Had the German advance been held at the Dnepr and Dvina Rivers, and had the Russians been able to concentrate their strategic reserves properly on the flanks of Army Group Center, in all probability the war would have been over for Germany as far as any offensive efforts were concerned. The worsening weather--first rain, then ice--in October and November could have been the curtain raiser for the counteroffensive by the strategic reserve against the exposed flanks of the Central Army Group. This counteroffensive, as fate would have it, came neither in October nor in November, nor did it come in the area of the Dnepr and Dvina Rivers. Rather, it came in early December at the very gates of Moscow.