who won the german invasion of the soviet union
Operation Barbarossa
Operationally , German forces achieved major victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union , mainly in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , and inflicted , as well as sustained , heavy casualties . Despite these Axis successes , the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and the subsequent Soviet winter counteroffensive pushed German troops back . The Red Army absorbed the Wehrmacht 's strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition . The Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet -- Axis front . The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of increasingly limited scope inside the Soviet Union , such as Case Blue in 1942 and Operation Citadel in 1943 -- all of which eventually failed . 
Operationally , German forces achieved major victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union , mainly in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , and inflicted , as well as sustained , heavy casualties . Despite these Axis successes , the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and the subsequent Soviet winter counteroffensive pushed German troops back . The Red Army absorbed the Wehrmacht 's strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition . The Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet -- Axis front . The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of increasingly limited scope inside the Soviet Union , such as Case Blue in 1942 and Operation Citadel in 1943 -- all of which eventually failed .
Operationally, German forces achieved major victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union. Despite these Axis successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and the subsequent Soviet winter counteroffensive pushed German troops back. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations all of which eventually failed.
Operationally , German forces achieved major victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union , mainly in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , and inflicted , as well as sustained , heavy casualties . Despite these Axis successes , the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and the subsequent Soviet winter counteroffensive pushed German troops back . The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of increasingly limited scope inside the Soviet Union , such as Case Blue in 1942 and Operation Citadel in 1943 -- all of which eventually failed .