The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand Against Operation Typhoon
576
The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand Against Operation Typhoon
576Hardcover
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Overview
This book describes one of the most terrible tragedies of the Second World War and the events preceding it. The horrible miscalculations made by the Stavka of the Soviet Supreme High Command and the Front commands led in October 1941 to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own people. Until recently, the magnitude of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Viaz'ma and Briansk were simply kept hushed up. For the first time, in this book a full picture of the combat operations that led to this tragedy are laid out in detail, using previously unknown or little-used documents.
The author was driven to write this book after his long years of fruitless search to learn what happened to his father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared together with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He became determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster on the approaches to Moscow in the autumn of 1941.
In the present edition, the author additionally introduces documents from German military archives, which will doubtlessly interest not only scholars, but also students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopukhovsky substantiates his position on the matter of the true extent of the losses of the Red Army in men and equipment, which greatly exceeded the official data. In the Epilogue, he briefly discusses the searches he has conducted with the aim of revealing the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Soviet soldiers, who to this point have been listed among the missing-in-action - including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, color maps and tables.
Lev Nikolaevich Lopukhovsky graduated from the prestigious Frunze Military Academy in 1962 and spent the next ten years serving in the Soviet Union's Strategic Rocket forces, rising to the rank of colonel and a regiment commander, before transferring to a teaching position in the Frunze Military Academy in 1972 due to health reasons. Lopukhovsky is a professor with the Russian Federation's Academy of Military Sciences (2008), and has been a member of Russia's Union of Journalists since 2004. Since 1989 he has been engaged in the search for those defenders of the Fatherland who went missing-in-action in the Second World War, including his own father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, who is now known to have been killed while breaking out of encirclement in October 1941. Motivated by his father's disappearance, he had previously taken up the intense study of the Viaz'ma defensive operation and wrote the initial manuscript of the present book. In 1980 this manuscript was rejected by military censors, because it contradicted official views. Lopukhovsky is the author of several other books about the war, including Prokhorovka bez grifa sekretnosti [Prokhorovka without the seal of secrecy] (2005), Pervye dni voiny [First days of the war] (2007) and is the co-author of Iiun' 1941: Zaprogrammirovannoe porazhenie [June 1941: A Programmed Defeat] (2010). For his active search work, he was awarded the civilian Order of the Silver Star.
Stuart Britton is a freelance translator and editor residing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He has been responsible for making a growing number of Russian titles available to readers of the English language, consisting primarily of memoirs by Red Army veterans and recent historical research concerning the Eastern Front of the Second World War and Soviet air operations in the Korean War. Notable recent titles include Valeriy Zamulin's award-winning 'Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative ' (Helion, 2011), Boris Gorbachevsky's 'Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front 1942-45' (University Press of Kansas, 2008) and Yuri Sutiagin's and Igor Seidov's 'MiG Menace Over Korea: The Story of Soviet Fighter Ace Nikolai Sutiagin' (Pen & Sword Aviation, 2009). Future books will include Svetlana Gerasimova's analysis of the prolonged and savage fighting against Army Group Center in 1942-43 to liberate the city of Rzhev, and more of Igor Seidov's studies of the Soviet side of the air war in Korea, 1951-1953.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781908916501 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Helion and Company |
| Publication date: | 08/15/2013 |
| Pages: | 576 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.70(d) |
About the Author
Stuart Britton is a freelance translator who resides in Cedar Rapids, IA. He is responsible for a growing number of translated Russian military memoirs, battle histories and operational studies, which saw an explosion in Russia with the opening of secret military archives and the emergence of new Russian scholars who take a more objective look at the events and historical figures. Two works that received prizes or prominent acclaim were Valeriy Zamulin’s Demolishing a Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk 1943 and Lev Lopukhovsky’s The Viaz’ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army’s Disastrous Stand Against Operation Typhoon. Notable recent translations include Valeriy Zamulin’s The Battle of Kursk: Controversial and Neglected Aspects and Igor Sdvizhkov’s Confronting Case Blue: Briansk Front’s Attempt to Derail the German Drive to the Caucasus, July 1942. Future translated publications include Nikolai Ovcharenko’s analysis of the defense, occupation and liberation of Odessa, 1941-1944, and Zamulin’s detailed study of 7th Guards Army’s role and performance in the Battle of Kursk against Army Detachment Kempf.
