German forces had broken through to the Caucasus, threatening to seize the Soviet Union’s largest oil fields. The loss of the “black blood” so vital for the war effort could have completely paralyzed the Red Army.
5 GREATEST Red Army victories in WWII
RBTH
08 May 2021, 16:54 GMT+10
The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the conflict between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich, and WWII as a whole. Thereafter, it was clear that Nazi Germany was doomed.
1. The Battle of Moscow
Soviet artillery near Moscow in November of 1941.
Sputnik
In October 1941, the USSR was on the brink of disaster. At Vyazma, just 200 km east of Moscow, the Red Army lost up to one million men killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The road to the Soviet capital lay open to the Wehrmacht.
Until the arrival of fresh divisions from Siberia, the Urals and the Russian Far East, the Soviet command did what it could to hold back the enemy. Nevertheless, the German advance was relentless, and on Dec. 2, units of the 2nd Panzer Division occupied the village of Krasnaya Polyana, just 30 km from the Kremlin.