112 - Panic in Moscow! The Germans are here! - WW2 - October 17, 1941

Stop panicking! Shhhh… calm down! Do you see any Germans?

Right, then take it easy… go play in the mud or something.

There have been serious political machinations and intrigues within the Japanese High Command

all year, as factions vie for war and for peace, and this week, the Japanese government falls.

I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

Last week, Operation Typhoon, Germany’s drive on Moscow,

continued, creating two encirclements of hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers. The Germans also

advanced the south, and in North Africa the British made plans for a future offensive.

The Moscow Panic begins this week on the 15th.

It starts when FM Vyacheslav Molotov warns the American and British embassies that they need

to get ready for evacuation to Kuibyshev, 800km to the east. John Erickson writes,

“The real crisis, however, spilled onto the streets and into plants and offices; a spontaneous

popular flight added itself to the hurried and limited evacuation, accompanied by a breakdown in

public and party disciplines. There was a rush to the railway stations; officials used their cars to

get to east; offices and factories were disabled by desertions.” (Erickson, the Road to Stalingrad)

They mine the railway tracks and the bridges and orders are issued to blow everything

at the first sign of the enemy. But in spite of this, Georgy Zhukov has mobilized the city,

and for the past week 250,000 Muscovites, nearly 200,000 of them women, have been

building defenses and digging anti-tank ditches, and many continue to do so, panic or no panic.

But how justified is that panic?

For days, German papers have been blaring the news that the end of the war has come,

but (Stahel, Operation Typhoon) “By October 11th, (Josef) Goebbels knew he had a serious

problem.” What he has to do now is explain to the German people

how the war could still carry on even though being supposedly decided. Stahel also points out

that American journalist Howard Smith in Berlin says that now really comes the breaking point

for many people in terms of trusting their government’s accurate reporting of the war.

The Reich’s press chief Dr. Otto Dietrich had made a major appearance before the world press the 9th

proclaiming victory. But German newspaper sales drop

after Dietrich’s speech and the amount of people caught listening to radio broadcasts from abroad-

like from London and Moscow- triples. Smith says, “from now on a wall of distrust separated the

ministry of Dr. Goebbels from his people. The shepherd boy had hollered wolf once too often.”

Goebbels’ diary says, “admittedly we are to bear the greatest part of the responsibility for this…

our victory news is no longer accepted with the required attention and necessary importance…”

Among the troops at the front, many of those dragging vehicles through the mud and snow

in sub zero temperatures take issue with the Reich’s claims of victory, some even mocking them,

while many others convince themselves that the government knows better than they do,

and a real polarization develops.

Oh yes, snow and ice.

October 14th, the temperature in the central battle zone drops to below freezing. The 15th,