Table of Contents
List of photographs vi
List of maps ix
Key to map abbreviations x
List of tables xi
Introduction 12
Part 1 Instead of a Prologue 18
The General Situation on the Soviet-German front by September 1941 18
Soviet operations on the Western strategic direction 21
The German march on Moscow pauses 25
Soviet forces launch a counteroffensive 31
The Dukhovshchina and El'nia offensives 37
Results of the Smolensk battles 62
Part 2 Before the Storm 67
The plans of the Nazi command 67
The relative strength of the opposing sides 72
The Stavka orders a rigid defense 83
The defensive fronts organize their defenses 84
The defensive lines on the approaches to the capital 91
The creation and composition of the Moscow militia 92
General Eremenko neglects his defenses and instead attacks 99
Part 3 The Typhoon Gathers Strength 105
Guderian initiates Operation Typhoon 105
Von Bock sets his troops in motion 115
The Luftwaffe disrupts command and control 125
The Germans seize Dnepr River bridges 135
The commanders of Briansk Front and Western Front request permission to withdraw 168
The causes for the collapse of three Soviet Front defenses 171
Part 4 The Retreat 176
The Western Front and Group Boldin arc involved in heavy fighting 176
The German breakthrough to Iukhnov 181
Questions surrounding the decision to withdraw 193
The Western Front retreats to the Rzhev - Viaz'ma line 201
The ring of encirclement snaps shut 220
The Germans hunt for 'Timoshenko's headquarters' 224
The Reserve Front commander goes missing 235
Part 5 In Encirclement 259
Von Bock's further plans 259
The prepared defensive line along the Dnepr must be abandoned 262
General Lukin assumes command of the encircled forces west of Viaz'ma 263
The retreat from the Dnepr River line 270
Attempts to break out of encirclement on 9 and 10 October 276
The situation of the Red Army forces encircled southwest of Viaz'ma 285
Changes in the higher command of the Red Army 292
The Stavka's dilemma 305
The situation in the Briansk Front sector 307
Briansk Front creates a breach in the encircling German lines 312
Western Front's Military Council deliberates: Defend or break out? 320
Part 6 Catastrophe 325
Initial steps to rebuild a strategic front 325
Could the Stavka have rescued the forces encircled west of Viaz'ma? 329
The 19th Army prepares to break out of encirclement 335
The 19th Army's breakout attempt on 11 October fails 340
The decision to break out to the south is reached 351
The fighting southwest of Viaz'ma 364
The fighting in the Viaz'ma area winds down 375
Von Bock is compelled to suspend the offensive 388
Hitler's plan to crush the Soviet forces and seize Moscow is a failure 390
Part 7 The Dimensions of the Defeat 393
Operation Typhoon triggers a panic in Moscow; a state of siege is declared 393
Official data on the Soviet losses are sharply understated 396
An unsuccessful method of calculating losses, or a political order? 407
Part 8 Epilogue 431
Appendices
I Comparative Strength of a Soviet Rifle Division and a German Infantry Division, 1941 451
II German Unit Organizations 453
III Comparative Strength of a Soviet Tank and German Panzer Division, 1941 455
IV Operational Strength of the Wehrmacht's Panzer Divisions and Separate Panzer Battalions at the Start of Operation Barbarossa 457
V Irreplaceable Losses of the Wehrmacht in Armor and Anti-Tank Guns on the Eastern Front in 1941 459
VI Available Tanks in the Third Panzer Group's Panzer Divisions in September 1941 461
VII Available Tanks in the Panzer Groups of Army Group Center for Operation Typhoon 463
VIII Comparative Technical and Performance Characteristics of Soviet and German Tanks and their Armament 464
IX State Defense Committee Decree "On the Voluntary Mobilization of the Workers of Moscow and Moscow Oblast for the People's Militia Divisions" 469
X Roster and Organization of the People's Militia Divisions of Moscow chat had joined the Acting Army by the start of Operation Typhoon 471
XI Hitler's Order of the Day to the German troops on the Eastern Front issued 2 October 1941 473
XII The title page from L. N. Lopukhovsky's book on the history of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment of the Supreme Command Reserve, showing the Frunze Military Academy military censor's approval for publication 475
XIII The 32nd Army commander's order for the withdrawal of the 2nd Rifle Division (original) 476
XIV The 19th Army commander's operational instruction that countermanded the order from the 32nd Army commander 477
XV The 19th Army commander's Combat Order No. 73 from 8 October 1941 to the commander of the 2nd Rifle Division about escaping the encirclement (original) 478
XVI The 19th Army commander's Combat Instruction No. 74 from 9 October 1941 about withdrawing the units of the 2nd Rifle Division (original) 479
XVII Combat Order No. 71 480
XVIII Explanation of the commander of the 166th Rifle Division Major-General M. Ia. Dodonov 484
XIX State Defense Committee Decree on the Evacuation of the Capital City of the USSR Moscow, 15 October 1941 486
XX State Defense Committee Decree No. 813 from 19 October 1941 about Implementing a State of Siege in Moscow and the Adjacent Areas from 20 October 488
Notes 489
Selected Bibliography 514
Index 518
What People are Saying About This
Viaz'ma was the nadir of the Red Army's performance during Operation Barbarossa. Lopukhovsky's painstaking research in hitherto unavailable archival sources exposes weaknesses from the high command to the rifle platoons. The author demonstrates as well the structural weaknesses that underlay the USSR's military shortcomings, and he memorializes the soldiers whose blood paid for errors too long obscured by neglect and cover-ups.
Lopukhovsky's account of the battle of Viaz'ma is masterful. The sheer detail and expert analysis reflects the 41 years he spent researching and writing it."
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