<Yellow Sea battle> the world's first large-scale duel of ironclad cruisers
Yellow Sea battle is the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, the two sides of the main naval force in the northern waters of the Yellow Sea in the northern waters of the battle scale of the sea battle. Also known as the Sino-Japanese naval battle of the Sino-Japanese War and the Battle of Dadonggou. This battle Beiyang navy lost, since then retreated into Weihaiwei, so that the Yellow Sea sea control into the hands of the Japanese combined fleet, decided the Sino-Japanese War in the Chinese side of the defeat.
Yellow Sea naval battle lasted more than 5 hours, the Beiyang naval division lost Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, super brave, Yangwei, Guangjia 5 warships, Laiyuan seriously wounded, dead and wounded officers and men more than a thousand; Japanese fleet Matsushima, Yoshino, Birenderi, Akagi, Saikyo Maru 5 ships seriously wounded, dead and wounded officers and men more than 600 people.
After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Beiyang navy returned to Lushun, Weihai, "to avoid the war to protect the ship" no longer go to war, the Japanese navy mastered the Yellow Sea sea control.
The Battle of Jutland - the only time in this war that both sides of the war fully deployed the fleet's main force in a duel between the two sides of the main force of more than 200 ships
The Battle of Jutland (Battle of Jutland; known in Germany as the Battle of the Straits of Skagerrakschlacht); May 31, 1916 - June 1) was a battle between the British and Japanese navies in the Yellow Sea. -June 1, 1916) was a naval battle between Britain and Germany in the North Sea off the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. It was the largest naval battle of World War I, and the only time in the war that the belligerents had a full-scale duel of fleet mainstays. The German High Seas Fleet First and Third Battleship Sub-Fleet total **** fired 1,904 rounds of large-caliber shells, an average of 119 rounds per ship, 10.9 rounds per gun (carrying capacity of 80-90 rounds); Battlecruisers **** fired 1,670 rounds of large-caliber shells, an average of 334 rounds per ship, 37.95 rounds per gun (carrying capacity of 80-90 rounds). *** counted firing 3597 rounds of large-caliber shells, 3952 rounds of medium-caliber shells, 5300 rounds of small-caliber shells, large-caliber shells hit confirmed 120 rounds, an average hit rate of 3.33%, medium-caliber and small-caliber hits 107 rounds, an average hit rate of 1.16%;
British battleships total *** fired 4598 rounds of large-caliber shells, which had 15-inch guns 1239 rounds, with an average hit rate of 2.17 percent.
According to Professor Arthur J Marder in From Dreadnought to Scapa (Oxford University Press, 1978 edition, Vol. 3, p. 199), nearly one-quarter of the large-caliber hits from German battleships were concentrated on three British armored cruisers, including the Samurai (15 rounds), the Defense (7 rounds), and the Black Prince (15 rounds), who were all hit at extremely close distance of the hits. The first two were only 7,000 yards and the latter was only 1,000 yards. And when the German side counted the British results, they did not count the number of hits on Wiesbaden, which, according to British sources, was fired at least 200 rounds or more. Therefore when referring to the hit rates of both sides, they can be considered roughly equal.
The number of hits on all ships sunk is an approximate count, and the number of hits in a nighttime melee is even more so.
The total number of officers and men of the German High Seas Fleet in action was in the neighborhood of 45,000, with a casualty ratio of 6.79 percent, including 89 officers, 25 alternates, 14 engineers, 5 non-combatants such as cooks, 11 medical officers, 89 warrant officers, 572 non-commissioned officers, and 2,253 ordinary sailors.
The total number of officers and men of the British Ocean Fleet who participated in the war was around 60,000, with a casualty ratio of 11.59%. (The official British figures were 6097 killed in action, 510 wounded and 177 captured, totaling ***6784, or 8.84% of the total number of men who participated in the war.)
After the naval battle, both belligerents claimed victory, so much so that how it was judged became a famous public case in the history of world naval warfare. Tactically, the Germans were indeed the victors of the battle, with the Ocean Fleet mounting a valiant challenge to the mighty British Main Fleet, the Hipper Fleet battering the Betty Fleet, and Scheer's accurate judgment and excellent seamanship allowing him to attack and escape from the vastly superior Jellicoe.
