The winter of 1941 to 42 saw something that had not been seen before in more than two years of world war, the German army in retreat.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music to the history of the 20th century. Episode 357. No Retreat.

We were talking about the latest developments in the combat on the Eastern Front between the Germans and the Soviet Union,

when the Japanese rudely interrupted our narrative by bombing Pearl Harbor. and that's where we ended as of episode 349.

The Red Army was just beginning a counteroffensive against the Germans along the Moscow portion of the front when news of the Japanese attack arrived.

Hitler was delighted and declared war on the United States

four days later. As he did so, Hitler knew that a Soviet winter counterattack had begun,

but he had yet to discover how serious it was. He traveled to Berlin to announce the war declaration

and returned to the Wolfslair a few days later on December 16th.

By then, Army Group Center,

the force that had been just a few dozen kilometers from the Kremlin when he left,

was facing disaster.

The battered, frost-bitten, exhausted German army was getting thrashed by Soviet formations

no German commander had known existed until the Soviet offensive began.

Hitler was still having trouble believing this was for real,

while every German commander's thoughts turned to the same subject, Napoleon, and his catastrophic withdrawal from Russia in 1812, and the fear that history was about to repeat itself.

The commander-in-chief of the army, Marshal Walter von Brouchech, had suffered a mild heart

attack in November, no doubt caused at least in part by this stress of leading Operation

Barbarossa,

he had asked Hitler then to be relieved of his duties, but the Fuhrer refused.

In December, Browchich took a quick tour of the front lines of Army Group Center and returned thinking the situation was hopeless.

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