Sergei Varshavchik, RIA Novosti columnist.
In December 1941, the Red Army, during a strategic counter-offensive near Moscow, saved the capital of the USSR and stopped the German blitzkrieg. World War II entered a phase of protracted confrontation, in which Nazi Germany had no chance of winning. At the same time, the geography of the war expanded dramatically: Japan attacked the United States and Great Britain.
An unpleasant surprise for the German command
Near Leningrad in the first half of December, fierce battles continued for Tikhvin, which was equally important for both sides. The Germans defending the city understood that with the capture of Tikhvin they had cut off the railway connecting Leningrad with the rest of the country, and thereby violated the supply of food to the besieged city. The German command planned to move north, to connect with the Finnish troops, in order to tighten the "loop" around Leningrad more tightly. The Soviet troops, in turn, sought to surround and destroy the enemy's Tikhvin grouping in order to frustrate the enemy's plans.
The German 1st Army Corps fought off the fierce attacks of the troops of the Leningrad Front for several days, but on December 9 was forced to leave the city. In general, the entire 18th German Army was pushed to the east and retreated to the city of Volkhov. The distance between the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts was sharply narrowed. But, despite the fact that the Red Army liberated a significant territory, it was not possible to surround and defeat the Germans. As it was not possible to achieve a breakthrough of the blockade.
Meanwhile, frost hit Leningrad, power plants stopped working, and. The first cases of cannibalism were recorded. According to the UNKVD for the Leningrad region, 43 people were arrested for eating human meat in December 1941. They were immediately shot, and their property was confiscated.
End of Operation Typhoon
A local victory in the northern sector of the Soviet-German front was reinforced by a strategic counteroffensive near Moscow, where by December 1941 the capital of the USSR was engulfed from the south and north by the "pincers" of three German tank groups. Having exhausted the Germans on the near approaches to the capital (where in some areas they were 25 kilometers from the Kremlin) and repelled all their attacks, on December 5-6, the troops of the Kalinin, Western and right wing of the Southwestern Fronts delivered a series of powerful blows to enemy positions and broke through them in almost every direction.
During the Kalinin, Klinsko-Solnechnogorsk, Narofominsk-Borovsk, Yelets, Tula, Kaluga, Belevsko-Kozelsk offensive operations, the Red Army pushed back the Wehrmacht 100-250 kilometers from Moscow, thereby eliminating the direct threat to the capital of the USSR by the end of December 1941.
For the German command to capture Moscow, it was an extremely unpleasant surprise. On December 7, the Chief of Staff of the German Land Forces, General Halder, wrote in his diary: "The most terrible thing is that the OKW [Wehrmacht High Command] does not understand the state of our troops and is busy patching holes instead of making principled strategic decisions."
However, the Germans were not going to give up. On December 8, Hitler issued Directive No. 39, nicknamed the "stop order" by the troops. In it, the Fuhrer, fearing a repetition of the sad fate of the Napoleonic army, which, retreating from Moscow in the fall of 1812, almost all died, categorically forbade his soldiers to leave their positions. Among other tasks, the troops were given the following: "To provide suitable conditions for the resumption of large-scale offensive operations in 1942."
In addition, Hitler made a number of resignations among the generals. On December 12, he removed Field Marshal von Bock from the post of commander of Army Group Center. On December 19, the commander-in-chief of the German ground forces, Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, was dismissed. Hitler, no longer trusting his generals, held this position himself until the end of the war. December 26 was transferred to the reserve "father" tank troops The Third Reich, General Guderian, who, without an order, withdrew his troops from their positions.
The tanks were powerless
The commander of the Western Front, General Zhukov, after the war, analyzing the reasons for the December failure of the capture of Moscow by the Germans, came to the conclusion that their reliance on tanks as the main tool of blitzkrieg did not justify itself.
In his opinion, the enemy flank groupings, which were supposed to close their "pincers" north and south of the capital of the USSR, did not have enough infantry to secure the achieved lines. As a result, the Panzerwaffe suffered heavy losses and eventually lost their penetrating power.
Another miscalculation of the Germans, according to Zhukov, was their inability to deliver a timely blow to the center of the Western Front. Which, in turn, gave the Soviet command the opportunity to freely transfer reserves from passive defense sectors to more active ones, directing them against Wehrmacht strike groups.
An important factor in the victory was the fact that German communications were stretched for thousands of kilometers and were attacked by partisans and aircraft. At the same time, the Soviet command, taking advantage of the proximity of Moscow as the largest transport hub, was able to quickly and secretly for the enemy to transfer large reserves from the depths of the country in advance.
Muscovites have not forgotten the feat of the defenders of the city. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the start of the counteroffensive, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin personally invited the participants in the defense of the capital (some of whom live today in other countries) to take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the glorious date.
Stalin's victory euphoria
The victory on the fields of the Moscow region dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German army. In addition, Tikhvin was taken near Leningrad, in the south of the country the Germans retreated from Rostov-on-Don, in the Crimea Manstein was never able to take Sevastopol ... It is not surprising that Stalin regarded all this as clear evidence that the Red Army wrested from the enemy strategic initiative. Now, they say, it only remains to go on a general offensive in order, as in 1812, to expel the invaders from the country as soon as possible.
For this delusion of the Supreme Commander, tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers soon had to pay with their lives - the enemy was still very strong, and the German troops carried out Hitler's "stop order" with all their usual discipline.
The writer Konstantin Simonov wrote in The Living and the Dead: "no matter how much they [Soviet soldiers fighting in the Moscow region] had behind them, there was still a whole war ahead."
One of the manifestations of the victorious euphoria was the order to conduct the Kerch landing operation, which the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command gave to the Transcaucasian Front on December 7, 1941. The purpose of the bold plan was to land in the Crimea and encircle the enemy's Kerch grouping.
After two weeks allotted for preparation, on December 26, the operation began and was generally quite successful. Defending the Kerch Peninsula, the 46th German infantry division and the regiment of Romanian mountain shooters could not resist the powerful Soviet landing force for a long time ( total strength 82 thousand people) and after heavy fighting were forced to retreat.
This angered Hitler, who ordered the trial of the commander of the 42nd Corps, General Count von Sponeck, who ordered the retreat. The count was sentenced to death, which was carried out in 1944.
But the battles for Crimea were just beginning. And the main ones took place already in the new year, 1942, when the Soviet armies on the Kerch Peninsula were destroyed, and Sevastopol fell.
Japanese blitzkrieg
AT world war in December 1941, two new and very serious players entered - Japan and the USA. On the morning of December 7, aircraft from Japanese aircraft carriers launched a massive attack on the main base of the Pacific Fleet of the US Navy, Pearl Harbor. As a result of the attack, the Americans lost 4 battleships, 2 destroyers, 1 mine layer, and several more ships were seriously damaged. American aviation also suffered serious losses. The attack killed 2,403 people.
Why did Imperial Japan attack the United States, and not the USSR, with which it had previously had a number of serious clashes (on Lake Khasan in 1938 and on Khalkhin Gol in 1939)? As military historian, professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University Alexei Kilichenkov said in an interview with RIA Novosti, there were several reasons for this.
“They forget that by December 1941, Japan was waging an active war in China and was forced to keep up to a million of its soldiers there,” Kilichenkov noted. He stressed that in the event of an attack on the USSR, the Japanese would have to fight in China on two fronts: in the north with units of the Red Army, and in the south of the country with the army of Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
At the same time, according to the historian, in order to continue the war, the Japanese needed raw materials - oil, iron ore, bauxite, coking coal, nickel, manganese, aluminum and much more. In addition, Japan, in order to feed its population, had to import a significant part of the food by sea.
All this was in that part of East and Southeast Asia that was controlled by the US and Britain, while limiting access to treasured resources for Japan. The forceful elimination of competitors allowed the country of the rising sun to become the undivided mistress of East and Southeast Asia.
The effect of the attack on Pearl Harbor exceeded all expectations of the attackers. Japan neutralized the US Pacific Fleet for at least half a year, thereby freeing its hands in the Pacific theater of operations, where, after the strike on the US, it was Britain's turn.
Japanese soldiers landed in December 1941 in British Malaya, in the Philippines, in Borneo. Hong Kong fell on 25 December. At the same time, the British suffered a very serious blow at sea. December 10, 1941 Japanese aviation sank the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse.
In general, in a short time, with minimal losses, the Japanese were able to achieve great victories by inflicting powerful blows on their enemies. As a result, the British Empire lost part of its eastern colonies, and the United States of America received a serious reason to enter the Second World War.
On November 30, 1941, the German soldier Wilhelm Elman sent a letter from a village near Moscow to his girlfriend, in which he complained about his fate: “My beloved Zylla. No mail will deliver this strange letter anywhere, and I decided to send it with my wounded countryman, you know him - this is Fritz Sauber. We were lying together in the regimental infirmary, and now I am returning to duty, and he is going home. I am writing a letter in a peasant hut, all my comrades are sleeping, and I am on duty. It is terribly cold outside, the Russian winter has come into its own, the German soldiers are very poorly dressed, we wear caps in this terrible frost, and all our uniforms are summer. Every day brings us great sacrifices. We are losing our brothers, but the end of the war is not in sight and, probably, I will not see it. I do not know what will happen to me tomorrow, I have already lost all hope of returning home and staying alive. I think that every German soldier will find his grave here. These blizzards and vast fields covered with snow terrify me to death. Russians cannot be defeated ... "
The fascist German command planned to strike at the armies of the center of the Western Front with the forces of the 4th Field Army after deep breakthroughs of the shock groups on the flanks of the Soviet troops. In the meantime, it has taken active restraining actions here with limited forces in order to force the Nara River. On November 19, the Nazis launched an offensive against the right flank of the 5th Army, and on November 21 they suddenly attacked the right flank of the 33rd Army. Having failed here, they decided to break through the defenses of the 33rd Army in the Naro-Fominsk direction in order to open their way to Moscow from the west and at the same time provide assistance to the northern and southern groups. Hitler’s General Kleist later said: “Hopes for victory were mainly based on the opinion that the invasion would cause a political upheaval in Russia ... Very high hopes were placed on the fact that Stalin would be overthrown by his own people if he suffered a heavy defeat at the front. This belief was cherished by the Fuhrer's political advisers.
General Field Marshal von Kluge, commander of the Fourth Field Army in the Army Group Center, 28/11/1941 wrote:
“...Von Bock is very dissatisfied. I understand him. But what should I do if my army is stretched out at the front for almost three hundred kilometers, operational reserves are exhausted, the air temperature drops to minus forty-forty-two degrees, I lose every day four times more people frostbitten than killed and wounded. Frost replaces at least four full-blooded corps with Russians. The supply of fuel to the forward units is extremely difficult. But von Bock is right - my XXth Army and LVIIth Panzer Corps hang over the flank of the Russians, their 5th and 16th armies, holding positions on the Dmitrov-Yakhroma-Kryukovo-Dedovsk line. Von Bock insisted on the creation of a "powerful mobile reserve", moreover, telling me that "we should not rely on the resources of the Army Group Command." There is nothing left for me to do but give the order to withdraw the entire 19th Panzer Division from the front line, replenish it as much as possible, sending all serviceable vehicles from the repair parks there. The 20th Panzer Division remains to hold the front. She suffered heavy losses, but the Russian counterattacks will undoubtedly be contained. What should I do, after almost two weeks of this offensive, I have one full-blooded tank and one motorized division! And with these forces I must advance! Oh, what a bitter mockery of the very idea of a "decisive offensive"!...
...Just talked to Griffenberg. The 20th Panzer could receive reinforcements by December 3rd, but there is no way to wait that long. According to intelligence, for eight last days Zhukov deployed four infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, three tank brigades, and two separate tank regiments against our Third and Fourth Tank Armies from the forces opposing me. They have been replaced, Griffenberg assured me, by militias, old and young, often without uniforms or training at all. All this, in theory, should facilitate our task. And, probably, I would look to the future with more confidence if it were not for this damned frost.
Called Materna. One can only envy his optimism. He says that his soldiers managed to burrow deep into the ground, fleeing the cold, and it would be nice to be right in Moscow in one jump, I don’t want to freeze in the suburbs. Here is a joker! .. He does not doubt his success, especially if the frosts drop to at least minus twenty. He managed to give the 3rd Motorized Division almost a week of rest, which allowed almost all the tanks to be put into operation, with the exception of irretrievable losses.
Materna well done, nothing to say. If everything ends well, I will present him to the Iron Cross.
Then Kuntzen asked for a conversation. Of course, all this tanker could talk about was “well, when will the reinforcements for the 20th division finally come.” Complained strongly about the conditions. He said that no more than forty serviceable tanks remained in the corps. Asked to urgently help with reserves. As always, fuel problems. Tankers are forced to keep their engines running almost all night. The excessive consumption of fuel is monstrous, and after all, each tank has to be rolled almost by hand.
I had to upset Knutzen. He said that the 19th Panzer had to be specially prepared for the offensive. Transfer all individual tank units to its composition. Drain the fuel from those vehicles that will not be used, ditch the ammunition. The 19th division must have a deadline of 2 December with at least 100 tanks in service. There is nothing to count on the 20th division, I told him. Pick up everything that can move from there and start the fight. If we succeed, it will only be by surprise, and the fact that the Russians clearly do not expect our attack. Recently, they have become so bold that they themselves are counterattacking - especially to the south, in the Maloyaroslavets area, in the zone of the 12th and 13th army corps. Of course, they cannot achieve anything serious. However, this diverts my strength from the main direction…”
On November 30, at night, an assault force was landed on Sparrow Hills and in the Neskuchny Garden, the task of which was to steal Stalin. These, of course, were only single sorties, which also ended in failure, but the front itself in the northwestern direction passed in those days less than 20 kilometers from the then border of Moscow (and if you count from its current border, then in general 10 km) and only 30 km from the Kremlin! We are talking primarily about the village of Krasnaya Polyana located along the Savelovskaya railway and the surrounding villages, where heavy artillery pieces had already been installed, from which it was possible to fire at the Kremlin. The famous super-saboteur SS Standartenführer Otto Skorzeny recalled after the war: “We managed to reach a small village about 15 kilometers northwest of Moscow ... In good weather Moscow was visible from the church bell tower. And the "chronicler" of the 2nd Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht wrote on December 2, 1941: "From Krasnaya Polyana you can observe the life of the Russian capital through a telescope." By the way, parade uniforms for the victorious procession along Red Square had already been brought to this division by that time. On November 29, Hitler generally announced that "the war as a whole has already been won." Many of the German soldiers who were near Moscow were also convinced of this. So, for example, staff officer Albert Neimgen wrote in a letter home (this letter is quoted in his brilliant book by the outstanding Russian historian Vadim Kozhinov): “Dear uncle! .. Ten minutes ago I returned from the headquarters of our infantry division, where I carried the order of the corps commander about the last attack on Moscow. In a few hours this offensive will begin. I saw the heavy cannons that would bombard the Kremlin by evening. I saw a regiment of our infantrymen who were to be the first to pass through Red Square. This is the end, uncle, Moscow is ours, Russia is ours... I'm in a hurry. Calling the chief of staff. In the morning I'll write to you from Moscow...' Herr Neimgen was a bit hasty. The battle for Krasnaya Polyana lasted about two weeks. The former head of the press department of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paul Schmidt, who had very solid information, wrote in the book “Barbarossa Enterprise” published in 1963: “In Gorki, Katyushki and Krasnaya Polyana ... almost 16 km from Moscow, soldiers fought a fierce battle 2 of the Vienna Panzer Division... Major Buk could observe life on the streets of Moscow through a stereo tube from the roof of a peasant's house in the cemetery. Everything was in close proximity. But it was impossible to capture him...” Like this: IMPOSSIBLE. And this despite the fact that to Krasnaya Polyana, the fascist troops advanced from Brest at an average speed of 16-17 kilometers per day (taking into account the break in their forward movement to the east, which they made to capture Ukraine). So, why now they could not go the last 16 kilometers, separating them from their cherished goal and - to be completely frank - from winning the war? After all, at that time they had concentrated 2 times more manpower near Moscow than ours, one and a half times more tanks, two and a half times more artillery. And in the direction of the main blow, the advantage was even more significant. So, for example, in the Klin direction, more than 300 tanks and 910 German guns opposed 56 tanks and 210 artillery units of our 30th Army. The same ratio was observed almost everywhere. By the beginning of December, the fascists had 800,000 personnel, 10,000 guns and mortars, 1,000 tanks, and more than 700 aircraft. With such forces, the fascist command believed in the success of the assault on Moscow. On December 2, the Nazis ordered that blank spaces be left in the Berlin newspapers for an urgent report from the front on the capture of Moscow. And this was not an empty phrase. It was on December 2 that during the day the Nazis tried to break through to Moscow, they tried to bomb our troops in the areas of Naro-Fominsk, Zvenigorod, Istra. More than 350 fascist aircraft participated in these raids on the capital and its environs. Moscow was then divided into six sectors, which were defended by anti-aircraft gunners. Large-caliber batteries were sent to the Volokolamsk highway to hit the Nazi tanks with direct fire. Calculations with small-caliber guns remained to protect important objects, including the Kremlin. The small-caliber anti-aircraft gun was a quadruple installation of 37-mm cannons with a rate of fire of 4-5 rounds per second. His regiment had 5 battalions of 5 batteries and a searchlight battalion. From July 41st to April, the 42nd Air Defense of the city shot down about 1.5 thousand enemy aircraft, but bombs still fell on Moscow. When the Germans realized that the anti-aircraft defense of Moscow was strong, they began to destroy our batteries in the first place. Four times more bombs were dropped on the position of the air defense forces than on other objects. Some batteries have been suppressed. One of them stood almost at the Kremlin wall, near the Big Stone Bridge. In the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, among the documents of the 1st Air Defense Corps, it was possible to find a diagram of the deployment of its anti-aircraft artillery battalions and batteries. Indeed, in the very center of Moscow, opposite the Udarnik cinema, on the roof of a house at 24 Bolotnaya Street, there was the 7th battery of the 862nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment. She was part of the last ring of defense, breaking through which the fascist vultures went to the main goal - the Kremlin residence of the Headquarters. It can be seen that the battery greatly interfered with the Germans. With each raid, the first echelon of bombers sought to suppress it.
