Battle of Moscow

Battle of Moscow
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
December 1941. Fresh Soviet forces marching to the front from Moscow.
Date 2 October 1941 – 7 January 1942 Location Moscow Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Result Strategic Soviet victory German operational and tactical failure Eventual failure of Operation Barbarossa
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Adolf Hitler Fedor von Bock Heinz Guderian Albert Kesselring	Joseph Stalin Georgy Zhukov Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Units involved
Army Group Center 2nd Panzer Army 3rd Panzer Army 4th Panzer Army 2nd Army 4th Army 9th Army	Western Front 16th Army 19th Army 20th Army 22nd Army 29th Army 30th Army Cavalry Group "Dovator" Reserve Front 24th Army 31st Army 32nd Army 43rd Army 49th Army Bryansk Front 3rd Army 13th Army 50th Army Operational Group Ermahov
Strength
As of 1 October 1941: 1,183,693–1,929,406 men, 1,000 tanks, 14,000 guns, Initial aircraft: 549 serviceable At time of counter offensive: 599	As of 1 October 1941: 1,250,000–1,400,000 men, 3,232 tanks, 7,600 guns, Initial aircraft: 936 (545 serviceable) At time of counter offensive: 1,376
Casualties and losses
174,000–400,000(see §7)	650,000–1,030,000(see §7)

Strategic Soviet victory

The Battle of Moscow (Russian: Битва за Москву) is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 km (370 mi) sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the largest Soviet city. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union.

The German strategic offensive, named Operation Typhoon, called for two pincer offensives, one to the north of Moscow against the Kalinin Front by the 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies, simultaneously severing the Moscow–Leningrad railway, and another to the south of Moscow Oblast against the Western Front south of Tula, by the 2nd Panzer Army, while the 4th Army advanced directly towards Moscow from the west.

Initially, the Soviet forces conducted a strategic defence of the Moscow Oblast by constructing three defensive belts, deploying newly raised reserve armies, and bringing troops from the Siberian and Far Eastern Military Districts. As the German offensives were halted, a Soviet strategic counter-offensive and smaller-scale offensive operations forced the German armies back to the positions around the cities of Oryol, Vyazma and Vitebsk, and nearly surrounded three German armies.

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