Not for nothing have the Russians claimed that their best general was General Winter. In June 1941 the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, their invasion of Soviet Russia. They cut through the unprepared Russian forces and rapidly blitzkrieged their way eastwards towards Leningrad and Moscow.

By Fall they were close to total success. Seasonal rains halted their progress until colder weather arrived to freeze the wet ground and make it firm enough for their tanks and trucks to move on. Unfortunately, the colder weather proved to be the coldest for decades. The Germans had not been equipped with winter clothing, let alone the necessities for dealing with a winter of such severity. Hitler had expected total victory before winter came. As the cold set in the advance resumed on the firm ground, but Russian resistance stiffened. The Russians were accustomed to sub-zero conditions. Their clothing and equipment took account of them.

The Germans were not. Precious supplies of gasoline had to be used to try to keep troops from freezing. Fires had to be lit under tanks to thaw the oil and get them to start. As it got ever colder, troops froze to death on sentry duty. Many suffered frostbite. The metal in rifles and artillery contracted, causing them to misfire. Within sight of the Kremlin's domes, the Germans were counter-attacked and pushed back by a new army of fresh Russian troops from Siberia, inured to the cold.

The Germans suffered greatly from their unpreparedness for the Russian winter. Even if it had been a 'normal' winter their equipment would have proved inadequate. In 1941-2 though the severity of the weather was a major factor in their failure to achieve the defeat of the Soviet Union.

Russian civilians suffered severely too though. The scorched earth policy of retreating Russian forces had left hundreds of thousands without food or shelter. The inhabitants of Leningrad (St Petersburg) were cut off by German forces for two years and could only receive food in winter when the encircling waters froze solid. In a remarkable show of bravery and stoicism they held out in the face of starvation and bombardment until the Russian army retook the city in January 1944.

Thanks to the winter of 1941-2, the Russians had time to recover their nerve and organize for a long war, ultimately playing a major part in the defeat of the Third Reich.

Like Napoleon before him, Hitler had no answer to general Winter!

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