Battle of Moscow | Animated History

Help fight demonetization by visiting thearmchairhistorian.com. Before we start today's video, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Squarespace. Squarespace is a robust, intuitive, all-in-one website and online store builder that could be In researching today's video, I discovered a famous general once exclaimed, Uncanny, isn't it? Whether you're looking to start a business, create an online portfolio, or just make a website for fun, Squarespace has got you covered. Squarespace includes integrated analytics, built-in social media sharing buttons, and personalized email campaigns for when you really need to inform your comrades of the 1,612 tanks you took out in the Battle of Kursk. Go to squarespace.com slash armchairhistorian for 10% off of your first purchase of a website or domain. On November 7th, 1941, a great military parade was held in Moscow. Overseen by Stalin himself, hundreds of Soviet soldiers marched through Red Square, celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. This year, it held a special significance. It was a show of defiance, Stalin's desperate attempt to bolster the sinking morale of his people. That defiance was cast in the face of nearly 2 million German soldiers, a mere 40 kilometers away, who were preparing for an all-out offensive to take Moscow and cripple the Soviet Union. The ensuing battle was fought on a scale that was unprecedented. This was Total War, a war of annihilation. You often hear that the Soviets only won due to their numerical advantage. However, in this battle, over a million Soviet defenders faced off against nearly 2 million battle-hardened German soldiers. Trapped in the middle of this conflict were tens of thousands of Soviet civilians. Some fought bravely as partisans, but most were simply engaged in a desperate struggle to survive, while the relentless forces of two military juggernauts clashed around them. Before we discuss the events of the battle, let's establish some context. The German invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, began in late June 1941. Hitler and his generals hoped to overwhelm the unprepared Soviets with the same concentrated coordinated attacks that had brought them so much success elsewhere. In this way, they hoped to secure a speedy victory before winter arrived, a phrase you've heard uttered before every failed military campaign. Initially though, Operation Barbarossa went according to plan. The invasion caught the Soviets off guard, and within a month, the Army Group Center had driven deep into Soviet territory, capturing the city of Smolensk, among many others, on the road to Moscow. Three Soviet armies were encircled and destroyed at Smolensk alone, and the Russians sustained over 700,000 casualties. Not since the days of Napoleon had Moscow been so vulnerable to a foreign foe. And if you're wondering at this point why the Soviets lost so much ground so quickly, we have a video covering why Soviet performance was so poor at the beginning of the war. Rather than seizing the initiative and striking Moscow, Hitler redirected his center forces elsewhere, toward the Ukraine in the south and Leningrad in the north. While many of his generals, including the commander-in-chief of the army, Falter von Brauchitsch, advised carrying the invasion's momentum forward to the Soviet capital, emphasizing its strategic and symbolic importance, Hitler was more concerned with securing his flanks, and supporting the goals of Army Groups North and South, crippling the Soviet economy by capturing Leningrad, and, perhaps most importantly, seizing the oil fields of the Caucasus. In what surely must have given the Fuhrer some sense of validation, his decision did lead to short-term success, as support from Army Group Center allowed Army Group North to advance and cut off most of the supply routes to Leningrad, and armored units from Center allowed Group South to fully encircle and crush the Soviet defenders of Kiev, again inflicting over 700,000 casualties. Following this strategic victory, much of the mineral-rich Ukraine was seized, and the path to the Caucasus oil fields lay open. As the summer drew to a close, Army Group Center's flanks were secured, and Hitler returned his attention to Moscow. On October 2nd, the Wehrmacht initiated their attack, codenamed Operation Typhoon. The plan was for German forces to push eastward, while separating into two pincers that would clamp down on Moscow from the north and south. With the massive force the Germans were bringing to bear on the city, Hitler clung to his hopes for a swift victory. But those hopes were quickly dashed, as the German advance was bogged down by logistical issues, the continued resistance of Soviet forces, and an unpredictable change in the weather. The first snow came early that year, on October 6th. When it melted, it transformed the Russian terrain into a muddy, swamp-like morass, a phenomenon known as Rasputitsa. Past invaders like Napoleon were stymied by Rasputitsa, but the German war machine was especially devastated. Tank treads were clogged, vehicles were stuck, and both infantry and horses were bogged down. While the mud did not cripple the Germans single-handedly, it did certainly add to their already mounting troubles. In spite of the difficult conditions, the Germans pressed on, battling the Soviets at the cities of Bryansk and Vyazma. Although the Ukrainian detour had given the Soviets time to prepare, the Germans won these engagements and shrugged off Soviet counterattacks, although not without losses. In particular, they were harried by the arrival of newly constructed Soviet T-34 tanks, which were so heavily armored that German tank guns and anti-tank guns could barely damage them. Though German forces were victorious in every engagement along this advance, they continued to take losses that they could not afford. On October 6th, Stalin recalled his top general, Georgy Zhukov, from Leningrad to assume command of Moscow's defense. Zhukov was one of the Soviets' most skilled military leaders. While he was removed from his position as chief of the general staff in July 1941 for suggesting that Soviet forces abandon Kiev to avoid being encircled by the Germans, which, as