, the Germans found the Dnieper line impossible to hold as the Soviet bridgeheads grew. Important Dnieper towns started to fall, with Zaporozhye the first to go, followed by Dnepropetrovsk. Finally, early in November the Red Army broke out of its bridgeheads on either side of Kiev and captured the Ukrainian capital, at that time the third largest city in the Soviet Union.

130 kilometres (80 mi) west of Kiev, the 4th Panzer Army, still convinced that the Red Army was a spent force, was able to mount a successful riposte at Zhytomyr during the middle of November, weakening the Soviet bridgehead by a daring outflanking strike mounted by the SS Panzer Corps along the river Teterev. This battle also enabled Army Group South to recapture Korosten and gain some time to rest. However, on Christmas Eve the retreat began anew when the First Ukrainian Front (renamed from the Voronezh Front) struck them in the same place. The Soviet advance continued along the railway line until the 1939 Polish–Soviet border was reached on 3 January 1944.

Soviet advances from 1 August 1943 to 31 December 1944:   to 1 December 1943   to 30 April 1944   to 19 August 1944   to 31 December 1944

To the south, the Second Ukrainian Front (ex Steppe Front) had crossed the Dnieper at Kremenchug and continued westwards. In the second week of January 1944 they swung north, meeting Vatutin's tank forces which had swung south from their penetration into Poland and surrounding ten German divisions at Korsun–Shevchenkovsky, west of Cherkassy. Hitler's insistence on holding the Dnieper line, even when facing the prospect of catastrophic defeat, was compounded by his conviction that the Cherkassy pocket could break out and even advance to Kiev, but Manstein was more concerned about being able to advance to the edge of the pocket and then implore the surrounded forces to break out.

By 16 February the first stage was complete, with panzers separated from the contracting Cherkassy pocket only by the swollen Gniloy Tikich river. Under shellfire and pursued by Soviet tanks, the surrounded German troops, among whom were the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, fought their way across the river to safety, although at the cost of half their number and all their equipment. They assumed the Red Army would not attack again, with the spring approaching, but on 3 March the Soviet Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive. Having already isolated the Crimea by severing the Perekop isthmus, Malinovsky's forces advanced across the mud to the Romanian border, not stopping on the river Prut.

One final move in the south completed the 1943–44 campaigning season, which had wrapped up a Soviet advance of over 800 kilometres (500 mi). In March, 20 German divisions of Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube's 1st Panzer Army were encircled in what was to be known as Hube's Pocket near Kamenets-Podolskiy. After two weeks' of heavy fighting, the 1st Panzer managed to escape the pocket, at the cost of losing almost the entire heavy equipment. At this point, Hitler sacked several prominent generals, Manstein included. In April, the Red Army took back Odessa, followed by 4th Ukrainian Front's campaign to restore control over the Crimea, which culminated in the capture of Sevastopol on 10 May.

Along Army Group Centre's front, August 1943 saw this force pushed back from the Hagen line slowly, ceding comparatively little territory, but the loss of Bryansk, and more importantly Smolensk, on 25 September cost the Wehrmacht the keystone of the entire German defensive system. The 4th and 9th armies and 3rd Panzer Army still held their own east of the upper Dnieper, stifling Soviet attempts to reach Vitebsk. On Army Group North's front, there was barely any fighting at all until January 1944, when out of nowhere Volkhov and Second Baltic Fronts struck.

In a lightning campaign, the Germans were pushed back from Leningrad and Novgorod was captured by Soviet forces. After a 120-kilometre (75 mi) advance in January and February, the Leningrad Front had reached the borders of Estonia. To Stalin, the Baltic Sea seemed the quickest way to take the battles to the German territory in East Prussia and seize control of Finland. The Leningrad Front's offensives towards Tallinn, a main Baltic port, were stopped in February 1944. The German army group "Narwa" included Estonian conscripts, defending the re-establishment of Estonian independence.

Summer 1944

Main articles: Crimean Offensive (1944), Operation Bagration, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive, Battle of Tannenberg Line, Warsaw Uprising, Slovak National Uprising, Battle of Romania (1944), Battle of Debrecen, and Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive
Soviet and Polish Armia Krajowa soldiers in Vilnius, July 1944

Wehrmacht planners were convinced that the Red Army would attack again in the south, where the front was 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Lviv and offered the most direct route to Berlin. Accordingly, they stripped troops from Army Group Centre, whose front still protruded deep into the Soviet Union. The Germans had transferred some units to France to counter the invasion of Normandy two weeks before. The Belorussian Offensive (codenamed Operation Bagration), which was agreed upon by Allies at the Tehran Conference in December 1943 and launched on 22 June 1944, was a massive Soviet attack, consisting of four Soviet army groups totalling over 120 divisions that smashed into a thinly held German line.

They focused their massive attacks on Army Group Centre, not Army Group North Ukraine as the Germans had originally expected. More than 2.3 million Soviet troops went into action against German Army Group Centre, which had a strength of fewer than 800,000 men. At the points of attack, the numerical and quality advantages of the Soviet forces were overwhelming. The Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over their enemy. The Germans crumbled. The capital of Belarus, Minsk, was taken on 3 July, trapping some 100,000 Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar Polish border. Bagration was, by any measure, one of the largest single operations of the war.

By the end of August 1944, it had cost the Germans ~400,000 dead, wounded, missing and sick, from whom 160,000 were captured, as well as 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. In the operation, the Red Army lost ~180,000 dead and missing (765,815 in total, including wounded and sick plus 5,073 Poles), as well as 2,957 tanks and assault guns. The offensive at Estonia claimed another 480,000 Soviet soldiers, 100,000 of them classed as dead.

The neighbouring Lvov–Sandomierz operation was launched on 17 July 1944, with the Red Army routing the German forces in Western Ukraine and retaking Lviv. The Soviet advance in the south continued into Romania and, following a coup against the Axis-allied government of Romania on 23 August, the Red Army occupied Bucharest on 31 August. Romania and the Soviet Union signed an armistice on 12 September.