Here is the operational summary sent to the corps headquarters by the assistant chief of staff of the 862nd anti-aircraft artillery regiment. “December 2, 1941. During the day, enemy aircraft, both in groups and in single aircraft, sought to break through to Moscow. With a powerful barrage and IA in the majority were driven away. Single enemy aircraft broke into the city and dropped high-explosive bombs in the Vorobyovy Gory area, the Central Airfield, at the Stone Bridge, the Kyiv railway station, the Krestyanskaya Zastava and in the Lyublino area. Incendiary bombs were dropped in the same areas. As a result of the raid, one of the high-explosive bombs dropped near the Stone Bridge fell in the area of the 7th battery.
On that terrible night, not only the battery on Bolotnaya Square died, but also the battery in Sokolniki, which was protecting the Artemovsky depot. A lot of bombs were dropped on Moscow then. Only about fifty fell on the Kremlin. One did not break, it pierced through St. George's Hall. Another ended up in the barracks, where the Kremlin cadets were. 86 people died.
On the night of December 2, the Junkers broke through to the center of Moscow. In the bomb shelter, one could hear the howling and heavy hooting of German high-explosive guns to the desperate clatter of anti-aircraft guns. The earth was shaking. When people from the shelter went upstairs, they saw high flames and ruins. And they learned the worst thing - it was the last battle of anti-aircraft gunners. The Germans dropped a high-explosive bomb right on their guns. Ammunition exploded all around, some rafters and logs burned. The funnel is huge, 30 meters in diameter. A cordon was put up around, the soldiers sorted out the rubble for two days, looking for someone.
Field Marshal Bock's plan was to launch simultaneous attacks on Moscow not only from the north and south, but also from the west. To this end, it was envisaged that the forces of the 4th Army would break through the defenses in the areas of Zvenigorod and Naro-Fominsk and, advancing in converging directions on Kubinka and Golitsino, encircle and destroy the troops of the center of the Western Front (5th and 33rd armies), and then develop attack directly on Moscow along the Minsk highway and the Kyiv highway.
Commander, Fourth Army. Headquarters, 28/11/1941
Ia Nr. 1620/41 g. Kdos.Chefs 12 copies. Secret, only for command staff.
1. In pursuance of the Order of the Commander of Army Group Center, in connection with the improvement of the weather, the Fourth Army goes on the offensive.
2. The blow is delivered by the forces of 20 army and 57 tank corps in the area between Naro-Fominsk and the Moscow-Minsk highway.
3. The 20th Army Corps has the task of occupying Naro-Forminsk and cutting off the highway to the east of the city, with the subsequent development of success on both sides of the highway with access to the Akulovo-Zvenigorod line by 3.12.41.
4. The 57th Tank Corps has the task of covering the right flank of the 20th Army Corps by advancing to the Akulovo-Baranovo-Nikolskoye line.
5. All available forces of the indicated corps are involved in the offensive; commander 57 tank corps I direct that a strong reserve of 19th Panzer Division's mobile units be set aside to exploit success or operational support in the event of a Russian counterattack.
Signed: Commander of the Fourth Field Army, Field Marshal von Kluge.
To the east of Zvenigorod, the enemy succeeded in penetrating the defenses of the 5th Army. But at the turn of 1.5 km northwest of the village. Nikolina Gora, he was stopped. Southwest of Zvenigorod, crossing the river. Moscow in the Ulitino, Vlasovo sector, the Germans launched an offensive against Kubinka. However, at the turn of 6 km north of Kubinka, they were stopped by counterattacks of units of the 50th Infantry Division of Major General N.F. Lebedenko and went on the defensive. Kluge intended to seize the highway behind the Nar Lakes through a swift enveloping maneuver, and then cover the units performing it from the flank. Closer to 05.00 on December 1, the 20th corps of General Matern launched an attack on the highway east of Naro-Fominsk with the forces of the 3rd motorized infantry, 103rd, 258th and reinforced 292nd infantry divisions - the main task was solved by the 258th infantry division, which had already mastered bridge across the Nara in Tashirov. Under sub-zero temperatures, extensive fortifications to the southeast and north of the city were breached. The 292nd Infantry Division, reinforced by units of the 27th Tank Regiment of the 19th Tank Division, turned to the north. Colonel Gane, with his staff troops and the 2nd Battalion of the 507th Infantry Regiment, captured Akulovo. This village was located only six and a half kilometers from the highway and 56 kilometers from Moscow.
It was no coincidence that the enemy made this last attempt to break through to Moscow precisely at the moment when the front commander, General of the Army G.K. Govorov (forced to leave his command post by order of Zhukov) departed for a trip to the Sixteenth Army, Lieutenant General K. K. Rokossovsky. Govorov accepted Zhukov's order without enthusiasm: it was not in his nature to act as a mentor teaching colleagues, and even at such an inopportune time for traveling. That is why, as G.K. Zhukov recalls, Leonid Alexandrovich, despite all his scrupulousness regarding the orders of higher authorities, in this case tried to challenge this order: “He quite reasonably tried to prove that he did not see the need for such a trip: in the Sixteenth The army has its own chief of artillery, Major General of Artillery V. I. Kazakov, and the commander himself knows what and how to do, why should he, Govorov, abandon his army at such a hot time. In order not to conduct further debate on this issue, I had to explain to the general that such was the order of I.V. Stalin."
What that order was, no one knows. But here is a moment from K.K. Rokossovsky’s “Soldier’s Duty” regarding the defense of Moscow (whose hero is Zhukov): “Somehow during the period of heavy fighting, when the enemy managed to push the 18 G.K. Zhukov came to our command post as commander and brought with him the commander of the 5th L.A. Govorov, our neighbor on the left. Seeing the commander, I braced myself for the worst. Having reported the situation at the army sector, he began to wait what would happen next.
Addressing me in the presence of Govorov and my closest assistants, Zhukov said: “What, are the Germans chasing you again? You have more than enough strength, but you do not know how to use them. You don’t know how to command!.. Here Govorov has more enemies than you have in front of you, but he holds him and does not let him through. So I brought him here so that he would teach you how to fight.”
Of course, speaking of the enemy's forces, Zhukov was wrong, because all the tank divisions acted against the 16th Army, against the 5th - only the infantry. After listening to this statement, I most seriously thanked the commander for giving me and my assistants the opportunity to learn, adding that learning is not harmful to anyone.
We would all be glad if his visit was limited to this "lesson".
Leaving Govorov and me, Zhukov went into another room. We began to exchange views on the actions of the enemy and discuss opinions on how best to counter him. Suddenly Zhukov ran in, slamming the door. His appearance was menacing and very excited. Turning to Govorov, he shouted in a breaking voice: “What are you doing? Who are you here to teach? Rokossovsky?! It reflects the blows of all German panzer divisions and beats them. And some lousy motorized came against you and drove for tens of kilometers. Get out of here! And if you don’t restore the situation…” and so on. etc.
Poor Govorov could not utter a word. Turning pale, he quickly retreated.
Indeed, on this day in the morning, the enemy, having pulled up a fresh motorized division to those that were already there, went on the offensive in the sector of the 5th Army and advanced up to 15 km. All this happened during the time when the front commander and commander 5 were getting to us. Here, with us, Zhukov received an unpleasant message from the headquarters of the front.
After a stormy conversation with Govorov, the ardor of the com-front diminished somewhat. Leaving, he slightly, in comparison with his usual notations, scolded us and said that he was going to restore order at Govorov's.
In fact, the delicate Rokossovsky praises Zhukov in his memoirs, but giving such episodes that are understandable only to a specialist, he shows with facts - what Zhukov cost as a commander in 1941. For those who do not understand what the point is, I will explain what follows from this episode:
- Zhukov despised the military regulations. In the army, even a sergeant is forbidden to make a remark in the presence of soldiers, but here Zhukov slanders the general in the presence of his subordinates
- Zhukov decapitated the 5th Army at the height of the battle. After all, if the Germans killed or wounded Govorov, then the effect for this army would be the same as from the fact that Govorov was taken away from the command post by Zhukov. Moreover, this fool cannot be explained by anything other than Zhukov’s military impotence at that time, since he could not help but understand the meaning of his actions.
In his memoirs, in the chapter on the defense of Moscow, Zhukov gives the following episode:
“I.V. Stalin called me to the phone:
- Do you know that Dedovsk is busy?
- No, Comrade Stalin, it is not known.
The Supreme Commander was not slow to speak irritably about this: "The commander must know what he is doing at the front." And he ordered to immediately go to the place in order to personally organize a counterattack and return Dedovsk.
I tried to object, saying that it was hardly prudent to leave the front headquarters in such a tense situation.
“It’s okay, we’ll manage somehow here, but leave Sokolovsky for yourself for this time.”
Here Zhukov is right, although Stalin sent him to the troops of the front that Zhukov commanded, and Zhukov himself took Govorov from his 5th Army to God knows where, as a weaver to transfer best practices. And further. Pay attention to who commanded the Western Front. Stalin says "we will manage", not "Sokolovsky will manage".
- And, finally, Zhukov has no idea about the enemy on his front. He has no idea what kind of German divisions are fighting with the 5th and 16th armies subordinate to him.
The situation, which was reported to Govorov upon his arrival at the command post, looked complicated. For six hours of battle, the enemy went deep into our defenses for 10 kilometers and approached Akulovo. There was a danger of its breakthrough onto the Minsk-Moscow highway. As German tanks moved from south to north along the Naro-Fominsk-Kubinka highway, the threat of Nazi troops entering the rear of the left flank, and then the entire Fifth Army, grew more and more.
The extreme tension of the situation that day was emphasized by the fact that even employees of the army headquarters were forced to take part in repelling a tank attack near the village of Akulovo. Near the village of Akulovo, the 17th regiment of the division equipped an anti-tank stronghold in advance. One rifle regiment from the 32nd rifle division of Colonel Polosukhin and its artillery and anti-tank reserve were urgently transferred here. L.A. Govorov said: “The most difficult days for us were December 1-4. These days, the German command launched a roundabout offensive using the “double pincers” method. The first "pincers" were supposed to close on Kubinka, the second - in Golitsino through Zvenigorod. One of my regiments fought simultaneously with the front to the west and east and did not allow the enemy to expand the front of the breakthrough. Sappers Fyodor Pavlov, Pyotr Karganov, who had been on duty for several days at the electric bombs installed on the Naro-Fominsk-Kubinka highway, met the Nazis on the outskirts of Kubinka. They stopped the moving column of German tanks by detonating land mines in the center of the column.
The commander drew attention to the significant role of the fire shaft, created from hay, straw, brushwood and other combustible materials in the path of German tanks. A flame up to two and a half meters high raged for two hours. Encountering a solid wall of fire on their way, the tanks turned around and thus exposed their sides to the shots of our guns. Of the 40 enemy vehicles, 25 remained in place. Enemy tanks did not go further than the Akulovo line that day. They turned to Golovenki and further in the direction of Petrovskoye to get to the Minsk-Moscow highway by a detour.”
The 478th Infantry Regiment of the 258th Infantry Division launched an offensive along the highway along the Alabinsky training ground to a height of "210.8", which is northwest of Rassudov, deepening into our rear for 14 kilometers.
The 29th Infantry Regiment took Naro-Fominsk and marched along the highway another five kilometers to the east. But then the attack froze into the ground at a temperature of 38 degrees below zero.
An advance to the east was noted only on the left flank, in the offensive zone of the 258th Infantry Division. Here, a mobile combat group operating under the operational command of the commander of the 611th anti-aircraft artillery battalion made its way to the northeast through Barkhatovo and Kutmetovo to Podasinsky. The forces of the 53rd motorized reconnaissance battalion, the 1st company of the 258th anti-tank battalion, two platoons of the 1st company of the 611th anti-aircraft artillery battalion and several self-propelled guns managed to reach Yushkov, which is to the left of the highway. From here, the Kremlin was only 43 kilometers away.
Parts of the 292nd Infantry Division after the capture of Akulovo were stopped 6 km from the Minsk highway. For the first time, German units (an infantry regiment and 30 tanks) came so close to the headquarters of the Polar Front (a little more than 15 km remained to Perkhushkovo), having real opportunity break through to the Kiev highway (12.5 km). What stopped the Germans, who had already lost contact with the enemy precisely on the Searchlight Hill, not allowing them to spend the night in the warm huts of Burtsevo? And spending the night at an altitude of 210.8 turned out to be terrible. Here is the testimony of Paul Carrel from the book "Eastern Front":
“On the other side of the road was the village of Burtsevo - a God-forsaken place: thirty thatched and half-covered huts with snow. The area around which they were located was the task of the head column of the 258th Infantry Division. Late in the evening on December 2, the 3rd Battalion of the 478th Infantry Regiment entered the village.
Parts of the 2nd battalion for several hours desperately held back the stubborn attacks of the enemy. Twenty-five or thirty huts seemed to the soldiers a fabulous oasis, a kind of mirage in the desert. The haze rising to the sky indicated that the houses were warm. And the soldiers dreamed of nothing more than warmth. They had spent the previous night in old concrete pillboxes at a tank training ground west of the village. They were not lucky, the temperature suddenly dropped to 35 degrees.
Collective farmers used pillboxes as chicken coops. There were no chickens, however, but there were fleas. The night was hellish. To escape from fleas, one had to go outside, where the merciless sovereign-frost reigned. Before the soldiers knew what was happening, their fingers turned white, their toes stiffened in their boots. Thirty people sought medical attention in the morning, some of them suffering from severe frostbite. It was impossible even to remove the boots from the patient, since the skin remained on the insoles and on the cloth with which the soldiers wrapped their feet. There were no medicines to help the frostbitten. There was no transport to take the victims to the infirmary. Frostbitten remained among their comrades and dreamed of Burtsev's warm huts. What the soldiers had to endure in those days, shivering from the bone-chilling cold near machine guns and anti-tank guns, seems incredible. They moaned and howled from the cold. They cried from anger and helplessness, from the fact that they are only a flight of a stone from their goal and cannot, cannot achieve it.
So with whom did the 2nd battalion of the 258th division fought on the afternoon of December 1, 1941? Neither the troops of the 33rd army, nor the troops of the 5th army were already in front of the Germans at the training ground. The border guards of Captain Dzhepchuraev retreated to the Alabinsky camp, saddling the road to Golitsyno.
