Britannica
Sources used in this answer
- Operation Barbarossa
- Battle of Moscow
- Eastern Front - From the German invasion to the gates of Moscow (June–December 1941)
- Eastern Front - Casualties and significance
- Operation Barbarossa - Later actions
- World War II - Killed, wounded, prisoners, or missing
- Eastern Front - Planning of Operation Barbarossa
How many casualties had German forces suffered by November 1941?
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Operation Barbarossa
German soldiers fighting in the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa, 1941.
By November 1941, German forces had suffered approximately 730,000 casualties during Operation Barbarossa.1
These losses were significantly higher than those experienced by the German military in earlier campaigns against France and the Balkans. By this stage of the invasion, the German army was struggling with the onset of severe winter conditions, a lack of adequate winter clothing, and the failure of their mechanized transport, which had been paralyzed by the freezing temperatures.1