Soviet soldiers advance through the streets of Jelgava, Latvia, mid-1944.

The rapid progress of Operation Bagration threatened to cut off and isolate the German units of Army Group North bitterly resisting the Soviet advance towards Tallinn. Despite a ferocious attack at the Sinimäed Hills, Estonia, the Soviet Leningrad Front failed to break through the defence of the smaller, well-fortified army detachment "Narwa" in terrain not suitable for large-scale operations.

On the Karelian Isthmus, the Red Army launched a Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive against the Finnish lines on 9 June 1944 (coordinated with the Western Allied Invasion of Normandy). Three armies were pitted there against the Finns, among them several experienced guards rifle formations. The attack breached the Finnish front line of defence in Valkeasaari on 10 June and the Finnish forces retreated to their secondary defence line, the VT-line. The Soviet attack was supported by a heavy artillery barrage, air bombardments and armoured forces. The VT-line was breached on 14 June and after a failed counterattack in Kuuterselkä by the Finnish armoured division, the Finnish defence had to be pulled back to the VKT-line. After heavy fighting in the battles of Tali-Ihantala and Ilomantsi, Finnish troops finally managed to halt the Soviet attack.

In Poland, as the Red Army approached, the Polish Home Army (AK) launched Operation Tempest. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Red Army were ordered to halt at the Vistula River. Whether Stalin was unable or unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance is disputed.

In Slovakia, the Slovak National Uprising started as an armed struggle between German Wehrmacht forces and rebel Slovak troops between August and October 1944. It was centered at Banská Bystrica.

Autumn 1944

Main articles: Baltic Offensive (1944), Belgrade Offensive, and Budapest Offensive

In the Autumn of 1944, the Soviets paused their offensive towards Berlin to first gain control over the Balkans.

On 8 September 1944 the Red Army began an attack on the Dukla Pass on the Slovak–Polish border. Two months later, the Soviet forces won the battle and entered Slovakia. The toll was high: 20,000 Red Army soldiers died, plus several thousand Germans, Slovaks and Czechs.

Under the pressure of the Soviet Baltic Offensive, the German Army Group North were withdrawn to fight in the sieges of Saaremaa, Courland and Memel.

January–March 1945

Main articles: Vistula–Oder Offensive, East Pomeranian Offensive, Silesian Offensives, East Prussian Offensive, and Vienna Offensive
Soviet advances from 1 January 1945 to 11 May 1945:   to 30 March 1945   to 11 May 1945

The Soviet Union finally entered Warsaw on 17 January 1945, after the city was destroyed and abandoned by the Germans. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army fronts, the Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder Offensive across the Narew River and from Warsaw. The Soviets outnumbered the Germans on average by 5–6:1 in troops, 6:1 in artillery, 6:1 in tanks and 4:1 in self-propelled artillery. After four days the Red Army broke out and started moving thirty to forty kilometres a day, taking the Baltic states, Danzig, East Prussia, Poznań, and drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of Berlin along the River Oder. During the full course of the Vistula–Oder operation (23 days), the Red Army forces sustained 194,191 total casualties (killed, wounded and missing) and lost 1,267 tanks and assault guns.

On 25 January 1945, Hitler renamed three army groups. Army Group North became Army Group Courland; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and Army Group A became Army Group Centre. Army Group North (old Army Group Centre) was driven into an ever-smaller pocket around Königsberg in East Prussia.

A limited counter-attack (codenamed Operation Solstice) by the newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, had failed by 24 February, and the Red Army drove on to Pomerania and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, the German attempts, in Operation Konrad, to relieve the encircled garrison at Budapest failed and the city fell on 13 February. On 6 March, the Germans launched what would be their final major offensive of the war, Operation Spring Awakening, which failed by 16 March. On 30 March the Red Army entered Austria and captured Vienna on 13 April.

The OKW - Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or High Command of the German Army - claimed German losses of 77,000 killed, 334,000 wounded and 192,000 missing, with a total of 603,000 men, on the Eastern Front during January and February 1945.

On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia finally fell to the Red Army, although the shattered remnants of Army Group Centre continued to resist on the Vistula Spit and Hel Peninsula until the end of the war in Europe. The East Prussian operation, though often overshadowed by the Vistula–Oder operation and the later battle for Berlin, was in fact one of the largest and costliest operations fought by the Red Army throughout the war. During the period it lasted (13 January – 25 April), it cost the Red Army 584,788 casualties, and 3,525 tanks and assault guns.

The fall of Königsberg allowed Stavka to free up General Konstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder. During the first two weeks of April, the Red Army performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. General Georgy Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belorussian Front (1BF), which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeployment was in progress, gaps were left in the lines and the remnants of the German 2nd Army, which had been bottled up in a pocket near Danzig, managed to escape across the Oder. To the south General Ivan Konev shifted the main weight of the 1st Ukrainian Front (1UF) out of Upper Silesia north-west to the Neisse River. The three Soviet fronts had altogether some 2.5 million men (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army); 6,250 tanks; 7,500 aircraft; 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars; 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers, (nicknamed "Stalin Organs"); and 95,383 motor vehicles, many of which were manufactured in the United States.

End of the war: April–May 1945

Main articles: Battle of Berlin, Battle of Halbe, and Prague Offensive
14,933,000 Soviet and Soviet-allied personnel were awarded the Medal for Victory over Germany.
A flag of the Soviet 150th Rifle Division raised over the Reichstag (the Victory Banner)

The Soviet offensive had two objectives. Because of Stalin's suspicions about the intentions of the Western Allies to hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet sphere of influence, the offensive was to be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west, to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the over-riding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and part of the German atomic bomb program.

