The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

877 Pages·2013·24.14 MB·English

by  Lev Lopukhovsky

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Published by Helion & Company 2013
Designed and typeset by Farr out Publications, Wokingham, Berkshire
Cover designed by Euan Carter, Leicester (www.euancarter.com)
Printed by Gutenberg Press Limited, Tarxien, Malta
Text © Lev Lopukhovsky 2008. English edition translated and edited by Stuart Britton, ©
Helion & Company Limited 2013.
Maps © Helion & Company Limited 2013.
For © of photographs see credits within the book.
Originally published as 1941: Viazemskaia katastrofa (Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008).
ISBN: 978 1 908916 50 1
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 910294 18 5
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Front cover: German soldiers search a Soviet prisoner. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-136-0877-
08, photo: Bruno Plenik.)
Rear cover: Militia volunteers of Moscow’s Dzerzhinksy District, July 1941.
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Contents
List of photographs
List of maps
Key to map abbreviations
List of tables
Introduction
Part 1 Instead of a Prologue
The General Situation on the Soviet-German front by September 1941
Soviet operations on the Western strategic direction
The German march on Moscow pauses
Soviet forces launch a counteroffensive
The Dukhovshchina and El’nia offensives
Results of the Smolensk battles
Part 2 Before the Storm
The plans of the Nazi command
The relative strength of the opposing sides
The Stavka orders a rigid defense
The defensive fronts organize their defenses
The defensive lines on the approaches to the capital
The creation and composition of the Moscow militia
General Eremenko neglects his defenses and instead attacks
Part 3 The Typhoon Gathers Strength
Guderian initiates Operation Typhoon
Von Bock sets his troops in motion
The Luftwaffe disrupts command and control
The Germans seize Dnepr River bridges
The commanders of Briansk Front and Western Front request
permission to withdraw
The causes for the collapse of three Soviet Front defenses
Part 4 The Retreat
The Western Front and Group Boldin are involved in heavy fighting
The German breakthrough to Iukhnov
Questions surrounding the decision to withdraw
The Western Front retreats to the Rzhev – Viaz’ma line
The ring of encirclement snaps shut
The Germans hunt for ‘Timoshenko’s headquarters’
The Reserve Front commander goes missing
Photo Gallery

