On November 7, 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin led the celebrations for the October Revolution in Moscow’s Red Square. In his speech, Stalin exhorted the soldiers in the parade as they were about to be sent out to battle. Many of them would be killed in the fighting for Moscow. The event took place just as German forces were closing in on the Soviet capital.
In modern-day Russia, November 7th is celebrated as a Day of Military Honour in remembrance of the 1941 parade.
(Taken from Battle of Moscow – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe: Vol. 6)
On October 2, 1941, shortly after the Kiev campaign ended, on Hitler’s orders, the Wehrmacht launched its offensive on Moscow. For this campaign, codenamed Operation Typhoon, the Germans assembled an enormous force of 1.9 million troops, 48,000 artillery pieces, 1,400 planes, and 1,000 tanks, the latter involving three Panzer Groups (now renamed Panzer Armies), the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (the latter taken from Army Group North). A series of spectacular victories followed: German 2nd Panzer Army, moving north from Kiev, took Oryol on October 3 and Bryansk on October 6, trapping 2 Soviet armies, while German 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies to the north conducted a pincers attack around Vyazma, trapping 4 Soviet armies. The encircled Red Army forces resisted fiercely, requiring 28 divisions of German Army Group Center and two weeks to eliminate the pockets. Some 500,000–600,000 Soviet troops were captured, and the first of three lines of defenses on the approach to Moscow had been breached. Hitler and the German High Command by now were convinced that Moscow would soon be captured, while in Berlin, rumors abounded that German troops would be home by Christmas.
Some Red Army elements from the Bryansk-Vyazma sector avoided encirclement and retreated to the two remaining defense lines near Mozhaisk. By now, the Soviet military situation was critical, with only 90,000 troops and 150 tanks left to defend Moscow. Stalin embarked on a massive campaign to raise new armies and transfer formations from other sectors, and move large amounts of weapons and military equipment to Moscow. Martial law was declared in the city, and on Stalin’s orders, the civilian population was organized into work brigades to construct trenches and anti-tank traps along Moscow’s perimeter. As well, consumer industries in the capital were converted to support the war effort, e.g. an automobile plant now produced light weapons, a clock factory made mine detonators, and machine shops repaired tanks and military vehicles.
On October 15, 1941, on Stalin’s orders, the state government, communist party leadership, and Soviet military high command evacuated from Moscow, and established (temporary) headquarters at Kuibyshev (present-day Samara). Stalin and a small core of officials remained in Moscow, which somewhat calmed the civilian population that had panicked at the government evacuation, and initially had also hastened to leave the capital.
On October 13, 1941, while mopping up operations continued at the Bryansk-Vyazma sector, German armored units thrust into the Soviet defense lines at Mozhaisk, breaking through after four days of fighting, and taking Kalinin, Kaluga, and then Naro-Fominsk (October 21) and Volokolamsk (October 27), with Soviet forces retreating to new lines behind the Nara River. The way to Moscow now appeared open.
In fact, Operation Typhoon was by now sputtering, with German forces severely depleted and counting only 30% of operational motor vehicles and 30-50% available troop strength in most units. Furthermore, since nearly the start of Operation Typhoon, the weather had deteriorated, with the seasonal cold rains and wet snow turning the unpaved roads into a virtually impassable clayey morass (a phenomenon known in Russia as “Rasputitsa”, literally, “time without roads”) that brought German motorized and horse traffic to a standstill. The stoppage in movement also prevented the delivery to the frontlines of troop reinforcements, supplies, and munitions. On October 31, 1941, with weather and road conditions worsening, the German High Command stopped the advance, this pause eventually lasting over two weeks, until November 15. Temperatures also had begun to drop, and the Germans were yet without winter clothing and winterization supplies for their equipment, which also were caught up in the weather-induced logistical delay.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, Stalin and the Soviet High Command took advantage of this crucial delay by hastily organizing 11 new armies and transferring 30 divisions from Siberia (together with 1,000 tanks and 1,000 planes) for Moscow, the latter being made available following Soviet intelligence information indicating that the Japanese did not intend to attack the Soviet Far East. By mid-November 1941, the Soviets had fortified three defensive lines around Moscow, set up artillery and ambush points along the expected German routes of advance, and reinforced Soviet frontline and reserve armies. Ultimately, Soviet forces in Moscow would total 2 million troops, 3,200 tanks, 7,600 artillery pieces, and 1,400 planes.
