Great Patriotic War - Essay Example

The Soviet Union (Filtzer, 2002) soldiers in the front lines were caught by surprise. In fact, the German army's blitzkrieg (lightning) attack easily toppled the Soviet Union soldiers in the first few months of the attack because they were surrounded, cut off from supplies, backup troops, and war materials and thereby forced to surrender to the advancing mighty German Army. German forces reached the gates of Leningrad in the North in September 1941. Germany had already overrun Smolensk in the center of Leningrad and took control of Dnepropetrovsk in the South of Leningrad.

German Soldiers have reached the vicinity of Moscow, which is the Seat of Government of the Soviet Union in December of 1941. However, after months of fighting inside the big expanse of the Soviet Union territory, the German army realized that they were just humans. They had reached their maximum stamina, finally grew tired, and out of breath because the cold winter months had finally arrived. The German soldiers were not supplied with much needed food and other war supplies to fight in a winter war arena.

The German army had been cut off from their supply lines because they had gone too far and deep into Soviet Union territory because Moscow is almost a thousand miles away from Berlin. It was in the autumn of 1941 that the German invading army made attempts to capture Moscow. The battle occurred between October 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942 which is one of the greatest battle wins that the Soviet Union will forever be remembered. During the autumn of 1941, around twenty eight soldiers from the 316th rifle company led by General Panfilov built a foxhole on a hill between the village of Nelidovo and Dubosekovo to hold the German Advance to Moscow.

With the use only of sub machine guns, rifles, incendiary bottles and grenades, they fought an uphill battle against twenty German tanks and infantry. Fourteen German tanks were destroyed which made the Germans retreat. The Germans then made a second attack with thirty tanks but the Moscow defenders destroyed eighteen thanks and killed and maimed many Germans. The Germans retreated for good. The Soviet Union professor Vasily Klochkov-Diev tied a rope of grenades around his waist and jumped while shouting "Russia is large, but there is no place to retreat.

Moscow is behind us." under the German tanks destroying them. Other soldiers followed his example and only five Soviet soldiers survived to tell the tale of their Great Patriotic War. From October to December of 1941, thousands of residents of Moscow constructed many leveled fortifications around Moscow and also mined the roads and bridges to