Battle at Borodino Field explained

Conflict:Battle at Borodino Field
Partof:the Battle of Moscow
Place:Borodino, Russian SFSR
Date:13 October 1941 – 18 January 1942
Result:German victory in October
Soviet victory in January
Commander1:Günther von Kluge
Commander2:Dmitry Lelyushenko
Strength1:2nd SS Division Das Reich
10th Panzer Division
18th Panzer Brigade
19th Panzer Brigade
Strength2:32nd Rifle Division
82nd Rifle Division
36th Motorcycle Regiment
509th Anti-Tank Regiment

The Battle at Borodino Field was a part of the Battle of Moscow, on the Eastern Front of World War II. While referring to the battle in Russian, the Borodino Field is actually more commonly applied rather than just Borodino, cf. Georgy Zhukov ("...this division [32nd] was forced to cross the arms with the enemy on the Borodino Field...").[1]

At noon on 13 October 1941, German Junkers and Messerschmitt aircraft appeared over the Borodino Field,[2] site of the climactic 1812 French-Russian clash. On 16 October, severe fighting broke out in the center of Borodino Field. Subsequently, the Germans managed to take the field. The Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery was burnt and the Borodino Museum suffered damage.[1] Borodino Field was freed by the 82nd Soviet Rifle Division during the Russian counter offensive.

Reportedly, Col. Victor Polosukhin of the Red Army, whose unit was on Borodino Field, looked in on the museum shortly before it was damaged. He signed the visitors' guestbook and under "Purpose of Visit" wrote "I have come to defend the battlefield".[3]

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Notes and References

  1. Web site: http://www.borodino.ru/41_45.shtml . ru:Бородино в годы Великой Отечественной Войны. 1941-42 гг. . Borodino.ru . 1 May 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080405172338/http://www.borodino.ru/41_45.shtml . 5 April 2008 . ru . dead . dmy .
  2. Book: Lelyushenko, D. . Moscow-Stalingrad-Berlin-Prague . Nauka . 1987 . Moscow. 62 .
  3. Braithwaite, Rodric. Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War. Random House, 2006, p. 210