Eastern Front
1941: Operation Barbarossa
June – December 1941 · 8 battles
On 22 June 1941 Germany and its allies attacked the Soviet Union, breaking the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Three army groups struck at Leningrad, Moscow and Ukraine, and the Red Army, taken by surprise despite numerous warnings, lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the first weeks in vast encirclements at Białystok, Minsk, Smolensk and Kiev. Behind the front SS and police units began the mass murder of Jews, and Soviet prisoners of war starved to death in the camps. In the autumn, however, the offensive came to a halt before Leningrad and Moscow, and the Soviet counter-offensive of 5 December 1941 ended Hitler’s hopes of a quick victory in the east.
- 22 June – 9 July 1941Battle of Białystok–MinskFrom 22 June to 9 July 1941 Army Group Centre encircled the Western Front's main forces at Białystok and Minsk. The Germans claimed over 320,000 prisoners.
- 22 June – 5 December 1941Key battleOperation BarbarossaFrom 22 June to 5 December 1941 Germany and its allies invaded the USSR, destroying millions of men in encirclements, but halted at Leningrad and Moscow.
- 7 July – 26 September 1941Key battleBattle of Kiev (1941)7 July – 26 September 1941: the Germans encircled almost the whole Southwestern Front east of Kiev. They claimed 665,000 prisoners; General Kirponos was killed.
- 10 July – 10 September 1941Key battleBattle of Smolensk (1941)10 July – 10 September 1941: Army Group Centre encircled three Soviet armies at Smolensk, but ceaseless Red Army counter-attacks halted its march on Moscow.
- 8 September 1941 – 27 January 1944Key battleSiege of Leningrad8 September 1941 – 27 January 1944: the Germans, with the Finns in the north, cut Leningrad off. Hunger killed hundreds of thousands, but the city held out.
- 30 September 1941 – 7 January 1942Key battleBattle of Moscow30 September 1941 – 7 January 1942: the Wehrmacht broke the defences at Vyazma and Bryansk and reached Moscow, but in December the Red Army threw it back.
- 30 October 1941 – 4 July 1942Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)30 October 1941 – 4 July 1942: the German-Romanian 11th Army besieged Sevastopol, base of the Black Sea Fleet. It beat off two assaults and fell to the third.
- 17 November – 2 December 1941Battle of Rostov (1941)17 November – 2 December 1941. Kleist took Rostov-on-Don, but a Soviet counter-attack drove him out. The retreat to the Mius cost Rundstedt his command.