In 1941 Germany invaded the USSR. Hitler thought it would be a quick victory that would give him control of the West and force the British to surrender so he could win the war. However, German forces were unable to defeat the USSR. This was due to many factors; The Soviet winter, the mismanagement of the Axis powers, the Battle of Stalingrad and Hitler's underestimation of the strength of the Soviet forces. But it was the Soviet winter and cold conditions that ultimately led to Hitler's defeat. Hitler had originally planned to invade the USSR in May 1941, but was unable to do so due to Mussolini's decision to invade Greece (Source 6). Mussolini's invasion of Greece was unsuccessful and the Italian forces suffered enormous losses. Hitler was forced to help his ally Mussolini, which in turn led to the suspension of the invasion of the USSR (Operation Barbosa) until Hitler's troops returned from the war in Greece. (Source 1) Because of this operation Barbosa was moved to June 1941, which was closer to the Soviet winter. Hitler had underestimated the length of the war (source 4) and this meant that German soldiers were forced to fight through the harsh conditions of the Soviet winter. Hitler wanted his forces to invade Stalingrad because he knew the political advantage he would gain if he controlled the city named after Stalin (Source 5). The Battle of Stalingrad is considered the turning point in World War II. During the Battle of Stalingrad the German forces suffered many losses from which they never recovered despite previous victories in Leningrad and Kiev. During the Battle of Stalingrad, German soldiers did not have the supplies necessary for a winter war. They were unprepared and the long journey on foot to Stalingrad… to the center of the map… and to the east. This meant that an army already weakened by winter conditions was weakened even further. Supplies, weapons and troops were further divided to help fight in the Pacific while the Japanese did not help the Germans due to a pact signed with Stalin (Source 6). While the USSR and the USA were both new to the war and still had large amounts of resources. (Source 4) This was largely due to Stalin's 5 years (Source 8) Stalin could produce weapons at a rapid rate (Source 6) Although all these factors contributed to the victory of the USSR, it was the winter weather that led to the defeat of the USSR. The onset of winter gave the Soviet forces an advantage over the Germans as they were trained for warfare in those conditions and gave Stalin time to mobilize troops. This gave the USSR an advantage that allowed them to defeat the German forces and liberate the Nazi-occupied areas