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The Red Army Repulses the Wehrmacht from Moscow.
Impressive eight-sheet Red Army military planning map of the area northwest of Moscow centered on Solnechnogorsk, with contemporary manuscript maneuver notations evidently representing the actions of parts of the Soviet 1st Shock Army as they liberated the city, following the Germans' failed attempt to take Moscow.
Because of the complicated nature of the maneuvers depicted, it is difficult for us to determine if the map is showing aspects of the so-called Klin-Solnechnogorsk Offensive Operation, the Klin-Solnechnogorsk Defensive Operation, or both. The Defensive Operation extended from November to December 5th of 1941, as the Red Army sought to stop the loss of territory as the Wehrmacht advanced closer and closer to Moscow. The Red Army failed in its goal of stopping the Germans from crossing the Istra and capturing Solnechnogorsk, as depicted on this map (two pontoon bridges are drawn in), but on December 6th the Offensive Operation was launched, which resulted in the retaking of the town.
Solnechnogorsk is only 50km from Khimki, the point of the farthest German advance in their attempt to take Moscow in the closing stages of Operation Barbarossa during 1941.
Like many Soviet war planning maps from World War II, this map is formed by the joining of many smaller (1:50000) sheets into one large theater map. The maneuvers of friendly and enemy forces are drawn on in red, blue, and purple pencil in typical Red Army style.
Such maps are unique or nearly so, having been prepared by officers in the units that participated.
The Battle of Moscow was a military campaign that consisted of two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 km (370 mi) sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, the capital and largest city of the Soviet Union. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union.
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