we mentioned, is exactly what happened, Stalin called him back to lend his expertise to Moscow's defense. Upon arrival on October 10th, Zhukov immediately set about fortifying the city, conscripting a quarter million women, elders, and teenagers to dig trenches and build fortifications, moving three million tons of earth in the process. He then set up a defensive line outside the capital, stretching from Kalinin in the north to Kaluga in the south, which was manned by newly raised reserve armies from the east. The center of his line was the city of Montseysk. The Montseysk line slowed the invaders down. Rather than attack it directly, the German forces split into two pincers and began advancing on the north and south. This approach, while slower than a frontal assault, was successful, and by October 27th, the defensive line had fallen. With the Germans advancing, Zhukov was forced to fall back further east in order to avoid being outflanked. At this point, the German advance had been severely stalled. The muddy terrain continued to pose an issue. Fuel reserves were low, and logistical issues with German supply lines On October 31st, the offensive was officially halted until the supply lines could be fixed and the muddy ground was frozen. Even stalled, the massive German army still presented a very real and terrifying threat to Moscow. Metro tunnels quickly became crowded with civilians, desperate to escape the impending carnage, and large-scale looting plagued the city. Stalin had ordered the evacuation of most of the Soviet government and military officials to Koybyshev on October 13th, but chose to remain himself in hopes of keeping the faltering morale of his people from failing entirely. In a further effort to bolster morale, he chose to hold the traditional Revolution Day military parade on November 7th, in defiance of the German army lurking outside his city. This piece of morale-boosting theater was well-timed, as just one week later, the ground finally froze, removing the Germans' mud problem. So, the German attack resumed, with only 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, left between them and Moscow. Unfortunately for the Germans, with the passing of the muddy fall, the brutal winter had come. This year would be the coldest of the 20th century, according to some weather reports, although these reports vary wildly, with German sources tending to report colder temperatures than the Soviets. However cold it really was, the Germans were certainly unprepared for it, as the previously mentioned logistical failures had left them severely lacking in winter gear. Frostbite, gangrene, and cold-induced mechanical failures devastated the German army. Despite these horrendous conditions, the army continued its attack, with the northern pincer making it within 35 kilometers, or 20 miles, of Moscow, before being repelled by a Soviet counterattack. The southern attack force fared worse, failing to take or circumvent the well-defended city of Tula, and halting their advance there. With the German attack stalled, and the winter taking a brutal toll, the offensive was called off, and German troops pulled back on December 5th. As the Germans withdrew, the Soviets began a concerted counterattack. The Germans thought that the Soviets were too battered and depleted to put up a fight, but their Russian reserves were more than plentiful than the Germans realized. By the time the German advance was called off, Stalin had accumulated a reserve of over 1 million men, and on the same day the Germans stopped their assault, December 5th, the Soviets launched their counteroffensive. Although they only barely outnumbered the Germans, the Soviets were now far more organized and prepared than they had been at the start of the invasion, and fought back with an effectiveness that surprised the Germans. Already suffering from supply shortages and the effects of the weather, the Germans quickly lost ground. Hitler wanted his forces to form a defensive line across the entire front. However, his generals in the field determined that such a defense was impossible, and German forces continued to withdraw. Three separate times during this retreat, pockets of German forces were nearly encircled and wiped out. Air support provided by the Luftwaffe was instrumental in preventing a total collapse of Army Group Center during this retreat. By early January, the Soviets had managed to push the Germans back 100 kilometers or 60 miles before stopping due to overextension and supply shortages. Even still, the German invasion of the USSR would continue, but the battle for Moscow was over. While the Germans were well-armed and numerically superior, the Soviets had several advantages in the Battle of Moscow that secured their victory. The most prominent of these can be summed up as home field advantage, shorter supply and communication lines, more plentiful manpower reserves to draw from for the purposes of fighting and setting up defenses, as well as the added morale benefits associated with fighting for your homeland. The Soviets took much heavier losses throughout the invasion, especially in the beginning, but they could replace those losses far more easily than the Germans could. The long and ineffective supply lines of German forces just couldn't support the logistical demands of their massive armies, and their effectiveness suffered greatly as a result. Additionally, although its role has been over-exaggerated in modern times, the weather was undoubtedly on the Soviet side, with the Rasputitsa bogging down the Germans until the brutal winter set in, which the Soviets were far better prepared for. It's certainly an exaggeration to claim that winning the Battle of Moscow would have meant a German victory on the Eastern Front. It may have increased their chances, but even if they had seized the capital, they would have still needed to solve their logistical problems that had been plaguing them since the start of the campaign. The only way that Operation Barbarossa could have ever truly succeeded was if the USSR and its inhabitants had chosen to submit. But any student of history will know that submission was never a word in Stalin's vocabulary. Help fight demonetization by visiting thearmchairhistorian.com