Motorised infantry of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) advancing into the Ukraine during the invasion of Russia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1941

German troops entering the Russian town of Vitebsk, on the way to Moscow, only to find it deserted and ablaze. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1941

A German soldier killed during their retreat from Moscow. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1942

German prisoners of war North-West of Stalingrad. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1943

Germans push a supply wagon, disabled by Russian gunfire, out of the way as a wooden farmhouse goes up in flames. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1942

The body of a German soldier lying on a German tank where a flame springing up will shortly incinerate his corpse. (Photo by Picture Post/Getty Images). 1942

The incessant stream of German traffic retreating from Moscow has turned the snow into a quagmire of slush which proves tortuous to the retreating armies hauling their machines. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 1941

A German soldier of the 6th Army hoists up a flag bearing the swastika in Stalingrad, shortly before being forced to surrender to the invading Red Army. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). January 1943

The body of a dead German soldier in Russia. (Photo by R. Karmen/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1941

A German machine gunner crouches in the rubble of a Soviet bridge, his finger on the trigger. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) .11th September 1941

Signs warn pedestrians not to linger unneccesarily outside the former Soviet embassy in Berlin while it is being fumigated. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 15th September 1941

A German soldier puts up a sign in German, Russian and Polish directing refugees from the Soviet Union along special routes into Germany. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). June 1941

Soviet machine-gunners in action against the German army in Russia. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). October 1942

Between Maykop and Krasnodar in Russia, German soldiers advance towards an oil field set on fire by retreating Russians. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). October 1942

A Russian trenchmortar crew run to take up a new firing position in the Stalingrad area during the Great Patriotic War. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). October 1942

Nazi soldiers enter a captured factory in Stalingrad. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1942

Vyacheslav Molotov, Russian Foreign Minister, signs the non-aggression pact negotiated between Soviet Russia and Germany, at the Kremlin, Moscow. Standing behind him is his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop (left), and Joseph Stalin (centre). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 23rd August 1939

Nazi troops order Soviet womenfolk to leave their homes. (Hitler's armies invaded Russia on 22 June in the ill-advised Operation Barbarossa.) (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). June 1941

A group of Bolsheviks captured by the Nazis in the ill-advised Operation Barbarossa. German troops invaded Russia in June, 1941. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). July 1941