A comparison of the results of the naval battles reveals the different design philosophies of Britain and Germany. British-built ships emphasized speed and firepower at the expense of armor protection. German warships, on the other hand, emphasized better protection at the expense of reduced speed and armament. German technological proficiency clearly trumped the British. Their armor-piercing shells fitted with timed fiducials exploded through the hulls of British ships with great destructive effect. British shells tended to explode when they touched the armor. There were also problems with the gunpowder used on the British side, which was more flammable and explosive. And the Royal Navy made a fatal blunder by not closing ammunition hatches when delivering ammunition. The German Navy was far superior when it came to the all-important fire prevention system. The Germans, after the Battle of Dogger Sands, noticed that ammunition storerooms and ammunition conveyors could also cause fires in their magazines, and immediately retrofitted these two sections with enclosures, shells that exploded in German turrets in naval battles without causing further damage, and well-protected vertical channels that prevented fires from traveling down into the magazines. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, failed to notice this problem, and at least three British battle cruisers blew up when shells exploded in their turrets, causing a series of explosives to explode down to the powder deck. Not a single German ship was lost to such defects. Similarly there was a difference in the containers used by the two sides to transport the firing charge packets, the Germans transporting them in closed metal containers, while the British simply wrapped them in silk pockets. The upper decks of the German ships provided better protection in long-range gunfights, and torpedoes exploded on their reinforced sides, causing less damage. Also, Germany outclassed the main British fleet in signaling technology, ranging, and night-fighting equipment. British naval designers concentrated on speed and large-caliber cannons to the exclusion of other necessary improvements, a deficiency in the Royal Navy that was evident in this battle.Early in 1918, Bettie told an Admiralty conference, "It must now be considered that the German battlecruiser squadrons are indeed superior to ours."
The British Home Fleet lost more tonnage than the German High Seas Fleet, but the tally at 1800 hours on June 2, after the battle ended, showed that the Home Fleet still had 27 leading ships, including battleships and battlecruisers, ready for battle, and that on the part of the High Seas Fleet there were only 10 leading ships ready to respond at the same moment, so it can be assumed that the High Seas Fleet did not manage to break the Home Fleet's North Sea The High Seas Fleet can be assumed not to have broken the numerical advantage of the Home Fleet in the North Sea.
The outcome of this battle was rather extraordinary: on the one hand, the German High Seas Fleet under Admiral Scheer achieved a tactical victory by sinking more British ships with the loss of a relatively small number of tonnage; on the other hand, the fleet of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, commanded by Admiral Jellicoe, succeeded in blockading the German Navy in German ports, rendering the latter virtually inactive in the latter part of the war, thus achieving a strategic victory and thus achieved a strategic victory.
The Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is a famous example of the U.S. Navy's victory over the enemy with fewer men
The Battle of Midway was fought on June 4, 1942, and was one of the major battles of World War II. Not only did the U.S. Navy successfully repel the Japanese Navy's attack on Midway Atoll in this battle, but it also gained the initiative in the Pacific theater, so this battle can be said to be the turning point of the Pacific theater.
The Battle of Midway cost the U.S. Navy only one aircraft carrier, one destroyer, and 147 planes, with 307 casualties, while Japan lost four large aircraft carriers, one cruiser, and 330 planes, as well as hundreds of experienced pilots and 3,700 shipmates. The Japanese Navy was henceforth headed for defeat. To cover up its crushing defeat and avoid demoralizing its troops, on June 10 Japanese radio played a loud naval tune and proclaimed that Japan had "become the most powerful nation in the Pacific." When the defeated fleet returned to their quarters, Tokyo celebrated the victory with a lantern parade. The head of the U.S. Navy commented afterward, "The battle of Midway was the first decisive defeat for the Japanese Navy in 350 years. It ended a long Japanese offensive and restored the balance of naval power in the Pacific." At the same time, the battle also inflicted an unhealable wound on the Japanese military hierarchy, a painful memory that lingered until the end of World War II, making it impossible for them to ever again make clear judgments about the war situation.
Samuel E. Morrison, a renowned American naval historian, called the U.S. Navy's victory in the Battle of Midway "a triumph of intelligence. The U.S. Navy's early realization of the Japanese Navy's plans was the single most important reason for the Japanese Navy's loss. However, many military scientists believe that the Japanese Navy's insistence on using battleships as the decisive force in naval battles, and the use of aircraft carriers as a supporting force, ignoring the role of air power, was the ultimate result of the defeat.
