Battle of Moscow

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Axis-Soviet War
Barbarossa – Finland 1941-44 – Leningrad and Baltics 1941-1944 – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans 1944 – Hungary 1944-1945 – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague – Manchuria 1945

Battle of Moscow
Typhoon – Moscow

The Battle of Moscow refers to the defense of the Soviet capital of Moscow and the subsequent counter-offensive against the German army, between October 1941 and January 1942 on the Eastern Front of World War II.

The German invasion

On 22 June 1941, the Germans and its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union, taking the Soviet leadership and the Red Army by surprise. Having destroyed most of the Soviet air force on the ground, German forces quickly advanced deep into Soviet territory using Blitzkrieg tactics. Armored units raced forward in pincer movements pocketing and destroying entire Soviet armies. While the German Army Group North moved towards Leningrad, Army Group South conquered Ukraine, and Army Group Centre advanced on Moscow.

The Soviet defenses were overwhelmed and the casualties were enormous. In early August 1941, the Germans captured the city of Smolensk, an important stronghold on the road to Moscow, but the engagement delayed the German advance until mid-September, effectively disrupting the blitzkrieg. Moving forward again, Heinz Guderian's Panzer Army reached the outskirts of Moscow, at which point Hitler ordered 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 on 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 defense of Moscow

The 2nd German Army broke through the defense of 50th Soviet Army, capturing Bryansk in late September 1941. Orel fell 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 German sources, more than 650,000 Soviet prisoners of war were taken in this battle. By the end of October, the line of front was as follows: Kalinin — Volokolamsk — Kubinka — Naro-Fominsk — Serpukhov — Tarusa — Aleksin — Tula. Kalinin was seized on December 4. Tula, a small town 165 km south of Moscow was partly encircled on December 5.

Moscow now became the target of German air raids. The population was ordered to build barricades in the city's streets, even near the Kremlin itself. The Soviet government was evacuated east to the city of Kuybyshev, (modern-day Samara), though Stalin remained in Moscow. To stiffen the resolve of both soldiers and increasingly demoralized civilians, he ordered the traditional military parade on 7 November, commemorating the October Revolution, to be conducted in Red Square. The troops paraded past the Kremlin and then marched directly to the battlefront.

One of the most poignant images of the Great Patriotic War: the military parade on Red Square was not cancelled despite German troops on the outskirts of Moscow.

Meanwhile, German progress was already bogging down. The autumn rains almost paralyzed the Wehrmacht, turning dirt roads into stretches of mud. When the frost set in early November, the Germans could use the roads again, but were ill-equipped for winter warfare, as Hitler had anticipated a quick victory in the summer. Warm clothing and white camouflage suits were lacking, and tanks and other vehicles became immobilized as temperatures dropped well below freezing. Indeed, the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold, even by Russian standards.

The Soviet defense of the approaches to Moscow grew increasingly desperate. The Soviets sent thousands of recruits, volunteers, and 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

The Soviet winter counter-offensive, 5 December 1941 to 7 May 1942

On 5 December 1941, Zhukov launched a massive Soviet counter-attack, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre. Zhukov's plan was to throw reinforcements at the enemy and then send in waves of men to push them back. 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 held them back for the counter-offensive. He relied on intelligence from spy Richard Sorge, who told him Japan would not attack in the east, after he had already predicted Operation Barbarossa. Now with the enemy perilously close to the center of Moscow, he threw the reinforcements against the German lines, along with newly-built T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers. The Soviet troops were prepared for winter warfare, and they included several ski battalions. 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 pushed the German forces out of reach of Moscow. The victory in the battle of Moscow provided an important boost for Soviet morale, as the German army 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 had failed.

Tula was relieved by the Soviets on December, 16. North of Moscow, Kalinin was retaken on January 7, 1942 (the first regional capital in the world to be liberated from Nazis in WW2). However, the Vyazma offensive, lasting until April 20, 1942, failed. 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 battle, compared to about 250,000 Axis soldiers. 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.

External links

• [serpukhov.ru] - The Moscow battle.

See also