Field Marshal von Bock had under his command one and a half
million men, but his panzer divisions were weakened by the lack of
replacement tanks and spare parts. When he assembled his commanders
on the eve of the offensive, he set 7 November (the anniversary
of the Russian Revolution) as the deadline for surrounding the Soviet
capital. The ambitious Bock longed to be known as the conqueror of
Moscow.
The Stavka, meanwhile, had been expecting a German offensive
against Moscow ever since Army Group Centre had halted in mid-
August. Stalin had sent General Yeremenko to organize armies into
a new Bryansk Front, while two other fronts, Western and Reserve,
were prepared to protect the capital. Yet in spite of these precautions,
Yeremenko’s forces were taken by surprise when, early on the morning
of 30 September, Guderian’s panzer Schwerpunkte struck their
southern flank out of an autumnal mist. The sun soon broke through,
making a warm, clear day, ideal for the offensive. The Germans had
nothing to fear from the air. At that moment, less than five per cent
of Red Army aviation in European Russia still survived.
During the first days of October, the offensive went perfectly for
the Germans, with the panzer groups and Field Marshal Kesselring’s
Second Air Fleet working closely together. Yeremenko asked the
Stavka for permission to withdraw, but no permission was given. On
3 October, Guderian’s point units on the right reached the city of
Orel, 125 miles behind Yeremenko’s lines. Surprise was complete.
As the leading panzers raced up the main street past trams, passers-by
waved to them, assuming they were Russian. The Red Army had not
even had time to prepare charges to blow up the important arms
factories. On 6 October, Yeremenko and his staff narrowly escaped
capture by German tanks soon after midday. All communications
were lost. In the chaos of the following days, Marshal Budenny,
supposedly commanding the Reserve Front, even lost his headquarters,
and Yeremenko, who was badly wounded in the leg, had to
be evacuated by air.
Soviet leaders in the Kremlin at first refused to acknowledge the
scale of the threat. On 5 October, a fighter pilot reported a column
of German panzers a dozen miles in length, advancing rapidly up the
road to Yukhnov, not much more than a hundred miles from Moscow.
Even when another pilot was sent out on reconnaissance and confirmed
the report, the Stavka still refused to believe it. A third pilot was sent
out, and he too confirmed the sighting. This did not stop Beria from
wanting to arrest and interrogate their commander as a ‘panicmonger’,
but it finally succeeded in galvanizing the Kremlin.
Stalin called an emergency session of the State Defence Committee.
He also ordered General Zhukov, who had brutally invigorated the
defence of Leningrad, to fly back immediately.
--STALINGRAD, Antony Beevor