The offensive to capture central Germany and Berlin started on 16 April with an assault on the German front lines on the Oder and Neisse rivers. After several days of heavy fighting the Soviet 1BF and 1UF punched holes through the German front line and were fanning out across central Germany. By 24 April, elements of the 1BF and 1UF had completed the encirclement of the German capital and the Battle of Berlin entered its final stages. On 25 April the 2BF broke through the German 3rd Panzer Army's line south of Stettin. They were now free to move west towards the British 21st Army Group and north towards the Baltic port of Stralsund. The 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army made contact with the US 69th Infantry Division of the First Army near Torgau, Germany at the Elbe river.

On 29 and 30 April, as the Soviet forces fought their way into the centre of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun and then committed suicide by taking cyanide and shooting himself. In his will, Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as new President of the Reich and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as new Chancellor of the Reich; however, Goebbels also committed suicide, along with his wife Magda and their children, on 1 May 1945. Helmuth Weidling, defence commandant of Berlin, surrendered the city to the Soviet forces on 2 May. Altogether, the Berlin operation (16 April – 2 May) cost the Red Army 361,367 casualties (dead, wounded, missing and sick) and 1,997 tanks and assault guns. German losses in this period of the war remain impossible to determine with any reliability.

Upon learning of Hitler and Goebbels's death, Dönitz (now President of the Reich) appointed Johann Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk as new "Leading Minister" of the German Reich. Rapidly advancing Allied forces limited the jurisdiction of the new German government to an area around Flensburg near the Danish border, where Dönitz's headquarters were located, along with Mürwik. Accordingly, this administration was referred to as the Flensburg government. Dönitz and Schwerin von Krosigk attempted to negotiate an armistice with the Western Allies while continuing to resist the Soviet Army, but were eventually forced to accept an unconditional surrender on all fronts.

At 2:41 am on 7 May 1945, at SHAEF headquarters, German Chief-of-Staff General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to the Allies at Reims in France. It included the phrase All forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945. The next day shortly before midnight, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel repeated the signing in Berlin at Zhukov's headquarters, now known as the German-Russian Museum. The war in Europe was over.

In the Soviet Union the end of the war is considered to be 9 May, when the surrender took effect Moscow time. This date is celebrated as a national holiday – Victory Day – in Russia (as part of a two-day 8–9 May holiday) and some other post-Soviet countries. The ceremonial Victory parade was held in Moscow on 24 June.

The German Army Group Centre initially refused to surrender and continued to fight in Czechoslovakia until about 11 May. A small German garrison on the Danish island of Bornholm refused to surrender until they were bombed and invaded by the Soviets. The island was returned to the Danish government four months later.

The final battle of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, the Battle of Slivice, broke out on 11 May and ended in a Soviet victory on the 12th.

On 13 May 1945, all Soviet offensives ceased and the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II came to an end.

Soviet Far East: August 1945

Main article: Soviet–Japanese War

After the German defeat, Stalin promised his allies Truman and Churchill that he would attack the Japanese within 90 days of the German surrender. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria began on 8 August 1945, with an assault on the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and neighbouring Mengjiang; the greater offensive would eventually include northern Korea, southern Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. Apart from the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, it marked the only military action of the Soviet Union against Imperial Japan; at the Yalta Conference, it had agreed to Allied pleas to terminate the neutrality pact with Japan and enter the Second World War's Pacific theatre within three months after the end of the war in Europe. While not a part of the Eastern Front operations, it is included here because the commanders and much of the forces used by the Red Army came from the European Theatre of operations and benefited from the experience gained there.

Results

Soviet soldiers celebrating the surrender of the German forces in Berlin, 2 May 1945

The Eastern Front was the largest and bloodiest theatre of World War II. It is generally accepted as being the deadliest conflict in human history, with over 30 million killed as a result. The German armed forces suffered 80% of its military deaths in the Eastern Front. It involved more land combat than all other World War II theatres combined. The largest military operation in history, Operation Barbarossa, the bloodiest battle in history, Stalingrad, the most lethal siege in history, Leningrad, and the single largest battle in the history, Kursk, all occurred on the Eastern Front. The distinctly brutal nature of warfare on the Eastern Front was exemplified by an often wilful disregard for human life by both sides. It was also reflected in the ideological premise for the war, which saw a momentous clash between two directly opposed ideologies.

Aside from the ideological conflict, the mindframe of the leaders of Germany and the Soviet Union, Hitler and Stalin, respectively, contributed to the escalation of terror and murder on an unprecedented scale. Stalin and Hitler both disregarded human life in order to achieve their goal of victory. This included the terrorisation of their own people, as well as mass deportations of entire populations. All these factors resulted in tremendous brutality both to combatants and civilians that found no parallel on the Western Front. According to Time magazine: "By measure of manpower, duration, territorial reach and casualties, the Eastern Front was as much as four times the scale of the conflict on the Western Front that opened with the Normandy invasion." Conversely, General George Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, calculated that without the Eastern Front, the United States would have had to double the number of its soldiers on the Western Front.

Memorandum for the President's Special Assistant Harry Hopkins, Washington, D.C., 10 August 1943:

In World War II, Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious. Similarly, Russia's post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces.

Citizens of Leningrad during the 872-day siege, in which about one million civilians died

The war inflicted huge losses and suffering upon the civilian populations of the affected countries. Behind the front lines, atrocities against civilians in German-occupied areas were routine, including those carried out as part of the Holocaust. German and German-allied forces treated civilian populations with exceptional brutality, massacring whole village populations and routinely killing civilian hostages (see German war crimes). Both sides practised widespread scorched earth tactics, but the loss of civilian lives in the case of Germany was incomparably smaller than that of the Soviet Union, in which at least 20 million were killed. According to British historian Geoffrey Hosking, "The full demographic loss to the Soviet peoples was even greater: since a high proportion of those killed were young men of child-begetting age, the postwar Soviet population was 45 to 50 million smaller than post-1939 projections would have led one to expect."

When the Red Army invaded Germany in 1944, many German civilians suffered from reprisals by Red Army soldiers (see Soviet war crimes). After the war, following the Yalta conference agreements between the Allies, the German populations of East Prussia and Silesia were displaced to the west of the Oder–Neisse line, in what became one of the largest forced migrations of people in world history.

