At the end of September 1941, more than a million German soldiers lined
up along the frontline just 180 miles west of Moscow. They were well
trained, confident, and had good reasons to hope that the war in the
East would be over with one last offensive. Facing them was an equally
large Soviet force, but whose soldiers were neither as well trained nor
as confident. When the Germans struck, disaster soon befell the Soviet
defenders. German panzer spearheads cut through enemy defenses and
thrust deeply to encircle most of the Soviet soldiers on the approaches
to Moscow. Within a few weeks, most of them marched into captivity,
where a grim fate awaited them.
Despite the overwhelming initial German success, however, the Soviet
capital did not fall. German combat units as well as supply transport
were bogged down in mud caused by autumn rains. General Zhukov was
called back to Moscow and given the desperate task to recreate defense
lines west of Moscow. The mud allowed him time to accomplish this, and
when the Germans again began to attack in November, they met stiffer
resistance. Even so, they came perilously close to the capital, and if
the vicissitudes of weather had cooperated, would have seized it. Though
German units were also fighting desperately by now, the Soviet build-up
soon exceeded their own.
THE DRIVE ON MOSCOW: Operation Taifun, 1941 is based on numerous
archival records, personal diaries, letters, and other sources. It
recreates the battle from the perspective of the soldiers as well as the
generals. The battle, not fought in isolation, had a crucial role in the
overall German strategy in the East, and its outcome reveals why the
failure of the German assault on Moscow may well have been the true
turning point of World War II.
Niklas Zetterling is a researcher at the Swedish Defense College. Along
with Anders Frankson he has previously written Kursk 1943: A Statistical
Analysis and The Korsun Pocket: The Encirclement and Breakout of a
German Army in the East, 1944. Both authors currently live in Sweden
