Barbarossa 80 years on
On June 22, 1941, millions of German soldiers, supported by thousands of tanks, artillery pieces, and aircraft as well as troops from other Axis nations, crossed the Soviet frontier in one of the largest land campaigns in history. The invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany opened the massive Eastern Front that would involve millions of people and prove a turning point in the war. The speed and size of the attack along a 1,800-mile front quickly overwhelmed the Soviet defenders, pushing them back hundreds of miles. Despite the fall mud, the invaders laid siege to Leningrad in the north, took Kyiv in the south, and fought into the suburbs of Moscow in the center. But the attack did not break the Soviet government, and the arrival of winter all but…