World War II Database

As early as Jul 1941, the Russians knew the Germans were going to breach their defenses and threaten Moscow. On 3 Jul, Lenin's body was moved from Moscow to Tumen to prevent German capture or destruction. Little over two weeks later, on 22 Jul, 127 German bombers raided Moscow, even lightly damaging the Kremlin. As a response, Moscow residents were ordered to build mock houses on Kremlin's grounds and paint the distinct roof of the building in order to blend it in with the rest of the city. Streets were also barricaded in preparation of a German attack. Moscow was proud, however, aided by Joseph Stalin's propaganda machine. One such example was the 7 Nov parade in celebration of the anniversary of the October Revolution, where Russian soldiers marched straight through Red Square toward the battlefields to the west.

After a series of attacks and counterattacks from both sides, the German troops were beginning to show signs of fatigue. Replacements came slowly partly due to the unplanned action in the Balkans and Crete, while the brutal Russian winter loomed dangerously near. The Russians, on the other hand, saw relatively fresh reinforcements from the recently arrived Georgi Zhukov and his troops from the Far East; the inability of the Axis powers to negotiate for a joint-attack on Russian had a significant impact on the German ability to quickly bring down Russia, but Adolf Hitler was too egotistical to see.

After a few days of preparations in Moscow's suburbs, on 2 Oct 1941, Fedor von Bock led German troops to assault directly against Moscow. German advances were slower than they had hoped with a rainy fall season and later a cold early winter. As German vehicles become immobilized, the German army continued to advance, however the cold weather was affecting the morale and fighting ability of the troops to a high degree. On 15 Nov, another push for Moscow was launched, and within two weeks the Germans reached the 27km marker to Moscow, with some soldiers claiming the sighting of the towers of Kremlin.

The weather also significantly harmed the German ability to supply the Moscow contingent by rail, despite Minister Dorpmüller and the German Reich Railways dramatically expanding its operations during the campaign. The water tanks of the locomotives regularly froze under sub-zero conditions, pushing the number of broken-down locomotives at any given time to the hundreds. Additionally, the Russian railways were of a different gauge, forcing the German engineers to re-bed all the railways before the German locomotives could use them. In Dec 1941, with the transport situation so desperate that a special motor transport organization was formed to alleviate some of the pressure. Despite the superhuman results the Germans had achieved in the arena of logistics, it was just not enough. The German frontlines troops, including the air force, required the equivalent of 120 train loads of supplies daily for normal operations (ie. not counting supplies needed to mount major operations); only about 100 train loads worth of supplies were delivered on a regular day. To make matters even worse, Russian partisans regularly sabotaged railway tracks to slow things further.

Russians had been launching counteroffensives of various sizes since early Sep to slow the progress of the German army. The counteroffensives were largely planned under the leadership of Zhukov, a man who Stalin feared as a political threat but yet relied on so much to defend his capital. On 5 Dec, Zhukov saw the opportunity to launch a major counteroffensive, while at the same time he knew he could no longer take any chances; the German troops were too close to Moscow for his comfort. He called in his troops of Siberia and the Far East, who had been resting nearby for such a counteroffensive. T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers led the way for the fresh Russian soldiers, some of whom donned the white winter camouflage that became the subject of nightmares to the freezing retreating German troops. By 7 Jan 1942, the front lines were driven back anywhere between 100km to 250km. German forces would never again threaten Moscow directly for the rest of the war.

The final tally tilted amazingly harsh on the Russian side of the battle. Russia suffered over 600,000 casualties, with some estimates going as high as 700,000. Meanwhile, the German troops suffered a smaller 250,000 casualties, though the German momentum was stopped while the Russians built up their own. For the efforts of Moscow residents to defend the capital city, Moscow was honored with the title Hero City in 1965.

