Page 15 - History of War - Issue 29-16

OPERATION BARBAROSSA

“HITLER PUSHES AHEAD WITH THE

PLAN TO INVADE RUSSIA, PURGE ITS
POPULATION AND REPOPULATE WITH

ARYAN BLOOD”

Above: Military THE SOVIET COUNTEROFFENSIVE
exercises are carried
out in Moscow in
preparation for With the Germans running low on oil and supplies and their
the massive Soviet numbers dwindling in the war of attrition for Moscow, the
counterattack Red Army begins a bloody counteroffensive that forces the
Axis to retreat outside of the city.
On 7 November, Red Army soldiers took part in the
annual October Revolution parade, and continued their
march to the frontline to defend Moscow

OPERATION TYPHOON COMMENCES

Despite delays from Axis Command, the tactical operation to take Moscow
swiftly, and cut the heart out of the Soviet Union, begins. The original plan to
take the capital in four months proves too ambitious, so Hitler decides to attack
from both the north and the south.

2 October 1941 6 December 1941
8 September 1941 5 December 1941
Left: Soviet ski troops THE ATTACK FALTERS
advance to the frontline in Below: Heavily
Leningrad, 1943 After two long months of ghting, and the German war machine outnumbered, and
lacking crucial
faltering due to a lack of oil for the tanks and supplies for the troops, supplies, German
LENINGRAD IS Hitler orders the Germans to stop trying to progress and hunker down. forces fell short of
The Red Army has now swelled and soon outnumbers the Axis.
capturing Moscow
BLOCKADED
German Army Group North
encircles Leningrad and
begins its two-and-a-
half-year siege. Trapped
inside, millions of the city’s
inhabitants suffered from
starvation with reports of
cannibalism becoming
rife. The siege was lifted
in 1944 and remains one Images: Alamy, Getty
of the longest, and most
costly, sieges in history.

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