Guderian had planned withdrawal, but was vetoed by Berlin until too late. The latter part of the battle was chasing Germans who were redirecting towards targets further south.

From then on he went from one trouble spot to another - Leningrad, where he stopped the advance but could not break the blockade, to Moscow where he held off the autumn attack and counter attacked in December. In 1942 and 43 he bleed the Germans at Stalingrad and followed it up with the battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history. By 1944, he lead Operation Bagration, further expelling the Germans form Byelorussia and the Baltics. And onward to take Berlin.

Zhukov’s post war career was a zigzag course of hero to disgrace (the Stalin connection again) and finally back to rehabilitation. He died of natural causes.

The standard arguments for Germany’s defeat in the east have had to do with appalling weather, a micro-managing fool in Hitler, and a communist willingness to pile on cannon fodder. Zhukov pointed out in his memoirs that the weather was grueling for both sides. The other charges are harder to refute. Hitler certainly overruled his generals repeatedly and would not have his sleep interrupted by emergency calls. The Soviet Union went

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