The Soviet Union came out of World War II militarily victorious but economically and structurally devastated. Much of the combat took place in or close to populated areas, and the actions of both sides contributed to massive loss of civilian life and tremendous material damage. According to a summary, presented by Lieutenant General Roman Rudenko at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, the property damage in the Soviet Union inflicted by the Axis invasion was estimated to a value of 679 billion rubles. The largest number of civilian deaths in a single city was 1.2 million citizens dead during the Siege of Leningrad.

The combined damage consisted of complete or partial destruction of 1,710 cities and towns, 70,000 villages/hamlets, 2,508 church buildings, 31,850 industrial establishments, 64,000 kilometres (40,000 mi) of railroad, 4,100 railroad stations, 40,000 hospitals, 84,000 schools, and 43,000 public libraries; leaving 25 million homeless. Seven million horses, 17 million cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep were also slaughtered or driven off. Wild fauna were also affected. Wolves and foxes fleeing westward from the killing zone, as the Soviet army advanced between 1943 and 1945, were responsible for a rabies epidemic that spread slowly westwards, reaching the coast of the English Channel by 1968.

Leadership

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The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were both ideologically driven states (by Soviet communism and by Nazism, respectively), in which the foremost political leaders had near-absolute power. The character of the war was thus determined by the political leaders and their ideology to a much greater extent than in any other theatre of World War II.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler led Germany during World War II.

Hitler exercised tight control over the German war-effort, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at Rastenburg in East Prussia, at Vinnitsa in Ukraine, and under the garden of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin). At crucial periods in the war he held daily situation-conferences at which he used his remarkable talent for public speaking to overwhelm opposition from his generals and from the OKW staff with rhetoric.

In part because of the unexpected degree of German success in the Battle of France (despite the warnings of the professional military) Hitler believed himself a military genius, with a grasp of the total war-effort that eluded his generals. In August 1941, when Walther von Brauchitsch (commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht) and Fedor von Bock appealed for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country. Some historians like Bevin Alexander in How Hitler Could Have Won regard this decision as a missed opportunity to win the war.

In the winter of 1941–1942 Hitler believed that his obstinate refusal to allow the German armies to retreat had saved Army Group Centre from collapse. He later told Erhard Milch:

I had to act ruthlessly. I had to send even my closest generals packing, two army generals, for example ... I could only tell these gentlemen, "Get yourself back to Germany as rapidly as you can – but leave the army in my charge. And the army is staying at the front."

The success of this hedgehog defence outside Moscow led Hitler to insist on the holding of territory when it made no military sense, and to sack generals who retreated without orders. Officers with initiative were replaced with yes-men or with fanatical Nazis. The disastrous encirclements later in the war – at Stalingrad, Korsun and many other places – resulted directly from Hitler's orders. This idea of holding territory led to another failed plan, dubbed "Heaven-bound Missions", which involved fortifying even the most unimportant or insignificant of cities and the holding of these "fortresses" at all costs. Many divisions became cut off in "fortress" cities, or wasted uselessly in secondary theatres, because Hitler would not sanction retreat or voluntarily abandon any of his conquests.

Frustration at Hitler's leadership in the war was one of the factors in the attempted coup d'etat of 1944, but after the failure of the 20 July Plot Hitler considered the army and its officer corps suspect and came to rely on the Schutzstaffel (SS) and Nazi party members to prosecute the war.

Hitler's direction of the war ultimately proved disastrous for the German Army, though the skill, loyalty, professionalism and endurance of officers and soldiers enabled him to keep Germany fighting to the end. F. W. Winterbotham wrote of Hitler's signal to Gerd von Rundstedt to continue the attack to the west during the Battle of the Bulge:

From experience we had learned that when Hitler started refusing to do what the generals recommended, things started to go wrong, and this was to be no exception.

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin led the Soviet Union during World War II.

Stalin bore the greatest responsibility for some of the disasters at the beginning of the war (for example, the Battle of Kiev in 1941), but equally deserves praise for the subsequent success of the Soviet Red Army, which depended on the unprecedentedly rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union, which Stalin's internal policy had made the first priority throughout the 1930s. Stalin's Great Purge of the Red Army in the late 1930s involved the legal prosecution of many of the senior command, many of whom the courts convicted and sentenced to death or to imprisonment.

The executed included Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a proponent of armoured blitzkrieg. Stalin promoted some obscurantists like Grigory Kulik who opposed the mechanisation of the army and the production of tanks, but on the other hand purged the older commanders who had held their positions since the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, and who had experience, but were deemed "politically unreliable". This opened up their places to the promotion of many younger officers that Stalin and the NKVD regarded as in line with Stalinist politics. Many of these newly promoted commanders proved terribly inexperienced, but some later became very successful. Soviet tank-output remained the largest in the world.

From the foundation of the Red Army in 1918, political distrust of the military had led to a system of "dual command", with every commander paired with a political commissar, a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Larger units had military councils consisting of the commander, commissar and chief of staff – commissars ensured the loyalty of the commanding officers and implemented Party orders.

Following the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, of the Baltic states and of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1939–1940, Stalin insisted on the occupation of every fold of the newly Sovietized territories; this move westward positioned troops far from their depots, in salients that left them vulnerable to encirclement. As tension heightened in spring, 1941, Stalin desperately tried not to give Hitler any provocation that Berlin could use as an excuse for a German attack; Stalin refused to allow the military to go on the alert – even as German troops gathered on the borders and German reconnaissance planes overflew installations. This refusal to take necessary action was instrumental in the destruction of major portions of the Red Air Force, lined up on its airfields, in the first days of the German–Soviet war.

At the crisis of the war, in the autumn of 1942, Stalin made many concessions to the army: the government restored unitary command by removing the Commissars from the chain of command. Order 25 of 15 January 1943 introduced shoulderboards for all ranks; this represented a significant symbolic step, since after the Russian Revolution of 1917 shoulderboards had connotations as a symbol of the old Tsarist régime. Beginning in autumn 1941, units that had proved themselves by superior performance in combat were given the traditional "Guards" title.

