Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre
The Red Army kept the Nazis engaged in Stalingrad for five months, with proper insurgent guerrilla warfare, all whilst they were building up their own major offensive to leap frog the German lines and encircle the Germans engaged in the Battle of Stalingrad.
This offensive would ultimately be the one to go all the way to Berlin.
The Germans were poorly supplied and equipped for A prolonged Russian winter.
The Red Army defeated the Nazis, not the weather. I know you were not being flippant as what you posted is the usual trope, but the Red Army kept the Germans there, in order for the weather to make a difference.
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The Russians have long understood that their topography and climate are key to their defence, and they have used it, quite deliberately, to great advantage.
Napoleon, unlike Hitler, got all the way to Moscow, but the nation’s leadership evacuated the city and burned it down, then waited for the French to get too cold and hungry to stay any longer. In the event Napoleon waited too long for a Russian delegation to come and face him. By the time he and his army tried to retreat, they were hungry, demoralised and the weather was turning against them.