The Viaz'ma Catastrophe 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

(Hardback)

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The Viaz'ma Catastrophe 1941 describes one of the most terrible tragedies of the Second World War and the events preceding it. The horrible miscalculations made by the Stavka of the Soviet Supreme High Command and the Front commands led in October 1941 to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own people. Until recently, the magnitude of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Viaz'ma and Briansk were simply kept hushed up. For the first time, in this book a full picture of the combat operations that led to this tragedy are laid out in detail, using previously unknown or little-used documents. The author was driven to write this book after his long years of fruitless search to learn what happened to his father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared together with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He became determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster on the approaches to Moscow in the autumn of 1941. The author additionally introduces documents from German military archives, which will doubtlessly interest not only scholars, but also students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopukhovsky substantiates his position on the matter of the true extent of the losses of the Red Army in men and equipment, which greatly exceeded the official data. In the Epilogue, he briefly discusses the searches he has conducted with the aim of revealing the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Soviet soldiers, who to this point have been listed among the missing-in-action - including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, colour maps and tables. 66 b/w photos, 19 colour maps, 7 tables

Reviews

"Viazma was the nadir of the Red Armys performance during Operation Barbarossa. Lopukhovskys painstaking research in hitherto unavailable archival sources exposes weaknesses from the high command to the rifle platoons. The author demonstrates as well the structural weaknesses that underlay the USSRs military shortcomings, and he memorializes the soldiers whose blood paid for errors too long obscured by neglect and cover-ups. -- Dennis Showalter, Colorado College, author of Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk, The Turning Point of World War II
Lopukhovskys account of the battle of Viazma is masterful. The sheer detail and expert analysis reflects the 41 years he spent researching and writing it. -- David Stahel, author of Operation Typhoon: Hitlers March on Moscow, October 1941 and Kiev 1941.
The level of detail is staggering and the accompanying maps and tables add a degree of clarity rarely enjoyed in a book of this complexity. Stuart Britton who has undertaken the translation of this book from its original Russian is to be commended for another outstanding endeavour an outstanding book and a highly recommended addition to those seeking to expand their understanding of the challenges that the Soviet's struggled with in trying to contain the German Typhoon of 1941. It is a sobering and humbling rendition of the sacrifice of the Russian soldier and the dysfunction of their leadership. * Global War Studies *
This gem of a book, a detailed and accurate expos of what actually took place at Viazma, is the product of a prolonged struggle to overcome Soviet censorship. The results is a graphic, balanced, accurate, and sometimes poignant study of the long-concealed October tragedy at Viazma Finally provides essential details about one of the longest lasting blank chapters in the record of the 20th centurys most brutal and costly war. It is a must read for those interested in the Soviet-German War, in particular, and military history in general * The Russian Review *
a remarkable work which took the author more than forty years to research and write Until there are more archival materials made available, Lopukhovskys exhaustive study will remain the final word on the Soviet experience at Viazma. * War in History *
a most important examination of something quite extraordinary, something covered up by the Russian authorities for many, many years. It will be essential reading for WWII students and academics. * Books Monthly *

Author Bio

After a distinguished career as an officer in the Soviet army, including command of a regiment in the Soviet Strategic Missile forces in the rank of colonel, Lev Lopukhovsky transferred to the Frunze Military Academy to teach tactics. Since retiring from the military he has become a professor in the Russian Federations Academy of Military Sciences and one of the leading historians of the Soviet forces during the Second World War. In addition to many articles he has written on the subject, he has published controversial studies of the battles of Prokorovka and Viazma and the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Stuart Britton is a freelance translator who resides in Cedar Rapids, IA. He is responsible for a growing number of translated Russian military memoirs, battle histories and operational studies, which saw an explosion in Russia with the opening of secret military archives and the emergence of new Russian scholars who take a more objective look at the events and historical figures. Two works that received prizes or prominent acclaim were Valeriy Zamulins Demolishing a Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk 1943 and Lev Lopukhovskys The Viazma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Armys Disastrous Stand Against Operation Typhoon. Notable recent translations include Valeriy Zamulins The Battle of Kursk: Controversial and Neglected Aspects and Igor Sdvizhkovs Confronting Case Blue: Briansk Fronts Attempt to Derail the German Drive to the Caucasus, July 1942. Future translated publications include Nikolai Ovcharenkos analysis of the defense, occupation and liberation of Odessa, 1941-1944, and Zamulins detailed study of 7th Guards Armys role and performance in the Battle of Kursk against Army Detachment Kempf.