Battle of Moscow
From Open Encyclopedia
{{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Battle of Moscow |image=Image:MoscowBattle.gif |caption=Soviet troops in winter camouflage |partof=World War II, Eastern Front |place=Northern and Western outskirts of Moscow |date=October 2, 1941 - January 7, 1942 |result=German failure |combatant1=Germany |combatant2=Soviet Union |commander1=Fedor von Bock |commander2=Georgi Zhukov |strength1=~ 1,500,000 |strength2=~ 1,500,000 |casualties1=250,000 |casualties2=650,000 |}}
| Soviet-German War |
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| Barbarossa – Silberfuchs – Smolensk – Uman – 1st Kiev – Typhoon – 1st Rostov – Leningrad – Moscow – Sevastopol – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – 1st Voronezh – Edelweiss – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – Uranus – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Saturn – 3rd Kharkov – Kursk – Belgorod – 4th Kharkov – Korsun – Narva – Hube's Pocket – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – 2nd Kiev – Debrecen – Vistula-Oder – Balaton – Berlin – Halbe – Prague |
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.
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The German invasion
On 22 June 1941 Germany and its Axis allies invaded the Soviet Union, taking the Soviet political leadership, and hence most of the Red Army, completely by surprise. Having crushed most of the Soviet air force on the ground, German forces quickly advanced deep into Soviet territory using Blitzkrieg tactics. Armoured units raced forward in pincer movements trapping and destroying entire Soviet armies. While the German Army Group North moved towards Leningrad, and Army Group South went on to conquer Ukraine, Army Group Centre was to advance towards Moscow.
The Soviet defences were catastrophic, 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 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 defense of Moscow
Image:Eastern Front 1941-06 to 1941-12.png
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 taken on December 5. 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 batallions 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
Image:Eastern Front 1941-12 to 1942-05.png 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. 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 and Katyusha rocket launchers. The new Soviet troops were prepared for winter warfare, and they included several ski batallions. 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 taken by the Soviets on December, 16. North of Moscow, Kalinin was taken back on Jaunary 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.
External links
- serpukhov.ru - The Moscow battle.
See also
de:Schlacht um Moskau
fr:Bataille de Moscou
id:Pertempuran Moskwa
he:הקרב על מוסקבה
pl:Bitwa pod Moskwą
pt:Batalha de Moscovo
ro:Bătălia de la Moscova
sr:Московска битка
