Adolf Hitler targeted Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, in the initial drive of the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. In September of that year, however, the German advance on Moscow was halted at Smolensk because the German Army Group Center (under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock) had to send two armies southward to form a great pincers against Kiev with Army Group South. Not until October 2 could the forces initially massed against Moscow be reassembled. At this time, 60 divisions resumed the advance on Moscow, racing against time to move the final 200 miles to the capital before the onset of winter.

Forming the right of this advance was Heinz Guderian's Second Panzer Group, which thrust through Orel on October 8 and Chern on October 24, then moved forward toward Tula, just 100 miles due south of the capital. The center of the advance consisted of the Third and Fourth Panzer groups under Hermann Hoth and Erich Hoeppner, respectively, which worked in pincers fashion against the Soviet position at Vyazma during October 2-13. The cost to the Soviets in this portion of the offensive was approximately 600,000 killed or captured.

The Third Panzer Army, under Hans Reinhardt, supported by the Ninth German Army, wheeled north and west of Moscow, taking Kalinin on October 15. In the meantime, in the center, Gunther von Kluge's Fourth German Army made a drive directly for the capital, which was just 40 miles away. Almost certain that Moscow would fall, the Soviet government--except for Joseph Stalin himself--evacuated 550 miles southeast to Kuibyshev on the Volga.

With the prize in view, the Germans suddenly found that Soviet resistance was becoming increasingly fierce and increasingly effective. Worse, late fall rains churned roads into mud, greatly hindering the advance of heavy German armor. Mid-November brought the first hard freeze, which enabled Kluge to speed up his advance and intensify his attack. But this advantageous change in the weather soon turned deadly. On November 20, a severe winter storm stopped the German advance--quite literally--cold.

On December 2, the 2nd Panzer Division made a do-or-die drive toward the city and actually sighted the Kremlin, which they had been ordered to level with explosives as a blow against communism. Yet even with the objective in sight, the unit, under heavy counterattack, could move no farther. The 258th Infantry Division, Fourth German Army, slugged its way into the Moscow suburbs, only to be driven back by bands of armed factory workers during two days of intense fighting. Casualties were heavy on both sides.

Like Napoleon before him, Hitler was largely unprepared for the Russian winter. His troops had not been issued cold-weather clothing and equipment. Nevertheless, Hitler gave explicit orders forbidding withdrawal. As a result, the weather began to take its deadly toll. . .

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