Every soldier outside Moscow knew that this was a battle for life or death. ... In 1941 the choice for the Germans was only to hold fast or to be ann… - Günther Blumentritt

Hitler... gave us his opinion that the war would be finished in six weeks. After that he wanted to conclude a reasonable peace with France, and then the way would be free for an agreement with Britain.

Then the weather suddenly broke and almost overnight the full fury of the Russian winter was upon us. The thermometer suddenly dropped to thirty degrees of frost. This was accompanied by heavy falls of snow. Within a few days the countryside presented the traditional picture of a Russian winter.

Within the next few days Marshal Zhukov was to launch the great Russian counteroffensive which began on December 6th. ... The turning point in the East had been reached: our hopes of knocking Russia out of the war in 1941 had been dashed.