In his report to Khrushchev on May 19, 1956, about the villages of Dedovo and Krasnaya Polyana, which are closer to Moscow, Zhukov noted: “... and while N.A. Bulganin took these villages, which were of no importance, the enemy broke through the front in another place - in the Naro-Fominsk region, rushed to Moscow, and only the presence of a front reserve in this area saved the situation.
The front commander, Army General Zhukov, arrived at the front headquarters to sort out the situation on the spot. Judging by the reports of the commander of the 5th Army, communication with the troops was broken and the situation, especially in the Mozhaisk direction, became much aggravated.
What reserves could Zhukov throw on December 1 to Searchlight Mountain to stop 30 tanks and 478 PP, reinforced by the 611th anti-aircraft artillery division?
This is where all the necessary components of the use of a sharply unconventional drop of a large landing unit without parachutes into deep snow converge. It was necessary to quickly deliver and concentrate at the Searchlight Mountain up to a regiment of paratroopers armed only with hand-held anti-tank weapons. Otherwise, the front headquarters would have been crushed for sure, and the 5th army would have been surrounded. It is clear that this could well decide the outcome of the entire Moscow battle.
Zhukov got out of the car near the building that housed the headquarters and saw an unusual picture. Two guards led a man in a flight suit with his hands tied behind his back.
“Come here,” the commander ordered. - What's the matter?
- Comrade General of the Army, - reported the NKVD major accompanying the convoy, - This is an alarmist. Beria ordered to immediately shoot him without trial or investigation.
And what is his fault?
- I flew for reconnaissance and now reports that more than fifty German tanks with infantry are moving along the Mozhaisk highway towards Moscow. They are already near Kubinka.
- This is true? - asked the commander, referring to the pilot.
“That’s right, Comrade General of the Army. I flew at low level. I saw crosses on tanks. More than fifty tanks, followed by trucks with infantry.
– Brad! the Major exclaimed.
Only recently, in October, pilot Yakushin flew for reconnaissance and discovered at night an enemy convoy from the direction of Kaluga. Reported to management. Zhukov perfectly remembered how, in the presence of Lavrenty Beria, he reported this to Stalin. Beria replied that, according to his information, there was no movement of German troops. The second time they sent that pilot already with a wingman, they again found the same strong group moving without cover.
Again a report to Stalin in the presence of Beria. Beria again says that, according to his data, there is nothing similar. Zhukov then insisted on additional exploration.
Yakushin flew out, and everything was confirmed. And Zhukov again went to Stalin. It was very timely. They managed to put forward the last reserves under Maloyaroslavets and detain the enemy.
There were no Soviet troops on this path. Only in Podolsk there were two military schools: infantry and artillery.
In order to give them time to take up defense, a small airborne assault was dropped under the command of Captain Starchak. Of the 430 people, only 80 were experienced paratroopers, another 200 were from front-line air units, and 150 were the recently arrived replenishment of Komsomol members, only with small arms, of course, without guns, machine guns and tanks. The paratroopers took up defense on the Ugra River, mined and blew up the roadbed and bridges along the Germans' route, setting up ambushes. One of the groups attacked the airfield captured by the Germans, burned two TB-3 aircraft, and the third was lifted into the air and taken to Moscow. This was done by paratrooper Pyotr Balashov, who had never flown such aircraft before. He landed safely at the central airfield from the fifth approach.
But the forces were not equal, reinforcements came to the Germans. Three days later, out of 430 people, only 29 survived, including Ivan Starchak. Almost everyone died, but they did not allow the Nazis to break through to Moscow, they made it possible Podolsk cadets step up and defend.
Remembering those events, Zhukov said to the major:
- So you will check this nonsense, and we will always have time to shoot the pilot.
- How can I check?
- Fly with him on a spark, - the commander nodded at the pilot, - check the information.
- Yes, I .., yes, I have .., - the major stammered confusedly. - I have another task. Yes, he will take me to the Germans.
“I will order you to be shot immediately,” the commander barked and, turning to the pilot, ordered: “Fly out immediately.” I will wait for your return,” and, turning to the major, he added: “Report the result of the reconnaissance to me personally.
And less than an hour later, the NKVD major stood at attention in front of the commander.
- Tanks are really moving towards Moscow. Nearly sixty. Lots of infantry behind them. We passed over them twice. We were being fired upon. There are no our troops in front of enemy tanks.
After listening to the major, the commander ordered the pilot to be called and told him:
“Thank you, pilot, you will be awarded the Order of the Red Banner,” and then, turning to the envoy, he added: “Order him to give him vodka so that he can wash the award with his comrades. Thanks again.
The army general bent over the map. One glance at her was enough to understand that there was nothing to oppose the enemy in this direction.
He contacted the air commanders of the front to order a bombing attack on the column. He reported that the bombers had run out of ammunition at the airfield. And the clouds are too low for targeted bombing, and a strike on the area will not work. And all attack aircraft are involved near Zvenigorod.
Not often in the life of an army general there were situations when he could not make a decision due to difficult circumstances and was powerless to improve the situation.
He could only imagine how a column of enemy vehicles was rapidly moving along the Alabinsky training ground towards the capital. And this happened just when it already seemed that the enemy was exhausted and his offensive was finally choking.
It must have been the darkest day in the entire military field of the army general. Almost sixty tanks! At the time, it was a huge power. Yes, even infantry in cars.
There was only one way out, and the general of the army could not help but use it. He asked to be connected to the Supreme Commander, asked to be connected to Stalin.
The regiments of the rifle division, which arrived from Siberia, unloaded at several snow-covered stations near Moscow. Somewhere, very close, a huge city slept in an uneasy sleep. In the morning the frost grew stronger, pinching his cheeks, climbing under his hats with earflaps. But what is the frost for Siberians?! They are used to the cold. Yes, and equipment to match the weather - all in good short fur coats, in felt boots.
The command “Stand up” rang sharply in the frosty silence, and Captain Mikhail Posokhov was one of the first to stand on the edge of the station square, marking the place where his company, the first in the first battalion of the regiment, was to build. The formation of the regiment stretched across the entire area and occupied a street that stretched along a railway track hidden by plantings. They built in platoons, in a column of three, preparing for a foot march.
“Now it will be soon,” said an elderly, apparently, an experienced Red Army soldier, of pleasant appearance.
The noble features of his face betrayed in him a not simple person, although he tried not to stand out among his comrades. Captain Mikhail Posokhov drew attention to him long ago, even at the formation point. People mobilized in the Tomsk region were added to their regiment in order to replenish it to a full state. This was a few weeks ago. We got acquainted with the replenishment already in the echelons, which flew like an arrow to Moscow through all of Russia.
The commander in the current situation has no time to talk with everyone. But with this Red Army soldier, he nevertheless found time to exchange a few phrases.
- How to honor you? he asked politely, feeling that this subordinate of his was special, suggesting some secret in him.
- Red Army soldier Ivlev, - he answered.
- And how to call by name and patronymic? - Possokhov suddenly asked warmly.
- Afanasy Timofeevich.
- Where are you called from?
- From near Tomsk, from a taiga village, - and he said the name, which gave nothing to Possokhov, and therefore he did not remember it.
- From the village? Posokhov asked, not hiding his surprise.
“That’s right,” Ivlev confirmed somewhat singsongly. - I taught there.
- Godkov, I suppose, a lot. Why were they called?
- I got to be called. How can you sit when this is happening. I'm good at something. Read, he went through the whole imperialist one, and even had a chance to fight in the civilian one.
Ivlev kept silent on which side he fought in civilian life, and Possokhov did not ask, since such a question would be completely ridiculous.
- And private?
- In the imperialist was, - Ivlev paused, - a non-commissioned officer, - deliberately adding the word "non-commissioned", although he was an officer without this addition. “Well, everything happened in civilian life, after all, at first they were determined by positions,” he answered evasively. - After being wounded, he settled in Siberia. There, they barely let me out at the zaimka, where they hid me when the whites advanced.
And in the last phrase, he turned everything upside down. It was not the Reds who left him at the castle, but the Whites, since he was seriously wounded. They left it with a wealthy peasant, and with original documents, which he no longer used after graduating from the Academy of the General Staff, and by which he was known only by classmates in the cadet corps, the cadet school, and the first years of officer service. At the special faculty of the academy, where he entered after several years of service, he had to become related to a different surname and get used to a different biography ...
- Maybe you should be appointed company clerk? Posokhov asked. - Everything will be easier.
- I, Comrade Captain, asked not to write papers to the front. And don't worry about my age. I will furnish the young when the need comes.
“Then the squad leader. I don’t have one detached in the first platoon. Can you handle it?
- The position, of course, is very responsible for me, - Ivlev said hiding a smile. - I'll try to do it if you want.
And now, when the command “Step-march!” sounded, Ivlev was separated from Posokhov only by a young lieutenant, a platoon commander.
Possokhov did not find anything unusual in Ivlev's answers. After the hurricane that flew over Russia during the years of the revolution and the civil war, you never know how fate developed. His own biography is more than confusing. Mother died in the eighteenth, and father ... The mother asked her to forget the name of the father strictly and forever. So she punished him when she said goodbye to him, just a boy, leaving him with relatives in the neighbors' village. She herself went to the village of Spasskoye, on the banks of the wonderful river Teremra. Why did she go there to her death, Possokhov did not immediately understand. Actually, he was not yet Posokhov then. The village boys called him a barchuk, because he lived with his mother in the master's house.
Once a village gossip girl asked him if the local landowner Nikolai Dmitrievich Teremrin knew who he was? Misha did not know, and she explained that the landowner Teremrin was his father, that, they say, mother Anyuta, worked him up with her master. In the evening, he told his mother about this, but only received a thrashing from her, and then the gossip girl received what she deserved not only from her mother, but already from the master. So Misha did not understand who was right.
The landowner had a son, Alexei, whom Mikhail saw first as a cadet, then as an officer, and who treated him very well.
In that terrible year, when Misha lost his mother, the red commissar Vavesser was outrageous in the district. His detachment took the gentleman by surprise in his master's house. Michael remembers this well.
- Well, come out to the human court! the commissar shouted, lashing his horse.
Two henchmen of Vavesser moved towards the house, and it became clear what this “human” court would be like. But then two shots rang out, and both punishers fell dead.
Vavesser galloped away, but the bullet got him and, however, only wounded him.
They opened fire on the house. A decent shootout ensued. During the shootout, the mother managed to take Mikhail out of the house and hide with him in the forest. What happened next, Michael did not know. He only remembered that his mother wept for a long time and bitterly, and then, late at night, took him by a roundabout way to a neighboring village, to distant relatives. For a long time she argued with them, which she proved to them, and then she left even after dark, she left, as he later found out, to Spasskoye. And in the morning the master's house flared up with a bright flame. It was said later that Annushka set fire to it together with the punishers, and that Vaveser could not escape because of the injury, because in the confusion of the fire everyone saved his own skin.
And already in the evening, the cousin uncle, with whom the mother left Mikhail, said to him:
- They killed your mother. God forbid they will look for you. Need to leave.
They whispered to the uncle that Vavesser's assistant dropped the phrase: “Where is her puppy? Is he, they say, the son of a bourgeois? Find him for me!"
At night, the uncle accompanied Mikhail to the edge of the forest, which, as Mikhail remembered, was called Pirogovsky, and said:
- You, Mishan, forget what village you are coming from and what to call your mother. And most of all, forget the name of master Teremrin. Now go, this way go!
He fastened a knapsack to his back, gave him a planed stick and said:
“Here’s a staff for you, maybe it will lead you to good luck.”
Misha strayed for a long time, hiding from people, and made his way to some town, where they caught him and brought him to some kind of shelter.
- What's your name? asked the man in the white coat.
- How do I know. Father, they said, was killed back in that war. Mother died.
“Give up your stick,” the man said irritably.
- That's my staff ...
- Staff? So let's write you Posokhov. Remember?
- I'll remember.
So Andrei, who did not have a surname, for the obvious reason that he could not bear the surname of his father, a nobleman, and did not know his mother’s at all, became Posokhov.
After the orphanage, he entered the infantry school and became a red commander.
And here he was walking in a column rifle regiment at the head of his company to defend Moscow.
Where they were led, perhaps, only the regimental authorities knew. The march was followed by their entire rifle division of Siberians.
Stalin was talking to the commander of the 3rd Long-Range Air Division, Colonel Golovanov, when the HF (high-frequency telephony) rang. The front commander reported in an alarmed voice: from the direction of Mozhaisk, a column of tanks was moving towards Moscow, with a force of up to sixty vehicles with infantry. There is nothing to stop her. There are no our subdivisions and units in this direction.
It was not the time to ask why the defense in this direction was so weakly echeloned. Stalin asked only one thing:
- Your decision?
The front commander reported that he had decided to assemble the artillery of two rifle divisions of the fifth army, the 32nd and 82nd, but there was no time to transfer them to the breakthrough site. It is necessary at all costs to stop the tanks moving along the main highway of the Alabinsky training ground to Golitsino, but there is nothing to stop them.
Stalin immediately called Zhigarev, briefly introduced him to the situation and asked him to strike at the tank column with the forces of front-line aviation.
“That is impossible, Comrade Stalin. Low clouds will not allow us to deliver an accurate bombing strike, and an area strike is not effective against tanks. All ground attack aviation forces are sent to repel the breakthrough near Zvenigorod.
Stalin agreed with the aviation commander and turned to Golovanov:
- Maybe drop the landing? This is exactly what we did near Maloyaroslavets ...
“This is probably the only way out,” Golovanov agreed, “But there are difficulties here. Throwing troops from six hundred - thousand meters in this situation is pointless. Low clouds will negate the accuracy of the drop, and deep snow will not allow the landing force to quickly concentrate in the breakthrough area. In addition, the enemy will be able to shoot paratroopers in the air.
- But not to land planes in the field in front of enemy tanks? Stalin asked with irritation.
“Yes, this is also impossible,” Golovanov confirmed. - Part of the aircraft will inevitably die during landing, and landing under enemy fire will not lead to success.
– What is the way out?
- There is an exit. It is necessary to land troops from extremely low altitudes and with extremely low speed by transport aircraft. Deep snow in this case is in our favor.
Stalin was silent for a long time, then said:
- No parachutes? How is it? After all, people will die.
“More will die when parachuted. Here the snow softens the blow. We can hope for minor losses. Besides, we have no other choice,” Golovanov said with conviction.
He reported that PS-84 and DC-3 aircraft from the Vnukovo special aviation group were at the transport aviation airfield near the village of Taininskoye. The pilots on them are experienced, each has a solid raid in various meteorological conditions. They are quite capable of passing at low level over the field and ensuring the landing.
- It remains to find spare parts that can be quickly delivered to Taininskoye.
Stalin had on the map all the latest data on the situation, on the location of units and formations, on the approach of reserves. One glance was enough to determine: closest to Taininsky were units of rifle divisions that were marching to form the 1st Shock Army along the Yaroslavl Highway. The Supreme Commander asked to clarify where they are in this moment, and having learned that in the Pushkino area, he ordered to turn two rifle regiments to the airfield.
- What forces can we parachute? Stalin asked Golovanov.
“Each aircraft can take up to thirty paratroopers with anti-tank rifles at the rate of one for two, with anti-tank grenades and personal weapons.
- Good. How many planes do we have?
“It is necessary that the number of transport workers be increased to thirty,” said Golovanov. - There are already fifteen in Taininsky. Fifteen more need to be transferred from the Vnukovo airfield from the special aviation group.
“Go to Taininskoye,” Stalin said measuredly. - Personally set the task for the pilots. When the rifle regiments arrive, talk to the people, describe the situation and ask me to carry out this dangerous task on my behalf, select only volunteers.
Mikhail Posokhov marched in the ranks of the battalion at the head of his rifle company. This day, December 1, 1941, seemed to be an ordinary day of the long defense of Moscow. The Nazis continued to press and had not yet given up hope of breaking into the city. And although few knew that day that these attempts of theirs were the last, that in a few days the Red Army would launch a decisive counteroffensive, which had been prepared by the Stavka for a long time, confidence in victory grew in every defender of Moscow. This confidence also grew in the hearts of those who were just heading to the front line to take part in the great battle for the capital. However, everyone understood that the enemy was still too strong, and therefore the light of victory was still glimmering in the hearts, but was not distinguishable in the sky on this gray and cloudy day.
