On the Eastern Front of the Second World War, German troops invaded the Soviet Union from 22 June 1941. During a firefight on 23 June, the second day of the Russian invasion, one German soldier became the first casualty of the Russian invasion to be killed by Soviet troops.

  On the Eastern Front of World War II, German troops invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa from 22 June 1941. During a firefight on 23 June, the second day of the Russian invasion, one German soldier became the first casualty of the Russian invasion to be killed by Soviet troops. The German company commander sat beside the corpse of his fellow German soldier and mourned. With the dead bodies of the German soldiers, he realised the reality of the casualties. The German company commander lost one German soldier. The expression on the German company commander's face expressed every emotion of despair, anger, confusion and shock. The next step was the tenacious defence of the Soviet forces, which increasingly reduced the thrust of the German units. Moreover, with every kilometre advanced, the front line expanded and its strength decreased accordingly.

　Operation Barbarossa was the Wehrmacht's war of aggression against the Soviet Union in World War II: on 22 June 1941, a military invasion by the Nazi regime started the German-Soviet War. Around three million German soldiers crossed the borders of the Soviet Union, making Operation Barbarossa the largest and most destructive military operation in history, which ended in failure as early as 7 January 1941 with the German defeat at the Battle of Moscow. Nevertheless, the Nazi regime and the Wehrmacht continued the war and holocaust against parts of the civilian population until the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945. In the course of the war, between 24 and 40 million Soviet civilians died as a result of German war crimes, and 84 million Soviet soldiers were killed. 1.1 million German soldiers died as prisoners of war in the Soviet army, and 2.7 million German soldiers were killed on the Eastern Front.

　The Soviet Red Army entered full war readiness at 0:30 am on 22 June, but the Soviet side was unable to launch tactical surprise attacks in all sectors. The river crossings necessary for the movement of the far-flung armoured units quickly fell into German hands. Despite the fierce resistance of the Soviet Red Army, which was put on alert for too short a time, the Wehrmacht was able to make significant gains in the first few weeks. In the early stages of the war, border fighting took place from 22-29 June 1941 in the Soviet border areas within the territory of Lithuania, southern Latvia, Belarus and western Ukraine. Within about three weeks of the outbreak of the war, German forces occupied the entire Baltic region, Belarus, most of Ukraine and Moldavia.