Moscow, Battle of

views updated

MOSCOW, BATTLE OF

The Battle of Moscow was a pivotal moment in the early period of the World War II, in which Soviet forces averted a disastrous collapse and demonstrated that the German army was, in fact, vulnerable. The battle can be divided into three general segments: the first German offensive, from September 30 to October 30, 1941; the second German offensive, from November 16 to December 5, 1941; and the Soviet counteroffensive, from December 5, 1941, to April 5, 1942.

The German attack on Moscow began on September 30, 1941, under the code name "Typhoon." The German High Command hoped to seize the Soviet capital before the onset of winter, surmising that the fall of Moscow would presage the fall of the Soviet Union. With this goal in mind they arrayed a massive force against the Soviet capital, concentrating 1,800,000 troops, 1,700 tanks, 14,000 cannons and mortars, and 1,390 aircraft against Moscow. Led by General Heinz Guderain, this enormous army quickly took advantage of the weakened and retreating Soviet forces to capture several towns on the approaches to the capital in the first week of the campaign. By October 15, the German army, having circumvented the Soviet defensive lines and taken the key towns of Kaluga and Mozhaisk, was within striking distance of the capital.

The lightning speed with which the Germans reached the outskirts of the capital spawned a panic in Moscow as many Muscovites, fearing a German takeover of the city, began to flee to the east. For several days, local authority crumbled completely, and Moscow seemed on the verge of chaos. Even as the capital teetered on the edge of collapse, however, several factors combined to slow the German onslaught. First, the German forces had begun to outpace their supply lines. Second, Josef V. Stalin and the Soviet High Command appointed General Georgy Zhukov as the commander of the Western Front. Fresh from his triumph stabilizing the defensive lines surrounding Leningrad, Zhukov moved to do the same for Moscow, and the Red Army began to stiffen its defense of the capital. Third, the German supply line problems gave the Red Army time to bring reserves from the Far East to Moscow. Until these reserves could be put in place, however, the city's defense leaders ordered ordinary Muscovites organized into opolchenie, or home guard units, into the breaches in the capital's defensive lines. These units, often quickly and poorly trained, paid a high price to shore up Moscow's defenses.

Once the German supply had regrouped, German forces mounted another attack in late November. Initially the German forces scored several successes in the areas of Klin and Istra to the northwest and around Tula to the south. The tenacity of the Soviet defense and severity of the Russian winter, however, slowed the German advance and allowed time for Soviet forces to recover and even begin to mount limited counterattacks by early December.

Emboldened by their success in stemming the German onslaught, the Soviet command attempted a more concerted attack against the German invaders on December 5–6, 1941. With the aim of driving the Germans back to Smolensk, Stalin and Zhukov opened a 560-mile front stretching from Kalinin, north of the capital, to Yelets in the south. The ambitious operation quickly met with success as the Red Army, bolstered by units from Central Asia, drove the Germans back twenty to forty miles, liberating Kalinin, Klin, Istra, and Yelets and breaking the German encirclement attempt at Tula. In many places German forces retreated quickly, weakened by their supply problems and their exposure to the Russian winter. Soviet forces, despite their advances, could never capitalize on their initiative. While the Red Army advanced as much as 200 miles into German-held territory on the German flanks to the north and south of Moscow, they had great difficulty dislodging German forces from the Rzhev-Gzhatsk-Viazma salient due west of the capital. By late January their resistance had stiffened to the point that the Red Army's advance began to stall. Although the Soviet offensive continued to grind its way westward, it had lost momentum. This stalemate continued until April 1942 when the Soviet command called a halt to the offensive. It was not until the spring of 1943 that the Red Army finally drove the Germans back from Moscow.

The Battle of Moscow was important for several reasons. It was the first real setback that German forces had absorbed since World War II began in 1939. Despite the fact that Moscow was on the verge of collapse in mid-October 1941, Soviet forces proved that the German army was not invincible. Also, the struggle for the Soviet capital revealed a new breed of Soviet commanders who came to prominence in the defense of the capital. Commanders such as Zhukov, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Boldin, and Dmitry Lelyshenko demonstrated their competence during this critical period and became the backbone of the Soviet military command for the remainder of the war. Finally, the defense of the capital was an important moral victory for the Soviet command and people alike, and made an indelible impression on the Soviet nation and on the other countries participating in World War II.

See also: moscow; world war ii; zhukov, georgy konstantinovich