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Phase 5: The End (1943) The year began with the Battle of the Urals. The remaining Soviet forces, led by Zhukov, made a desperate stand at Sverdlovsk. But without Lend-Lease trucks, tanks, and food, they starved. The Luftwaffe, now operating from captured Soviet airfields, firebombed the industrial cities of the Urals into submission. On April 12, 1943, German and Japanese patrols met on the banks of the Ob River in Siberia, linking the Axis powers across Eurasia. The rump Soviet government in