Suddenly, an order was received to turn off the highway, and the regiment moved along a narrow road cleared of snow.
Walked for a long time. Possokhov was unfamiliar with these lands, but Ivlev suddenly spoke in an undertone:
- Famous places. Taininskoye village. Once upon a time, Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible visited here.
Posokhov realized that this was said just for him. Ivlev constantly tried to give his commander interesting, sometimes even important information. The commander must know more than subordinates in any matter. So it was always in the old Russian army. So far it did not work in the Red Army.
Suddenly, a wide field opened up ahead. Large twin-engine aircraft could be seen in the distance.
- What is it, brothers, will they carry them further on airplanes? And I'm afraid to fly.
Possokhov turned around. A young soldier from the new recruits was speaking. Fear was written on his face. His comrades clicked at him, saying, how then will you go into battle if you are a coward. But he repeated again:
- So it's a fight. Fritz beat - always please. I went to the bear with my father - I was not afraid and I am not afraid of the Fritz. And the plane...
“Conversations in the ranks,” said Posokhov.
The conversations stopped. There was silence in the line. It must be assumed that very few at that time had to fly on airplanes, especially among rural residents.
Half an hour later, on the edge of the field of the airfield, two rifle regiments froze in the ranks. In front of the formation, Possokhov saw a group of military men. They talked about something with the division commander and regimental commanders. Clearly someone was waiting. Soon an emka appeared, from which a military man emerged, in front of which all the officers who were on the field respectfully became a semicircle. Then the newcomer took a few steps towards the line and spoke in a fairly loud voice. In the frosty silence, it was heard on the flanks of the formation.
- Sons, I came to you directly from Comrade Stalin. In the Mozhaisk direction, the situation is critical. Sixty tanks with infantry broke through. They go from Mozhaisk straight to Moscow. There is nothing to stop them. All hope is in you. The task is dangerous. Only volunteers are needed. It is necessary to parachute from a low altitude, but simply jump from aircraft into snowdrifts and stop the tanks. There is no other way. Comrade Stalin asked me personally on his behalf to turn to you with such a request. I repeat, the task is dangerous, and therefore only the volunteers are five steps forward, - he made an impressive pause so that the meaning of his words could reach everyone and ended his short speech with a sharp and abrupt command: - Step-march!
Possokhov slashed the drill five steps, seeing out of the corner of his eye that the platoon commander, Ivlev and other soldiers were not far behind him. Having already stopped at the indicated line, he half turned around to find with his eyes a Red Army soldier who complained that he was afraid to fly on airplanes. He broke down along with everyone else. Actually, to say "out of order" was not true, because the five steps indicated were made by the entire formation of the regiment.
First of all, anti-tank rifle crews were selected. Possokhov and Ivlev also ended up in the landing force. Possokhov was appointed commander of one of the combat groups. The command selected the strongest, hardiest. After all, a jump into a snowdrift, no matter how dangerous it is, is only the beginning. And then there was a battle with a superior enemy, a battle with tanks, and the battle was overwhelmingly unfired.
And then the first fifteen aircraft in the snowy whirlwinds of the takeoff began to rise one after another into the air. Ivlev saw in the window the constellation of the domes of the famous Annunciation Church in the village of Taininskoye, floating away under the wing and crossed himself, then turned to Possokhov, who looked at him in surprise and for the first time calling him “you”, quietly said:
“Cross yourself, Commander, and think of God. We are now in his will. After all, from the sky we will go into battle ... May he grant us victory.
Possokhov silently looked at Ivlev, not knowing how to react. Someone chuckled nervously, saying:
- Why is God here? If he were, he would not allow these barbarians to come to us.
Ivlev did not answer, he simply remembered the black-haired Red Army soldier, who did not want to understand the obvious. However, he couldn't blame him. It was a difficult time. None of the paratroopers who were in this or other planes even suspected that the person who sent them on a mission was praying for them at that moment with deep faith, sincerely and without hypocrisy.
The Sokol metro station in front-line Moscow in December 1941 was semi-desert. The noise of a train approaching from the center blocked all the sounds that existed here. The doors of the carriages opened, and Stalin stepped onto the platform. He was calm. With a firm unhurried gait, he climbed the central staircase to the lobby. The only guard followed the Supreme Commander confidently. At the exit to Stalin Street, a group of children surrounded. For each there was a bag of caramels. The smile and kind luminous eyes of the leader always attracted the children who accompanied him to the Church of All Saints, the temple of Russian military glory and the heavy grief of the past revolutionary years.
Stalin signed himself with the sign of the cross and entered the fence of the temple. Many Russian patriots who fell in a vague timelessness were buried here. Ivan Bagration, the father of the famous general P.I., was buried here. Bagration. The commander himself erected a monument on his father's grave. The Russian soldiers were not only not embarrassed by his nationality, but they also called him in their own way: "God ratify him." The main altar was consecrated in honor of all the saints, and two aisles - in honor of the icon "Joy of All Who Sorrow" and in the name of the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess. Shortly before the revolution, when another war was going on - the First World War, in the vicinity of All Saints, near his church, the Fraternal Cemetery was created for the fallen Russian soldiers. The Holy Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna, who owned the idea of organizing this cemetery, took official patronage over it, she was supported by the Moscow City Council, having made a corresponding decision in October 1914. The cemetery was truly fraternal - it was intended for the burial of officers, soldiers, orderlies, nurses and all those who died "during the performance of their duty in the theater of operations", who fell on the battlefield or died from wounds in hospitals. Under it, they bought the land from the local owner A. N. Golubitskaya. The trustee of the cemetery was the vowel of the Moscow City Duma Sergey Vasilyevich Puchkov - it was through his efforts that a few years earlier a monument to the “holy doctor” F. Gaaz was erected in Moscow, which, fortunately, still stands in Maliy Kazenny Lane. The opening of the Fraternal Cemetery took place on February 15, 1915. It was attended by Elizaveta Feodorovna. A chapel was consecrated near the cemetery, where the funeral of the first buried was performed. The first to be buried was the sister of mercy O.N., who died on the front line. Shishmareva. An inscription was made on the tombstone: “Olga Nikolaevna Shishmareva, 19 years old, sister of mercy of the first Siberian detachment of the All-Russian Union of Cities, died on March 28, 1915 from a mortal wound received at the forefront.”
Bishop Dimitry Mozhaisky performed the first funeral service and the centurion V.I. Pryanishnikov, non-commissioned officer F.I. Popkov, Corporal A.I. Anokhin, privates G.I. Gutenko and Ya.D. Salov, as well as 19-year-old sister of mercy A. Nagibina. On the territory of a huge military necropolis-pantheon, 17.5 thousand privates, more than 580 non-commissioned officers, officers and generals, 14 doctors, 51 nurses and combat Russian pilots who fought in 1915-1918 were buried. Serbian, British, French soldiers and officers and about 200 cadets who died in battle in 1917 in Moscow were buried here in separate areas.
The service began in the church. The aged father Mikhail served a prayer service for the granting of victory to Russian weapons. The Supreme, like all male parishioners, stood in the right aisle of the temple. He approached the holy icons, was baptized, went around the whole church. Then he quietly and imperceptibly left and went down to the subway.
No one at the front could know about that, including Ivlev, but Ivlev was sure that this was exactly the case!
“Pray, commander, it’s not in vain that we fly over the holy temple. Nothing happens by chance in the world of God. After some hour, God will judge us and reward everyone, granting victory to the worthy.
And Possokhov furtively crossed himself, uttering the words of a prayer that he suddenly remembered from his deep childhood, when he, along with his mother, visited the church in the village of Spasskoye.
- That's good. Now I'm for you, commander, calm. Now I believe that a high destiny awaits you, that you will still be a great general, and in those troops that you join today under such unusual circumstances.
The planes lay down on a combat course and after a while the noise of the engines subsided so much that it seemed as if they were completely silent.
A command sounded, and Ivlev was the first to step towards the door that was wide open in the white haze, saying loudly:
“Allow me, comrade captain, first, on the basis of seniority ... Possokhov jumped after him.
Thirty people collapsed into snowdrifts near the road. Someone moaned, someone lay in the snow, not moving. Ivlev, crawled up to the Red Army soldier, who was lying not far from him, turned over. This one was that black-haired mockingbird. His pulse was not palpable. It was later calculated that the losses in killed and wounded during the landing amounted to 20 percent. And at that moment there was no time for calculations. They landed right in front of enemy vehicles so that the fighters ended up on the road and along its sides. The Germans, obviously, did not immediately understand what happened, who fell on them from the sky and why. Anti-tank rifles rang out.
Possokhov gave some orders, distributed targets, pointed sights. Ivlev rolled into a ditch by the road. The earth trembled. A tank was approaching him, the turret of which was turned in the opposite direction to the movement. The sound of machine guns was heard. The tank caught up with him, and Ivlev threw an anti-tank grenade under the caterpillar. The explosion threw him aside. The tank was spinning in place, but the machine gun continued to work frantically, choosing targets near the road. Ivlev threw the second grenade on the transmission and crawled away, getting ready to fire at the crew, which was supposed to leave the car. But then he felt a sharp blow and lost consciousness.
And Possokhov continued to lead the battle in this, one of the most important areas of the deadly fight. German tanks were on fire. How much? Many ... It was impossible to calculate. The losses of the Nazis will be calculated later in the spring of 1942, but for now, while the fierce battle broke up into several centers.
The first wave of aircraft dropped 450 fighters. Ninety people crashed at once. The survivors did not last long either. But they did their job, delaying the tanks, forcing them to turn around in battle formation, and during the deployment, some of the tanks got stuck in deep snow. When it seemed to the Nazis that they had coped with the landing and it was possible to continue moving, another fifteen heavy red-star vehicles emerged from under the clouds, and the Red Army soldiers again fell into the snow, ready to engage in a fierce battle - people who despised death, people whom it seemed already to overcome an impossible thing. Again shots of anti-tank rifles, again explosions of anti-tank grenades, again unprecedented feats of soldiers throwing themselves under tanks.
The head of the destroyed tanks blocked the way forward on the highway. But explosions were already thundering both in the depths of the column and in its rear. What were the Nazis thinking about in those minutes of the fiery battle? How did they assess what was happening? Before them was something from the realm of fantasy. Huge Russian planes flying over the ground at a height of five to ten meters, and people jumping into the snow, and then, though not all of them, attacking and going to armor, to heavy machine gun fire with the sole purpose of destroying uninvited guests, trampling on their native land.
The enemy was forced to stop and gain a foothold at a height of 210.8. The capture of Golitsino was thwarted, the enemy did not break through near Zvenigorod, as a result, Govorov's army was not surrounded, and the front headquarters also survived. All night the enemy infantry units finished off the remnants of the brave landing, which did not allow the tank group to jump out on the move to the Mozhaisk highway to cut off our fifth army and crush the front headquarters.
The German officers who deployed their NP on Searchlight Hill were amazed by the bloody December sunset, in the light of which the silhouettes of the towers and buildings of the impregnable Russian Capital were reflected in the low clouds.
The battle near the height of 210.8 was nearing its denouement. Russian landing stood to death. Possokhov saw that on the field, near the foot of the mountain, more than twenty tanks blazed and froze without moving. But the German fire intensified. Reinforcements approached them, artillery and mortar batteries pulled up, which were located on the slopes of the mountain and were unattainable for landing weapons. They quickly took aim and fired to kill. But the early winter twilight was already shrouding the place of battle with its veil, helping the remnants of the landing force to retreat into the forest. The paratroopers had almost no ammunition left.
Possokhov, slightly wounded, together with the surviving soldiers of his group retreated to the north, where they were pressed by German machine gunners. Possokhov's group pulled out two wounded who could not walk on their own. One of them was Ivlev. Despite the pressing machine gunners, Possokhov pulled him out almost from under the tracks of the burning tank. Now that they had gone deeper into the unfamiliar forest, Possokhov said, “I don't even know where we are. After all, the place of release was corrected already in the air, on approach. What to do? Where to go?"
Ivlev lay on his back. Through the bare branches of the mighty forest giants, the cleared sky was visible. The first stars lit up, and in the west the sunset burned with crimson stripes. And it seemed to Ivlev that in the sunset sky, in bloody flashes, the painfully familiar towers of the Kremlin, buildings and streets of the capital looked through.
He rubbed his eyes, but the vision, faintly wavering, did not go away. Possokhov also noticed this unusual sunset, but did not look at the sky for long. He was tormented by the question: “What to do? Where to go? They did not destroy the Germans, tomorrow morning the tanks will rush to Moscow, and who can stop them now? The area was completely unfamiliar to him. The map remained in the tablet, which he gave to the chief of staff before boarding the plane. Possokhov leaned over Ivlev, as if looking for an answer to his difficult questions. Ivlev felt it rather than saw it. “Two things cause genuine surprise and admiration. This is the starry sky above us and the moral law within us - Posokhov heard Ivlev's weak but clear voice, - Do not scold, commander, we are in the forests near the Alabinsky military camp, somewhere between Kubinka and Golitsyno. The first part of Ivlev's phrase was so unexpected that it seemed to Possokhov the delirium of a wounded man. But when Ivlev began to give an orientation to the place, Possokhov listened more carefully. Ivlev, meanwhile, turned a little on his cold bed and freed his healthy hand. “Here is the North Star,” he said, “This is our guiding light in this last night for so many. Go straight north. There are two big roads. Minsk and Mozhaisk highways. We need to move towards these highways - they will lead to Kubinka. There, for sure, ours still hold the defense.
Possokhov looked with gratitude at the guiding star twinkling in the frosty heights. There were ten people in his group - those who survived the terrible battle. The landing party was defeated, but still lay on the scales. The Germans were never able to overcome that day the 25 km that separated them from Golitsino.
Possokhov's group slowly moved north. Automatic bursts subsided. Only flares hung over Searchlight Mountain. The Germans shine. They are afraid of a night counterattack. After the sudden Russian landing, with which they had to fight for half a day and lose almost half of the tanks, the enemy was on the alert. But there was no longer any counterattack. Possokhov suffered that he could not properly organize the fire of his group - a lot of ammunition was burned in vain. Unable to stand it, he told Ivlev about this. He was in a state of oblivion. But Mikhail's voice broke through the crystal ringing that enveloped his consciousness. Ivlev squeezed himself into the tragic reality of that clear frosty night with an effort. The soldiers stopped to rest, and Ivlev, gathering his strength, spoke: “You know, commander, because we did everything we could. The Russian Sword itself knows when it will bring down its tip, sparkling with inevitable retribution, on the enemy. Just remember how he was born. Long ago, this land was enslaved. The hordes of the enemy broke the resistance of the warriors torn apart by strife. It wasn't yesterday that foreignness was born... The earth groaned from torment, and the people went to ask for advice from their ascetics, who still remained in the deserts and underground catacombs of destroyed monasteries. The people asked when the end of the invasion? How to defeat the enemy?
And the blacks answered the tormented laity: “LET THOSE WHO ARE READY TO LIVE FOR THE MOTHERLAND, GIVE US THEIR BLOOD, WHO CAN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.
BUT THIS SHOULD BE THE RED HOT BLOOD OF WARRIORS, THE SLEEVE FLOWING IN THE VEINS OF MERCHANTS WILL BE USEFUL.
AND THEN WE WILL COLLECT THIS SMOKE BLOOD INTO A SACRIFIC VESSEL. WITH FAITH AND PRAYER, THE CHOSEN ELDERS WILL EVAPORATION THE IRON DISSOLVED IN IT.
AND ONLY WHEN IT IS ENOUGH FOR THE SWORD, THE BLACKSHIMS WILL START INTO THE BUSINESS. IN THE SEMI-Dark FORGE, ON THE OUTskirts of the INVISIBLE CITY OF KITEZH, UNDER THE FRIENDLY WASHING OF THE HAMMERS, UNDER THE HEAVY SIGHS OF THE BELLOWS OF THE FORGE, AND THE BUM OF FLAMES IN THE PLACES OF BURNING SPARKS, A SHINING SWORD OF INEVITABLE PENALTY WILL BE BORN.
