The Germans were now half way to Moscow. They believed victory would soon be theirs.
Hitler's generals were eager to begin the advance on Moscow but Hitler had a different idea. On July 23, 1941 Hitler ordered a delay on the attack of Moscow until all Russian resistance around Smolensk was suppressed. On July 30 he issued an order for the forces to move to Leningrad and Kiev. Hitler's generals balked but by August it was settled. There would be no advance on Moscow until Kiev was taken over.
On August 19, 1941 German troops surrounded Leningrad and by September 8th the German army had cut Leningrad off from the rest of Russia. Leningrad was on the brink of falling when Hitler decided to switch focus back toward Moscow. Hitler decided to lay siege to Leningrad rather than taking it over. He did not want to be responsible for feeding nearly 3 million people through the winter. The siege on Leningrad would last almost 900 days and take a terrible toll. There would be starvation and cannibalism. The human death toll would total more than 1.5 million.
On September 12th the Germans were greeted with the first snow of the Russian winter. Though winter had begun, the Germans were still able to forge forward to capture Kiev and 650,000 soldiers. They would have their last major victory on October 24, 1941 when they captured Kharkov. At Kharkov over 70,000 Russians lost their lives and another 200,000 were captured. The German casualties numbered around 20,000.
The Germans headed toward Moscow on November 25th. They came within 20 miles of the capital but were stopped in their tracks by Russian resistance and the harsh cold of a brutal winter. Hitler stopped operations for the winter. The Germans were ill equipped for such severe weather. They did not have enough supplies and the extreme cold froze machine guns and thickened oil. This reprieve gave the Russians time to manufacture more weapons and also allowed them to take the offensive since they were used to the icy conditions.