After the border battles’ fire—and then the Smolensk battle in June–July 1941— the tanks and aircraft created in the pre-war years were lost, the Red Army had to endure a series of extremely severe trials under the blows of the Wehrmacht’s tank groups. Operation after operation followed one another—encirclement operations on a scale without precedent—and it seemed that nothing could stop the movement of Hitler’s armies toward Moscow. However, already in November 1941, Soviet armies launched a counteroffensive near Rostov and Tikhvin, and the military machine of the Third Reich, as if suddenly losing momentum, came to a hard halt only a few dozen kilometers from the Kremlin.
Did G.K. Zhukov really save Leningrad? Who is responsible for the Kyiv encirclement of the Southwestern Front? Who and by what means managed to rebuild and hold the front near Moscow after the Vyazma catastrophe in October 1941? What stopped the Wehrmacht at the capital—“General Mud,” “General Frost,” or the decisions and actions of Soviet command?
Answers to these questions are offered in a new book by Alexey Isaev.
A PDF file is attached to the audiobook; it is recommended to download it—it is necessary for full understanding and assimilation of the material.