5, catching the enemy completely off guard, Soviet troops on the Western Front under Georgy Zhukov and the South-Western Front under Konstantin Timoshenko launched a massive counteroffensive. Supply problems exacerbated the situation, with horses dying en masse due to lack of fodder in the early winter conditions. In trying to inflict a final decisive blow, it ignored the fact that the constant Soviet counterattacks had left the German troops exhausted and overstretched, while tank and motorized divisions were struggling to overcome the numerous minefields on the approaches to the city. The German command was convinced that the Red Army would soon collapse.

2, units of the 2nd Panzer Division occupied the village of Krasnaya Polyana, just 30 km from the Kremlin. Nevertheless, the German advance was relentless, and on Dec. Until the arrival of fresh divisions from Siberia, the Urals and the Russian Far East, the Soviet command did what it could to hold back the enemy. The road to the Soviet capital lay open to the Wehrmacht. At Vyazma, just 200 km west of Moscow, the Red Army lost up to one million men killed, wounded or taken prisoner.

In October 1941, the USSR was on the brink of disaster.

Soviet artillery near Moscow in November of 1941.

Tank battle ww2 russia