The battle for Moscow (1941-1942) is one of the largest battles of the Second World War, both in terms of the number of participants in the parties and in the territory on which it took place. The battle is enormous, the Soviet Union was on the verge of actual defeat, but thanks to the valor of the warriors and the generals talents of the generals, the battle for Moscow was won, and the myth of the invincibility of German troops was destroyed. Where did the Germans stop near Moscow? The course of the battle, the strength of the parties, as well as its results and consequences will be further discussed in the article.
The background of the battle
According to the master plan of the German command, code-named "Barbarossa", Moscow was supposed to capture three to four months after the outbreak of war. However, the Soviet troops showed heroic resistance. The battle for Smolensk alone delayed German troops for two months.
Hitler’s soldiers approached Moscow only at the end of September, that is, in the fourth month of the war. The operation to seize the capital of the USSR was codenamed "Typhoon", according to which German troops were to capture Moscow from the north and south, then surround and capture. The Moscow battle took place on a vast territory that stretched a thousand kilometers.
The forces of the parties. Germany
Enormous forces were deployed by the German command to capture Moscow . In the battles took part 77 divisions with a total number of more than 2 million people. In addition, the Wehrmacht had at its disposal more than 1,700 tanks and self-propelled guns, 14 thousand guns and mortars, and about 800 aircraft. The commander of this huge army was Field Marshal F. von Bock.
USSR
To defend Moscow , the VKG Headquarters had at its disposal five front forces with a total strength of more than 1.25 million people. Also, Soviet troops had more than 1000 tanks, 10 thousand guns and mortars, and more than 500 aircraft. The defense of Moscow was alternately led by several prominent strategists: A. M. Vasilevsky, I. S. Konev, G. K. Zhukov.
Course of events
Before you find out where the Germans were stopped near Moscow, it’s worth a little talk about the course of hostilities in this battle. It is customary to divide it into two stages: defensive (which lasted from September 30 to December 4, 1941) and offensive (from December 5, 1941 to April 20, 1942).
Defensive stage
September 30, 1941 is considered the date of the beginning of the battle for Moscow. On that day the Nazis attacked the troops of the Bryansk Front.
On October 2, the Germans launched an offensive in the Vyazma area. Despite stubborn resistance, the German units managed to dissect the Soviet troops between the cities of Rzhev and Vyazma, as a result of which the troops of almost two fronts were in the boiler. In total, more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers were surrounded.
After the defeat near Bryansk, the line of defense by the Soviet command was organized in the Mozhaisk direction. The inhabitants of the city in a hurry prepared defenses: digging trenches and trenches, installing anti-tank hedgehogs.
During the swift offensive, the German forces managed to capture such cities as Kaluga, Maloyaroslavets, Kalinin, Mozhaysk from October 13 to 18 and came close to the Soviet capital. On October 20th a state of siege was introduced in Moscow.
Moscow surrounded
Even before the actual introduction of the state of siege in Moscow, on October 15, the Defense Civil Code was evacuated from the capital to Kuibyshev (modern Samara), the next day, the evacuation of all state agencies, the General Staff, etc.
Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin decided to stay in the city. On the same day, residents of the capital were in a panic, rumors spread about leaving Moscow, several dozen residents of the city tried to urgently leave the capital. Only by October 20 managed to establish order. On this day, the city moved to a state of siege.
By the end of October 1941, fighting was already under way near Moscow in Naro-Fominsk, Kubinka, Volokolamsk. German air raids regularly took place in Moscow, which did not cause much damage, since the most valuable buildings of the capital were carefully masked, and Soviet anti-aircraft gunners worked well. At the cost of enormous losses, the October offensive of the German troops was stopped. But they almost reached Moscow.
Where did the Germans get to? The suburbs of Tula, Serpukhov, Naro-Fominsk, Kaluga, Kalinin, Mozhaysk were included in this sad list.
Parade on Red Square
Taking advantage of the relative silence at the front, the Soviet command decided to hold a military parade on Red Square. The purpose of the parade was to raise the morale of Soviet soldiers. The date was set for November 7, 1941, hosted the parade S. M. Budyonny, commanded the parade, General P. A. Artemyev. The parade was attended by rifle and motorized rifle units, Red Navy, cavalry, as well as artillery and tank regiments. The soldiers left the parade almost immediately to the front line, leaving behind the unconquered Moscow ...
Where did the Germans go? What cities could they reach? How did the Red Army manage to stop the slender battle formations of the enemy? It's time to find out about it.
Nazi attack on the capital in November
On November 15, after a powerful artillery bombardment, a new round of German offensive near Moscow began. Fierce battles unfolded in the Volokolamsk and Klin areas. So, for 20 days of the offensive, the Nazis managed to advance 100 km and capture cities such as Klin, Solnechnogorsk, Yakhroma. The closest settlement to Moscow, where the Germans reached during the offensive, was Yasnaya Polyana - the estate of the writer Leo Tolstoy.