The most obvious blunder of the Japanese naval plan was the dispersed deployment of forces, with each unit of the Combined Fleet fighting individually at great distances apart, while the U.S. Navy deployed its forces in maximum concentration. The advantage of the Combined Fleet was diminished. Another error in the Japanese plan was that the attack on Midway, which was supposed to lure the enemy fleet into a duel, saddled the carriers with the task of supporting the capture of Midway and the wishful thinking that the enemy fleet would not leave its base until Midway was attacked. The Japanese reconnaissance and search program was equally unfavorable. This eventually led to Nagumo's dilemma of advancing and retreating and the awkward situation of changing torpedoes and bombs back and forth.
The Battle of Midway changed the balance of Japanese and American carrier strength in the Pacific. The Japanese had only two large carriers and four light carriers left. From then on, Japan began to lose the strategic initiative in the Pacific theater, and the battle took a turn in favor of the Allies. The naval battle was characterized by the use of naval aviation to conduct assaults by both sides' naval battle formations outside the range of naval guns. The Japanese lost the battle because they overestimated the combat power of their own carriers, fought in two directions at the same time, and dispersed their forces; misjudged the situation, believing that the American carriers were too late to assemble in the battle area; outdated communication technology, lack of thorough reconnaissance of the sea, and failed to find out the position of the American carriers until the critical moment; and inappropriate command of the battlefield, with a changeable determination. The U.S. won because it grasped the Japanese attack attempts and assembled its forces in time to stand by; with the loss of most of its torpedo planes, the bombers dive-bombed continuously, causing the Japanese torpedo planes to explode with their mines and the carriers to be completely destroyed.
The Air Battle of Britain
An air battle fought in World War II as the Germans prepared to invade Britain for a large-scale air attack on the United Kingdom.
After Nazi Germany occupied France, Hitler moved to deal with Britain in the north of Europe. After failing to lure Britain into a compromise, in July 1940 Hitler ordered the full-scale invasion of Britain under the "Sea Lion Plan". This operation required the destruction of British air power first to ensure the success of the landing operation. In order to seize control of the air, to drive the dominant British navy out of the English Channel, to clear the way for the invasion, and to force Britain to yield.
The Luftwaffe was ordered to annihilate the British air force and carried out large-scale continuous air raids on the British mainland. The bombing began on July 10th. The German High Command set the earliest date for the operation as August 5, codenamed the 'Eagle Raid'. It was only on August 6 that G?ring officially set the date of the attack for August 12, named 'Eagle Day'. However, the Luftwaffe only launched its air offensive against Britain on August 13 because of the unstable weather in southern England. The Germans initially targeted mainly British warships, naval bases, airfields and radar stations.
On August 13, the Luftwaffe began raiding the English Channel and the British mainland, planning to wipe out British air bases and radar stations as well as eliminate the main British air force. However, the effects of bad weather in the south of England, coupled with Britain's use of newly developed radar, caused the Luftwaffe to be defeated on this day. Since then, the British and German air forces continued to engage in air battles in Britain, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. By the evening of August 28, Germany launched a bombing campaign against the British city of Liverpool, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties in Britain. The RAF began to counterattack Germany by bombing the German capital, Berlin, one after another in late August. Germany, in order to counter the RAF's night raids, turned to bombing mainly London and other important cities from September 7, in an attempt to destroy the British military and civilian will to resist.
The Germans used about 2,000 planes, flew more than 46,000 sorties and dropped 60,000 tons of bombs, inflicting heavy losses on Britain. The capital city of London was badly damaged and the situation was critical. The British military and civilians under the leadership of the Churchill government united and struggled to resist. The Royal Air Force, which possessed only 1,000 planes, made full use of the advantages of fighting over the home territory, using the recently invented radar early warning, costing Germany 1,733 planes and 6,000 pilots at the cost of 915 planes, and returning limited fire on Germany.
The Germans were unable to achieve their campaign objectives, and with Hitler's attention turned eastward in preparation for an attack on the Soviet Union, the implementation of Project Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely.