Part 5 In Encirclement
Von Bock’s further plans
The prepared defensive line along the Dnepr must be abandoned
General Lukin assumes command of the encircled forces west of
Viaz’ma
The retreat from the Dnepr River line
Attempts to break out of encirclement on 9 and 10 October
The situation of the Red Army forces encircled southwest of Viaz’ma
Changes in the higher command of the Red Army
The Stavka’s dilemma
The situation in the Briansk Front sector
Briansk Front creates a breach in the encircling German lines
Western Front’s Military Council deliberates: Defend or break out?
Part 6 Catastrophe
Initial steps to rebuild a strategic front
Could the Stavka have rescued the forces encircled west of Viaz’ma?
The 19th Army prepares to break out of encirclement
The 19th Army’s breakout attempt on 11 October fails
The decision to break out to the south is reached
The fighting southwest of Viaz’ma
The fighting in the Viaz’ma area winds down
Von Bock is compelled to suspend the offensive
Hitler’s plan to crush the Soviet forces and seize Moscow is a failure
Part 7 The Dimensions of the Defeat
Operation Typhoon triggers a panic in Moscow; a state of siege is
declared
Official data on the Soviet losses are sharply understated
An unsuccessful method of calculating losses, or a political order?
Part 8 Epilogue
Appendices
I Comparative Strength of a Soviet Rifle Division and a German
Infantry Division, 1941
II German Unit Organizations
III Comparative Strength of a Soviet Tank and German Panzer Division,
1941
IV Operational Strength of the Wehrmacht’s Panzer Divisions and
Separate Panzer Battalions at the Start of Operation Barbarossa
V Irreplaceable Losses of the Wehrmacht in Armor and Anti-Tank Guns
on the Eastern Front in 1941
VI Available Tanks in the Third Panzer Group’s Panzer Divisions in
September 1941
VII Available Tanks in the Panzer Groups of Army Group Center for
Operation Typhoon
VIII Comparative Technical and Performance Characteristics of Soviet and
German Tanks and their Armament
IX State Defense Committee Decree “On the Voluntary Mobilization of
the Workers of Moscow and Moscow Oblast for the People’s Militia
Divisions”
X Roster and Organization of the People’s Militia Divisions of Moscow
that had joined the Acting Army by the start of Operation Typhoon
XI Hitler’s Order of the Day to the German troops on the Eastern Front
issued 2 October 1941
XII The title page from L. N. Lopukhovsky’s book on the history of the
120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the Supreme Command
Reserve, showing the Frunze Military Academy military censor’s
approval for publication
XIII The 32nd Army commander’s order for the withdrawal of the 2nd
Rifle Division (original)
XIV The 19th Army commander’s operational instruction that
countermanded the order from the 32nd Army commander
XV The 19th Army commander’s Combat Order No. 73 from 8 October
1941 to the commander of the 2nd Rifle Division about escaping the
encirclement (original)
XVI The 19th Army commander’s Combat Instruction No. 74 from 9
October 1941 about withdrawing the units of the 2nd Rifle Division
(original)
XVII Combat Order No. 71
XVIII Explanation of the commander of the 166th Rifle Division Major-
General M. Ia. Dodonov
XIX State Defense Committee Decree on the Evacuation of the Capital City
of the USSR Moscow, 15 October 1941
XX State Defense Committee Decree No. 813 from 19 October 1941 about
Implementing a State of Siege in Moscow and the Adjacent Areas
from 20 October
Notes
Selected Bibliography
List of photographs
Supreme Commander I. V. Stalin.
Commander-in-chief of the Western Direction, commander of the Western
Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko.
At Führer Headquarters; from left to right: Walther von Brauchitsch, Hitler,
Franz Halder, 1941.
Chief of the OKH General Staff Colonel General Franz Halder.
Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko, the commander of the Briansk Front.
Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery
Regiment.
Senior Lieutenant A.A. Purgin, chief of staff of the 120th Howitzer Artillery
Regiment’s 2nd Battalion.
The commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock.
Colonel-General I.S. Konev, commander of the Western Front.
Marshal of the Soviet Union S.M. Budenny, commander of the Reserve Front.
Moscow citizens at work on building a defensive line.
Militia volunteers of Moscow’s Dzerzhinksy District, July 1941.
Commander of the 2nd Rifle Division (formerly the 2nd People’s Militia
Division) Major-General V. P. Vashkevich.
Colonel-General Hermann Hoth, commander of the Third Panzer Group.
Colonel-General Adolf Strauss, commander of the Ninth Army.
A German halftrack mounting a 37mm gun on the left, and a 47mm gun on a
self-propelled carriage on the right.
Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, commander of the Fourth Army.
Colonel-General Erich Hoepner, commander of the Fourth Panzer Group.
Colonel-General Maximilian von Weichs, commander of the Second Army.
Commander of the 4th (from 11 November 1941, the 1st Guards) Tank Brigade
M. E. Katukov.
Lieutenant-General I.V. Boldin, deputy commander of the Western Front.
Division Commissar K.F. Telegin, member of the Moscow Theater of
Operations’ Military Council.
Captain I. G. Starchak, chief of the Western Front’s Paraborne Service.
Lieutenant-General K. K. Rokossovsky, commander of the 16th Army.
Lieutenant-General F. A. Ershakov, commander of the 20th Army.
German infantry on the march.
A battery of Soviet 85mm anti-aircraft guns.
Major-General S. V. Vishnevsky, commander of the 32nd Army.
Evacuation of the wounded aboard S-2 aerial ambulances.
German Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers prepare to take-off from a dirt airfield.
Results of a German air attack on a Soviet troop column.
Colonel L. M. Sandalov, deputy chief of staff of Briansk Front.
Lieutenant-General M. F. Lukin, commander of the 19th Army.
I. L. Sheklanov, a member of 19th Army’s Military Council.
V. G. Vaneev, a member of 19th Army’s Military Council.
German forces advancing along the Minsk highway toward Moscow.
Lieutenant-General A. M. Gorodniansky, commander of the 13th Army.
Major-General Ia. G. Kreizer, commander of the 3rd Army.
Major-General M. P. Petrov, commander of the 50th Army.
A ZiS-30 self-propelled gun in position.
Captured Soviet tank-hunting dog trainers, summer 1941.
It also defended Moscow: A tank-hunting dog killed by Wehrmacht soldiers.
Visible on the dog is the pack containing the explosives and the rod-type
fuse, which would be triggered when the dog ran under a tank.
After a Soviet air strike in the Volokolamsk area, October 1941.
Anti-aircraft gunners in Tula prepare to meet enemy tanks, 1941.
The Me-321 Gigant cargo glider, used by the Germans to deliver fuel and
ammunition to the ground troops.
After the rains: A German panzer mired in the mud.
Soviet prisoners crammed aboard a German train, October 1941.
Soviet prisoners of war before their execution.
German military cemetery in Viaz’ma (March 1943).
Soviet prisoners of war in a concentration camp. Because of the absence of
barracks, they’ve constructed dugouts for protection against the cold and rain
(autumn of 1941).
Major-General K. I. Rakutin, commander of the 24th Army.
Colonel-General Vashkevich.
Viaz’ma searcher Nikolai Slesarev.
They didn’t make it out … this is their final entrenchment. The first major mass
grave found by N. Slesarev, which contained the remains of N. Proselkov, F.
Stupak, G. Rusakov and A. Rubtsov of the 120th Howitzer Artillery
Regiment, plus seven other unidentified remains. In the distance is the
village of Bogdanovka.
Junior Sergeant N. G. Proselkov, who was entrusted with carrying out the colors
of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment and was killed-in-action at
Bogdanovka on 13 October 1941.
Military physician’s assistant F. M. Stupak, who was in the group carrying out
the colors of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment and was killed-in-action
at Bogdanovka on 13 October 1941.
Chief of staff of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment Major F.S. Mashkovtsev
(1904-1941).
The skull of the unidentified major, which had been submitted for examination.
Major F.S. Mashkovtsev’s remains.
The identification of the skull via a photographic overlay of the skull on a
photograph of F.S. Mashkovtsev, from the examiner’s report.
Colonel N. I. Lopukhovsky (April 1941), commander of the 120th Long-range
Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the Supreme Command Reserve.
Regimental veteran M. M. Bespalov and the author conducting a search near the
Viaz’ma River (summer of 1983).
Veterans of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, and family members and
friends of the fallen, arrive in Viaz’ma for the re-interment of the remains in
the military section of Viaz’ma’s Ekatarina Cemetery.
A fragment of the monument showing the names of the Regiment’s fallen.
The unveiling ceremony of the monument honoring the soldiers of the 120th
Howitzer Artillery Regiment who were killed while breaking out of
encirclement, October 1941 (Grediakino, 9 May 1988).
Veterans of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment after laying wreaths to their
fallen comrades on Victory Day, 9 May 1991.