The Germans had about 17 km to the borders of Moscow itself, and 29 to the Kremlin walls. By early December, as a result of a counterattack, the Soviet units were able to drive the Germans out of previously occupied territories in the vicinity of the capital, including Yasnaya Polyana.
Today we know where the Germans went near Moscow - to the very walls of the capital! But they failed to take the city.
The onset of cold weather
As indicated above, the Barbarossa plan provided for the capture of Moscow by German troops no later than October 1941. In this regard, the German command did not provide winter uniforms for soldiers. The first night frosts began at the end of October, and for the first time the temperature dropped below zero on November 4. On this day, the thermometer showed -8 degrees. Subsequently, the temperature very rarely dropped below 0 ° C.
Not only German soldiers dressed in light uniforms, but also equipment that was not designed to work at low temperatures, were not ready for the first cold weather.
The soldiers found cold when they were actually several tens of kilometers from Belokamennaya, but their equipment did not start in the cold, and the frozen Germans did not want to fight near Moscow. "General Frost" once again rushed to the rescue of the Russians ...
Where did the Germans stop near Moscow? The last attempt by the Germans to capture Moscow was made during the attack on Naro-Fominsk on December 1. During several massive attacks, the German units managed to wedge themselves into the areas of Zvenigorod for 5 km, Naro-Fominsk up to 10 km.
After the transfer of the reserve, the Soviet troops managed to push the enemy back to their original positions. The Naro-Fominsk operation is considered the last carried out by the Soviet command at the defensive stage of the battle for Moscow.
The results of the defensive phase of the battle for Moscow
The Soviet Union defended its capital at an enormous cost. The irreparable loss of personnel of the Red Army during the defensive phase amounted to more than 500 thousand people. The German army at this stage lost about 145 thousand people. But in the course of their attack on Moscow, the German command used practically all the free reserves, which by December 1941 were actually depleted, which allowed the Red Army to go on the offensive.
Offensive phase: Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow
In late November, after it became known from undercover sources that Japan had no plans to attack the Soviet Union, about 10 divisions and hundreds of tanks were transferred from the Far East to Moscow. The troops of the Western, Kalinin and South-Western fronts were equipped with new divisions, as a result of which, by the beginning of the offensive, the Soviet group in the Moscow direction consisted of more than 1.1 million soldiers, 7,700 guns and mortars, 750 tanks, and also about 1,000 aircraft.
However, it was opposed by a group of German troops, not inferior, but even superior in number. The number of personnel reached 1.7 million, tanks and aircraft were 1,200 and 650, respectively.
On December 5 and 6, troops of the three fronts went on a large-scale offensive, and on December 8, Hitler gave the order for the transfer of German troops to defense. December 12, 1941, Soviet troops liberated Istra and Solnechnogorsk. On December 15 and 16, the cities of Klin and Kalinin were liberated.
During the ten days of the Red Army's offensive, it was possible to repel the enemy in different sectors of the front by 80-100 km, and also create a threat to the collapse of the German front of Army Group Center.
Hitler, not wanting to retreat, ousted Generals Brauchitsch and Bock and appointed General G. von Kluge as new army commander. However, the Soviet offensive was rapidly developing, and the German command was not able to stop it. In total, in December 1941, German troops on different sectors of the front were driven back 100-250 km, which meant virtually eliminating the threat to the capital, the complete defeat of the Germans near Moscow.
In 1942, Soviet troops slowed down the pace of their offensive and were unable to actually destroy the front of Army Group Center, although they inflicted an extremely heavy defeat on German troops.
The outcome of the battle for Moscow
The historical significance of the defeat of the Germans near Moscow is invaluable for the entire Second World War. More than 3 million people, more than two thousand aircraft and three thousand tanks took part in this battle on both sides, and the front stretched over more than 1000 km. During the 7 months of the battle, Soviet troops lost more than 900 thousand people killed and missing, German troops lost more than 400 thousand people over the same period. The important results of the battle for Moscow (1941-1942) include:
- The German “blitzkrieg” plan was destroyed - a quick, quick victory, Germany had to prepare for a long exhausting war.
- The threat of the capture of Moscow has ceased to exist.
- The myth of the invincibility of the German army was dispelled.
- The German army suffered serious losses of the advanced and most combat-ready units, which had to be replenished by inexperienced recruits.
- The Soviet command gained tremendous experience for the successful conduct of the war with the German army.
- After the victory in the Moscow battle, the anti-Hitler coalition began to take shape.
That's how the defense of Moscow was going on, and such a positive result was brought by its positive outcome.