Vyazma

In the final attempt to destroy the Germans in the Vyazma pocket, for example, the Red Army committed “44,000 men and 500 tanks and during the attacks they lost 42,000 men and 183 tanks destroyed.”

Deathride John Mosier 2010

The Rzhev meat grinder, the struggle for the Luchassa Valley, the fighting in the Vyazma pocket, all three events are pretty accurate predictors for the rest of the war.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

Shortly after the October days of last year [1942] our troop[s] passed over to the offensive and struck a fresh powerful blow at the Germans, first at Stalingrad, in the Caucasus, in the area in the middle reaches of the Don, and then, at the beginning of 1943, at Velikie Luki, at Leningrad, and in the area of Rzhev and Vyazma.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

Nor did it help matters that the first snowfall occurred the day the Germans moved into Vyazma.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

The troop dispositions, far from forming a continuous line, or front, were clustered behind this line, all the way back to Vyazma.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

Not coincidentally, it was precisely this unit that was the keystone of the German defenses that stopped Mars in the Luchassa Valley the key area in the Vyazma pocket.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

The Rzhev meat grinder, the struggle for the Luchassa Valley, the fighting in the Vyazma pocket, all three events are pretty accurate predictors for the rest of the war.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

In the final attempt to destroy the Germans in the Vyazma pocket, for example, the Red Army committed “44,000 men and 500 tanks and during the attacks they lost 42,000 men and 183 tanks destroyed.”

Deathride John Mosier 2010

Broadly speaking, the 120-odd kilometers from Smolensk to Vyazma were the base of the triangle, the distance between Smolensk and Bryansk was the hypotenuse, and the 200 kilometers from Vyazma to Bryansk were the adjacent side.

Deathride John Mosier 2010

Vyazma itself had fallen by the 8th, along with over 600,000 Soviet soldiers taken prisoner and 1,200 tanks abandoned or destroyed.

Deathride John Mosier 2010