{mosimage}Germany was initially on a winning streak against the Russians. The Germans along with the Axis forces and other forces which attached themselves to the German army later, were far more than the Soviet forces. This was the reason initially Germans started winning one area after another.

Germans had planned everything, therefore Luftwaffe worked diligently to provide the troops with required provisions and moving of troops from one place to another. Even after the attacks Soviets were at a loss, though ordered to launch a counter attack, Soviets were not well equipped to do so.

There were against some of unprecedented attacks on the Soviets by Lithuanians and the Estonians, this further complicated the situation for the Russians. Russians had been given deadlines to re-capture certain areas, which the disorganized Russian armies were not capable of, instead they were defeated in their regions and this led to further destruction of the Russian forces. The Russians did get help on the Northern front from Finland. The number of Russian troops increased from 2.6 million to 4 million. There were also casualties reported of about 4.5 million on the Russian side.

Though Germans were quite near to Moscow, they could not enter Moscow for a long time. Weather played tricks with them and therefore Moscow remained as far as ever. In December the German troops were within 15 miles of Moscow, yet there was a beginning of blizzards which affected their advancement. The German army was not equipped to handle such extreme cold conditions.

Russians did not have combat much since more number of casualties than the war were caused by frostbite and disease among the Germans and Axis armies. Within no time the German armies were functioning at only 50% strength with majority of them being sick or dead. The Russians, by then got time to arrange and stage a counter-attack, this massive counter attack made German go back up to some 200 miles.

The Germans had not anticipated certain things during the war. The first one was the resistance that the Soviets would put up against them. Though Soviets were outnumbered, each one of them was highly motivated to fight for their motherland. Secondly Hitler was over confidant about being in control even during the winters; he did not anticipate that the winter would affect the German armies to the effect that there would be heavy casualties due to these.

The result was that thought the Germans could not capture Moscow, they still had several land masses under their control. The war which lasted for four years saw a very bloody battle. There was huge amount of loss of life. The number of soldiers killed in this war are numbered anywhere between 8 million to 15 million. There is no proper data established on the number of civilian deaths during this period.

The German defeat was because of their over confidence and complete under-estimation of the Soviet forces and the fierceness with which they would fight the battle.