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In 1939, Germany and Russia said they would not fight each other. But on 22nd June 1941, Germany invaded Russia. The Germans called this Operation Barbarossa.

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was a very big attack. The Germans had 2000 planes, 750,000 horses, 3580 tanks and 3 million soldiers. One third of the army marched towards Leningrad, another third towards Moscow and another third towards Ukraine. The Russian army was destroyed. The Germans reached Leningrad and almost reached Moscow. But then winter arrived. And the winter of 1941-42 was very cold. Hitler thought Germany would beat Russia before Winter arrived. So the Germans were not ready for winter. The German soldiers did not have warm clothes, their petrol froze and the soldiers did not have enough food. But the Russian soldiers were ready for winter.

The Siege of Leningrad German soldiers reached Leningrad in September 1941. They surrounded the city. The Russian people in Leningrad had very little food. The siege ended in 1944. 632,000 people died during the siege. The Battle of Stalingrad In September 1942, a German army reached the city of Stalingrad. They wanted to take the city and then take the oil fields to the south. But the Russian leader, Stalin, decided to fight. The city was named after him! The Germans and the Russians both had about a million soldiers. The battle was hard and many soldiers and people died. Then, in November 1942, the Russians surrounded the city. The German army was trapped in the city. It got very cold and they had very little food. The Germans surrendered in January 1942. At Stalingrad, the Germans lost many soldiers, tanks and aeroplanes. The Russians were now able to push the Germans back. The Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a big tank battle in July and August 1943. The Germans had 3000 tanks and 1 million soldiers. The Russians had 5000 tanks and 2 million soldiers. The Germans tried to stop the Russians at Kursk. But the Russians won the battle and the Germans lost lots of tanks and soldiers. Why did Russia beat Germany? The Germans were not ready to fight in winter The Russians fought bravely to defend their country Hitler did not let his generals pull back, so many soldiers died People moved Russian factories to the east, far away from the Germans. The workers made tanks and

aeroplanes in these factories The Russians had a brilliant general, Marshall Zhukov The Russians had more soldiers