1418
Illustration: The counter-offensive at Moscow
LiberationTurning point

· Day 167 of 1418

The counter-offensive at Moscow

Outside Moscow

how far the enemy was pushed back from Moscow
100–250 km
how far the enemy was pushed back from Moscow

On 5–6 December 1941, in bitter frost, the Red Army counter-attacked and drove the enemy back 100–250 km from Moscow. It was the Nazi army’s first major defeat of the Second World War. The myth of its invincibility collapsed.

Fresh divisions reached Moscow, including some from Siberia and the Far East. A hard frost set in: many enemy soldiers had no winter clothing, and the grease in their machines froze. Soviet ski battalions in white camouflage appeared where nobody expected them.

Within a month Kalinin, Klin, Volokolamsk and Kaluga were freed. In the villages the soldiers were met by people whose homes the enemy had burned as it retreated. They wept and brought the soldiers whatever they had left.

See it on the map

Chapter 7 · December 1941

The first great victory

On 5–6 December the counter-offensive at Moscow began, and the enemy who had believed itself invincible retreated for the first time. Tikhvin and Kalinin were freed. On 7 December Japan attacked the United States, and the war became truly global.