These concessions were combined with ruthless discipline: Order No. 227, issued on 28 July 1942, threatened commanders who retreated without orders with punishment by court-martial. Infractions by military and politruks were punished with transferral to penal battalions and to penal companies which carried out especially hazardous duties, such as serving as tramplers to clear Nazi minefields. The order stipulated to capture or shoot "cowards" and fleeing panicked troops at the rear where blocking detachments were ordered to be set up. In the first three months after Order No. 227 was promulgated 1,000 retreating troops were shot and 24,993 were sent to penal battalions. By October 1942 the idea of regular blocking detachments was quietly dropped, By 29 October 1944 the units were officially disbanded.

As it became clear that the Soviet Union would win the war, Stalin ensured that propaganda always mentioned his leadership of the war; he sidelined the victorious generals and never allowed them to develop into political rivals. After the war the Soviets once again purged the Red Army (though not as brutally as in the 1930s) and demoted many successful officers (including Zhukov, Rodion Malinovsky and Ivan Koniev) to unimportant positions.

Repression and genocide in occupied territories

See also: Generalplan Ost, German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war, World War II German war crimes in the Soviet Union, Commissar Order, and Hunger Plan

... Hitler's first defeats on the frontline outside Moscow drove him to endorse plans for the total extermination of the Jews, and almost simultaneously to openly intensify the anti-Slavic slogans of anti-Bolshevist and anti-Semitic propaganda. Then in 1943 came the call for total war. Total war meant further suffering and murders inflicted on millions. Millions of people perished heirless and nameless.

— Polish historian Jerzy W. Borejsze
The Last Jew in Vinnitsa. A member of Einsatzgruppe D murders a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, in 1942.

The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to pacify and administer. For the majority of people of the Soviet Union, the Nazi invasion was viewed as a brutal act of unprovoked aggression. While it is important to note that not all parts of Soviet society viewed the German advance in this way, the majority of the Soviet population viewed German forces as occupiers. In areas such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940) the Wehrmacht was tolerated by a relatively more significant part of the native population.

This was particularly true for the territories of Western Ukraine, recently rejoined to the Soviet Union, where the anti-Polish and anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalist underground hoped in vain to establish the "independent state", relying on German armed force. However, Soviet society as a whole was hostile to the invading Nazis from the very start. The nascent national liberation movements among Ukrainians and Cossacks, and others were viewed by Hitler with suspicion; some, especially those from the Baltic States, were co-opted into the Axis armies and others brutally suppressed. None of the conquered territories gained any measure of self-rule.

Instead, the Nazi ideologues saw the future of the East as one of settlement by German colonists, with the natives killed, expelled, or reduced to slave labour. The cruel and brutally inhumane treatment of Soviet civilians, women, children and elderly, the daily bombings of civilian cities and towns, Nazi pillaging of Soviet villages and hamlets and unprecedented harsh punishment and treatment of civilians in general were some of the primary reasons for Soviet resistance to Nazi Germany's invasion. Indeed, the Soviets viewed Germany's invasion as an act of aggression and an attempt to conquer and enslave the local population.

Einsatzgruppen murdering Jews in Ivanhorod, Ukraine, 1942

Regions closer to the front were managed by military powers of the region, in other areas such as the Baltic states annexed by the USSR in 1940, Reichscommissariats were established. As a rule, the maximum in loot was extracted. In September 1941, Erich Koch was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat. His opening speech was clear about German policy: "I am known as a brutal dog ... Our job is to suck from Ukraine all the goods we can get hold of ... I am expecting from you the utmost severity towards the native population."

Atrocities against the Jewish population in the conquered areas began almost immediately, with the dispatch of Einsatzgruppen (task groups) to round up Jews and shoot them.

Viktor Cherevihkin, a Soviet teenager killed by German troops occupying Rostov for keeping pigeons

The massacres of Jews and other ethnic minorities were only a part of the deaths from the Nazi occupation. Many hundreds of thousands of Soviet civilians were executed, and millions more died from starvation as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses. As they retreated from Ukraine and Belarus in 1943–44, the German occupiers systematically applied a scorched earth policy, burning towns and cities, destroying infrastructure, and leaving civilians to starve or die of exposure. In many towns, the battles were fought within towns and cities with trapped civilians caught in the middle. Estimates of total civilian dead in the Soviet Union in the war range from seven million (Encyclopædia Britannica) to seventeen million (Richard Overy).

Soviet partisan Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, hanged by German forces in November 1941

The Nazi ideology and the maltreatment of the local population and Soviet POWs encouraged partisans fighting behind the front; it motivated even anti-communists or non-Russian nationalists to ally with the Soviets and greatly delayed the formation of German-allied divisions consisting of Soviet POWs (see Ostlegionen). These results and missed opportunities contributed to the defeat of the Wehrmacht.

Soviet partisans hanged by German forces in January 1943

Vadim Erlikman has detailed Soviet losses totalling 26.5 million war related deaths. Military losses of 10.6 million include six million killed or missing in action and 3.6 million POW dead, plus 400,000 paramilitary and Soviet partisan losses. Civilian deaths totalled 15.9 million, which included 1.5 million from military actions; 7.1 million victims of Nazi genocide and reprisals; 1.8 million deported to Germany for forced labour; and 5.5 million famine and disease deaths. Additional famine deaths, which totalled one million during 1946–47, are not included here. These losses are for the entire territory of the USSR including territories annexed in 1939–40.

Belarus lost a quarter of its pre-war population, including practically all its intellectual elite. Following bloody encirclement battles, all of the present-day Belarus territory was occupied by the Germans by the end of August 1941. The Nazis imposed a brutal regime, deporting some 380,000 young people for slave labour, and killing hundreds of thousands (civilians) more. More than 600 villages like Khatyn were burned with their entire population. More than 209 cities and towns (out of 270 total) and 9,000 villages were destroyed. Himmler pronounced a plan according to which 3⁄4 of the Belarusian population was designated for "eradication" and 1⁄4 of the racially 'cleaner' population (blue eyes, light hair) would be allowed to serve Germans as slaves.

