German encirclements of Soviet forces during Operation Barbarossa

The majority of the fighting and dying in World War II centered on the Eastern Front and the clash of the Nazi and Soviet armies. The Nazi invasion in June 1941 Operation Barbarossa can be viewed as a series of double envelopments, capturing huge numbers of men and machines. Also called "cauldrons", the great encirclement battles of 1941 cost the Soviet Union dearly. There were approximately 8-11 pockets in 1941, each of which netted more than 100,000 prisoners - most of them would be dead within the next eight months.

• Białystok and Minsk pockets - 324,000 POWs (prisoners of war)
• Smolensk encirclement (three cauldrons, two smaller ones east of Mogilev and west of Nevel, a greater one between Orscha and Smolensk) - 310,000 POWs
• Uman pocket - 103,000 POWs
• Kiev pocket - 665,000 POWs
• Vyazma and Brysansk pockets - 650,000 POWs

Encirclement losses for the Soviet Union
in 1941

	Pocket	Prisoners taken	Tanks D/C	Guns D/C
1	Rossizny		200 tanks
2	Bialystok-Minsk	290,000	3,332 tanks	1,809 guns
3	Smolensk	310,000	3,205 tanks	3,120 guns
4	Roslavl	38,000	250 tanks	359 guns
5	Gomel	84,000	144 tanks	848 guns
6	Dvina	35,000	355 tanks	655 guns
7	Staraya Russa	53,000	320 tanks	695 guns
8	Luga	250,000	1,170 tanks	3,075 guns
9	Reval	12,000	91 tanks	293 guns
10	Galacia	150,000	1,970 tanks	2,190 guns
11	Uman	103,000	317 tanks	1,100 guns
12	Zhitomir	18,000	142 tanks	123 guns
13	Valdai Hills	30,000		400 guns
14	Kiev	667,000	884 tanks	3,718 guns
15	Vyazma-Bryansk	663,000	1,242 tanks	5,412 guns
16	Nikolav	60,000	84 tanks	1,100 guns
17	Dnieper Bend	84,000	199 tanks	465 guns
18	Mariupol (Sea of Azov)	106,000	212 tanks	672 guns
19	Crimea	100,000	160 tanks	700 guns
20	Donetz	14,000	45 tanks	69 guns