The Luftwaffe switched to night raids at the beginning of October, and the Battle of Britain drew to a close.
The air war was the largest and longest of the Second World War. Britain won the war of self-defense, Hitler's military adventures were seriously defeated, and strongly inspired the world's peoples to fight against fascism.
The Battle of Maginot
After World War I, the French military began to study how to defend itself against German and Italian invasions. In 1930, at the beginning of the rise to power of the French Minister of Defense, Macchineau, by his predecessor synthesized the French Fouché, Pétain and Xiaofle three marshals debated for many years of the defense plan to the parliamentary discussion, to obtain more than 90% of the majority of the adoption, and in the following ten years in the Franco-German and Franco-Italian border to build a series of fortifications, which is the world-famous "Macchineau defensive line "
The Maginot Line was a 700-kilometer-long fortification along the Mediterranean coast from the Franco-Italian border in the south to the Franco-Belgian border on the North Sea in the north, and consisted of a group of mutually independent fortification complexes. Each group consists of a main fortification and a number of observation posts, which are linked to each other by telephone. The main fortification is generally 30 meters from the ground, in which there are command headquarters, turrets, power generation equipment, repair equipment, hospitals, canteens, dormitories and other types of facilities, outside the fortification is densely covered with metal poles, barbed wire, so that it is said to be as solid as gold. The storage of food and fuel inside the fortification generally lasted for three months. In order to reflect the defensive nature of the fortification, the range of the artillery inside the fortification is generally not more than 10 kilometers, that is, to ensure that the shells do not fall outside the border of other countries. In case of fighting, the observation posts could observe the enemy with periscopes and report the situation by telephone to the command at any time, while the artillerymen in the turrets fired their guns on the command's orders from within the three-meter-thick concrete fortifications. The entire line of the Maginot Line *** deployed 344 guns, built 152 turrets and 1533 bunkers, built underground tunnels up to 100 kilometers long, the total length of 450 kilometers of roads and railroads. The defense line earthworks amounted to 12 million cubic meters, consuming about 1.5 million cubic meters of concrete, consuming 150,000 tons of iron and steel, the total cost of the project nearly 5 billion francs (1940), equivalent to the whole of France's budget for a year at the time. Because the defense system is very strong, the number of soldiers who died in the fortifications of the Maginot Line during World War II was very small. However, this superb fortification was not able to stop the armored and motorized troops of the German Fascists in World War II. In May 1940, the German army climbed over the Ardennes Mountains, bypassed the Maginot Line through Belgium, and soon occupied the entire territory of France. The mythologized Maginot Line eventually became a useless display and a caricature of the defeated, and would later become a famous tourist attraction in France.
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad, also known as the Battle of Stalingrad, was a major turning point in the Great Patriotic War of the former Soviet Union in World War II, and one of the bloodiest and largest battles in human history. The main armies involved in the battle were the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The battle began on July 17, 1942, and ended on February 2, 1943, lasting six and a half months. The battle is famous in the history of human warfare for the heavy casualties on both sides and the disregard for civilian sacrifice.
It is generally believed that the battle consisted of the following parts: a massive German bombing campaign on the southern Soviet city of Stalingrad (formerly known as Tsaritsyn; now known as Volgograd); a German invasion of the city; street battles in the city; The Red Army of the USSR surrounded the city, eventually destroying the Germans and the Axis Allies. Total casualties in the war were estimated at over 2 million. The Soviet government refused to provide detailed casualty figures at the time because it feared that overly high casualty statistics would affect the population. The Axis side lost a quarter of its forces on the Eastern Front in the battle and never recovered from it until it was finally defeated. For the Soviet side, victory in the battle marked the beginning of the recovery of fallen territories and ultimately ushered in the May 1945 final victory over Nazi Germany.
