Adolf Hitler's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union met with many of the same disastrous consequences as Napoleon Bonaparte's previous 1812 summer invasion of the country then known as Russia. Napoleon's attack on Russia, with what was most likely the largest armed force assembled in Europe up to that time, was virtually destroyed by the onset of the Russian winter's freezing temperatures, a lack of food supplies and successful Russian counterattacks. A similar fate befell Hitler's 1941 summer offensive against the Soviet Union when major miscalculations regarding the logistical challenges of the vast territory involved and the hostile Russian winter terrain led to crippling food and fuel shortages