In the morning of June 22, 1941, fascist Germany attacked the USSR. On its side were Italy, Romania, Austria-Hungary, Finland. The Germans threw troops of over 5, 500, 000 people, about 5, 000 aircraft, about 4, 000 tanks and 47, 000 guns to the Eastern Front.
Back in 1940, the Nazis developed the Barbarossa plan, according to which, the Nazi troops were to capture the territory of the USSR from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan in a short period of about two months. The Great Patriotic War began. But the blitzkrieg of the Nazis drowned, meeting the desperate resistance of the Soviet troops. The first period of the Second World War began.
The first period of the Second World War
This stage was the most difficult for the USSR, it began on June 22, 1941 and ended on November 18, 1942. The Nazi troops were many times superior to the Soviet, both in terms of weapons and manpower. Thanks to this, as well as the surprise of the attack, the Germans were successful. The Soviet army was retreating, losing new territories every day, leaving the dead on the battlefields. By the time the Nazis reached Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don, almost approached Moscow, the Soviet army had already lost almost 5, 000, 000 of its soldiers. Some of them were killed, another part went missing. Most of the weapons, aircraft, tanks were lost.
The main goal of Germany was to capture Moscow, but the defense of the capital began on September 20, 1941 and lasted until April 20, 1942. In 1941, on December 5 and 6, Soviet troops launched an offensive and frustrated the Nazis. They were thrown to a distance of 100 to 250 km from the capital. Blitzkrieg was completely failed.
The second period of the Second World War
From November 19, 1942 until the end of 1943, the second period of the war continued. The enemy was exhausted and bloodless, defending against Soviet troops. And on November 19, the Soviet army launched a counterattack. Wehrmacht troops were surrounded near Stalingrad. Over 300, 000 people from 22 divisions were liquidated, General Paulus was captured. In the same period, Nazi troops were driven out of the Caucasus, where they sought to establish control over oil production in the Caspian Sea. Already in the summer of 1943, the front stabilized.
A radical turning point occurred in the rear, as the military industry gave the front more tanks, planes and guns than Germany did during the same period. Italy came out of the "axis countries", the fascist bloc began to fall apart.
