Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Day 788 October 27, 1941

Operation Typhoon. Germans slowly make progress towards Moscow all along the Mozhaysk line. At the Southeast end of the line, Kampfgruppe Eberbach advances to Plavsk 37 miles from Tula (140 miles from Moscow). At the Northwest end of the line, 4th Panzer Army finally defeats Soviet 316th Rifle Division at Volokolamsk 68 miles from Moscow (316th Rifle Division is reduced to only 3500 men but has delayed 4th Panzer Army for 2 weeks). In the middle of the line, the 11 infantry divisions of German 4th Army come to a standstill. Feldmarschall von Kluge lies to his superior Feldmarschall Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group Center, about the strength of Soviet defenses. Amazingly, von Bock allows 4th Army to dig trenches and go on the defensive, losing all momentum towards Moscow.

British submarine HMS Tetrach, which left Malta yesterday to refit in Britain via Gibraltar, is lost in an Italian minefield between Sicily and Tunisia (all 59 hands plus 3 naval personnel returning to Britain are lost).

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