German officers of the 16th Army executing Soviet civilians, 1943

Some recent reports raise the number of Belarusians who perished in the war to "3 million 650 thousand people, unlike the former 2.2 million. That is to say not every fourth inhabitant but almost 40% of the pre-war Belarusian population perished (considering the present-day borders of Belarus)."

Sixty percent of Soviet POWs died during the war. By its end, large numbers of Soviet POWs, forced labourers and Nazi collaborators (including those who were forcefully repatriated by the Western Allies) went to special NKVD "filtration" camps. By 1946, 80 percent of civilians and 20 percent of POWs were freed, others were re-drafted, or sent to labour battalions. Two percent of civilians and 14 percent of the POWs were sent to the Gulag.

The official Polish government report of war losses prepared in 1947 reported 6,028,000 victims out of a population of 27,007,000 ethnic Poles and Jews; this report excluded ethnic Ukrainian and Belarusian losses.

Although the Soviet Union had not signed the Geneva Convention (1929), it is generally accepted that it considered itself bound by the provisions of the Hague convention. A month after the German invasion in 1941, an offer was made for a reciprocal adherence to Hague convention. This 'note' was left unanswered by Third Reich officials.

Soviet repressions also contributed into the Eastern Front's death toll. Mass repression occurred in the occupied portions of Poland as well as in the Baltic states and Bessarabia. Immediately after the start of the German invasion, the NKVD massacred large numbers of inmates in most of their prisons in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, while the remainder was to be evacuated in death marches.

Industrial output

Soviet T-34 tanks being transported from the factory to the front

The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of its war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. Stalin's five-year plans of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialisation of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, thousands of trains evacuated critical factories and workers from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. Once these facilities were reassembled east of the Urals, production could be resumed without fear of German bombing.

The increases in production of materiel were achieved at the expense of civilian living standards – the most thorough application of the principle of total war – and with the help of Lend-Lease supplies from the United Kingdom and the United States. The Germans, on the other hand, could rely on a large slave workforce from the conquered countries and Soviet POWs. American exports and technical expertise also enabled the Soviets to produce goods that they wouldn't have been able to on their own. For example, while the USSR was able to produce fuel of octane numbers from 70 to 74, Soviet industry only met 4% of demand for fuel of octane numbers from 90+; all aircraft produced after 1939 required fuel of the latter category. To fulfill demands, the USSR depended on American assistance, both in finished products and TEL.

Germany had far greater resources than did the USSR, and dwarfed its production in every matrix except for oil, having over five times the USSR's coal production, over three times its iron production, three times its steel production, twice its electricity production, and about 2/3 of its oil production.

German production of explosives from 1940 to 1944 was 1.595 million tons, along with 829,970 tons of powder. Consumption on all fronts during the same period was 1.493 million tons of explosives and 626,887 tons of powder. From 1941 to 1945, the USSR produced only 505,000 tons of explosives and received 105,000 tons of Lend-Lease imports. Germany outproduced the Soviet Union 3.16 to 1 in explosives tonnage.

Soviet armoured fighting vehicle production was greater than the Germans (in 1943, the Soviet Union manufactured 24,089 tanks and self-propelled guns to Germany's 19,800). The Soviets incrementally upgraded existing designs, and simplified and refined manufacturing processes to increase production, and were helped by a mass infusion of harder to produce goods such as aviation fuel, machine tools, trucks, and high-explosives from Lend-Lease, allowing them to concentrate on a few key industries. Meanwhile, Germany had been cut off from foreign trade for years by the time it invaded the USSR, was in the middle of two extended and costly theatres at air and sea that further limited production (Battle of the Atlantic and Defence of the Reich), and was forced to devote a large segment of its expenditures to goods the Soviets could cut back on (such as trucks) or which would never even be used against the Soviets (such as ships). Naval vessels alone constituted 10–15% of Germany's war expenditures from 1940 to 1944 depending on the year, while armoured vehicles by comparison were only 5–8%.

Summary of German and Soviet raw material production during the war
Year Coal
(million tonnes, Germany includes lignite and bituminous types) 		Steel
(million tonnes) 		Aluminium
(thousand tonnes) 		Oil
(million tonnes)
German Soviet German Soviet German Soviet German Soviet Italian Hungarian Romanian Japanese
1941 483.4 151.4 31.8 17.9 233.6 – 5.7 33.0 0.12 0.4 5.5 –
1942 513.1 75.5 32.1 8.1 264.0 51.7 6.6 22.0 0.01 0.7 5.7 1.8
1943 521.4 93.1 34.6 8.5 250.0 62.3 7.6 18.0 0.01 0.8 5.3 2.3
1944 509.8 121.5 28.5 10.9 245.3 82.7 5.5 18.2 – 1 3.5 1
1945 – 149.3 – 12.3 – 86.3 1.3 19.4 – – – 0.1
Summary of Axis and Soviet tank and self-
propelled gun production during the war
Year Tanks and self-
propelled guns
Soviet German Italian Hungarian Romanian Japanese
1941 6,590 5,200 595 – – 595
1942 24,446 9,300 1,252 500 – 557
1943 24,089 19,800 336 105 558
1944 28,963 27,300 – 353
1945 15,400 – – – – 137
Summary of Axis and Soviet aircraft production during the war
Year Aircraft
Soviet German Italian Hungarian Romanian Japanese
1941 15,735 11,776 3,503 – 1,000 5,088
1942 25,436 15,556 2,818 6 8,861
1943 34,845 25,527 967 267 16,693
1944 40,246 39,807 – 773 28,180
1945 20,052 7,544 – – 8,263
Summary of German and Soviet industrial labour (including those classified as handworkers), and summary of foreign, voluntary, coerced and POW labour
Year Industrial labour Foreign labour Total labour
Soviet German Soviet German Total Soviet Total German
1941 11,000,000 12,900,000 – 3,500,000 11,000,000 16,400,000
1942 7,200,000 11,600,000 50,000 4,600,000 7,250,000 16,200,000
1943 7,500,000 11,100,000 200,000 5,700,000 7,700,000 16,800,000
1944 8,200,000 10,400,000 800,000 7,600,000 9,000,000 18,000,000
1945 9,500,000 – 2,900,000 – 12,400,000 –

