Soviet Offensive - the Battle for Russia Timeline

"You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."

Those words were Hitler's opinion of tackling the Soviet nation in war. Where at one time, these two nations signed a non-aggression pact to not go to war with one another and divided and conquered the spoils that was Poland, Hitler went on to make perhaps his greatest ego-induced tactical blunder of the war (and there were many).

Early progress was good for the Russians really did not know what had hit them. Germany pushed up to Smolensk but the questionable order to relocate this unstoppable army's resources to battle Soviet elements near Kiev bypassed a critical chance for the Germans to march on Moscow. The move allowed for Soviet forces to regroup in other parts of the country and for the Red War Machine to get in gear.

A massive Soviet offensive in the winter of 1941 would force the Germans to retreat along many parts of the front. The only thing that would stop the Russians, it seems, would be their fatigue of having been fighting for weeks on end. Supply issues would also begin to take their toll on the Red Army. By the end of April 1942, over 1 million German soldiers would be killed in action during Hitler's brazen invasion codenamed "Operation Barbarossa".