By any measure, the Battle of Stalingrad is one of the most bitter battles of World War II, if not the history of human warfare. The entire battle lasted 199 days. Due to the scale of the battle, the number of casualties could never be accurately counted. In the final stages of the battle, the Germans still dealt a heavy blow to the Soviets, who at the same time almost wiped out the entire 6th Army Corps and part of the 4th Panzer Corps, the elite German armies. Many scholars estimate that Axis forces suffered 600,000 casualties in the battle***, including: 300,000 German troops, 150,000 Romanian troops, 70,000 Italian troops, 50,000 Hungarian troops and about 50,000 surrendered Soviet troops. A very high percentage of German casualties were killed in action and captured (around 96,000 were captured). After the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans completely lost the strategic initiative in the Soviet-German theater, and as General Zeitzler, the Chief of the German Army General Staff, said, "We lost 250,000 officers and men at Stalingrad, and that would have broken our spine on the entire Eastern Front." At the same time, the Soviet Union paid a heavy price, the exact number of Soviet casualties being: 474,871 dead, 974,734 wounded. More than 40,000 Soviet citizens were killed in just 1 week after the Germans stormed the city, and there is no accurate count of the number of civilians who died throughout the campaign, but it's safe to say it was far more than that.
The city was named the "City of Heroes" in 1945 to commemorate the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, and in the 1960s the Soviet Union erected the 52-meter-high "Mother Russia Monument" on Mamayev Heights, a hill outside the city. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union erected the 52-meter-high "Mother Russia Monument" on Mamaev hill outside the city. The statue includes the ruins of the city that were destroyed during the battle. The Great Grain Warehouse and the Pavlov Building, among other places that witnessed very fierce battles, still receive visits from future generations.
The Battle of Moscow
After the start of the Soviet-German War, Hitler had made the capture of Ukraine and Leningrad his primary goal, so when Army Group Central captured Smolensk and buttoned down the door to Moscow, he temporarily abandoned the attack on Moscow, dispersing Army Group Central's forces to support the battles for Ukraine and Leningrad. When the Battle of Kiev began, Hitler suddenly changed his strategy and decided to return to the Moscow Axis after the Battle of Kiev was over, and only besiege Leningrad. on September 6, 1941, Hitler issued his order 35, code-named Operation Typhoon, which planned to divide Soviet forces in Moscow into two encircles and encircle them. The plan was to divide the Soviet forces on the front of Moscow into two encircles and destroy them, and then take Moscow in the process. The method of attack remained the same as in the early days of the war, with decisive strikes from three directions at once.
The Moscow offensive was carried out mainly by Field Marshal Bühlke's Army Group Center, with large numbers of troops drawn from Army Group South and Army Group North. By the end of September, Army Group Central had concentrated 74 divisions (including 14 armored and 8 motorized divisions), more than 1 million men, 1,700 tanks, 14,000 artillery and mortars, and 1,390 aircraft. The middle road was the 4th Army Group, commanded by Field Marshal Kluge, and the 4th Panzer Corps, commanded by Hepner, whose mission was to encircle Vyazma west of Moscow, first from the south of Smolensk, and then from there to Moscow; the north road was the 9th Army Group, commanded by Staus, and the 3rd Panzer Corps, commanded by Holt, whose mission was to encircle Vyazma north of Smolensk, and then northeastward, encircling Moscow from the north ; the south road was 2nd Army Group under Weix and 2nd Panzer Group under Guderian, whose mission was to launch an attack on Orel and Tula south of Moscow. The 2nd Army, on the left, and Guderian's Corps, on the right, were to outflank Moscow from the southern flank after launching a pincer-type encirclement of the Soviets in Bryansk and annihilating them.
The Soviet Army*** had three front armies, initially about 800,000 men, 770 tanks, 9,150 artillery pieces and mortars, and 545 aircraft for the defense of Moscow. Admiral Konev command of the Western Front Army deployed 60 miles west of Vyazma, its task is to prevent the German army along the main direction of the main breakthrough into Moscow; the Western Front Army behind the Marshal Bujuni command of the Reserve Front Army, and the Western Front Army into a deep echelon configuration, its task is to block the breakthrough of the Western Front Army of the German army; the Reserve Front Army of the south of the Yeremeyenko command of the Bryansk Front, its task is to prevent the German army to Bryansk, its task is to prevent the German army to Bryansk. was to stop the German breakthrough to Bryansk.
On the morning of September 30, 1941, Guderian's 2nd Armored Group in the south kicked off Operation Typhoon. On the same day, it tore through the left flank of the Subryansk Front, advancing more than 50 miles, and on October 2, the attack of the main forces of the Middle and North Roads was launched simultaneously from the north and south of Smolensk, and the defenses of the Western and Reserve Fronts of the Soviet Army were instantly swept away by these two torrents.