Soviet production and upkeep was assisted by the Lend-Lease program from the United States and the United Kingdom. In the course of the war the US supplied $11 billion of materiel through Lend-Lease. This included 400,000 trucks, 12,000 armoured vehicles (including 7,000 tanks), 11,400 aircraft and 1.75 million tons of food. The British supplied aircraft including 3,000 Hurricanes and 4,000 other aircraft during the war. Five thousand tanks were provided by the British and Canada. Total British supplies were about four million tons. Germany on the other hand had the resources of conquered Europe at its disposal; those numbers are however not included into the tables above, such as production in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and so on.

After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany geared completely towards a war economy, as expounded in a speech given by Joseph Goebbels (the Nazi propaganda minister), in the Berlin Sportpalast, increasing production in subsequent years under Albert Speer's (the Reich armaments minister) direction, despite the intensifying Allied bombing campaign.

Casualties

Further information: World War II casualties, World War II casualties of the Soviet Union, and German casualties in World War II
Soviets bury their fallen, July 1944
World War II military deaths in Europe by theatre, year

The fighting involved millions of Axis and Soviet troops along the broadest land front in military history. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of the European portion of World War II with up to 8.7 to 10 million military deaths on the Soviet side (although, depending on the criteria used, casualties in the Far East theatre may have been similar in number). Axis military deaths were 5 million of which around 4,000,000 were German deaths.

Included in this figure of German losses is the majority of the 2 million German military personnel listed as missing or unaccounted for after the war. Rüdiger Overmans states that it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one half of these men were killed in action and the other half died in Soviet custody. Official OKW Casualty Figures list 65% of Heer killed/missing/captured as being lost on the Eastern Front from 1 September 1939, to 1 January 1945 (four months and a week before the conclusion of the war), with front not specified for losses of the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.

Estimated civilian deaths range from about 14 to 17 million. Over 11.4 million Soviet civilians within pre-1939 Soviet borders were killed, and another estimated 3.5 million civilians were killed in the annexed territories. The Nazis exterminated one to two million Soviet Jews (including the annexed territories) as part of the Holocaust. Soviet and Russian historiography often uses the term "irretrievable casualties". According to the Narkomat of Defence order (No. 023, 4 February 1944), the irretrievable casualties include killed, missing, those who died due to war-time or subsequent wounds, maladies and chilblains and those who were captured.

The huge death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured partisans, the large deficiency of food and medical supplies in Soviet territories, and atrocities committed mostly by the Germans against the civilian population. The multiple battles and the use of scorched earth tactics destroyed agricultural land, infrastructure, and whole towns, leaving much of the population homeless and without food.

Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II
Forces fighting with the Axis
Total Dead KIA/DOW/MIA Prisoners taken by the Soviets Prisoners who died in Captivity WIA (not including DOW)
Greater Germany est 4,137,000 est 3,637,000 2,733,739–3,000,060 500,000 Unknown
Soviet residents who joined German army 215,000 215,000 400,000+ Unknown 118,127
Romania 281,000 226,000 500,000 55,000
Hungary 300,000 245,000 500,000 55,000 89,313
Italy 82,000 55,000 70,000 27,000
Finland 63,204 62,731 3,500 473 158,000
Total est. 5,078,000 est. 4,437,400 4,264,497–4,530,818 est. 637,000 Unknown
Military losses on the Eastern Front during World War II
Forces fighting with the Soviet Union
Total Dead KIA/DOW/MIA Prisoners taken by the Axis Prisoners who died in captivity WIA (not including DOW)
Soviet 8,668,400–10,000,000 6,829,600 4,059,000 (military personnel only)–5,700,000 2,250,000–3,300,000 of which 1,283,200 confirmed 13,581,483
Poland 24,000 24,000 Unknown Unknown
Romania 17,000 17,000 80,000 Unknown
Bulgaria 10,000 10,000 Unknown Unknown
Total Up to ~8,719,000 – 10,000,000 6,880,600 4,139,000–5,780,000 2,250,000–3,300,000 13,581,483
Corpses of German soldiers at a collection point after the Battle of Stalingrad, February 1943
Red Army soldiers in a trench near the corpse of a German soldier, still wearing an Iron Cross, 1942

Based on Soviet sources Krivosheev put German losses on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 at 6,923,700 men: including killed in action, died of wounds or disease and reported missing and presumed dead – 4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among Soviet volunteers in the Wehrmacht. Deaths of POW were 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit.

According to a report prepared by the General Staff of the Army issued in December 1944, materiel losses in the East from the period of 22 June 1941 until November 1944 stood at 33,324 armoured vehicles of all types (tanks, assault guns, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and others). Paul Winter, Defeating Hitler, states "these figures are undoubtedly too low". According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 42,700 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns on the Eastern front. Overall, Germany produced 3,024 reconnaissance vehicles, 2,450 other armoured vehicles, 21,880 armoured personnel carriers, 36,703 semi-tracked tractors and 87,329 semi-tracked trucks, estimated 2/3 were lost on the Eastern Front.

The Soviets lost 96,500 tanks, tank destroyers, self-propelled guns and assault guns, as well as 37,600 other armoured vehicles (such as armoured cars and semi-tracked trucks) for a total of 134,100 armoured vehicles lost.

The Soviets also lost 102,600 aircraft (combat and non-combat causes), including 46,100 in combat. According to Soviet claims, the Germans lost 75,700 aircraft on the Eastern front.

