Ultimately this is what began the Eastern Front War, The most deadly and destructive war in history with an estimated 30 million deaths, many of which were civilian. It is possible that Stalin was in fact expecting Hitler to go back on the pact but he could not be sure when he would do this. The night of the first attack on the Soviet Union was effective, catching them by surprise. Many war ships and ground troops were deployed, destroying soviet military and air force bases that were not prepared for the German attacks. Germany was able to quickly take land that was originally split between the Soviet Union and Germany. Hitler originally intended to capture the Soviet Union in three-six months, which seemed very possible based on the overwhelming victories that the Nazi’s had in the first week. The initial success of the German attack on the Soviet Union was thanks to the Nazis notorious strategy of Blitzkrieg, attacking key targets one by one with overwhelming military force. Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were quickly invaded and added to the “Nazi Empire” already consisting of nearly all of Europe and parts of northern Africa. Britain and the Soviet Union formed an alliance. Both countries were under heavy fire with very high death …show more content…
November 1942, the Red Army had been pushed up against the Volga River. Hitler ordered his army to retreat until his new tiger tanks could reach the battleground, this gave the red army time to fortify so that when the tanks finally arrived, they were destroyed quickly. After 5 months the Nazis had been surrounded in the city making them unable to get supplies, ending the battle. The Soviet Union continued to recapture Russian cities over the next 3 years. Most of the cities abandoned by the Germans were burned to the ground. The Soviet Union won the war in May, 1945 but the last of German prisoners were not released until nearly ten years after the war