Photographs

Share this article with your friends:

Delicious   Digg   Facebook

Reddit   StumbleUpon   Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB:

Subscribe to RSS Feeds

Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
   9 May 2005 07:25:36 PM
   
   Great Job! I can see that it must take a long time to write all the infromation on this website, but it would be perfect if only it had a little more infromation on each event.
2. Anonymous says:
   18 Sep 2006 08:03:58 AM
   
   Great article! Congrats.
3. Anonymous says:
   19 Apr 2007 12:54:00 PM
   
   Ha! Attacking Russia was the worst mistake Hitler made. General rule: You never attack Russia, because they retreat, blowing up oil refineries and leaving no supplies, nothing. They get you deep into the country. Then winter comes. Theyre used to it. They drink vodka and laugh at you as you freeze. Then they counterattack and you go back to where you came from. Hitler didnt think this through. Good for Russia!
4. Anonymous says:
   19 Mar 2008 09:09:38 AM
   
   way to go stalin for beating the germans, nice strategy
5. Anonymous says:
   13 Dec 2008 12:28:40 PM
   
   HITLER SUCKS BOOTY!
6. Anonymous says:
   16 Feb 2009 05:01:59 PM
   
   The invasion of Russia was the begining of the end for Nazi Germany. the russians had vast manpower, moved all the factories past the ural mountains, and had the help of the bitter russian winter! on top of all of this the russians put the T-34 Tank into the field. one German General said it was the best tank in the world. not bad for the sub-humans. the german's answered with the Panther, and it was over-enginered. just keep it simple.
7. Anonymous says:
   16 Feb 2009 05:10:57 PM
   
   The T-34 this vehicle is still used in armies to this day. not bad for a design over 60 years old. The T-34 led the way, in future tank design. During ww2 the german's built around 1,500 Tiger's the russians built over 50,000 T-34's.not counting all other armored vehicles.
8. Anonymous says:
   16 Feb 2009 05:20:30 PM
   
   The T-34 is a good example of the old saying "guantity, has a quality all it's own".
9. BILL says:
   21 Jun 2009 08:13:15 PM
   
   "Moscow will be defended to the last."
   
   -Joseph Stalin, Order of the day, Oct. 1941-
   
   During the battle for Moscow from Oct. 1941
   to Jan. 1942, 650,000 Russian soldiers died
   this figure is about 50% of the men fighting
   on the Eastern Front. The Soviet attacks,
   forced the Germans to retreat 175 miles from
   Moscow, the city was saved and Hitler did not
   try to take the city again.
   With almost one million casualties, Germany
   would never be as strong as it had been in 1941.
   The Axis suffered over 918,000 casualties in
   Russia in 1941 alone almost 1/3 of its fighting strength. Despite suffering heavy
   losses the German Army, was able to rebuild
   its forces for new operations on the Eastern
   Front in 1942.
10. Anonymous says:
    15 Jan 2010 12:36:32 PM
    
    I will never understand why historians always make Stalingrad out to be the most decisive turning point of the war on the Eastern Front. If Moscow had fallen in the winter of 1941/42, there would have been no Battle of Stalingrad and not much left of the Soviet Union.
11. Anonymous says:
    26 Feb 2010 02:38:17 AM
    
    Hitler's greatest mistake, or should we say failure,was he lost the war. In a war on such colossal scale to have luck is important. Such luck would include being able to make correct decisions at the right time.Luck deserted him in the closing stages of the war. This was a war of attrition between the Germans and Russians. And Europe suffered and bled profusely and whole of eastern Europe came under Bolshevic subjugation and tyranny for almost 50 years as Hitler had rightly predicted. And all this while America and Britain did not really suffer much.
12. Anonymous says:
    10 Mar 2010 02:42:38 AM
    
    Yes, he was quite unlucky to fight against Russians)) About Stalingrad: they really say it's the most important depending upon its scale.(Even among muscovites most losses were born in that battle) We had already surrendered Moscow once and still came out winning. However,in WW2 Moscow had much more importance...
13. Anonymous says:
    10 Mar 2010 02:48:03 AM
    
    And I really had a great laugh, thanks a lot. Even though its sometimes offensive for us, it's true, to some extend
14. Anonymous says:
    23 Jun 2010 10:13:49 PM
    
    the three reasons why the nazis werent able to overrun moscow.....1.russia was lacking a modern system of paved roads.2.hitler split the center thrust at the worst possible time when they were already halfway there.3. japan didnt help by attacking in outer mongolia and siberia thus tying down the 100,000 siberian troops that were then transported to the aide of moscow

Posting Your Comments on this Topic

Your Name
Your Email
	Your email will not be published
Your Comments
Security Code

Note: Please refrain from using strong language. HTML tags are not allowed. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment.