In the Winter Battle of 1941/42, the Wehrmacht began to retreat westwards. The advance into the Caucasus leads to an overstrain on the German troops and finally to the encirclement and capture of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad pocket. The Nazis also suffered setbacks in the other theatres of war. After initial successes in Africa, Erwin Rommel suffered his first defeats at the end of the year against the British superiority.
