Event

Operation Barbarossa Begins

Germany invaded the Soviet Union, opening the war's largest land front and turning the conflict into a vast ideological and annihilatory struggle in eastern Europe.

Status: draft
Event Kind: invasion
Date Precision: day
Date Display: 22 Jun 1941
Start Date: 22 Jun 1941
End Date: 22 Jun 1941

What happened

Germany and its allies launched a massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union across a broad front from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Why it matters

Barbarossa fundamentally enlarged the scale of the war. It created the main theater of attrition, radicalized occupation and mass killing, and made the eastern front central to the destruction of Nazi military power.

Notes

This is the main turning point from continental war to truly vast total war in Europe.