Ukraine, early days of Barbarossa. by M. van Creveld The decision over the hegemony of Europe,” Hitler told a select group of officers during a military conference on 5 December 1940, “will be taken in Russia.” [1] The Führer, most historians will agree, was right; but not in the sense he expected. World War II was decided in Russia, and in that country’s favor. The result was Germany’s destruction and Hitler’s downfall. When did Hitler lose the Second World War? From the purely military point of view, the time was probably December 1941, when Hitler’s hitherto invincible armored divisions finally ground to a halt at the very gates of Moscow. The story of why and how they got there has been told too often to be repeated here. [2] Planned as a Blitzfeldzug and expected to be over in three months, the German offensive against the Soviet Union got bogged down in the mud of the Russian autumn and then froze in the snow of the Russian winter. Consequently Hitler’s great gamble ...