- Hitler broke non-aggression pact and attacked Russia (June 1941)
- Operation Barbarossa "Red Beard" was code name
- This came as a huge surprise to Russia, very unexpected despite warnings
- 2000 mile long front
- Because they traded raw material/finished goods, they were fighting with the same artillary/equipment
- Disaster for Soviet Union
- Blitzkrieg tactics used to surprise the Red Army
- Were surrounded
- Russian peasants began scorched earth policy: burning all crops and shelters
- This, along with cold weather slowed the Germans down
- Leningrad was besieged, captured Kiev, reached Crimea (on the outskirts of Moscow)
- As they got close to Moscow, temperature dropped to -50 degrees
- Didn't make it to Moscow because a group of Siberian forces counterattacked the Germans (took railway from Siberia)
- Almost 2 million Red Army troops taken prisoner