Battle of Moscow - Background

Background

For more details on this topic, see Operation Barbarossa.

On 22 June 1941, German, Romanian and Slovak troops invaded the Soviet Union, later also joined by Hungary (following the bombing of the Hungarian city Kassa), effectively starting Operation Barbarossa. Having destroyed most of the Soviet Air Force on the ground, German forces quickly advanced deep into Soviet territory using blitzkrieg tactics. Armored units raced forward in pincer movements, pocketing and destroying entire Soviet armies. While the German Army Group North moved towards Leningrad, Army Group South was to take control of Ukraine, while Army Group Center advanced towards Moscow. The Soviet defenses were overwhelmed and the casualties sustained by the Red Army were enormous.

By July 1941, Army Group Center had managed to encircle several Soviet armies near Minsk during the Battle of Białystok-Minsk, creating a huge breach in Soviet lines—one that the Soviets could not immediately fill, as no reserves were available—and destroying the Soviet Western Front as an organized force. Thus, the Wehrmacht was able to cross the Dnieper river, which barred the path to Moscow, with only minimal casualties.

In August 1941, German forces captured the city of Smolensk, an important stronghold on the road to Moscow. Smolensk was historically considered the key to Moscow because it controlled a landbridge located between the Dvina, Dnieper, and several other rivers, allowing for a fast advance by ground troops without the necessity of building major bridges across wide rivers. The desperate Soviet defense of the Smolensk region lasted for two months, from 10 July-10 September 1941. This intense engagement, known as the Battle of Smolensk, delayed the German advance until mid-September, effectively disrupting the blitzkrieg and forcing Army Group Center to use almost half of its strategic reserves (10 of 24 divisions) during the battle.

Elsewhere, the German advance was also bogged down. Near Leningrad, Army Group North was held up by the Luga defense line for almost a month before eventually overrunning it. In the south, Army Group South—which included many Hungarian and Romanian units that were less well-trained, equipped and experienced than the Wehrmacht—faced several serious counterattacks and was stopped. The Wehrmacht now faced a dilemma; Army Group Center was still strong enough to reach Moscow, but such an advance would create a bulge in the German lines, leaving it vulnerable to Red Army flanking attacks. Moreover, according to Hitler, Germany needed the food and mineral resources located in Ukraine. Thus, the Wehrmacht was ordered to first secure the Donbass region and to move towards Moscow afterwards. Heinz Guderian's Panzer Army was turned south to support Gerd von Rundstedt's attack on Kiev, which inflicted another significant defeat on the Red Army. On 19 September 1941, Soviet forces had to abandon Kiev after Stalin's persistent refusal to withdraw forces from the Kiev salient, as recorded by Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Georgy Zhukov in their respective memoirs. This refusal cost Zhukov his post of Chief of the General Staff, but his prediction of German encirclement was correct. Several Soviet armies were encircled and annihilated by the Wehrmacht in a double pincer movement, allowing the German forces to advance in the south.

Although a decisive Axis victory, the Battle of Kiev set the German blitzkrieg even further behind schedule. As Guderian later wrote, "Kiev was certainly a brilliant tactical success, but the question of whether it had a significant strategic importance still remains open. Everything now depended on our ability to achieve expected results before the winter and even before autumn rains." Hitler still believed that the Wehrmacht had a chance to finish the war before winter by taking Moscow. On 2 October 1941, Army Group Center—under Fedor von Bock—launched its final offensive towards Moscow, code-named Operation Typhoon. Hitler said soon after its start that "After three months of preparations, we finally have the possibility to crush our enemy before the winter comes. All possible preparations were done...; today starts the last battle of the year..."