HIS BEATS WILL BE TERRIBLE. GOD'S JUDGMENT WILL COME. JUSTICE WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE EDGE OF THE BLADE. I BROUGHT NOT PEACE TO YOU, BUT THE SWORD! AND RIVERS OF POISONOUS ENEMY BLOOD WILL FLOW ON OUR EARTH. THEY WILL DEATH BOTH CITIES AND VILLAGES, LIKE ACID, DECORPOTING AND DISSOLVING EVERYONE STANDING IN THEIR WAY. BUT THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DISSOLVE THE FIRE STEEL OF THE PUNISHING RUSSIAN SWORD. AND IN THE BLOODY GLOW OF THE LAST BATTLE YOU WILL SEE A LONG-WAITED VICTORY.
No wonder Stalin in his speech at the Parade on November 7 mentioned Alexander Nevsky. Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword! The feast day of Saint Alexander Nevsky is December 6th. Today is the second. The promised hour is near. We will live, commander, and we will see everything with our own eyes.”
Ivlev was silent. Possokhov and the soldiers of the group stood spellbound near the wounded man. No one has ever spoken such words to them.
The group continued to move north. A hard frost urged tired, exhausted people. Suddenly, in the moonlight, the characteristic outlines of our T-28 tank appeared, behind it the embankment of the highway was visible.
A sentry walked around the tank. Rifle cells were guessed along the highway. The sparkling armor of the three-tower colossus was habitable. A tanker in leather overalls got out of the car and supervised the change of sentry.
The appearance of Posokhov's group was greeted with caution. It was decided to send them to Kubinka with an escort. In the meantime, they offered to settle in an unfinished dugout, since there was a stove there. Fatigue did not bring down everyone. Possokhov settled down near Ivlev and asked in a half whisper: “What kind of place is Kubinka? Did foreigners live there?
Ivlev slightly turned his head: “No, not foreigners, but the boyar of Ivan the Terrible Ivan Ivanovich Kubensky. In the terrible year of 1812 Kubinka was defended by the rear guard of Miloradovich, during the retreat of the Russian army to Moscow after the famous Battle of Borodino. There were heavy battles with the pressing French, but Miloradovich fought back. Now, Michael, our time has come. It's not the season for you and me to wallow in hospitals. Let's heal a bit, and then to the troops.
In the 82nd division of the 5th army, several German prisoners were captured. The officers of the division immediately began interrogation. The non-commissioned officer with the Iron Cross enters first. Crossing the threshold, he loudly broadcasts:
- My tank conquered Poland, Belgium, France, all of Europe! He is the pride of the fatherland! After a trip to Russia, he belongs in a museum! How dare you shoot at my panzerwagen! You will be severely punished by God and the Fuhrer!
The next prisoner was interrogated.
- We had to advance on Rassudovo, connect with someone there and then enter Moscow along a good road, where SS divisions have been waiting for us since yesterday ...
Another group of prisoners from the same division is brought in. During interrogation, the prisoners are already talking nonsense:
- In Moscow, ours, they entered yesterday.
A Hitlerite is brought in in neatly fitted and trench-free uniforms. "Language" reports that over the past week, day after day, the officers told the soldiers about the greatest successes of the tank divisions, and on November 30 they announced that the SS troops were already in Moscow, that the Red defenses no longer existed, and there were only isolated pockets of resistance in the Naro areas -Fominsk and Kubinka. After these pockets are bypassed by the infantry divisions, the motorized division must proceed unceasingly to Moscow.
- How do you, a soldier, know what divisions should do? asked the unusually well-informed prisoner.
- I was a clerk in the operations department of the corps headquarters and prepared schemes. He asked the head of the regiment to receive an award from the Fuhrer. I am the heir to a great cause, in which the boss has an interest. He approved my decision and granted my request.
It becomes clear why the soldier looks like a dandy. This is a living capitalist, for whom war is a career, profit, business. Only he turned out to be too trusting of Goebbels' propaganda and in vain left a warm place at the headquarters. It became known that the opposing German corps had a one-echelon formation and was left without a reserve. Everything is thrown into battle. This means that the enemy will not be able to quickly rebuild his ranks, and the next day he will operate in the same grouping.
This was very important information. After all, the neighboring 33rd Army of Efremov is also without reserves, its units are in great short supply, one can say that there is no artillery: in one of the divisions there are only seven guns. Yes, and they are of little use - ten shells for each. With such opportunities, you can’t put up curtains of fire, you can’t create barrage fire in front of an attacking enemy. It was possible to rely only on front-line reserves, and when they come up is unknown.
From the early morning of December 2, the Germans in dense columns, breaking the ringing silence with the roar of tank engines, rushed to Golitsino to cut the Mozhaisk highway and complete the encirclement of Govorov's 5th army. More than twenty burnt tanks and many frozen corpses froze on the field in front of Hill 210.8. This was the price of yesterday's delay, which the dead landing force provided for the Russians. On the Searchlight Hill, using Russian fortifications, the Germans equipped a strong stronghold during the night. Infantry and artillery units approached there from Golovenek. By 12 o'clock, with a confident throw through the training ground, the tank avant-garde jumped out to the edge of the forest near the Alabinsky military town. Here, in early October, the headquarters of the Western Front was located. Then Zhukov moved to a safer place, closer to Moscow. Drifting chalk between the abandoned houses, lonely huddled in unkind expectation. The battalion of border guards guarding the town withdrew along the Golitsyn road to Taraskovo. Tanks with black crosses on the armor occupied the military camp on the move and jumped out to Yushkovo. Encountering no resistance, they reached Burtsevo, occupied the outskirts of Petrovsky, intending to cut the railway to Naro-Fominsk south of Alabino, cutting through the troops of the 33rd Army.
Teremrin watched from the tower of his tank the outskirts of the village of Yushkovo. No smoke, no people. Their brigade now consisted of no more than 20 vehicles. All night the march from Moscow continued along snow-covered roads in blizzards. More than half of the tanks remained on this path. Teremrin himself prepared for the march and drove the car that night. Twice the tank fell into the snow up the turret, but the 34, roaring with the Kharkov miracle diesel engine, again and again carried its crew back onto the hard road.
At 1300 Teremrin was ordered to attack Petrovskoye. Having sent a shell into the breech of the gun, Teremrin put his foot on the shoulder of the driver and pressed lightly. The tank moved through the forest, towards the village visible on the hillock. All the vehicles of his battalion followed the commander. The forest ended quickly.
With full throttle, Teremrin's tanks roared across the field in roar of engines and snow haloes. The enemy did not expect an attack and did not accept an oncoming battle. But in Petrovsky itself, a fierce street battle with fire at point-blank range began to boil. Destroyed German tanks were on fire, two of our vehicles were blown away by the explosion. Teremrin's tank crushed two guns with caterpillars, shot the servants who were running into the forest. Petrovsky was busy. But the German aviation dealt a massive blow, and from the direction of Yushkovo the Germans opened heavy anti-tank fire. Failed to develop success. Southwest of Petrovsky, the enemy launched an offensive with an infantry battalion. But the rapidly gathering twilight saved our position, which was becoming unenviable.
All night on December 3, on the outskirts of Yushkovo, there was a battle between the border guards of Captain Dzhepchuraev and the enemy regiment, which had entrenched itself in the village. The Germans had 15 tanks and two artillery batteries. But the enemy did not pass to Golitsino. At dawn, the border guards, having lost 22 people, withdrew, saddling the Golitsino-Alabino road.
№ 65
Report of the commander of the troops of the Western Front to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command dated December 2, 1941 on the situation in the bands of the 16th, 5th and 33rd armies and the decision taken
TO COMRADE STALIN
TO COMRADE SHAPOSHNIKOV
Today, in all sectors of the Rokossovsky front, the enemy was stubbornly attacking the infantry. The attacks were supported by tanks. Parts of Rokossovsky repulsed all attacks.
Tomorrow morning we will start a counterattack of the grandfather's enemy grouping. 70 tanks, 3 divisions of the RS, up to 100 guns were brought up to the attack area. The counterattack is being carried out by the 9th Guards Division, reinforced by the 40th Rifle Brigade. Part of the forces helps 18th division. Aviation will be involved.
In connection with abrupt change situation on the Govorov front, Comrade Govorov was returned to the 5th Army to eliminate the enemy that had broken through. On the Efremov front, especially on the right flank, the situation is very tense. His 222nd rifle division was crushed by enemy tanks and infantry. Neither Efremov nor Govorov have army reserves.
Ordered:
1. Commander 43, Comrade Golubev, part of the forces to counterattack the enemy breaking through in the direction of Kamenka.
2. Send the 37th Rifle Brigade at the disposal of Govorov to Pavlovskaya Sloboda to eliminate the enemy who broke through bypassing Zvenigorod. The brigade will be supported by five tanks, RS and Govorov's artillery.
Ask:
1. Immediately return Comrade Bulganin to the command post of the front to ensure our counterattacks and regroup.
2. Immediately give Efremov one battalion of tanks and one rifle brigade to the Kutmenevo area.
Zhukov
2.12.41 2.40
TsAMO, f. 208, op. 2511, d. 1026, l. 26-29. Script.
On the morning of December 3, Commander Efremov received information that the 18th Infantry Brigade was approaching the Taraskovo area. Now it was possible to organize a retaliatory strike.
But the Germans still continued to rush forward. Their advanced battalions broke into Selyatino, starting a battle with our company, which was gradually retreating to the railroad to Naro-Fominsk.
The ski battalions promised by Zhukov were just moving into the surrounding forests, but nine tanks and 140 infantrymen were already moving from Rassudovo on the road to the Searchlight Mountain. These were the remnants of the Mozhaisk landing. Having received ammunition and reinforced with tanks, they were supposed to storm the stronghold at a height of 210.8, cutting off the approach to the enemy reserves.
By 15 o'clock, attacks by approaching units began along Projectornaya, Selyatino, Yushkovo. The fighting everywhere was in the nature of brutal counter blows. Our troops did not succeed during the day to push the Germans from the occupied lines. But the front line in this area is still stabilized.
On the night of the third to the fourth of December, a turning point occurred. The company of Lieutenant Pavlov unexpectedly broke into Yushkovo, the skiers behind the tanks made their way to Burtsevo, the 20th Tank Brigade and the border guards of Captain Dzhepchuraev hit the enemy's flank, west of Taraskovo. The enemy began to retreat to Hill 210.8, where his stronghold was located, unsuccessfully stormed by our troops all day on December 3. The Germans mined roads and blew up bridges during the retreat.
The experience of the war showed that German commanders could make decisions on maneuvering on the battlefield within the limits of the tactical and operational space determined by them quite independently. When it became clear that the Yushkovsky battle was lost, heavy losses were suffered, and there were no more reserves, the commander of the 258th Infantry Division made the only correct decision - to withdraw to its original position under cover of night, retaining the remaining personnel and equipment for subsequent battles.
Tank Teremrin while remained at a height of 210.8. A German gun, not noticed during the battle, fired several shells at him almost close. The caterpillar was torn off, but the Ural armor did not let the deadly needles of Krupp shells into the steel interior of the car. The mechanic and loader quickly repaired the caterpillar. The material at hand was sufficient. During the withdrawal, the Germans abandoned all the property of a mobile repair shop that had come here from rear reserves.
Teremrin descended to the field along the eastern slope of the hill. It was covered with the uncleaned bodies of our fallen soldiers, who twice - on December 1 and 3, met here with a German in a mortal righteous battle. The dead were dressed in winter in new short fur coats, their weapons were new. Nearly all of them had machine guns of Russian design, which Teremrin had never seen before.
Near the burned-out German tank, the bodies of Russian paratroopers and the tank crew intertwined in the last battle. It was clear that ours were already fighting with edged weapons. Teremrin with difficulty unclenched the frozen hand of the Russian hero, who crushed four enemies. A dimly shining dagger fell into the snow.
"Ural to the front" he read on the blade. So, a fresh Siberian part. But how did she get here? After all, there is not one of our burnt trucks, there are no parachutes either ... A mystery. Teremrin wandered around the field in the hope of finding cartridges for a Russian machine gun. But it was all in vain. The magazines in all the paratroopers' assault rifles were empty.
They say that those German soldiers and officers who were met in the snowy fields of Russia by an unprecedented landing, called Mozhaisky, were morally broken and could no longer fight the way they fought until now. But the Russian landing attacked not some cowardly Europeans, who by that time had given Hitler and Warsaw, and Paris, and in general everything that could be given away, not the British, who, six months after the unparalleled Russian landing, piled into their pants, fled from the battleship Tirpitz ”, Shamelessly, inhumanly and immorally throwing convoy PQ - 17 to be torn to pieces by aviation and submarines of the enemy, and not the Yankees in forty-fifth scrambled near the Ardennes from Wehrmacht divisions battered on the Soviet-German front, which had very limited ammunition and one refueling per tank.
The Russian landing attacked the armored vanguard of one of the strongest armies in the world, or more precisely, one of the two strongest armies. The soldiers of this army, throughout their centuries-old history, were inferior to the soldiers of only one army - the Russian one, and only from it alone were defeated. Therefore, in the world military history only two armies are known that are worthy of being called armies, and not a herd of pampered contract soldiers - mercenaries. The dark forces of evil constantly collided the two states with these armies with the sole goal of knocking out as many people as possible from both of them. And, despite the fact that some American intellectuals tried to erase the feat of the Mozhaisk landing in the memory of the Russian people, it was in Germany that the book “Results of WWII. Conclusions of the vanquished”, which also summarized the experience of combat operations of the airborne troops. In an article by Brigadier General Prof. Dr. Friedrich A. Freiherr von der Heidte " Paratroops in WWII" it was directly pointed out to the possibility of landing in a critical situation without parachutes in deep snow, from an extremely low altitude. This method was not tested by the Germans themselves, but they appreciated what the Siberians did on December 1, 1941 in the Mozhaisk direction near Moscow. Italian researcher Alkmar Gove in the book "Attention, skydivers!" Heidte confirmed: "... transport aircraft low-flying over snow-covered fields and dropping infantrymen with weapons without parachutes right into the deep snow.
Do you remember, Russia, the cold winter,
Snowdrifts drenched in Russian blood,
Frontline Moscow and the Germans an avalanche,
And our steel infantry.
Do you remember, Russia, like Hitler's tanks,
Having broken through the defense, they rolled on the city,
Like our soldiers of Siberian hardening
Blocked the road to the enemy?
Siberians, Siberians...
From the vastness of the Russians from the very distance
Bolsheviks in one fist
You were gathered near Moscow.
Here is a regiment of volunteers stepped into the planes.
But without parachutes, taking only grenades,
With the task: "In a low-level fast flight
Fall down on the bastards!”
There were no panties, there is no order
Heroes were born, held like brothers;
Twelve out of a hundred crashed there at once,
And everyone imagined God's army!
Siberians, Siberians...
Comrade Stalin trusted you,
You saved more than one Moscow -
You saved our country!
The mystical horror of the Nazis forced
From this picture, shudder inwardly,
All the Viking prowess, all the fervor of the samurai,
Everything paled before the valor of the Russian!
Grenades flew and tanks burned,
And the Siberian companies stood to death,
On the Russian plain, on a snowy bed
The fighters were dying.
Dead Siberians...
You are Russian people, simple,
Countries reliable sons
Russia is missing so much now ...
Like real Siberians...
Through my tears I see guys
Siberian regiments are coming... They're coming, they're coming...
To the front from the November parade.
As if in reality... Siberians...
Through my tears I see guys
The Russians are leaving ... regiments ... forward, forward -
To the front from the November parade ...
Eternal glory to the Russian soldiers who died during this unprecedented mass feat! Eternal glory to those who survived and continued to fight! Remember, Orthodox, in your prayers, Russian soldiers who died for the Fatherland!
Unfortunately, today the feat of the Mozhaisk landing is firmly buried in the bowels of the archives. On December 1, they are going to celebrate the anniversary of the dishonest marauder Zhukov, who destroyed the 33rd army of Efremov and saved the 4th German army. Well, then either take off the cross, or put on your pants. The choice has been made. Watch on the screens another craft on the theme of the great war.
