German-Soviet War

The German-Soviet War, known as the Eastern Crusade within Germany, took place between 1941 and 1942 and was a conflict consisting of Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union. 
The war saw the German-led Axis fight against the Soviet Union. The battles in this war constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The war culminated in the death of Joseph Stalin and the wholesale collapse of the Red Army and their hasty retreat eastwards across the Ural Mountains. 
Though no formal surrender was made by the Soviet Union, there was an implied peace as both sides were weary from the war. The Germans needed to solidify their gains over vast swathes of land, while the Soviets needed to try and maintain their grip on an increasingly chaotic situation. 
== Prelude ==
=== Yugoslav Crisis ===
In late-1940 the Italian army crossed the borders of Yugoslavia, launching a full invasion from three angles. The assault lasted two months, with victory ensured when Hungary and Bulgaria joined the assault in an attempt to ensure territorial gains. This invasion angered the Germans who saw Yugoslavia as a key trading partner, and the invasion disrupted this.
Despite Mussolini's fear of angering Hitler, he stood his ground with the Germans, knowing they sought to invade the Soviet Union and that a war with Italy would prove to be a distraction. In the Soviet Union however, Stalin saw the tensions between Germany and Italy as a clear indication that Hitler's desires to invade the Soviet Union weren't his priority at the time - despite much intelligence saying otherwise.
== Campaigns ==
=== Operation Barbarossa ===
==== Fall of Leningrad ====
==== Fall of Moscow ====
The initial invasion of the Soviet Union culminated in the German assault upon the capital, Moscow. The well-supplied German army was able to launch significant offensives deep into Soviet territory, and after shattering the first line of Soviet defenses at Bryansk and Vyazma the number of defenders left to guard the capital was abysmally small. As the German advance pressed on, the panic within Moscow culminated in over a million civilians fleeing eastwards - clogging up the vitally needed railway network and hampering the arrival of reinforcements and supplies.
Despite the much-weakened defences of Moscow, and the rapid German advance, the final assault on Moscow which began in November was a costly affair for the Germans. The city had been encircled and the long task of fighting street-to-street began.
By early December the city had fallen, with heavy casualties on both sides but the Germans winning out the battle.
=== Soviet counter-offensive ===
==== Failure at Moscow ====
=== Fall Blau ===
=== Death of Stalin ===
Once the Caucasus had been cut off from Soviet control, the end of the war was approaching and this was clear to all in the Soviet Union, including Josef Stalin. Having clung onto power after the fall of Moscow, the failure to retake the city and the subsequent German sweeping of Soviet forces in the south - denying key food and oil from the remaining Soviet lands - was the final straw.
Category:Conflicts
Category:Conflicts involving the Greater Germanic Reich
Category:Conflicts involving Italy
Category:Conflicts involving Romania
Category:Conflicts involving Bulgaria
Category:Conflicts involving Hungary
Category:Conflicts involving Spain
Category:Conflicts involving Finland
Category:Conflicts involving France
Category:Conflicts involving the Slovak State
Category:Conflicts involving Croatia
Category:Conflicts involving the United Kingdom
Category:Conflicts involving the Soviet Union
Category:Conflicts involving Mongolia
Category:Conflicts involving Poland
Category:Conflicts involving Czechoslovakia
Category:Conflicts involving the United States of America