In 1941, on this day the Red Army launched a full-blown attack on Northern Germany and Romania that confirmed the worst Nazi fears about the true extent of Stalin's military buildup.

Flugzeugträger Part 5:
The Zhukov PlanFor the past two years, the Führer had diverted limited resources to the Nazi German Navy. Significantly, he had also overruled Hermann Goëring by giving the Kriegsmarine operational control of aviation assets aboard the aircraft carriers Peter Strasser and Graf Zeppelin. Both decisions had enabled Grand Admiral Erich Raeder to pull off the invasion of Iceland, a stunning victory that redefined the balance of power in the Western hemisphere.

And yet the hidden price of that pyrrhic victory became immediately apparent as soon as German counter-espionage teams intercepted code "icebreaker". Significantly outnumbered on the ground, the Luftwaffe was unable to turn the tables by striking a decisive blow on the Red Airforce. And within days Hitler's regime was facing a crushing defeat.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.