At the Gates of Moscow - Furthest German Advance 1941

[Music] 22nd of June 1941 Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa the largest invasion in history its target Stalin's Soviet Union [Music] [Music] it was the culmination of Hitler's thinking and theorizing about dealing with what he perceived to be his biggest enemy Soviet Communism 3.8 million axis soldiers would invade and fight in the five-month operation to destroy the USSR the Red Army caught off-guard by the timing of the German assault it's officer corps fatally weakened by political purges reeled under the attacks the German armies concentrated on three main objectives Leningrad Moscow and Kiev in the first 30 days field marshal Ritter fond leaves Army Group north drove within 135 miles of Leningrad while Hitler's Finnish allies also attacked towards the city in the center of the front field marshal Farrow von Bock's Army Group center drove 480 miles Ford many of the Soviet Union's most important cities fell to the Germans [Music] on the 17th of July from Bach captured Smolensk the key to Moscow at the same time army group south and a Field Marshal GERD von Rundstedt cut a swathe through the Ukraine it appeared as though the Soviet Union was finished Stalin had eight hundred thousand men with which to defend the capital but of the AZ three divisions available only some twenty-five were fully operational the Germans launched Operation typhoon the assault on Moscow on the 30th of September 1941 Army Group center had to overcome a series of elaborate defensive lines centered on cities in the path to Moscow the second Panzer group took oriole 75 miles south of the Soviet first main defensive line three days later the Panzers captured Bryansk while the Germans second army attacked from the south the Soviet 3rd and 13th armies were encircled in the north the 3rd and 4th Panzer armies attacked the Asthma trapping four Soviet armies the Germans had cracked Moscow's first offensive line and captured over six hundred and sixty-three thousand prisoners from a total of three million captured since the start of Barbarossa Stalin had only about 90,000 men and 150 tanks left to defend Moscow itself on the 13th of October the 3rd Panzer group was only 87 miles from Moscow martial law was declared in the city [Music] but the weather was bad with heavy rain and snow that turned the roads into mud German tanks with their narrow tracks struggled to cope on the 31st of October a temporary halt to the advance was called so that the Germans could reorganize their precarious supply situation this gave the Soviets a breathing space Stalin organised 11 new armies that included 30 divisions of tough Siberian troops better able to cope with such conditions a thousand tanks also arrived as the temperature fell the mud froze and the German advance resumed on the 15th of November the German plan was to move the third and fourth Panzer armies across the Moscow Volga canal and enveloped the city from the Northeast the 2nd Panzer group would attack Tula then closed on Moscow from the south these movements would cause the bulk of the Soviet armies to move to deal with these threats as they did so the German 4th army would attack the center for two weeks short of fuel and ammunition the German armies fought Ford towards the city in the south the Soviets stopped the second Panzer group on the 22nd of November Siberian units counter-attack and defeated the 2nd Panzer but the 4th Panzer group managed to push the Soviets back and cross the Moscow Volga canal the last major obstacle before the city itself units of the 7th Panzer Division were now 22 miles from red square and the kremlin but this group got no further board on the 28th of november when a powerful Soviet counter-attack pushed them back Northwest of Moscow the Germans reached Krasnaya Polyana now Lavanya just 18 miles from the kremlin but again stiff soviet resistance and germans supply problems stopped them cold however the German 250 aides Infantry Division got closer part of the divisions Panzer pioneer battalion appeared to have discovered a gap in the Soviet lines on the 2nd of December 1941 a small number of light vehicles and motorcycle combinations reached the township of kin-kee close to the Moscow Ring Road accidentally visited Kim he some years ago when I missed a connecting flight at nearby Sheremetyevo Airport and spent a night in the town and this is all that the Germans managed as well officers claimed to have seen through binoculars the gleaming golden domes and spires of red square and the kremlin from their position at kim key they were 14 miles from the kremlin but the story is either exaggerated or a case of mistaken identity Moscow in 1941 was fairly low rise so the Kremlin's building certainly stood out on the skyline but many high-rise Soviet apartment blocks had been built along the main highways out of the city centre also Kim ki and 1941 contained no tall buildings from which to get an elevated view of the far distance another problem with the story was the fact that the Soviets had camouflaged both red square and the kremlin the golden spires had been painted in dark colors the Kremlin walls painted to look like buildings with windows camouflage and plywood structures had been erected on Red Square to confuse the street layout from the German Luftwaffe and Lenin's Mausoleum had been disguised as a two-story residential building in the snowy cold conditions the Germans probably saw snow and frost reflecting off the roofs in strong sunlight or they saw other towers and church domes in the general direction of central Moscow whatever the truth Kim key was as far as the Germans managed to get towards Moscow the small number of German troops in the township waited for support that never came and on the 3rd of December a Soviet force of local militia supported by a few t-34 tanks managed to push them out of Kim key if you want to see the spot today the point of farthest German advance has been marked since 1966 by a memorial consisting of giant Czech tank traps at kilometer 23 on the Leningrad square highway into Moscow next to a giant IKEA furniture store a severe winter weather descended and supply problems continued the German offensive against Moscow stalled on the 5th of December the Soviets launched a massive counter-attack [Music] by the 7th of January 1942 when the Soviet offensive halted the Germans had been pushed back between sixty and a hundred and fifty miles from Moscow the battle for Moscow was over thanks for watching please subscribe and share also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton details below you can also help support both of my channels and PayPal and patreon details in the description box [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 7,400,117

Keywords: Moscow 1941, Panzers

Id: yJj6qBC3h5w

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 25 2020