During WWII the only cold winter was in 1941-1942, and the Wehrmacht lacked necessary supplies, such as winter uniforms, due to the many delays in the German army's movements. Hitler's plans for
Operation Barbarossa also miscarried before the onset of severe winter weather: he was so confident of a lightning victory that he did not prepare for even the possibility of winter warfare in Russia. Yet his eastern army suffered more than 734,000 casualties (about 23 percent of its average strength of 3,200,000 troops) during the first five months of the invasion, and on
27 November 1941, General
Eduard Wagner, the Quartermaster General of the German Army, reported that
"We are at the end of our resources in both personnel and materiel. We are about to be confronted with the dangers of deep winter."
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