Invasion of The Soviet Union

Invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler

1. When
   1. Hitler invaded the USSR on June 22nd, 1941.
2. How
   1. The Germans in 1943 had 3.5 million troops in 150 Divisions on the Eastern Front, they barely had 42 Division to face the Western allies even after the Normandy landings.
   2. Hitler managed to divert 750,000 troops to Normandy but that wasn’t enough. It was what lost him in the war.
   3. By 1945 the Russians had pushed the Germans back to the Oder River barely 60 miles from Berlin and the Germans had only 1.5 million troops left to defend Germany.
   4. The Russians had 12 million closing in from the East and the Western allies had 4 million pushing across the Rhine.
3. Result
   1. Germany was doomed.
   2. Over 80 percent of the German’s 5 million war casualties (military) were in Russia.
   3. The ultimate result was that the Russians steamrolled the Germans back right into Berlin.
   4. The Russians lost 26 million people in the war (10 million were civilians) fighting the Germans.