Last time we spoke about the Panzer’s Greatest Victory. Amidst the chaotic landscape of late August 1941, the siege of Kyiv escalated under General Guderian's command against the resilient Soviet Red Army, led by Marshal Timoshenko. September brought relentless rain, complicating the push toward Leningrad, while Finnish forces threatened Soviet defenses. The German army, once poised for a swift victory, grappled with critical supply shortages as they aimed for a massive offensive on Moscow, codenamed Operation Typhoon. Hitler's altered directives and a deteriorating situation on the ground forced the Wehrmacht to cope with dwindling resources. Meanwhile, the Soviets, despite significant losses, began to regroup, bolstered by non-active reserves. They only needed to endure, allowing Germany's offensive strength to exhaust itself as winter approached. As the campaign wore on, deepening battles of attrition transformed the initially swift Blitzkrieg into a grueling war of attrition, marking a significant shift in the conflict. Both sides braced for a war that would last far longer than anyone anticipated.

This episode is the Fall of Kyiv

Well hello there, welcome to the Eastern Front week by week podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800’s until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. 

So it's September 17th, and the Commander of the Southwestern Front has finally received permission from Stalin to order a retreat. But it's too late. His armies now find themselves completely surrounded by the German forces. As Kyiv falls, General Zhukov is making preparations in Leningrad, readying for a desperate battle to the last man. Meanwhile, in the center, Field Marshal Bock is poised to launch an offensive aimed at bringing an end to the war once and for all. Now last week we covered the dramatic closing of the Kyiv pocket. The capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, along with a significant portion of the Southwestern Front, has become a giant trap. Generals Guderian and Kleist have fought vehemently for weeks, successfully linking their forces southeast of the city. Many of Stalin's generals fervently urged him to allow a retreat, yet he refused to grant them this option. Now, hundreds of thousands of soldiers are encircled.

The battle for Leningrad was reaching a critical juncture. General Zhukov had been appointed to take command in the second week of fierce fighting. With his usual energy and determination, he set about overhauling the city's entire defensive strategy. Prior to his arrival, the defenses were on the brink of collapse, and Zhukov was not willing to let morale deteriorate further. He made the tough decision to dismiss several officers who had lost their fighting spirit, replacing them with trusted subordinates. This was not merely a matter of favoritism; the men he replaced were demoralized, and Zhukov needed leaders who still had the will to win. This aspect of command is often overlooked: the ability to maintain composure and inspire resilience after weeks of setbacks is crucial in any army. For the Red Army, it was vital to continue fighting after experiencing some of the most significant defeats in military history. On September 17th, Zhukov issued an order to all his subordinate commands "Not a Step Back! Do not give up a single verst of land on the approaches to Leningrad!"

On September 16th, the 8th Army found itself completely surrounded and cutoff from Leningrad. This grim encirclement would come to be known as the Oranienbaum Pocket. The fighting around the city had grown increasingly desperate. During early September, Hitler made the pivotal decision not to directly assault Leningrad. Instead, a strategy was devised to encircle the city and starve its defenders into submission. To achieve this, Army Group North needed to connect with Finnish forces to the east of Lake Ladoga. However, merely cutting off land connections would not suffice. Everyone knew that the Soviets were already supplying Leningrad across the lake. The only way to prevent this was to expel the last remaining Red Army units from the eastern shore, a task that seemed nearly impossible. Leeb's Army Group was on the brink of exhaustion, and the expected transfer of Hoepner's Panzers to Army Group Center proved to be the final straw. By the end of the third week of September, Army Group North was left with little to no offensive power.

Zhukov ordered counterattacks to push back the German forces, but by the 20th, it became clear that these efforts wouldn't yield significant results. Nonetheless, there were three key benefits from Zhukov's initial counterattack. First, it bolstered the morale of the Leningrad Front. Zhukov proved that he would fight to the last man, and his decision to remove incompetent and broken leaders from command was crucial. Second, the counterattack took the German command by surprise. Generals Leeb and Halder had assumed that the Soviets were on the verge of collapse. This misjudgment would not be the first, or the last, time they underestimated the fighting spirit of the Red Army. This unexpected resistance, combined with Hitler's relentless order to transfer panzer units to Army Group Center for a renewed offensive towards Moscow, sent shockwaves through German command. In response, Halder arranged to transfer several infantry units to Leeb’s command to compensate for the loss of the Panzers. Finally, the fierce combat had dulled the strength of Army Group North. Since July, they had suffered losses of around sixty thousand men, with replacements failing to match the quality of those who had fallen. The Heer, as of June 1941, was staffed with experienced non-commissioned officers and junior leaders who served as force multipliers. Non-commissioned officers, along with platoon and company leaders, form the backbone of a any modern industrialized army. They play a crucial role in maintaining discipline and possess vital institutional knowledge about tactics and weapons handling. The losses sustained in the early months of the campaign drained their ranks of many of these capable men, making their absence felt far beyond mere numbers. The battle for Leningrad was far from over; it remained a grueling fight rather than a static siege. The casualties suffered in the latter half of September pushed the conflict towards a siege mentality, with both sides paying dearly for every inch of territory. As the month drew to a close, both the Soviets and Germans focused on reorganizing and redeploying for one last major attempt to seize the city before winter set in.

The commander of Army Group Center finalized his plan for the decisive offensive. After weeks of heated discussion, Field Marshal Bock had secured his objective: Moscow would again be the focal point of the German campaign, and he was to spearhead the effort. As the third week of September began, the plan had been named, Operation Typhoon. Hitler had designated Army Group Center to receive the bulk of the panzer units, even permitting some enhancements to their capabilities. Yet, Bock often voiced his frustrations, claiming he was expected to achieve great things with inadequate resources. While Hitler refused to allocate everything at his disposal, he believed Bock was equipped with everything necessary for success. The reality, however, lay somewhere in between. Army Group Center was far from receiving the full support one would anticipate for such a crucial offensive. Hitler had declined to release sufficient spare parts to fully repair the panzer units, let alone provide additional tanks. Although the panzer divisions received some replacements, it was nowhere near enough to restore them to full strength. August’s losses had been too great, and the limitations of Germany's supply capabilities in September 1941 were evident. As we discussed last week, Hitler released only a small portion of the reserve production of new tanks. 

The logistical buildup was also lackluster. The harsh Russian winter, notorious for decimating Napoleon’s army, loomed on the horizon. Every soldier in the German army understood the challenges winter would bring. Yet, supplies of winter uniforms were grossly insufficient. Even before the end of the third week, some units were informed they could only expect to receive 25% of their required winter clothing. To make matters worse, the 19th Panzer Division was notified they would no longer receive replacement boots due to leather shortages. Leather production had long been a persistent challenge in prewar Germany. The country was never self-sufficient in the textiles industry, with leather particularly dependent on imports. In 1934, as Germany began to recover from the Great Depression, leather and textile goods accounted for 26% of total imports. The demands of the greatly expanded army, combined with intense campaigning in the east, placed significant strain on the German economy.  It wasn't solely production issues that hampered the buildup for Operation Typhoon. The rail supply lines were wholly inadequate. By mid-August, the 9th and 2nd Armies were surviving hand to mouth, unable to allocate any ammunition for future operations. The supply of fuel, oil, and lubricants was e