In early August 1941 the
Germans captured the city of Smolensk, an important stronghold on the
road to Moscow, but the engagement in the Smolensk area blocked the
German advance until mid-September, effectively disrupting the
blitzkrieg. Moving forward again, Heinz Guderian's Panzer Army reached
the outskirts of Moscow area, at which point Hitler commanded him to
turn south and support Gerd von Rundstedt's attack on Kiev. On October
2, 1941, Army Group Centre under Fedor von Bock finally launched its
attack against Moscow, code-named Operation Typhoon.
| The Soviet forces of the Western
Front, Reserve Front, Bryansk Front and Kalinin Front, defending the
Moscow area, suffered heavy casualties but kept fighting fiercely. On
October 10, Georgi Zhukov took charge of the Western Front and the
defence of Moscow.
The 2nd German Army, having broken
through defense of 50th Soviet Army, captured Bryansk in late September
1941. Following it, Orel was seized on October 3.
The German forces then
tried to advance along the Orel-Tula line. West of Moscow, Vyazma was
captured on October, 13. According to the German sources, more than
650,000 Soviet prisoners of war were taken in this battle.
Kalinin was
seized on December 4. Nearly at the same time, Tula, a small town 165 km
south of Moscow was partly encircled on December 5. |
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By the end of
October the line of front was established on a boundary: Kalinin —
Volokolamsk — Kubinka — Naro-Fominsk — Serpukhov — Tarusa —
Aleksin — Tula.
Moscow now started to become the
target of German air raids. The population was ordered to build
barricades in the city's streets, even in the proximity of the Kremlin
itself. The Soviet government was evacuated east to the city of
Kuybyshev, (modern-day Samara), yet the Soviet leader Stalin remained in
Moscow. To set an example of determination for the soldiers and
increasingly despairing civilians, he ordered the traditional military
parade on 7 November, commemorating the anniversary of the October
Revolution, to be conducted on the Red Square, in spite of the danger of
German bombardment. The troops paraded along the Kremlin and then
marched directly to the battlefront.
Meanwhile, German progress was already
slowing down. The Germans had been almost paralysed when the autumn
rains set in, turning roads into stretches of mud. When the frost set in
early November, the Germans could use the roads again, but faced the
problem of not being well equipped for winter warfare, as Hitler had
anticipated a quick victory in the summer. Warm clothing and white
camouflage suits were lacking, and more and more tanks and other
vehicles were immobilised as temperatures dropped well below freezing.
Indeed, the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold even by Russian
standards.
Soviet defence on the approaches to
Moscow grew increasingly desperate. The Soviets sent in thousands of
recruits and volunteers, even women's battalions into German machine-gun
fire. It was in front of Moscow that the term Panfilovets was coined:
Ivan Panfilov, commander of the Soviet 316th Rifle Division, died in
fierce self-sacrificing infantry combat against German tanks. Only a
handful of heavily wounded Soviet soldiers survived the carnage; large
numbers of German soldiers were killed as well.
The Soviet counter-offensive
On 5 December 1941, Zhukov launched a
massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest
offensive launched against Army Group Centre. The offensive unfolded on
all sectors in the Moscow area on 6 December. During the autumn, Zhukov
had been transferring fresh and well-equipped Soviet forces from Siberia
and the Far East to Moscow, but holding them back until the set date of
the counter-offensive. He had been relying on intelligence data by
Richard Sorge, who told him Japan would not attack in the east, after he
already precisely foretold Operation Barbarossa.
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Now with the enemy too
close to the center of Moscow to ignore, he threw the reinforcements
against the German lines, along with freshly-built T-34 tanks (below)
and
Katyusha rocket launchers. (left).
The new Soviet troops were prepared for
winter warfare, and they included several ski battalions. |
- Russian T34 tank from WW2
|
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The exhausted
and freezing Germans were routed and driven back 100 to 250 km by 7
January 1942. The Soviets consolidated their positions in April 1942,
having definitely pushed the German threat out of reach of Moscow.
The
victory in the battle of Moscow provided an important boost for Soviet
morale, as the German army had now lost its aura of invincibility.
Having failed to defeat the Soviet Union in a quick strike, the Germans
had to prepare for a long and bloody struggle. The Blitzkrieg didn't
succeed.
As a result of the successful
counter-attack, Tula was relieved by the Soviets on December 16. North
of Moscow, Kalinin was taken back on January 7, 1942. However, Vyazma
offensive operation carried out until April 20, 1942 failed eventually.
The Germans continued to threaten Moscow from this direction.
According to various credible Western
and Eastern sources, about 700,000 Red Army troops were either killed,
wounded or missing during the defensive phase and counter-offensive and
about 250,000 Axis soldiers were either killed, wounded or missing
during the entire battle. For the heroism of the city's defenders,
Moscow was awarded the title Hero City in 1965, commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the eventual Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Text from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow
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