June 22, 1941General sourceWell documented
Operation Barbarossa: Germany Invades the Soviet Union
On the timeline · around June 22, 1941 ·
What happened
Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, invading the Soviet Union with roughly three million Axis troops along a vast front — the largest military operation in history. The attack broke the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact and opened the Eastern Front.
Why it matters
The Eastern Front became the deadliest theater of the war and the setting for much of the Holocaust; the invasion ultimately overextended and doomed Nazi Germany.