Lopukhovsky, Lev The Viaz'ma Catastrophe 1941

The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

The study describes one of the most horrific tragedies of the Second World War and the events that led up to it. The terrible miscalculations of the Stavka, the Supreme Soviet War Council, and the front commands led to the death and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own troops in October 1941. Until recently, the extent of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Vyazma and Bryansk was simply hushed up. This book presents for the first time a complete and detailed picture of the fighting that led to this tragedy, based on previously unknown or underused documents. The author was inspired to write this book by his years of fruitless searches for information about the fate of his father, Colonel N. I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared along with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He was determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster during the advances on Moscow in the autumn of 1941. The author also presents documents from German military archives that will undoubtedly be of interest not only to scholars but also to students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopuchowski makes a strong case for the true extent of the Red Army's losses in men and equipment, which far exceeded official figures. In the epilogue, he briefly discusses the research he has done to uncover the circumstances of the deaths of Soviet soldiers previously listed as missing in action, including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, colour maps and tables.