November 1941

Eastern Front

After a bitter battle, Klin falls to the 7th Panzer Division of the LVI Panzer Corps, the 30th Army being sent reeling to the east. The battle on the road to and for Klin leaves the 30th with only 20 operational tanks and 200 artillery pieces. Solnechnogorsk also falls to the 2nd Panzer Division of the XL Panzer Corps, while the V Corps draws even with the 4th Panzer Group, opening the road to the Moscow-Volga Canal. Istra, already under attack, forms the lynchpin of the Soviet defenses. A single Siberian rifle division (78th) is deployed to hold the town and the nearby reservoir, taking up positions along the Istra River. The Stavka has ordered the battered 16th Army to fall back to a new line south of Solnechnogorsk. The 5th Army is falling back to a line Istra-Zvenigorod.

The 1st Panzer Army begins to withdraw from Rostov, Rundstedt ordering his forces to retire quickly to the line of the Mius River due to the growing Soviet threat on the northern flank. Rundstedt feels his forces are at risk of encirclement if they remain in Rostov, the only viable option being the withdrawal of his forces westward. OKH agrees with the Army Group South's decision to withdraw.