The famous battle of Moscow, the summary of which includes the most bloody episodes of World War II, was a turning point in the entire armed conflict. Prior to this, the German divisions, according to the Blitzkrieg plan, quickly went east, with almost no resistance. In the suburbs of the Soviet capital, the Reich army was stopped.
Fuhrer Plan
Before the attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler at secret meetings emphasized that taking Moscow for him was the most important task of the entire campaign. The fall of the capital would be a mortal blow for the socialist state. The Führer hoped that in three months the battle would take place near Moscow. A summary of his Barbarossa plan was reported to the heads of all armies on the eve of the border crossing.
The Germans set foot on Soviet soil on June 22. The quick capture of Moscow was also necessary in order to avoid a war in the fierce cold of central Russia. As you know, in the 19th century, Napoleon’s army was badly damaged precisely because of its unpreparedness for a foreign climate. French soldiers, wrapped in thin overcoats, froze and died right on the roads.
Hitler did not want to repeat the fate of Bonaparte, so he thoroughly prepared for the attack. In 1941, he already owned all of continental Europe, with the exception of countries that declared their neutrality. Therefore, the Führer threw all his armies east, hoping for a successful march. He was stopped by the battle of Moscow. The summary of this operation has become a classic example of the complete failure of an offensive war plan.
German offensive delay
Despite the surprise of the attack, the German armies were detained near Smolensk, where they lost two months surrounding Soviet divisions. Serious resistance also arose in the Leningrad and Kiev directions. Because of this, the headquarters had to stretch its own communications, transferring armies from one front to another.
Finally, on September 30, the planned German offensive against Moscow began. It was a close-knit operation of several armies at once, armed with the latest technology of the time. According to the calculations of the Wehrmacht, the Soviet divisions guarding the capital were to be surrounded in boilers and defeated in the region of Vyazma and Bryansk. After that, Moscow would have remained defenseless, and with it one could do anything.
Forces of the parties
By the time the operation began, the balance of forces of the adversaries was as follows. On the way of the German army (almost 2 million people) were Soviet troops of about 1.2 million people. The defense was led mainly by young generals who escaped Stalinist repression during the Great Terror. It was Boris Shaposhnikov, Ivan Konev, George Zhukov, Andrey Eremenko and Yakov Cherevichenko. The figure of the hero of the civil war, Semyon Budyonny, was especially distinguished.
Of course, the last word in the decisions of the headquarters was with Joseph Stalin, who remained in Moscow, despite the mass evacuation of state and economic institutions of the capital.
Start of battle
The bloody battle near Moscow, a summary of which is in any textbook on the history of the XX century, was called by the German command Operation Typhoon. Such a label emphasized the ambitious plans of the Reich - a swift and merciless blow to sweep away the last defensive line that stood in the way of the capital of the USSR.
The first attack (September 30) occurred on the Bryansk Front. Two days later, Wehrmacht groups in the Roslavl area joined the offensive. This operation was successful. Several Soviet armies (19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd) were surrounded.
Life in the capital
Then in Moscow, another wave of mobilization began. Private soldiers who received weapons in their hands immediately went to the front, where for the most part they died in a meat grinder with the Wehrmacht. Many heroes of the battle of Moscow remained nameless. Often ordinary soldiers disappeared without a trace, and their bodies were never found even in peacetime. Huge mass graves, in which everyone was hastily buried indiscriminately, have become commonplace. Numerous monuments to the unknown soldier and eternal fires were later erected in honor of these victims of the brutal war.
There are no working enterprises left in Moscow. All of them were evacuated to the east - in the Volga region or in the Urals. The party leadership tried to establish a stable supply of everything necessary for soldiers at the front. There was no one left in the country who would live a peaceful life. Even people in the deep rear worked several shifts for the success of the Red Army.
Parade November 7
The most critical moment of defense according to the calendar fell on the days when traditionally the whole country celebrated the anniversary of the October Revolution. The battle of Moscow in 1941 was the same fateful episode as the events in Petrograd twenty-four years ago. Stalin understood this, so he ordered the capital to be prepared for the anniversary in advance.
On the night of November 7, the commanders of the Moscow garrisons received orders to bring their troops to Red Square. Private parade awaited. The battle of Moscow in 1941 attracted all battle-worthy men, so the young men who had just marched along the Kremlin paving stones immediately went to the front. At this time, he ran several tens of kilometers from the capital.
The defeat of the Germans
Again and again, the heroes of the battle of Moscow beat off the attacks of tanks and infantry, covered by airstrikes and artillery bursts. At the end of November, fascist divisions got as close to the capital as possible. They captured Krasnaya Polyana, from where the shelling of the city began. For Hitler, this was an important propaganda move.
However, December 5 was marked by the beginning of the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops in the battle of Moscow. The Germans choked in their months-long march and finally began to retreat. Deadly tired soldiers froze or surrendered to the soldiers of the Red Army. A few weeks later, the Wehrmacht was cast back tens of kilometers. The worst days of the war were left behind. The next year there were stubborn battles, but the German car had already failed. The beginning of the battle of Moscow did not portend such a fiasco.
The names of some of the heroes of this confrontation are firmly in history. It:
- Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya;
- Timothy Lavrishchev;
- Victor Talalikhin;
- 28 Panfilov heroes led by V.G. Klochkov and others.
This victory of the Soviet troops (along with the Battle of Stalingrad) turned out to be a turning point during the Second World War.