The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-20
/. Moscow Dateline

Moscow Sea, the artificial body of
water forming part Of the Mos
cow-Volga canal system 40 miles
north of the capital. The panzer
divisions drove the Russians be-
hind the Volga, north of the Mos
cow Sea, and covered their own
left flank under this great lake.
Then the offensive spread south
ward. Part Of the German left
wing descended on M o w
through Kiln, Solnechnogorsk. and
Istra, part carried out the encir-
cling maneuver through Yakhro-
ma and Dimitrov toward Za3orsk.
The Germans hit the Russian
left flank November 18, when the
second tank army attacked SOUTH
east of Tula toward Kashira and
Riazan. Part of this force push
ed up toward Moscow, cutting the
Tula-Serpukhov highway, reaching
Venev and approaching Kashira;
part struck through Stalinogorsk
and Mikhailov toward Riazan and
Kolomna, to complete the encir-
clement.
In the center the Germans broke
through in the Narofominsk Sec
tor, penetrating the Russian de-
tense IL to Is miles, carrying their
advanced forces within Is miles
of the capital.
So far the German plan seemed
to be succeeding. But the Rus
sian plan also was in full oper-
alton. 1t called, in the first phase,
for a stubborn defense. What this
meant was exemplified on Novem-
Der 16, the first day Of the Ger
man offensive, in the Volokolamsk
sector, by one of the grandest
acts of heroism of the war.
Major-General I. v. Panfilov, a
dapper little fellow who had been
military commissar of the middle
Asiatic Khirgiz Republic, defend
ed the observation-disclosures high
way with the 316th Red army in
fantry division, later to become
the 9th Guards infantry division.
General Panfilov died in the field.
Twenty-eight of his troops, iso-
lated at one point, died in their
trenches. But they exacted, as
the price of their lives, 18 enemy
tanks. And they checked the Ger
mans.
The four Moscow Communist di-
visions went into action in the
first lines. They had had little
training, there were not enough
automatic guns to 60 around, but
they sacrificed their bodies to the
defense. Their losses were hor-
rible, but their resistance W S
strong. In sheer desperation, they
delayed the Germans, while in the
rear and on the flanks, OF h e r
forces were gathering.
Those were bright days for the
Germans. They had estimated the
maximum strength of the Red
army at $50 divisions. They had
counted that number. they thought,
in defeat. Now, before them ap-
peared few ragged new divisions
of hastily modified workers, fight
ing with the spirit of demons but
without the arms, training, or ex-
perience of regular troops. The
Germans thought the end was in
sight. Berlin editors were advis-
ed, December 2, to leave space
on their front pages to announce
the fall of Moscow.
During the first week Of Decen-
ber, the Germans reached their
farthest points of advance, cut
ting the Moscow-Volga canal to
the north at Dinitrov, spreading
south through Istra, Zvenigorod,
and Narofominsk and loops ng
around Tula, north almost to Ka-
shira and east to Mikhailov and
Yerifan. The nearest they came
to Moscow was the outskirts of
the little Moscow-Volga canal port
Khimki, five miles north of Mos
COW, connected with the capital
by a commuters bus line.
Stain, at that moment of crisis,