September 1941

Eastern Front

The 2nd Panzer Group is ready to attack toward Moscow. Guderian retains the XXIV and XLVII Panzer Corps but gives up the XLVI to the 4th Panzer Group. In compensation, XLVIII Panzer, XXXIV and XXXV Corps are allocated to the 2nd Panzer. The XLVII Panzer Corps deploys on the left flank near Shostka, the XXIV in the center near Glukhov and the XLVIII on the right around Putivl. The infantry of the XXXIV and XXXV Corps hold the outer flanks. Unfortunately, the bulk of the XLVIII Panzer Corps has been unable to assemble as it is bogged down in the fighting near Sumy. Its attack against the II Cavalry Corps runs into trouble as the fresh 1st Tank Brigade launches a counterattack.

Heavy fighting continues on the Perekop isthmus as the LIV Corps attacks. After a fierce battle, Armyansk falls, but the German advance stalls yet again at the Ishun defenses, a historic Tartar ditch system dug across the narrowest stretch of the isthmus. The recent fighting has already cost the Soviets 10,000 captured, 110 tanks and 135 artillery pieces destroyed.

After an appeal to the Stavka, Stalin authorizes Adm Oktybrski to begin the evacuation of Odessa, the Soviet force inside the port having resisted the half-hearted attacks of the Rumanian forces for two months. Those divisions still inside the city are to be taken off to the Crimea by ships of the Black Sea Fleet.

Army Group South redeploys in preparation fo the next phase of operations. Field Marshal von Rundstedt is to conquer the Donbas industrial region and gain the Don at Rostov. the 1st Panzer Group is attacking toward Rostov while the 17th Army makes for Voroshilovgrad. The 6th Army is to force its way forward on the northern flank and capture Kharkov in addition to maintaining the junction with the 2nd Army of Army Group Center. The main problem posed to Army Group South is the fact that the 1st Panzer Group has been reduced to only two panzer corps, XIV and III, following the transfer of the XLVIII to Guderian. The army group has 2 panzer, 2 motorized and 36 infantry divisions supported by 3 Italian, 6 Rumanian, 3 Hungarian and 2 Slovak divisions.

The German Moscow offensive aims to isolate the Soviet capital in a double pincer movement, Strauss's 9th Army and Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group pushing to the north and Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group and the 2nd Army advancing to the south, the infantry forming the inner wings of the encirclement and the panzers the outer. The center is to be pinned Kluge's 4th Army and Hoeppner's 4th Panzer Group in order to prevent the transfer of Soviet units to the flanks. This will bring about the destruction of what the Germans believe are the last Soviet field armies in European Russia. It has originally been intended that Guderian's armored fist will launch its attacks from just south of Smolensk, but there has not been enough timne to assemble the 2nd Panzer Group in this sector following the conclusion of the fighting at Kiev. Therefore, the attack will be launched from Glukhov, from where the 2nd Panzer will march northeast in the direction Orel-Moscow.

Army Group Center has been comprehensively restructured in preparation for the new offensive, deploying a formidable array of armies across the Moscow axis. The northern wing, consisting of the 3rd Panzer Group with the XLI and LVI Panzer Corps and the 9th Army, has 3 panzer, 2 motorized and 18 infantry divisions, while the 4th Panzer Group with the XLVI, LVII and XL Panzer Corps and the 4th Army number 5 panzer, 2 motorized and 15 infantry divisions. To the south, the 2nd Panzer Group has 2 panzer, 2 motorized and 5 infantry divisions among XXIV, XLVII and XLVIII Panzer, XXXIV and XXXV Corps, and 2nd Army has 8 infantry divisions. To support the ground forces there is the 2nd Air Fleet and the VIII Air Corps of the 4th Air Fleet. In full the German forces in the center number 1,929,000 men in 78 divisions, 14,000 artillery pieces, 1,000 tanks and 1,390 aircraft.