On October 3, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group captured Orel, from which its left flank, the 47th Panzer Corps, suddenly turned northward toward Bryansk, the site of Yeremenko's command, and on October 4, Holt's 3rd Panzer Corps began to swirl toward the north of Vyazma, and Hepner's 4th Panzer Corps pressed in from the south.
On October 6, Guderian's 17th Panzer Division captured Bryansk. 17th Panzer Division captured Bryansk.On 7 October, the two Panzer regiments of Holt and Hepner met at Vyazma, and a considerable portion of the Soviet Western and Reserve Fronts were encircled.On 8 October, Weichs's 2nd Army Group and Guderian's Panzer Anschluss also encircled the Soviet Bryansk Front. The Central Army Group Commander then ordered the German armies to immediately clear the Soviets from these two encircled areas and to continue their march to Moscow.
Until late September, the Soviets did not realize that the Germans would turn their main offensive in the direction of Moscow. Hitler's erratic strategic direction not only disturbed the German army generals, but also made the Soviet High Command find it difficult to grasp the pulse of his thinking.
When the Soviet Army figured out the German army's intention, it immediately stopped all attacks and switched to all-front defense. 10 October, Stalin merged the Western Front Army and the remnants of the Reserve Front Army to form the new Western Front Army, and recalled General Zhukov, who was in charge of commanding the Leningrad Front Army, back to Moscow to be the commander of the Western Front Army, and was in charge of the overall command of the Moscow defense war.
Zhukov immediately set about building up a strong defense line along the line of Mozaik, west of Moscow's outskirts. At the same time, the Soviet High Command had been moving Zhukov much-needed reserves and weaponry. Since October 7, 14 infantry divisions, 16 tank brigades, more than 40 artillery regiments and a number of other units have been transferred to the Mozhaisk line from other armies and the Supreme Commander's reserves.
On October 13, Hepner's 4th Panzer Regiment assaulted Kaluga (100 miles from Moscow), southwest of Moscow, and the Soviet line was broken, forcing Zhukov to abandon the city. At the same time, Holt's 3rd Panzer Regiment captured Kalinin (98 miles from Moscow) to the northwest of Moscow.14 On the 14th, the Soviet governmental apparatus and diplomatic missions were evacuated to Gubishev, but Stalin and his main camp remained in Moscow to continue directing the campaign. On the same day, the German Army Headquarters issued an order to all corps of the Central Army Group to encircle Moscow from the south, north and west and to reject any conditional surrender.On the 18th, the Germans advanced to Mozhaisk, which was only 60 miles away from Moscow.On October 20, the Germans completed the liquidation of the Soviet forces in the encircled areas of Vyazma and Bryansk, with 66.3 million Soviets captured, and the loss of 1,242 tanks, artillery and mortars, as well as the loss of 1,840 tanks. The Soviets lost 1,242 tanks and 5,412 artillery and mortar guns. "Operation Typhoon was a success.
While the encirclement of Vyazma and Bryansk wiped out a large number of Soviet forces, the weather deteriorated and the German offensive was sharply reduced. By the time the German forward panzers got into Mozhaysk, it had begun to rain and the roads had turned into rivers of mud. The tanks did not go very far before they became so bogged down in the mud that it was practically impossible to advance. South Road Guderian's 2nd Armored Group pitted on the highway between Orel and Tula for several days, all supplies had to rely on air transport. The Germans were then forced to halt their entire advance to wait for the ground to freeze.
The temporary halt in the German advance gave the Soviets valuable breathing space. By the end of October, the Soviet High Command began to draw back some troops as reserves to give them the necessary rest, and new reserves were arriving in a steady stream. At this time, Zorg, a brilliant Soviet spy, sent accurate information from Japan that the Japanese armed forces would move southward with all their strength and had no intention of fighting against the Soviet Union. Therefore, Stalin moved the elite troops of 25 infantry divisions and 9 armored brigades, which had been deployed in Siberia to confront the Japanese Kwantung Army, westward to the outskirts of Moscow one after another. Gradually the Soviets recovered from the heavy losses sustained at Vyazma and Bryansk. They were not only able to fight, but were beginning to be able to fight back. Anticipating that the Germans would attack later, as before, using strong armored units to outflank them, Zhukov took a pre-emptive strike and attacked the German armored units before they could launch their offensive, inflicting heavy losses on them.