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The Germans began the "final" massive attack on Moscow.
On this day, they unexpectedly broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops in the Naro-Fominsk region and rushed north along the highway to Kubinka, to the Minsk-Moscow highway, and south in the direction of Machikhino, to the Kyiv highway. German tanks had already moved towards the capital directly along the Mozhaisk Highway, but they were stopped at the first line. In the area northeast and southwest of Zvenigorod, the Germans penetrated our defenses for 1.5-4 kilometers, by the end of the day they captured the village of Akulovo and reached the Yushkovo area. By December 4, this breakthrough was completely eliminated. On the battlefields, the Germans left 10,000 dead, 50 wrecked tanks, and many other equipment.
The great Russian commander celebrated his 45th birthday George(Egor) Konstantinovich Zhukov(1896–1974) became a Marshal Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union. He was a different and far from ambiguous person. He could shoot several cowards and alarmists before the formation, or he could reward the brave man before the same formation by removing his order from his uniform. Before a big sudden offensive, when there was no time for demining and it was impossible to attract attention with sorties of sappers, Zhukov ordered infantry to be sent through the minefields: the soldiers, undermining themselves, indicated with their bodies where there was a passage. Then came the tanks. But the authority was colossal: if Zhukov arrived at the front, everyone was animated: an offensive was ahead, and a victorious offensive. Zhukov is the only one of the military leaders who dared to object to Stalin and defend his point of view. Stalin removed him for this on July 30, 1941 from the post of chief of the General Staff, but after Zhukov carried out the first successful and strategically important operation in the Great Patriotic War to eliminate the Yelnin ledge (in September), he began to throw him to save the most vulnerable sectors of the front .
General of the Army Georgy Zhukov at one of the sectors of the front.
At the same time, Zhukov took out several carloads of trophies from Germany that he had defeated (194 pieces of furniture, 323 valuable fur skins, 44 carpets and tapestries, 20 unique hunting rifles, 4,000 meters of fabrics, 713 items of silverware, 820 items of tableware and tea utensils, 60 museum paintings, etc., etc.), which was the reason for Stalin, having removed him from his posts, to send him beyond the Urals. Zhukov could write in a note to Zhdanov that the things were bought by him to decorate the Officers' Houses, and the rest was donated by friends. During the period of mass repressions, he could ardently “support the party line” and suggest the names of “unfinished enemies”, or he could stand up for the innocently arrested. But nothing can belittle the role of his personality in Soviet history, since the winners are really not judged. After the war, Georgy Konstantinovich was commander-in-chief of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and commander-in-chief of the Soviet administration for managing the Soviet zone of occupied Germany. Then - in the years of disgrace - he commanded the troops of the Odessa and Ural military districts. After Stalin's death, he was Minister of Defense of the USSR, and in March 1958 he was dismissed with the right to wear military uniform. His broad chest was worthily decorated with 6 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of Victory, 3 Orders of the Red Banner, 2 Orders of Suvorov 1st Class, Order October revolution, Tuva Order of the Republic and 15 medals of the USSR. In addition, the star of the Hero of Mongolia and 17 foreign orders and medals, including the French Order of the Legion of Honor. Zhukov was awarded the Honorary Arms with the golden image of the State Emblem of the USSR. In terms of awards in the USSR, only Leonid Brezhnev "surpassed" him.
December 2, 1941
By the end of the day, the Germans had penetrated into the defense of the Soviet troops south of Naro-Fominsk for 8–9 kilometers. A German reconnaissance battalion penetrated Khimki, but the next morning was expelled from there by several tanks and a detachment of hastily mobilized residents of the city.
The formations of Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army made a last attempt to capture Tula with a strike from the east, cutting off the railway and highway connecting the city with Moscow. At the same time, the Germans launched an offensive north of Tula from the west. For Tula, December 3rd was the most critical day: the city was threatened with complete encirclement, the Germans were already 15 kilometers north of Tula on the Serpukhov-Tula railway section.
December 3, 1941
Commissar of the partisan detachment Nikolai Petrovich Voden, who before the war worked in the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the city of Rechitsa, Gomel Region, wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks under the heading “Notes on the causes of our defeats”: “Written between August and the end of November 1941, based on personal observations during life in the occupied regions (Gomel, Orel), conversations with the Red Army, peasants, workers 1. Mass desertion, surrender - there is an unwillingness to fight. All of this is based on the motivation "it will not get worse." Peasants say that taxes in 1941 were increased by 4-5 times, and personal income ( personal plots , side earnings) - cut to a minimum. There was nothing to pay. The vast majority of collective farms never received more than 500 grams of grain per workday, less than this very often. In addition, forced grain purchases, every day growing supplies of milk - it came to milking sheep. You sit half-starved and ragged, and above all, “they also mock us: you, they say, live happily and prosperously” ... Many peasants are oppressed by the abolition of free education. They dreamed of seeing their children educated, and in the name of this they endured a lot... The workers express their dissatisfaction with the law on the courts for being late for work (that is, the actual enslavement), the continuous growth of production rates and the equally continuous decrease in real wages. No one, even a highly skilled worker, is able to feed a family... 2. Until now, the people were confident in our military power and invincibility, but then they suddenly saw what this power is worth, and came to the conclusion: we were deceived, betrayed and sold. They do not believe the numbers of German losses, because people saw how battles were going on before their eyes, and the Soviet troops suffered losses many times more. The mediocrity of many of our generals and, obviously, the absence of a strategic plan for the war on our territory also had an effect. This is noticeable, for example, by the inability to oppose anything to the German tactics of the encirclement, by the lack of organization and elementary order in the units ... The population of the occupied areas is especially unfavorable for us from the punctuality of the Germans: their clarity when moving, signs everywhere, endlessly connected. The car lagged behind, immediately a messenger rushes there: what happened? The Germans are very careful about the life of a soldier: until the planes, the guns bomb every hole, the German soldier will not stick his nose out of the trench. It rises to attack under the cover of tanks. And we attack without gun training, without tanks, with one heavy machine gun per battalion. Some conclusions. 1. The opinion “it won't get worse” appeared because the leaders of the country forgot (or did not take into account at all) the fact that the socialism we are building will have to be defended by the hands of this generation. Therefore, it was necessary to provide this generation with a minimum of worldly goods, so that it would go to protect not only the future (for which we already shed a lot of blood), but also today's more or less tolerable life. We didn’t have it, but we had numerous difficulties (or, to put it more simply, hunger strikes) with an unclear prospect for the best. 2. The bad work of the NKVD, which broke away from the masses and became not only above them, but also above the party organizations, became obvious. Therefore, the NKVD failed ... to reveal the German plans for a surprise attack. But the NKVD managed to cause ... fear on the part of the population, which did not forget the years 37-38. 3. The press, cinema, radio educated the people in the spirit of "invincibility, the absolute technical and moral superiority of the Red Army", etc. This was necessary, but not to the same extent. The press forced us to believe that the people enthusiastically welcomed the "wise laws" on the trials of workers, on paid education, on the milking of sheep, etc. no one approved of this friendship). Fulfilling the orders of the Central Committee, the newspapers proved at one time that the aggressors were Germany, Japan, then England and France became them, then again Germany ... And the last "pearls" issued by our press. “The German army is starving” (this is after we brought them bread, butter, and licked ourselves; after the capture of Ukraine by the Nazis!). “The Germans do not have gasoline, metal, the main personnel of their army have been destroyed” (it is not clear how they then almost reached Moscow?). In my opinion, in the future we need to remember two things: first, wars are waged not by governments, but by peoples; the second is that it is impossible to deceive the class (and even more so the people). It is also impossible to defeat the Germans without the people.”
We reprinted this letter almost in its entirety - as a document of the era: what people talked about, what people thought in the first, most terrible months of the war. The fate of Woden himself is unknown. All inquiries from relatives received an answer: in the lists of the dead, those who died from wounds and the missing, he did not appear. This letter was discovered by his daughter, sorting through the papers of her deceased mother. After the war, a woman handed the letter to her mother, and after reading it, you understand that the Stalinist system simply could not leave such a person alive.
The 30th anniversary was met by a participant in the war, private Mikhail Maksimovich Karavaev, one of those ordinary war workers who bore the brunt of the dashing time. Despite the shelling, blizzards and hunger, he carried bread along the Road of Life. And then he reached Koenigsberg. He managed to make war with Japan, so he was demobilized only in July 1946.
December 5, 1941
After our troops pushed the enemy back to positions north of Kubinka and south of Naro-Fominsk, thwarting his last attempt to break through to Moscow, counterattacks in the areas of Dmitrov, Yakhroma, Krasnaya Polyana (20 kilometers from Moscow) and Kryukov forced the Germans to go on the defensive, pushed them in a ledge northeast of Tula (the Germans began to withdraw from the ledge), The counter-offensive of the Red Army near Moscow began(until January 7, 1942). Soviet troops numbered 720 thousand people against 800 thousand of the enemy, 8 thousand guns and mortars against 10,400, 720 tanks against 1,000, 1,170 aircraft against 615, 415 Katyushas. The counteroffensive was launched by the 29th and 31st Kalinin Fronts towards Kalinin. The first 10 days, despite stubborn battles, the armies could not overturn the enemy. The turning point in favor of the Kalinin Front occurred after the troops of the Western Front defeated the German grouping in the Rogachev-Solnechnogorsk region and bypassed Klin.
According to one of the Moscow legends, from the morning of December 5, the Germans stood on the Volokolamsk highway, 33 kilometers from the center of Moscow, there were no our troops to Khimki (on December 2, even a German reconnaissance detachment penetrated there) and a platoon of soldiers freely reached the Sokol metro station. Field Marshal von Bock at 18.00 reported to Hitler about the complete defeat of the Russians. Hitler ordered the same night to enter Moscow. Von Bock asked for a delay until the morning: the soldiers were exhausted, besides, the thaw had come, and everyone was wet. Hitler insisted on carrying out the order. Von Bock convened a meeting at which they decided to violate Hitler's order and enter Moscow in the morning. The night remained. A group of our soldiers marched with an icon Mother of God Kazanskaya (with the one in front of which Dmitry Pozharsky prayed in the Time of Troubles, and in 1812 - Mikhail Kutuzov) on the western front of the defense that no longer existed, and a miracle happened: an unheard-of frost struck at night - minus 42 degrees. The wet form of the Germans turned into ice. The Mother of God did not let the Nazis into the heart of Russia.
Full of tragedy and courage, the days of the defense of Moscow ... This is about them with severe cruelty a poem by tanker Ion Degen:
My comrade, in death agony
Do not invite your friends in vain.
Let me warm my palms
Above your smoking blood.
Don't cry, don't moan, you're not small
You're not hurt, you're just dead.
Let me take off your boots as a keepsake.
We have yet to advance.
December 6, 1941
The troops of the Western Front under the command of G.K. Zhukov (30th, 1st shock, 20th, 16th and 5th armies - only 100 divisions). The front of the counteroffensive was already 900 kilometers - from Kalinin in the north to Yelets in the south.
Halder would later say that on December 6, 1941, the myth of invincibility was shattered. german army". With the onset of summer, Germany will achieve new victories, but this will not restore the myth of its invincibility.
Before the start of the “final” attack on Moscow, Hitler, addressing the soldiers of the Eastern Front, wrote: “We have Moscow in front of us! For two years of war, all the capitals of the continent bowed before you. You have marched through the streets of the best cities. You have left Moscow. Make her bow down, show her the power of your weapons, walk through her squares. Moscow is the end of the war. Moscow is a vacation. Forward!"
SS Christian Helzer wrote home at the end of October: “When you receive this letter, the Russians will be defeated, we will already be in Moscow, we will march along Red Square. I never dreamed that I would see so many countries. I hope that I will also be present at the parade of our troops in England.
After December 6, a soldier of the 32nd Infantry Regiment, Adolf Fortheimer, sent this letter: “Dear wife! Here is hell. The Russians don't want to leave Moscow. They began to advance. Every hour brings terrible news for us. It is so cold that the soul freezes. You can't go outside in the evening - they'll kill you. I beg you - stop writing to me about the silk and rubber boots that I was supposed to bring you from Moscow. Understand - I'm dying, I'm dying, I feel it.
First in the Air Force guard air regiments became the 29th, 129th, 155th and 526th Fighter Aviation Regiments, the 215th Attack and 31st Bomber Aviation Regiments.
Tank crew junior lieutenant Ermolaev in one battle he destroyed 5 anti-tank guns, destroyed an enemy bunker, two dugouts and destroyed an enemy infantry company.
December 7, 1941
During the counteroffensive near Moscow, the troops of the Western Front liberated Yakhroma, Mikhailov and rushed towards Venev, Stalinogorsk, Epifan. The front-line operational group of Lieutenant General F.Ya. went on the offensive. Kostenko, who dealt the main blow to Livny; troops of the 13th Army of the Southwestern Front started fighting for Yelets.
The headquarters of the German 3rd Panzer Division, which had already been attacked by the troops of the 50th Army since December 3, sent a panicked request by radio to its commander Guderian. Guderian replied: "Burn the vehicles, retreat to the southeast ourselves." On December 8, additional forces descended on Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army, threatening to cut off the enemy's retreat. The entire army of Guderian began to hastily retreat to Uzlovaya and further to Sukhinichi, abandoning heavy weapons, vehicles, tractors and tanks.
Our pilots on the Southern Front shot down 82 German aircraft, destroyed 147 enemy tanks, 86 guns, 23 mortars, 24 anti-aircraft installations, more than 2,600 vehicles with infantry and military supplies and exterminated over 8,000 enemy soldiers and officers.
December 8, 1941
The troops of the Western Front liberated the Kryukovo and Krasnaya Pakhra stations near Moscow. Especially fierce battles were going on in the Kryukov area. For two days our tankers and cavalrymen stormed Kryukovo, the village changed hands several times. How many of our soldiers died there is unknown, but, in any case, not like in the song: “A platoon is dying near the village of Kryukovo ...”
Intense fighting on the northern sector of the Western Front does not weaken day or night. Fierce battles take place at every frontier. Taking advantage of the established winter, our troops begin to use skis. Special detachments of skiers penetrate behind enemy lines and disrupt his battle formations.
Nurse Masyutina carried 35 wounded soldiers with their weapons from the battlefield.
December 9, 1941
reconnaissance Nikolai Andreevich Moiseenko the first marked the beginning of the liberation of Tikhvin from the Nazi invaders. On the night of December 8-9, the enemy was driven out of Tikhvin and driven back tens of kilometers to the south. The front advanced 100-120 kilometers, the Nazi plan to completely isolate Leningrad was thwarted, 10 enemy divisions suffered heavy losses.
Escaped from fascist captivity Sergeant Budyansky and red army Kompaneets M., Kapurin G., Sankachev T., Savchenko I., Podgorny I., Boyko S. and others spoke about the unheard-of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis on captured Red Army soldiers and civilians in the occupied areas: “We were kept in a pit for 4 days, we were not given any food or water. Then they drove to Kremenchug, and from there to the Pavlysh station. The exhausted were shot on the road. In the village of Znamenka, the Germans killed a boy and wounded an old woman for throwing corn to the captured Red Army soldiers. One night we managed to escape. Making our way to our own, we saw how the Nazis brutally cracked down on the population. In the village of Yanovka, the Germans took away all the bread, pigs, cows, chickens, geese and household items from the population. When the Germans began to take the last pig from the collective farmer, whose last name we did not remember, she began to cry. Then the monsters stabbed the woman with a bayonet. In the collective farm "Chervone Selo", going into the courtyard of the collective farmer, the Nazis shot all the ducks from machine guns. The collective farmer could not stand it and asked them to stop shooting. She was shot immediately. In the village of Tymmi, the Germans killed a boy because he approached the German tanks. In the village of Sofiyivka, the Nazis shot 50 women and children for the murder of one Italian officer.
December 12, 1941
Heroic feat done red Army soldier Syplepov. In battle, he set fire to 2 German tanks with flammable liquid bottles, destroyed a machine-gun nest with grenades along with the crew, and exterminated 10 German soldiers.
