Miracle at the Litza: Hitler's First Defeat on the Eastern Front

In the early summer of 1941 a select unit of German mountain soldiers under the command of General Eduard Dietl set out in the far north of Scandinavia to attack Russia. Operation Silberfuchs was a key part of the invasion of Russia. A diehard Nazi and one of Hitler’s closest comrades, Dietl, and his similarly fanatical officer,s had every expectation of winning glory and fame by conquering the strategically important city of Murmansk.

But conditions at the northernmost section of the Easter...