Polish Armed Forces in the East, initially consisting of Poles from Eastern Poland or otherwise in the Soviet Union in 1939–1941, began fighting alongside the Red Army in 1943, and grew steadily as more Polish territory was liberated from the Nazis in 1944–1945.

Dead Soviet soldiers in Kholm, January 1942

When the Axis countries of Central Europe were occupied by the Soviets, they changed sides and declared war on Germany (see Allied Commissions).

Some Soviet citizens would side with the Germans and join Andrey Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army, Ukrainian Liberation Army, Georgian Legion and other Ostlegionen units. Most of those who joined were Soviet POWs. These foreign volunteers in the Wehrmacht were primarily used in the Eastern Front but some were assigned to guard the beaches of Normandy. The other main group of men joining the German army were citizens of the Baltic countries annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 or from Western Ukraine. They fought in their own Waffen-SS units, including the Latvian Legion and the Galicia Division.

The Soviet Union also used defectors from the Axis countries in combat. The Red Army had two divisions formed of Romanian POWs, the Tudor Vladimirescu Division and the Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Division; during the Siege of Budapest, some Hungarians joined the Volunteer Regiment of Buda of the Red Army. The USSR did not have a full analogue of the Vlasov Army which would consist of Germans, however, members of the National Committee for a Free Germany, formed mostly of German POWs, were allowed to form small units known as Combat Groups (German: Kampfgruppen) which participated in combat with the Wehrmacht in its rear areas and at the front as an auxiliary force of the Red Army and the Soviet partisans, although combat was not their main purpose. In the Third Reich, members of the National Committee for a Free Germany were known as "Seydlitz Troops", under a name given after Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach who had defected to the USSR because of the widespread myth that he had his own pro-Soviet military formation.

Hitler's notorious Commissar Order called for Soviet political commissars, who were responsible for ensuring that Red Army units remained politically reliable, to be summarily shot when identified amongst captured troops. Axis troops who captured Red Army soldiers frequently shot them in the field or shipped them to concentration camps to be used as forced labourers or killed. Additionally, millions of Soviet civilians were captured as POWs and treated in the same manner. It is estimated that between 2.25 and 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in Nazi custody, out of 5.25–5.7 million. This figure represents a total of 45–57% of all Soviet POWs and may be contrasted with 8,300 deaths out of 231,000 British and U.S. prisoners, or 3.6%. About 5% of the Soviet prisoners who died were of Jewish ethnicity.

See also

National and regional experiences

Lists

Notes

  1. Hungary voluntarily participated in the conflict until March 1944, when it submitted to German occupation. In October the same year, a puppet government was installed, which ensured Hungary's participation until the end of the conflict.
  2. Croatia never declared war on the Soviet Union and did not consider itself at war with it and only recruited volunteers to the Croatian legions [de; ru] of German and Italian armies and the Luftwaffe; Croatian regiment of the Wehrmacht was the only de jure Croatian unit to fight on the Eastern Front.
  3. Although Spain officially remained neutral, it provided support to Germany through supplement of essential materials (see Wolfram Crisis) and recruitment of volunteers at the Eastern Front (Blue Division and Blue Squadron); see Spain during World War II
  4. The so-called "Anders' Army" (under Władysław Anders), composed of Poles in the USSR and loyal to the London-based Polish government-in-exile, was formed in the early stages of the war, but shortly thereafter moved to the West through Iran. After diplomatic relations between the Polish government and the Soviet Union broke down in 1943, a pro-communist Polish division was formed, which would grow into the First and later Second Polish Armies that fought as part of the Soviet Red Army. Political leadership came from the Polish Committee of National Liberation, which evolved into a Provisional Government rivaling the one in London.
  5. A battalion composed of Czechs and Slovaks in the Soviet Union (refugees, defectors, part of the ethnic minority in the USSR) was established in 1942 and was sent at the front in 1943 and would eventually grow to a Czechoslovak Army Corps, loyal to the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London, which fought as part of the Red Army.
  6. In 1943, the USSR began forming Yugoslav units of the Red Army which began operating in 1944; while for the most part Yugoslav troops fought in the Balkans, a number of Red Army operations involving Yugoslav troops took place in Eastern Europe on the general Eastern Front (e.g. Second Jassy–Kishinev offensive, Operation Spring Awakening)
  7. By the beginning of 1945, Hungary had had two rivalling governments, the Hungarist puppet government in the Nazi-occupied territory, and the Debrecen government [ru] in the Soviet-occupied territory; in January 1945, the USSR began forming small Hungarian volunteer units loyal to the Debrecen government, the largest of which was the Volunteer Regiment of Buda.
  8. Support provided through Lend-Lease and Arctic convoys
  9. Support provided through Arctic convoys, as well as by the presence of No. 151 Wing RAF (with No. 81 Squadron RAF and No. 134 Squadron RAF) on the Eastern Front.
  10. Support provided by the presence of Fighter Squadron 2/30 Normandie-Niemen as part of 1st Air Army on the Eastern Front.
  11. see Mongolia in World War II
  12. see Tuva in World War II
  13. As part of the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II
  14. Russian: Вели́кая Оте́чественная война́, romanized: Velíkaya Otéchestvennaya voyná
  15. German: Deutsch-Sowjetischer Krieg; Ukrainian: Німе́цько-радя́нська війна́, romanized: Niméts'ko-radiáns'ka viiná
  16. On 7 September 1943, Himmler sent orders to HSSPF "Ukraine" Hans-Adolf Prützmann that "not a human being, not a single head of cattle, not a hundredweight of cereals and not a railway line remain behind; that not a house remains standing, not a mine is available which is not destroyed for years to come, that there is not a well which is not poisoned. The enemy must really find completely burned and destroyed land". He ordered cooperation with Infantry general Staff, also someone named Stampf, and sent copies to the Chief of Regular Police, Chief of Security Police & SS, SS-Obergruppenführer Berger, and the chief of the partisan combating units.

References

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Citations

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