The participant of the 1st World War, Civil and Patriotic Wars met the 45th anniversary Vasily Nikolaevich Gordov(1896–1950), commander of the 21st Army, Stalingrad Front, 33rd and 3rd Guards Armies. Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General. After the war, he was arrested on a falsified criminal case and shot.
The 30th anniversary of the Soviet writer met Evgeny Zakharovich Vorobyov
(1911–1990), during the war he served as a special correspondent for the front-line newspaper Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda.
December 13, 1941
Soviet troops approached Kalinin and Klin and offered the German garrisons to surrender. They rejected the ultimatum, but hurried to retreat, having set fire to many buildings. Elsewhere, the German retreat was more like a stampede. To the west of Moscow and in the Tula region, the roads for many kilometers were strewn with abandoned guns, trucks, tanks stuck in the snow. Writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who in those days served as an interpreter at the front, recalled: “The retreat of the freezing, snow-covered hordes was like the exodus of Napoleon’s army. On the way to the front, I saw Guderian's formidable tanks rolled away from Moscow, abandoned, knocked out, crushing Europe with their tracks and threatening Moscow. Two German formation commanders died during those days of retreat. The commander of the ground forces, Brauchitsch, was forced to resign. Guderian was recalled and disgraced. Hitler confessed to Goebbels that the retreat of his army, which had suffered a defeat on the outskirts of Moscow, was a nightmare for him and that “if he (Hitler) had shown weakness even for a moment, the front would have turned into a landslide, and such a catastrophe would have approached that would have pushed Napoleon’s far into the shade. It was to this time that the appearance in Soviet folklore of the image of the "winter German", wrapped in women's scarves stolen from civilians, fur boas and with icicles hanging from red noses.
The Pravda newspaper published the first victorious report of the Sovinformburo, which talked about the failure of the German attempts to surround Moscow and talked about the first successes of the Soviet counteroffensive. The newspaper printed portraits of the generals who won the battle for Moscow: G.K. Zhukova, D.D. Lelyushenko, V.I. Kuznetsova, K.K. Rokossovsky, L.A. Govorova, I.V. Boldin, F.I. Golikova, P.A. Belova and, by the way, A.A. Vlasov. As rightly wrote A.I. Solzhenitsyn, Vlasov was one of the most successful generals at the beginning of the war, as the commander of the 99th Infantry Division, he recaptured Przemysl and held the city for 6 days, this division was not taken by surprise on June 22; being later the commander of the 37th army near Kyiv, he left the encirclement and then became the commander of the 20th army near Moscow, which struck the first blow there.
The crew of the BT-7 tank of the 27th armored division of the 20th mountain cavalry division, while on patrol 1.5–2 kilometers from the village of Denisikha (Kubinka region), destroyed three German Pz.III tanks, two of them by ramming . The tank was in ambush, at the edge of the forest. Having found two German tanks emerging from the forest, the tankers set fire to one with cannon fire, and decided to ram the second.
The blow fell on the drive wheel, the caterpillar burst at the "troika". At the BT-7 tank, the engine did not stall, and the tankers, dragging the enemy tank by the skid, threw it off the cliff into the river. Then BT-7 returned to its original position. At this time, another T-3 came out of the forest and stopped at the first lined "German". The BT-7 ran out of armor-piercing shells, and they also decided to ram this tank. Upon impact, the German's drive wheel was cut off and the caterpillar burst, and the engine of the BT-7 stalled. Having started the engine on the fourth attempt, ours fired high-explosive shells several times at the German tank "for persuasiveness", and returned to the starting point.
During the war, cases of ramming tanks by tanks were not isolated, however, for ramming our tankers used heavier vehicles - T-34 and KV. This case is unique. It is surprising precisely in that our tankers successfully rammed a heavier and better protected enemy in a fairly light (both in terms of weight and armor) vehicle.
Collective farmers of the districts Tula region, liberated by the Soviet troops from the Nazi invaders, help the Red Army and Soviet partisans to crush the enemy. So, a group of collective farmers from the village of Brykovo covered the road with snow, along which a unit of German motorcyclists was retreating. German motorcycles crashed into a snow blockage at full speed.
Fire on the enemy. 1941
The Nazis abandoned their cars and fled through the surrounding forests. On December 13, not far from the village of Dubna, collective farmers, armed with pitchforks and stakes, attacked a group of German soldiers and put them into a stampede. The workers of the Koptevsky state farm, armed with rifles and machine guns recaptured from the Germans, together with the Red Army soldiers of one of the units, participated in the battle in which many Germans were exterminated.
December 15, 1941
In order to cut off the Germans' escape route from Klin, on the night of December 15, an airborne assault force (415 people) was thrown into the Teryaeva Sloboda area. The paratroopers intercepted the road to Teryaeva Sloboda, destroyed bridges, destroyed communication lines. Throwing equipment, the enemy had to retreat along country roads. Only separate groups managed to break through from Klin to the west. Unfortunately, this was perhaps the only operation of its kind during the first stage of the Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow.
During the performance of a combat mission, a Soviet military pilot, aviation lieutenant died Georgy Terentyevich Nevkipely(1913–1941), graduate of the Kachinskaya military aviation school, participant in the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars. Squadron commander of the 65th Assault Aviation Regiment (Moscow Defense Zone), he made 29 sorties near Moscow, destroyed several enemy tanks, 250 vehicles with infantry and burned 7 enemy aircraft. Posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Troops General Lelyushenko in one day of fighting with the enemy, they captured 8 German tanks, 6 guns, 16 machine guns, 58 vehicles and other trophies.
Ten Red Army soldiers under the leadership junior political instructor Polyansky in one battle they destroyed 75 fascists, while losing three people wounded.
The Pravda newspaper publishes:
“A wonderful film about the parade will be seen by the whole country. For twelve days on the screens of the nine largest cinemas in Moscow, the film "Parade of our units on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941" is shown with great success. The film delights the audience. Cinema halls are full. For 11 days, cinemas showing this film were visited by about 300,000 Muscovites. By December 12, 300 copies of the picture were printed ... To Leningrad, Kuibyshev. Tbilisi, Novosibirsk sent countertypes of the film for reproduction of copies of the film on the spot and distribution to the periphery; from Novosibirsk to the eastern regions, from Tbilisi to the republics of Transcaucasia. The Film Committee is taking steps to distribute the film widely throughout the country.”
December 17, 1941
As a result of the fighting in the Yasnaya Polyana area, our fighters captured 11 German tanks, an armored car, 119 cars, 9 cars, 16 motorcycles, 208 bicycles, 37 guns, 43 machine guns, 21 mortars, 46 horse carts, one aircraft, 48300 shells, 55 boxes of mines and 150,000 rounds of ammunition.
An outstanding Soviet pilot became a Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Petrovich Silantiev(1918–1996), participant in the war, who made 203 sorties by December 1941. In 35 air battles he shot down 8 enemy aircraft. After the war, after graduating from two military academies, he served as deputy commander-in-chief of the Air Force. Air Marshal.
Our gunners knocked out an enemy tank. The Nazi tankers got out of the car and tried to hide in the forest. Red Army signalman Pomosov under a hurricane of enemy artillery fire, he ran up to the tank, jumped into the hatch and, turning the turret, shot the fleeing fascists with well-aimed machine-gun bursts.
December 18, 1941
On the outskirts of Volokolamsk, near the village of Goryuny, a tankman, senior lieutenant, took the last battle Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko(1914–1941). Attacking the enemy who broke through our positions, he destroyed his 52nd German tank, 2 anti-tank guns and up to fifty German soldiers. On the same day, after the battle, Dmitry Lavrinenko was hit by a mine fragment.
For two and a half months of fierce fighting, the tank hero took part in 28 battles and destroyed 52 Nazi tanks. He became the most productive tanker in the Red Army, but did not become a Hero. December 22, 1941 was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Already in peacetime, numerous submissions for the hero's award at the highest levels (Marshal Katukov, General of the Army Lelyushenko) had an effect on bureaucratic routine. By decree of the President of the USSR of May 5, 1990, for the courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, Lavrinenko Dmitry Fedorovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Pravda newspaper publishes:
“Having broken through the enemy’s line of defense in the areas of Aleksin – Tarusa – Volkovskoye, units of Commander Zakharkin launched an offensive on a wide sector of the front. Over the past day, our troops liberated from fascist invaders up to 60 settlements. The German beasts retreating in panic, leaving the villages, burn houses, shoot civilians, torture the elderly and children, and torture wounded Red Army soldiers. In the village of Spasskoye, fascist bandits shot 10 wounded Red Army soldiers. In the village of Rakitino, the Germans staged a brutal massacre of the chairman of the local village council, Elena Savelyevna Shiryaeva. Having gathered the entire population of the village, the Germans hung Shiryaeva by the legs and mocked her for a long time. When Shiryaeva tried to free the noose, the fascist monsters cut off her hands and shot Shiryaeva's infant son before her eyes.
The participant of the Soviet-Finnish and Patriotic wars met the 20th anniversary Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin(1921-1997), who later became an outstanding Russian circus and film artist, a great clown, people's artist USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor.
December 19, 1941
A 38-year-old commander of a cavalry corps, major general, Hero of the Soviet Union, died in a battle near Ruza, near Moscow Lev Mikhailovich Dovator(1903–1941). At the beginning of the war, he commanded a cavalry group, made several raids on the rear of the enemy, disorganizing his defenses. During the Battle of Moscow, he commanded the Guards Cavalry Corps, which distinguished itself with unparalleled valor during the most difficult period of the defense of Moscow in the autumn-winter of 1941. During one of the battles on December 19, 1941, in the area of Ruza near Moscow, the Cossacks lay down; their attack is about to choke. And then, dismounting, Dovator crawled like a plastunsky into the chain of fighters. In the frosty air his voice sounded loudly: "Communists - forward!". The general stood up to his full height, and suddenly there was a heavy fire of enemy machine guns. A day later (December 21) he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The enemy at dawn, after strong artillery and mortar preparations, resumed the attack on Sevastopol. Continuous fighting with increasing force continued throughout the day. The defenders of the city resisted fiercely. So, on the site of the 8th Marine Brigade, the chief of staff of the brigade, Major A.K. Kerner, company commanders, Captain S.S. Sleznikov, and senior lieutenant D.F. The commander of the brigade, Colonel E. I. Zhidilov, was seriously wounded.
The Pravda newspaper publishes:
"Southwestern Front. Retreating under the pressure of our units, the Germans took with them an old collective farmer Comrade. Spiridonov and offered him to show the way. Spiridonov led the Germans out of the village at night and said: “I don’t know the way, I forgot ...” The barbarian fascists shot Spiridonov, a valiant Russian patriot. Our people will not forget his feat, his boundless love for the motherland.
December 20, 1941
The Red Army liberated Volokolamsk after bloody battles. There was a gallows in the central square of the city. They had already managed to remove the bodies from it: local residents said that the executed people hung for a month - the Germans did not allow them to be buried.
During the month-long occupation of the city, the Nazis burned 126 captured soldiers alive, shot and killed 86 civilians, hanged eight Komsomol members from Moscow, destroyed and burned seven industrial enterprises, about 100 residential buildings and institutions.
Eight Red Army scouts, led by platoon commander Karamendinov penetrated behind enemy lines and organized an ambush along the road. Soon 4 vehicles with 80 German soldiers appeared. Brave Soviet soldiers, throwing grenades at the enemy, exterminated over 20 Nazis. Having destroyed several more Germans in the ensuing skirmish, the scouts skillfully left the battle and returned to their unit without loss.
December 21, 1941
The troops of the right wing of the Western Front reached the line of the Lama and Ruza rivers, where until December 25 they fought with the enemy. The mobile group of the 50th Army broke into Kaluga and started street fighting with the German garrison.
The 45th anniversary was celebrated by an outstanding Soviet military leader, the legendary commander Patriotic War Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky(1896-1968), who was among the first creators of our victory. The troops under his command distinguished themselves in the battle of Smolensk, the battles near Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk and other operations. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Soviet Union and Marshal of Poland. He was Minister of National Defense and Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Poland, Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. Awarded 7 orders of Lenin, 6 orders of the Red Banner, the highest military order "Victory".
December 22, 1941
Every day the combat score of a sniper of the 54th Infantry Regiment (25th Infantry Division (Chapaevskaya), Lieutenant Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlichenko(1916–1974). And in total, by July 1942, she destroyed 309 Nazis. During the defensive battles, she trained dozens of good snipers, who, following her example, exterminated more than one hundred Nazis. She was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on October 25, 1943. A street in Sevastopol is named after her.
In the battle for the village of Harino, a Soviet tanker comrade Fomichev with the tracks of his tank, he destroyed an enemy anti-tank gun and about 160 German soldiers. Tank comrade Pugacheva suppressed in the same battle 2 anti-tank guns and exterminated 90 German soldiers and officers. tank commander senior sergeant Baranbay with well-aimed fire destroyed 4 German vehicles, 4 machine guns and a platoon of enemy infantry.
Heroic Soviet women, helping the Red Army to destroy the Nazi invaders, join the ranks of the Red Cross combatants. Only the Moscow regional organizations of the Red Cross during the war trained 3,000 combatants and nurses. Most of them successfully work in the headquarters of the MPVO, at the front, in ambulance trains and hospitals.
Recently, fascist planes dropped bombs on the ambulance train No. 100. Despite the imminent danger, the combatants carried seriously wounded soldiers out of the cars and hid them in the forest. Druzhinnitsa Vera Isaeva covered the wounded soldier with her body from fragments of enemy bombs. Being herself wounded, comrade. Isaeva continued to save the fighters. Vigilantes of the Klinsky district Marusya Karivanova, Claudia Rogozhina and others saved the lives of 50 people by carrying them out of the burning house. The combatants of the Dmitrovsky district, the Moscow region, work just as selflessly. Utkin, Chekunova, Shirokov, Emelyanova and many other patriots of the Soviet country.
December 23, 1941
For several days, the 350th Rifle Division of the Kalinin Front fought hard at Selizharovo, north of Rzhev. A participant in those battles, T. Pilipenko, described the completely unprepared battle of her division as follows: “The rifles did not fire (they did not have time to remove the factory grease from them), and the Germans fired heavily from machine guns. Shouts, obscenities, curses… The commander was stupid and stubborn, drove battalion after battalion… Ask those who were rising from the trenches what they were shouting (certainly not toasts to the leader. And some words are uncomfortable to write).”
Famous Belarusian partisan celebrates 50th birthday Minai Filippovich Shmyrev(1891–1964), who became the organizer of the partisan movement in Belarus during World War II. His detachment included cardboard workers, and Shmyrev himself, after the detachment, commanded a partisan brigade (1st Belorussian) and worked at the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, four Orders of Lenin and became an honorary citizen of Vitebsk.
The Pravda newspaper publishes:
“Having captured Latvia, the Germans expected meek obedience from the Latvian people. But the invaders miscalculated cruelly. Latvian soldiers and officers fought shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army against the German invaders. Latvians also took part in the battles near Moscow. The Latvian division showed what the people of this wonderful, proud and freedom-loving people are capable of.”
December 24, 1941
Kalinin front. Fighters and commanders show examples of heroism, courage, military prowess in fierce battles.
Senior Lieutenant Romadin made his way with fifteen fighters to the enemy rear. He discovered a German convoy, near which up to 70 soldiers had accumulated. Romadin with his fighters quietly crept up to the enemy. From a distance of 150 meters, fire was opened from machine guns and rifles. 15 Nazi soldiers were killed, the rest fled. Our group had no losses.
Junior commander Tokarev and red army soldier Sidorov under a hail of bullets, they crawled up to the barn, where an enemy machine gun was installed. Brave Soviet soldiers threw grenades at the Germans and destroyed the entire machine-gun crew. Platoon leader of the same unit comrade Tukhovlen with a group of fighters, he made his way during the attack to the dugout where the Germans were. The Red Army soldiers threw grenades at the enemy, killed four Nazis and seized a machine gun.
Part-commander Communist Ivanov, twice wounded, still did not leave the battlefield, and only after the third wound was evacuated. Komsomol sergeant Chuev was instructed to lay a line of communication. On the way to Chuev and Red Army soldier Hilles attacked by fascist submachine gunners. Chuev ordered Hilles to deliver the cable to the unit, and he himself began to shoot back from the pressing enemies. He was wounded in the leg. Pulling it with a belt, he continued to shoot. The Germans surrounded Chuev when he was already running out of bullets and offered to surrender. Preferring death to the disgrace of captivity, the communications hero fired the last bullet into his temple.
