22 June 1941

And so it begins. Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, is launched at 0300. In an instant, more than 40 million civilians and soldiers are thrown into the meat grinder that will consume them over the next 4 years. This tragic, profligate waste of life becomes all the more poignant with the knowledge that this one day was actually the beginning of the end of the Second World War.