Many German units have been reinforced for Operation TYPHOON but still lack the strength they had in June. The 1st Panzer Group has approximately 550 tanks, the 2nd 460 and the 3rd 620 tanks. The 4th Panzer has been significantly reinforced, fielding nearly 700 tanks

Since the first day of fighting in June to the end of September, the Ostheer has suffered 550,000 casualties. However, just 350,000 have been replaced. In spited of the fall in strength among German combat units, the number of divisions in the field has in fact risen. At the end of September, the field armies comprise 19 panzer, 15 motorized and 103 infantry divisions. During September 1 infantry division left the front but 2 entered the line. Germany's allies also increase their commitment. The Rumanians have 11 divisions and 9 brigades in action, the Hungarians 3 brigades, the Italians 3 divisions, the Slovaks 2 divisions and the Spanish a single division, the 250the Azul Infantry Division, in the line. In the far north the Finns field 16 divisions.

The Red Army plans to block the expected German attack upon Moscow with Koniev's Western Front deployed between Lake Selinger and Elnya, Marshal Budenny's Reserve Front between Elnya and Roslavl and the Bryansk Front between Roslavl and Kirov, commanded by Eremenko.

Koniev's Western Front fields the 22nd, 29th, 30th, 19th, 16th and 20th Armies, 558,000 men. The Reserve Front has the 24th and 13th(?) Armies in the line and the 31st, 49th, 32nd and 33rd Armies behind the front, in the rear of the Western Front. This formation has 448,000 troops. Eremenko's Bryansk Front deploys 244,000 men between the 50th, 3rd and 13th Armies to hold the southern wing of the Moscow axis. In total the Soviet armies on the Moscow axis comprises 83 divisions, 9 cavalry and 13 tank brigades, 7,600 artillery pieces, 990 tanks, 670 aircraft and 1,250,000 men.

On the southern wing of the Moscow axis, the Red Army has the remnants of the Southwest Front and the South Front. Following the debacle at Kiev, the Stavka disbands the Glavkom Southwest, appointing Timoshenko to command the shattered, and demoralized Southwest Front. This front consists of the 40th, 21st, 38th and 6th Armies, nearly 200,000 men. The South Front has the 12th, 18th and 9th Armies. Most of these armies have suffered heavy casualties in the fighting along the Dniepr and are in dire need of reinforcement. To the rear, the Stavka begins to raise a new 37th Army around Voroshilovgrad.

The destruction of the Soviet armies in the Kiev pocket had been an outstanding achievement. Not only had the armies in the Ukraine been massively defeated, their extremely capable commander and his staff had been killed or captured. Across the southern line, the Red Army was now thinly spread, enabling the Germans to conquer the rich industrial Donbas region and draw up to the Don.

Had the victory in the Ukraine robbed the Germans of success at Moscow though? The presence of some three quarters of a million men on their right flank would have proved a serious threat to the advance of the central armies upon Moscow and therefore had to be addressed. However, the battle had drawn the vry forces needed for the push to the capital away from the central axis. The battle of Kiev was a neccesity and a valuable victory. Hitler had correctly concentrated on defeating the enemy army at the expense of the early capture of the enemy capital. The first great dilemma and moment of decision had passed, apparently with overwhelming success. In fact the dilemman should never have arisen. Had the German Army possessed adequate reserves for the enormous task it had undertaken, the advance in the center and south could have been conducted simultaneously. Hitler's greates failure lay not in the decision to turn south but in spreading his limited forces so thinly that one objective could only be achieved at the expense of the others. Germany quite simply lacked the resourcs to achieve the targets she set herself.

With victory at Kiev now behind them, the Ostheer turned its attention to the last battle before final victory, the destruction of the Red Army around Moscow. However, the battle would unleash two of Russia's greatest weapons, the clinging autumn mud and numbing cold of winter. Combined with General Zhukov's and the Stavka's developing skills, the German Army would face war of a ferocity it had never encountered before, and stare into the abyss of defeat at the very moment victory was within reach.