Frost fell for the first time on November 3-4, and while the sudden cold temperatures hardened the muddy roads and facilitated German maneuvering, they simultaneously plunged the Germans, who were still clad in singlets, into a state of frozen discouragement. Without winter clothing, the Germans began to suffer severe frostbite. However, far from the front line, the German High Command began to plan a new offensive.
On Nov. 7, Stalin held the traditional October Revolution Day celebration and military parade in Moscow's Red Square, where heavily armed Soviet troops solemnly passed in front of a reviewing stand before marching straight to the front in high spirits, despite the German army's presence in the city.
November 13, the German army chief of staff Hader in the headquarters of the Central Army Group held a meeting of the chiefs of staff of the army corps, issued the "1941 autumn offensive order". For this purpose, Army Group Central concentrated 51 divisions. The frontal attack was conducted by Kluge's 4th Army Group; on its left were Holt's 3rd Panzer Corps and Hepner's 4th Panzer Corps, whose task was to encircle Moscow from the north and west, respectively; on the right, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Corps encircled Moscow from the south.
On November 16, the "Autumn Offensive" began, and Holt's 3rd Panzer Corps slowly advanced northwest of Moscow, capturing Klin on the 23rd, and then breaking through the Moscow-Volga Canal on the 28th to reach the town of Istria, which was only 24 kilometers away from Moscow, where Holt could already see from his binoculars. could already see the dome of the Kremlin through his binoculars. To the right of Holt's corps, Hepner's 4th Armored Corps advanced to Tsvetkova, west of Moscow. Meanwhile, to the south, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Corps surrounded Tula, southeast of Moscow.
However, Kluge's 4th Army, which was acting as a frontal attack, was met with strong Soviet resistance. With Zhukov using all of his elite troops in this direction, the 4th Army's assault did not progress quickly at first.22 On the 22nd, the commander of the Central Army Group, Field Marshal Bauk, took personal command of the 4th Army in action, committing everything he could spare to the battle, and, according to his own words, "When the last battalion has been committed it may be possible to decide the victory or the defeat. " But just when Bauk thought that the Soviet divisions had been wiped out by him and the Soviet reserves exhausted, more and more of the elite Soviet Siberian divisions appeared before him in a steady stream. Despite his best efforts, the 4th Army was finding it extremely difficult to move forward. Bauck already feared that the battle would turn into a second "Battle of Verdun", a fierce war of attrition.
On Dec. 5, Stalin ordered the Soviets to launch their first major counteroffensive since the start of the war. The Kalinin Front, commanded by Konev, spearheaded the counterattack against the Germans in the north and recaptured Klin two days later. on the 6th, Zhukov, commanding the Western Front, launched a powerful counterattack against the Germans in the center and south. By the 12th, the German lines on all sides were rapidly broken through by the Soviets. on the 15th, the Soviet governmental institutions were moved back to Moscow.
On December 19, Hitler removed Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitsch from his post and took over as Army Commander-in-Chief himself. He issued an order saying, "Every man shall stand in his present position and fight back. When there are no established positions in the rear, there shall be absolutely no retreat." Although the German generals all repeatedly called for a retreat, and both Guderian and Hepner were removed from their posts for unauthorized retreat, Hitler believed that it was imperative not to retreat or he would repeat Napoleon's mistake. Although it was his stubbornness that brought the campaign to the brink of fiasco, it was also his stubbornness that kept him from jumping into the abyss. It was undoubtedly his refusal to withdraw from the Soviet Union or the area east of Smolensk that prevented his army from a catastrophe worse than that of 1812. Hitler's plan, unlike Napoleon's, was not a full retreat but a movement to the rear, turning all the supply lines of the original advance into strongholds of resistance.
By the end of December, southwest of Moscow, the Soviets had recaptured Kaluga. In the northwest, Kalinin was also recaptured by the Soviets. In the southeast, the Soviets unlocked the German encirclement of Tula. The Battle of Moscow ended with the first major Soviet victory since the outbreak of the Soviet-German War. The Germans lost more than 500,000 men, 1,300 tanks and 2,500 guns. The German army had to change the "blitzkrieg" to a protracted war.