Under the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the European Union's economic sanctions against Russia, the Nord Stream 2 project** has been put on hold indefinitely. In order to cope with the coming winter, European leaders called on people to stock up on winter supplies in advance, so as to avoid the impact of the supply of natural gas, coal, electricity and other resources on daily life.
The war undoubtedly plunged Europe into a resource shortage, reminiscent of the Second World War more than 80 years ago. At that time, during the German attack on Moscow, the German army suddenly encountered extremely cold weather, and it is recorded that tens of thousands of German troops froze to death in the winter of 1941 alone.
However, there were hundreds of miles of forests near Moscow, so why didn't these Germans cut down trees to make fires to keep warm?
In 1941, Germany tore up the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact and began to implement the Barbarossa Plan. Subsequently, the German army attacked a number of countries, including the Soviet Union, and the European continent was in chaos.
Historians generally believe that the Eastern Front of the German army was actually the Soviet-German war. However, in this war, the Germans did not achieve their goals.
On June 22, 1941, the Germans suddenly invaded the Soviet Union, and Hitler planned to occupy Moscow before winter began. In his opinion, once the Soviet Union was defeated, the German army would have large rear support and access to oil and other strategic materials in the Far East.
In this way, the Axis powers could be invincible. The German army made full preparations for this war, and 5.5 million German troops attacked the three cities of the Soviet Union from three directions: south, north and center.
The initial battles went very well. However, by the end of September 1941, the Germans found that this year's winter seemed to be coming earlier than usual. They decided to transfer the main armored forces that were originally attacking Moscow to the south and participate in the Kiev campaign to capture Ukraine.
Despite some victories in the early days of the war, the Germans were not able to achieve their goals. On October 2, 1941, the Germans began a siege plan called Operation Typhoon, but this plan did not succeed either.
Overall, the war was a deep frustration for the Germans, who were not able to achieve their original goals and were not able to achieve a final victory.
In 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in an attempt to take Moscow before winter arrived. However, the elite units of the Soviet army were completely annihilated, and there were urgent reports on the fronts in the south, north, and center.
On 7 November, Stalin held a military parade on Red Square, and the participating troops went straight to the battlefield after being reviewed. After a month of hard fighting, the Soviets managed to block the advance of the German army, pushing the German army back 200-300 kilometers, and the war entered a tug-of-war stage.
By the end of December, the Germans had suffered more than 500,000 casualties and more than 1,300 tanks destroyed. Despite the fact that the Germans were getting closer to Moscow, the temperature in Moscow had plummeted to minus 30 40 by this time.
To make matters worse, when the Soviets launched, the Germans were not equipped with enough cotton clothes and gloves to withstand the severe cold weather, causing their equipment and supply lines to suffer a serious blow.
Eventually, the Germans had to burn gasoline for heating due to their lack of supplies to protect themselves from the cold, which led to their armored vehicles and tanks becoming a pile of scrap metal and unable to fight the Soviet troops. Thus, Hitler was forced to order the entire army to retreat, and the USSR finally won the Great Patriotic War.
The battle showed that the abrupt change in the climate, the main German forces being diverted to attack Ukraine, and Hitler's underestimation of the Soviet people's determination to resist all contributed to the rout of the German army on the Eastern Front.
When the Germans attacked Moscow, they encountered extremely cold weather, and they tried various measures to keep warm, but why not cut down trees to keep warm? There are three reasons: First, the Soviet Union adopted the strategy of "scorched earth resistance".
This strategy meant that when retreating, the Soviets would burn equipment, houses, and trees, leaving nothing for the enemy. This tactic had begun as early as the Napoleonic invasion in 1812, and by World War II, the Soviets continued to adopt this approach, even at the expense of their own belongings, to gain valuable buffer time.
Therefore, the Soviets did not leave any supplies for the German army, including everything in the city and village, and even burned the woods on the German offensive route to prevent the German army from finding fuel for heating.
Coupled with the destruction of roads and bridges by Soviet troops, logistics and transportation could not keep up, and tens of thousands of German troops were finally frozen to death in the bitter cold of more than 30 degrees below zero.
Second, even if the Germans found a large wood, they would not be able to carry out large-scale logging. Because the temperature in the Soviet Union at that time was already as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius, the snow was falling, and the trees in the wild had already been frozen hard, and there was a lot of water on the surface of the trunks.
The German army, which had already been affected, had fallen to a low point in terms of combat effectiveness and morale, and if they wanted to cut down trees, they had to use machinery and equipment. However, most of the mechanical equipment of the German army was already unusable, so it was difficult for them to cut down trees on a large scale.
Taking a step back, even if the Germans cut down some trees, how to set the soaked wood on fire was a big problem. If gasoline was used for ignition, then the Germans would have better use gasoline for heating.
Although the Germans tried to use trees as heating materials, even cutting down all the trees would not solve the problem due to their lack of basic follow-up supports, such as gasoline coagulation and the failure of machinery to work properly.
Under the onslaught of the Soviets, the Germans were demoralized and had no choice but to retreat, and those Germans who could not move could only be captured. In contrast, the Soviets managed to deplete Germany's strength and support the Allies in opening up a second theater of war, thus occupying an important position in the pattern of World War II, despite the huge cost they also tole.
Someone asked, why not rob the Soviets of clothes to wear? In fact, the German soldiers robbed. It can be seen in the old ** that the German soldiers even used the ** of the Soviet aunt to make a scarf and wear it around their necks to keep out the cold.
However, the amount of clothing looted was limited and not enough to cope with the cold weather from south to north at the front. In addition, clothing is only part of the cold, and high-calorie food, fuel, warm shelter and other materials are also needed.
It also reflects the lack of preparedness of the German top management for extremely cold weather. War is a competition for resources, and the German army has no good way to deal with extremely cold weather. The Soviets shared the same hatred, and victory in the war was only a matter of time.