Microsoft Close Combat manual Hitler and the Wehrmacht Problems of Command

132Close Combat

Still, the Germans continue to taste nothing but success while the Soviets swallow the bitterness of defeat. The Germans capture Kiev at a cost of 100,000 casualties; the Soviets suffer 500,000 casualties. By early October, Army Group South has bottled up and destroyed Soviet units composed of 700,000 men.

Operation Typhoon the final drive on Moscow begins on October 2, 1941. Guderian’s force turns north to join the other Panzer groups grinding toward the Soviet capital. But the autumn rains begin; German mobility falters in the mud while Soviet resistance stiffens.

In Moscow, diplomats and government officials begin leaving the city on October 16, but Stalin announces that he will remain. Work on the city’s defenses continues at a feverish pace while the German forces are bogged down in Russian mud.

By early November, the ground is frozen enough for the Germans to again press the attack on Moscow, but the icy weather is scarcely an asset. It is one of the coldest winters on record in the Soviet Union. Motor oil freezes solid and rifle bolts become so brittle they break. The German soldiers’ clothing is inadequate in the bitter cold, further sapping morale.

The Red Army is content to fight a holding action. Reinforcements are arriving daily from Siberia; tanks, guns, and supplies have been hoarded for the counter- offensive Stalin longs to launch. On November 18, Guderian’s forces are hit by the first Soviet counterattack. Red Army troops fresh from Siberia attack the Germans several times over the next few days, blunting the German drive on Moscow.

By November 27, the Germans push to within 30 miles of Moscow. Two days later, Panzer units fight their way across the Moscow-Volga Canal. By December 2, German infantry units reach Moscow’s northern suburbs the Germans are less than 20 miles from the Kremlin, but they face even colder weather and winter storms.

Hitler and the Wehrmacht:

Problems of Command	the invasion comes, the commanders in the
By the time the Allies land in Normandy, the	field must send requests for armor to Berlin; by
	the time Hitler authorizes these requests, it is
German command structure has been badly
	too late.
fractured. Hitler has made a practice of
dismissing or demoting generals who do not	Two of the key commanders in Western Europe
follow orders or fail to achieve victories. As the	are Rundstedt and Rommel. Each has a plan to
defeats mount, Hitler tightens his control over	repel the Allied invasion—Rommel on the
the German military. By the time of the	beaches, Rundstedt with a massive counter-
Normandy Campaign (June 1944), he	attack inland. Neither gets his way as Hitler
personally controls the vast majority of Panzer	withholds the armor that either plan requires to
units in Western Europe. Consequently, when	succeed.