The widening war raging in Africa and eastern Europe were key distractions for Hitler from his ultimate goal of attacking Russia.

Although the British army remained undefeated in the west, Hitler's goal proved an urgency for him to begin moving on the east. Whilst planning was made throughout 1940 for the invasion of Russia, time was favorable towards the Russians and they continued to mobilize their resources and strengthen their defense forces.

The invasion of the Germans was a complete surprise as Russian dictator, Josef Stalin, had failed to acknowledge the increasing German troop concentrations on the border and he had also ignored British intelligence reports stating that Germany had intended to attack.

Hitler once again used the Blitzkrieg technique with German tanks and air power leading the attack. There were three powerful German armies, made up of over 3 million men which moved into Russia.

As one army group headed north towards Leningrad, a center group headed towards Moscow and a southern group moved t

In late July, the advance on Leningrad and Moscow slowed, with forces moving south to capture Kiev and the Ukraine. While Germans generals wanted to make Moscow the primary target so that a final battle could take place to crush the red Army, Hitler believed that seizing territory was more important.

To counter the worsening situation on the eastern front, the Germans launched one more desperate attack on the Russian line at Kursk. In this Battle of Kursk, which raged for eighteen days, the Germans suffered another loss, with over 500 000 casualties. By now, all German hopes of defeating Russia were gone and were lowly pushed back towards Poland and the Reich by the Russian army.

As a result of this crucial battle, by 1943 the German army had lost initiative on all fronts and never regained it. German advancements on territories in Africa were stopped and the soon the Allies began fighting with Germany and they were forced to move essential troops in order to defend themselves.

Though there is not one single causing factor, the Germans had underestimated the Russians who had men to spare and were encouraged by Stalin's message of Nationalism where he called on to defend Mother Russia against the invaders. Germany's military strategy was also flawed as there were too many goals at once and not one principal target but three, yet the front was too wide. In their quest for domination, the Germans had also fai

Some common words found in the essay are:
August German, Moscow December, Reich Russian, Mother Russia, Russia British, Russians Russian, Leningrad Moscow, Hitler Blitzkrieg, Ukraine Germans, Operation Barbarossa, german army, eastern front, leningrad moscow, army withdraw, russian winter, russian army, german soldiers, operation barbarossa, red army, ukraine germans,
Approximate Word count = 958
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)