Battlefront Soviet Union, 22 June 1941 : Operation Barbarossa, about 3 million German and Soviet men engaged in battle as German launched offensive into Soviet Union. Combat frontier stretched from northern Baltic coast down to southern Black Sea area with 600,000 vehicles and about 3,400 tanks. German map depicts major thrusts with northern towards Leningrad, central directed at Moscow, southern at Rostov. Rostov - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostov

Rollover : Germans central drive systematically destroyed all Soviet forces in Byelorussia via massive pincers between Brest and Minsk. Major battles included capture of Brest Fortresses, destruction of over 30 Soviet divisions in Bialystok and Smolensk Pockets.

Germans in northern thrust enthusiastically welcomed by Baltic people as liberators from yoke of Soviet oppression. Baltic volunteers eagerly joined the German cause to defend their independence against the Soviets. Allied victory in WW2 resulted in another 50 years of oppression upon the Baltic people before collapse of Soviet Union brought final independence. Baltic States - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_states

Germans in south drove for Ukrainian wheat fields and Caucasus oil refineries. Various German allies also joined this offensive including Romania, Hungary, Italy, Finland, Spain (officially neutral, but dispatched volunteers).

In 4 months of combat, Soviets suffered over one million casualties with 70 divisions wiped out from order-of-battle. Some argued the 1930s Soviet political purges and dissident terror campaigns executed some 30,000 to 40,000 professional soldiers from their Red Army. This leadership gap severely undermined their command-and-control structure in early part of the war. Herman Goering regiment was attached to German 4th Army, its mobile FLAK crews provided significant ground support in repelling Soviet human wave assaults, such as Dubno battles on 27 June 1941. Dubno - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubno

Note locale of Pripet Marshes between Brest-Litovsk and Kiev split German armor thrusts since it was not conducive for mechanized combat. Large number of Soviets escaped into this marshland and conducted partisan warfare for remaining part of the war. The Pripet would play a major role in Summer 1944 when Soviets successfully lured main German armor forces south of the marshland, while they launched major offensive north of its locale. Result was the great Soviet summer offensive called Operation Bagration, which shattered German Army Group Center, decimated 70 divisions, inflicted 200,000 casualties, and pushed the German defensive line back to Warsaw-Poland by August 1944. Operation Bagration - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration