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]
| Battle at Borodino Field | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Battle of Moscow | |||||||
 Monument to the " Dead of the Great Army" on the Shevardinsky Redoubt | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany |
 Soviet Union | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Günther von Kluge | Dmitry Lelyushenko | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
2nd SS Division Das Reich 10th Panzer Division 18th Panzer Brigade 19th Panzer Brigade |
32nd Rifle Division 82nd Rifle Division 36th Motorcycle Regiment 509th Anti-Tank Regiment | ||||||
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]
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b Бородино в годы Великой Отечественной Войны. 1941-42 гг. (in Russian). Borodino.ru. Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 1 May 2008.
- ^ Lelyushenko, D. (1987). Moscow-Stalingrad-Berlin-Prague. Moscow: Nauka. p. 62.
- ^ Braithwaite, Rodric. Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War. Random House, 2006, p. 210
Sources
edit- За нами Москва. Бородино. 1941. Воспоминания. М., 2007 (memoirs and letter extracts of Soviet 5th Army soldiers)