On November 15, 1941, cold, dry weather returned, which froze and hardened the ground, allowing the Wehrmacht to resume its offensive. For the final push to Moscow, three panzer armies were tasked with executing a pincers movement: the 2nd in the south, and the 3rd and 4th in the north, both pincer arms to link up at Noginsk, 40 miles east of Moscow. Then with Soviet forces diverted to protect the flanks, German 4th Army would attack from the west directly into Moscow.
In the southern pincer, German 2nd Panzer Army had reached the outskirts of Tula as early as October 26, but was stopped by strong Soviet resistance as well as supply shortages, bad weather, and destroyed roads and bridges. On November 18, while still suffering from logistical shortages, 2nd Panzer Army attacked toward Tula and made only slow progress, although it captured Stalinogorsk on November 22. In late November 1941, a powerful Soviet counter-attack with two armies and Siberian units inflicted a decisive defeat on German 2nd Panzer Army at Kashira, which effectively stopped the southern advance.
To the north, German 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies made more headway, taking Klin (November 24) and Solnechnogorsk (November 25), and on November 28, crossed the Moscow-Volga Canal, to begin encirclement of the capital from the north. Wehrmacht troops also reached Krasnaya Polyana and possibly also Khimki, 18 miles and 11 miles from Moscow, respectively, marking the farthest extent of the German advance and also where German officers using binoculars were able to make out some of the city’s main buildings.
With both pincers immobilized, on December 1, 1941, German 4th Army attacked from the west, but encountered the strong defensive lines fronting Moscow, and was repulsed. Furthermore, by early December 1941, snow blizzards prevailed and temperatures plummeted to –30°C (–22°F) to –40°C (–40°F), and German Army Group Center, which was fighting without winter clothing, suffered 130,000 casualties from frostbite. German tanks, trucks, and weapons, still not winterized, suffered operational malfunctions in the wintery conditions. Furthermore, because of poor weather prevailing throughout much of Operation Typhoon, the Luftwaffe, which had proved decisive in earlier battles, had so far played virtually no part in the Moscow campaign.
The final German push for Moscow was undertaken with greatly depleted resources in manpower and logistical support, but the German High Command had hoped that one final fierce and determined attack might overcome the last enemy resistance. Then with the offensive failing, the Germans turned to hold onto their positions, and correctly assessed that the Soviet frontline forces were just as battered, but unaware that large numbers of Red Army reserve armies were now in place and poised to go on the offensive.
On December 6, 1941, Soviet forces comprising the Western, Southwestern, and Kalinin Fronts, with estimates placing total troop strength at 500,000 to 1.1 million, launched a powerful counter-attack that took the Germans completely by surprise. The Soviets initially made slow progress, but soon recaptured Solnechnogorsk on December 12 and Klin on December 15, and with the German lines crumbling, nearly trapped the German 2nd and 3rd Panzer Armies in separate encirclement maneuvers.
On December 8, 1941, Hitler ordered German forces to hold their lines, but on December 14, General Franz Halder, head of the German Army High Command, believing that the frontline could not be held, ordered a limited withdrawal behind the Oka River. On December 20, a furious Hitler met with frontline commanders and rescinded the withdrawal instruction, and ordered that present lines be defended at all costs. A heated argument then ensued, with the generals pointing out the battered conditions of the troops and that German casualties from the cold were higher than those from actual combat. On December 25, Hitler dismissed forty high-ranking officers, including General Heinz Guderian (2nd Panzer Army), General Erich Hoepner (4th Panzer Army), and General Fedor von Bock (Army Group Center), the latter for “medical reasons”. One week earlier, Hitler had also fired General Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces, and took over for himself the control of all German forces and all military decisions.
By late December 1941 to January 1942, the Red Army counter-offensive was pushing back the Germans north, south, and west of Moscow, with the Soviets retaking Naro-Fominsk (December 26), Kaluga (December 28), and Maloyaroslavets (January 10). But on January 7, 1942, the Red Army, soon experiencing manpower losses and extended supply lines, and increasing German resistance, halted its offensive, by then having driven back the Wehrmacht some 60-150 miles from Moscow. The Luftwaffe, which thus far had been a non-factor, took advantage of a break in the weather and took to the skies, attacking Soviet positions and evacuating trapped German units, and proved instrumental in averting the complete collapse of Army Group Center, which had established new defense lines, including a section, called the Rzhev Salient, which potentially could threaten Moscow.