Eastern Front · Germany vs Soviet Union
Battle of Vyazma-Bryansk
30 September 1941 – 30 October 1941
The opening of Operation Typhoon encircled the bulk of three Soviet fronts in twin pockets at Vyazma and Bryansk. Some 660,000 prisoners were taken and the road to Moscow lay briefly open before mud, exhaustion and hastily raised reserves slowed the German advance.
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Day by day
— Guderian first
Second Panzer Group attacks out of the Glukhov area five days ahead of the rest of Typhoon, to get round the Bryansk Front's southern flank before the rains. It covers 130 kilometres in two days on dry roads. Yeremenko has been told the Germans are exhausted and is looking the wrong way.
— Typhoon
The rest of Army Group Centre attacks at 05:30 on a front of 400 kilometres with three panzer groups and 1.9 million men, the largest concentration of the war. Panzer Group 3 goes in north of the highway near Bely, Panzer Group 4 south of it towards Yukhnov. Both Soviet fronts are broken through on the first day.
— Bryansk
Orel fell on 3 October with the trams still running and the tank factory's machinery still on the platform. On the 6th the 17th Panzer takes Bryansk from behind and cuts the front's supply road; Yeremenko's three armies are split into two pockets facing the wrong way. The first snow falls that night and melts into mud by morning.
— Vyazma sealed
The 7th Panzer from the north and the 10th Panzer from the south meet west of Vyazma on the evening of the 7th. Four Soviet armies are inside, some 600,000 men with their guns and what tanks the fronts had. They fight on inside the ring for another week, which is the week Moscow uses to man the Mozhaisk line.
— The pocket liquidated
Resistance at Vyazma ends on 13 October and Kaluga falls the same day. The two encirclements together yield some 660,000 prisoners, 1,242 tanks and 5,412 guns by German count. There is almost nothing between Army Group Centre and Moscow, and what stops it is the weather.
— Mud
The last of the Bryansk Front's men come out east towards Belev, having walked round the German columns through the woods; about 85,000 of the three armies get back to their own side. The rasputitsa has turned every road to grease and the panzer divisions are down to a third of their tanks running. The front settles on the Mozhaisk line for a fortnight while the ground freezes.