December 26, 1941
The Kerch-Feodosiya landing operation began - the first significant landing operation of the Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War. From December 26 to 31, the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, the Azov military flotilla landed about 40 thousand people, 43 tanks, 434 guns and mortars in the north and east of the Kerch Peninsula. The Kerch enemy grouping was 25 thousand people - the main German forces in the Crimea were concentrated near Sevastopol. The initial impact force of our troops was impressive. Together with units of the Crimean Front, the paratroopers advanced more than 100 kilometers west and already on December 30 liberated Kerch and Feodosia.
The Pravda newspaper publishes:
"The hero of the USSR captain Basov, performing combat mission, with his tank rammed 4 heavy and 7 light enemy tanks, crushed a camouflaged aircraft with caterpillars, destroyed up to a hundred Nazis. The Germans managed to set fire to the hero's car. Without leaving the burning tank, the crew continued to strike at the enemy and died a heroic death along with their fearless commander.
The paramedics provided great assistance to the troops. Carried out from the battlefield and provided first aid to 40 wounded that day by a nurse of the 4th battalion of the 7th Marine Brigade Lydia Nozenko. medical instructor Natasha Lapteva took out from the battlefield more than 30 wounded with weapons, and in just four days of fighting -90 (!) People. Heroically behaved nurse sapper battalion Klava Shchelkunova. Once surrounded with a group of wounded, the girl boldly entered into a fight with the Nazis and managed to bring the wounded to the location of the unit.
Soviet military pilot celebrated his 25th birthday Nikolai Fyodorovich Kuznetsov(1916–2000), who later became a Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Military Pilot of the USSR, Doctor of Military Sciences, Major General of Aviation, Head of the Cosmonaut Training Center.
The counteroffensive of the Soviet troops in the battle of Moscow. Soldiers in camouflage go on the attack in a village near Moscow, occupied by Nazi troops.
December 27, 1941
Hero of the Soviet Union became a junior lieutenant Nikolay Vasilievich Oplesnin(1914–1942), participant in the war. Assistant Chief of the Operations Department of the 111th Rifle Division (52nd Separate Army), he, being surrounded on September 20, 25 and 29, 1941, swam the Volkhov (Novgorod Region), conducted reconnaissance of the area, which contributed to the exit from the encirclement of his entire division . Killed in battle.
Unit machine gunners junior lieutenant Shandur in one of the battles, 100 enemy soldiers were exterminated and 5 cars, several motorcycles and 30,000 rounds of ammunition were captured. The next day, the fighters of the Shandur unit captured another 26 vehicles, a medium tank, 2 tractors, a heavy gun, 3 machine guns and a large amount of ammunition.
December 28, 1941
By December 28, senior pilot of the 3rd aviation squadron of the 57th assault aviation regiment of the 8th bomber aviation brigade of the Air Force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet junior lieutenant Alexei Efimovich Mazurenko(1917–2004) completed 45 sorties. Personally and in a group, he destroyed 10 tanks, 18 armored vehicles, 115 vehicles, 1 heavy gun, 9 field artillery guns, 14 anti-aircraft guns, 17 anti-aircraft machine-gun points, 22 wagons, 10 tanks, a lot of enemy manpower. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 23, 1942, the pilot was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Telephonist Ulyana Potapenko repairing line damage under enemy fire.
From January 1944 until the end of the war - commander of the 7th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment of the 9th Assault Aviation Division of the Air Force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. By August 17, 1944, he made 202 successful sorties. He personally sank 8 enemy ships (5 transports and 3 minesweepers) and 22 as part of a group (6 transports, 6 minesweepers, 1 patrol ship, 2 high-speed landing barges, 7 patrol boats). He also destroyed a large number of military equipment on land personally and as part of a group - 21 tanks, 185 vehicles, 18 armored vehicles, 33 anti-aircraft guns, 9 field guns, 33 wagons and other equipment. On November 5, 1944, Lieutenant Colonel A.E. Mazurenko was awarded the title twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
The participant of the Soviet-Finnish and Patriotic wars, the Soviet military pilot met the 30th anniversary Evgeny Petrovich Fedorov(1911–1993). He successfully delivered bombing strikes on concentrations of enemy troops in the Crimea, twice became a Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General of Aviation.
The 25th anniversary was met by a participant in the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River and the Patriotic War Vasily Andreevich Voronin(19161944), who later became a Hero of the Soviet Union, Major of the Guards. The commander of the battalion of the 37th Guards Rifle Regiment (Central Front), at the end of September 1943, in the battles for the liberation of the Chernihiv region, he knocked out the enemy from 6 settlements, knocked out 3 tanks, quickly crossed the Dnieper, captured a bridgehead, expanded it in fierce battles and held before the approach of the main forces of the regiment. The hero died of his wounds.
December 29, 1941
On December 25, 1941, the Feodosia-Kerch landing operation began, which aimed to help the troops of the besieged Sevastopol, and, if possible, its release. On December 26, tactical landings were landed on the Azov coast, and in the morning of the 29th, impudently, mooring at the berths of Feodossia captured by the Nazis, in front of the Germans, cruisers and transports began landing an advanced landing force directly into the port of the occupied city. A little earlier, at 3.30 am, the Koktebel landing force was landed from the D-5 Spartakovets submarine. Simultaneously with the Koktebel landing, a landing was planned in the settlement. Sarygol, however, due to the lack of watercraft, the Sarygol landing was canceled.
The Koktebel landing was considered a distraction - the reconnaissance group of sailors was tasked with tying up the Koktebel garrison in battle so that it could not provide any assistance to the German and Romanian troops in the Feodossia region. Only volunteers were recruited into the landing. As one of the landing participants later recalled: “None of us really hoped to survive then, but I really wanted to help the brothers in Sevastopol.”
The enemy garrison of Koktebel, fearing a new landing in their area, took up defensive positions and did not take any active actions, which was what the Black Sea people actually wanted. By the end of January 1, the Soviet troops, developing the offensive, reached Koktebel and the Red Navy got the opportunity to join the main forces. At that time, about ten people remained alive, almost all were injured. On January 2, the offensive of our troops stopped, and the wounded soldiers were cast to the rear. Until the end of the war, three participants in this landing survived - G.D. Gruby, M.E. Lipai and, apparently, V. Osievsky. After the war, in honor of the feat of the heroes-sailors, the central street of the village. Koktebel (also known as Planerskoye) was renamed the street of paratroopers.
The Koktebel landing force completely completed the task - with minimal forces, it pinned down the enemy garrison and did not allow it to come to the aid of its troops on the Kerch Peninsula, or any other actions to
interfere with our troops conducting the Feodosia-Kerch landing
operation. Unfortunately, the situation at the end of 1941 was still such that it was necessary to massively resort to operations such as "distracting landings", in which the chances of participants to survive tended to zero.
December 30, 1941
The Red Army liberated Kaluga after fierce fighting. At dawn, Soviet troops stormed the station, which was turned by the Germans into a fortress. The Germans fought desperately hard.
During the occupation and fighting in the city, almost all industrial enterprises, 495 buildings of cultural institutions, 445 residential buildings. The Germans plundered the house-museum of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, destroyed the archive of the scientist, and stole models of rockets.
Red Army cooks Chadin and Ivanov were surrounded by ten German machine gunners. Brave Red Army soldiers went into battle with the enemies. Tov. Chadin stabbed 3 German soldiers with a bayonet, and comrade. Ivanov shot the officer, the rest of the enemies fled.
December 31, 1941
The troops of the Western Front liberated the city of Belev.
By December 31, the Red Army had lost 2,993,803 people killed and 1,314,291 wounded since the beginning of the war (a total of 4,308,094 people). According to some sources, 2 million people were captured, according to others - 3.9 million. Almost the entire first strategic echelon, the most trained personnel troops, perished. In addition, the Red Army lost more than 6 million units small arms(67 percent of what was available on June 22, 1941), 20 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts(91 percent), 100 thousand guns and mortars (90 percent), 10 thousand aircraft (90 percent), the total loss of ammunition amounted to 24 thousand wagons.
During the same period, the Germans lost 750 thousand (according to other sources 830 thousand) killed and wounded on the Eastern Front.
On the Leningrad front, a branch senior sergeant Zaforozhan attacked two enemy wood-and-earth firing points and destroyed several dozen German soldiers in them. In the battle for the village of Novoselki, the detachment captured 4 enemy anti-tank guns and immediately opened fire from them on the retreating enemy. Accurate fire destroyed about a company of German soldiers and officers.
AT Central Russia came in December very coldy- the temperature reached minus 42 degrees, besides there was a strong wind. The German troops distributed a “Reminder about great colds” with many tips: “Specially protect the lower abdomen from the cold with a lining of newsprint between the undershirt and sweatshirt. Put felt, a handkerchief, crumpled newsprint or a garrison cap with a balaclava in a helmet ... Armlets can be made from old socks. The Germans froze terribly and warmed themselves, as best they could, taking things from the population. A few lucky ones got peasant sheepskin coats, urban wadded coats or ladies' boas. But usually the German soldiers looked like this: the heads of the soldiers were tied with women's scarves, some wore children's bonnets under black helmets, weaved huge boots from straw. In the second military winter, the Germans were already dressed in warm quilted overalls.
After the war, the German generals unanimously began to say that the reason for the defeat near Moscow was first the mud, and then the terrible frosts that struck. It would be extremely naive to believe that mud or cold did not cause any inconvenience to our troops: our soldiers with the same difficulty pulled equipment stuck in the muddy ground and froze in the same overcoats. The army was dressed in sheepskin coats only the following winter; in the winter of 1941/42, officers and a few lucky ones had them.
The Nazis in the occupied Soviet territories have destroyed 500,000 Jews since the beginning of the war.
B 66 Battle of Moscow. Chronicle, facts, people: In 2 books. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2001. - Book. 1. - 926 p.: ill. - (Archive). ISBN 5-224-03184-2 (gen.) ISBN 5-224-03185-0 (book 1)
EXTRACT FROM OPERATIONAL SUMMARY No. 279
GENERAL STAFF OF THE RED ARMY
at 8.00 2.12.41
The 5th Army fought with the enemy, especially fierce in the area between pp. ISTRA and MOSCOW, where the enemy has concentrated up to two infantry units with tanks.
108th Rifle Division, under pressure from superior enemy forces, left BORISKOVO, KOZMINO and fought at the line of the western edge of the forest 1 km east of the BORKI area. A group of enemy submachine gunners leaked into the SINKOVO area.
144th Rifle Division repulsed repeated enemy attacks and occupied the former line.
50th Rifle Division occupied the former line of defense.
149 joint venture left TROITSKOYE, VLASOVO.
20 brigade at 12.50 1.12 left VOLKOVO and the village of RYAZAN.
82nd Medical and 32nd Rifle Divisions occupied the former lines of defense, having allocated part of their forces to fight enemy tanks that had broken through from the GOLOVENKI area to Akulovo.
The 33rd Army fought stubborn defensive battles with the enemy, who went on the offensive in the morning of 1.12 in the Mozhaisk and Naro-Fominsk directions.
At 13.40 1.12, up to 60-70 enemy tanks with motorized infantry broke through along the NARO-FOMINSK - KUBINKA highway and by 16.00 part of the forces were attacking Akulovo and MAL. SEMENYCHI. 15 enemy tanks were destroyed in the Akulovo area.
Our unit, operating on one of the sectors of the Western Front, defeated the reinforced enemy battalion and captured 14 mortars, 3 heavy machine guns, a gun, 75 boxes of cartridges, 160 machine-gun belts and other trophies.
During December 2, our troops fought the enemy on all fronts. On the Western Front, several fierce attacks by the Nazi troops were repulsed. The enemy suffered losses in men and weapons.
Fighters Comrade. Maslennikov in a battle on one of the sections of the Western Front, they destroyed 3 enemy mortar batteries, 10 heavy machine guns, 8 wood-and-earth points, set fire to a base with fuel and exterminated up to 1000 German soldiers and officers.
Moscow battle in the chronicle of facts and events. - M.: Military Publishing, 2004. - 504 p.: ill.
The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, having transferred 5 divisions and 7 rifle brigades to the commander of the Moscow Military District, ordered to immediately occupy the outer defensive belt of the capital, and on the basis of the Moscow Defense Department to create a new operational formation - the Moscow Defense Zone (MZO), the commander of which was appointed Lieutenant General P.I. A. Artemiev. The MZO included the 24th and 60th armies (1521). By this decision, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command deployed the second strategic defense echelon of Moscow in the rear of the Western Front.
During the day, the troops of the Western Front fought fierce battles with the advancing enemy and at the same time launched counterattacks on him.
The 1st shock army of Lieutenant General V. I. Kuznetsov, defending the line of Dmitrov, Yakhroma, Iksha, part of the forces advanced on Grigorkovo, Sokolnikovo (10–12 km southwest of Yakhroma). In the defense zone of the 16th Army (commanded by Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky), German tanks broke into the station. Kryukovo. The group of Major General F. T. Remizov drove the enemy out of Poyarkovo (5 km west of the village of Krasnaya Polyana). Parts of the 18th Infantry Division of Colonel P. N. Chernyshev during the offensive captured Bakeevo (6 km southwest of the Kryukovo station), Nadovrazhino (3 km north of the city of Dedovsk), Selivanikha (2 km north of the village of Snegiri).
North of Naro-Fominsk, units of the 5th Army, Lieutenant General of Artillery L.A. Govorov, continued to repel enemy attacks in the Akulovo area. In the morning a group of German tanks and infantry tried to reach the Kiev highway. However, the anti-tank area of the 33rd Army in Rassudovo (6 km west of the Alabino platform) turned out to be on their way. Having lost 7 tanks, the Nazis were forced to retreat. Turning to the east, by evening they occupied the Yushkovo, Petrovskoye, Burtsevo area (0.5–2 km north of the Alabino platform). South of Naro-Fominsk, the enemy, having captured Afanasovka, Machikhino, increased the penetration depth to 8–9 km. The enemy did not go further: the militias of the former 4th and 5th DNO of Moscow (110th and 113th rifle divisions, commanders Colonels I. I. Matusevich and K. I. Mironov) stood here to death.
South of Moscow, units of the mobile group of Major General P. A. Belov, continuing to advance in the direction of Mordves, drove the enemy back 25 km from Kashira. In the Tula region, the 50th Army fought heavy battles with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army, which resumed the offensive in order to capture the city. The main blow around Tula from the north was delivered by the 24th motorized corps. The 43rd Army Corps (1522) advanced towards him from the Aleksin area.
The Military Council of the Western Front ordered the commanders of: 33rd Army (Lieutenant General M. G. Efremov) with the forces of front-line reserves transferred to his disposal (18th Rifle Brigade, 136th and 148th separate tank battalions and two ski battalions) on the morning of December 3, launch a counterattack, eliminate the enemy that had broken through into the Yushkovo area and completely restore the situation; The 20th Army (Major General A. A. Vlasov) from 7 o'clock on December 3, go on the offensive on Solnechnogorsk; The 30th Army (Major General D. D. Lelyushenko) from the morning of December 6, go on a decisive offensive with all its forces in the directions of Novozavidovsky, Rogachevo and Klin, covering it from the north (1523).
In accordance with the requirements of the GKO decree of ZOL 1.41, the creation of forest blockages on the distant and near approaches to Moscow began with the forces mobilized in Moscow and the region (1524).
The squadron commander of the 736th Fighter Regiment, Senior Lieutenant I.S. Parshikov, paired with Junior Lieutenant A.K. Ryazanov, patrolling over Pavshino (the western outskirts of Moscow), shot down one enemy aircraft in an unequal battle with nine Me-109s (1525).
85 thousand people took part in the construction of forest blockages, on some days more than 100 thousand people. Forest blockages had a length of about 1400 km, their total area reached 532 square meters. kilometers (1526).
The Executive Committee of the Moscow Council allocated about 3 million rubles (1527) for defensive work.
Honored Art Worker Professor A. Gedicke finished the dramatic overture "1941". It was intended to be performed by a symphony orchestra (1528).
