Operation Barbarossa
- Barbarossa "Red Beard" code name German attack on Russia June 1941
- Complete surprise for Russia despite warnings
- Breaks non-aggression pact
- 2000 mile long front
- Blitzkrieg tactics surprise Red Army
- Nazis briefly seen as liberators
- Russian peasants began scorched earth policy (burning all crops and shelters)
- Leningrad was besieged, captured Kiev, reached Crimea and on the outskirts of Moscow
- Cold winter weather halts Germans
- Almost 2 million Red Army troops taken prisoner