What battle decided the eastern front?
The start of Barbarossa is what decided the war in the Eastern Front (which decided the war in Europe). 1. Hitler delayed the start of the offensive by 2 months. Combined with an early winter, that meant that the offensive failed to reach Moscow. And failing to reach Moscow by winter in the first year of the war meant that Germany would lose. By then, the Russians would begin to identify better military leaders. They would mobilize their industry. They would expand production of T-34’s. US supplies would have time to reach the Russians. 2. The other battles you cite were important. But by the time they happened, it was either unlikely Moscow would fall (the Russians had time to mobilize), Stalingrad hastened things (by taking away 600K German frontline troops), and Kursk bled important resources. In that sense, they were like the battle of the Ardenne in the West–tantalizing but ultimately they just hastened the end. But the initial offensive (getting off late, not covering more groun
