Eastern Europe · Animated schematic fronts
Second World War – Eastern Front
The conflict between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union, 1941–1945. Its prehistory includes the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939: a non-aggression treaty with a secret protocol on eastern European spheres of influence, followed by German and Soviet invasions of Poland. Germany broke the pact with Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941.
Schematic front line in more than forty dated moments, simplified by hand from overview maps; in between it is smoothly interpolated, so it is not a day-by-day reconstruction. Encirclements (pockets) and besieged fortresses are shown as enlarged rings, pincer movements as arrows, and armies and fronts as counters at the approximate position of their sector. The Crimea and encircled fortresses are shown as rings, not as coloured areas; the closing edges of the coloured areas are graphic. Ten battles and sieges have a full tactical and strategic analysis.
Estimates & margins
- Deaths20m – 30m
The war between Germany and the Soviet Union in the east caused tens of millions of military and civilian deaths; sources use different geographic and chronological boundaries.
Historians disagree on exact figures; the range shown reflects the scholarly literature.
- Front line
- Attack
- Encirclement (pocket)
- Siege
- Army unit
Operation Barbarossa begins along the border.
- Panzer Group 3 (Hoth) to Minsk
- Panzer Group 2 (Guderian) to Minsk
- Panzer Group 4 to Pskov
- 11 units shown
- Germany and the Axis powers
- Soviet Union