The three tank traps in the foreground stand on the spot where the German Army got closest to Moscow on 5 December 1941. The main front-line was about twenty miles behind, at Kryukovo (which is Zelengorod today) on the Moscow-Leningrad highway. A small motor-cycle reconnaissance unit penetrated as far as Khimki, which the Germans described as "in the outer suburbs of Moscow". It was not. It was then a village many miles from the edge of the city. The Germans apparently claimed they could see the "towers of the Kremlin". This cannot have been true. Even without all the high-rise buildings which obscure the view today, it would have been impossible to see the Kremlin from ground-level at Khimki, any more than it would be possible to see Big Ben from Staines. The German unit thought they had found a gap in the Soviet front-line, soi they raced back to tell their commander. The next morning, at 4 a.m., the Siberian divisions attacked all along the front, from Kalinin (now, and previously, Tver) to Tula. The temperature was more than 30 degrees below zero Centigrade, and many German units refused to come out of their quarters to fight. Snow was falling, in a high wind. Visibility was less than fifty yards. The Soviet troops had white camouflage, heat-packs inside their uniforms and ponies to carry supplies. The Germans, having been told by Hitler when they invaded in June that they would "be home before the leaves fall" were unprepared for Russian winter conditions. They had stuffed shredded newspaper inside their denim uniforms to try to keep warm. But they had, for example, hob-nailed boots, the metal parts of which conducted the cold direct to the soldiers' feet. Over the following two months they were pushed back a hundred miles or so, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. This was the first time that Hitler's army had been comprehensively defeated in a land battle. The myth of Nazi invincibility was shattered. It happened more or less on this spot. Today, Ikea, Aushan and Mega, said to the largest mall in Europe, stand behind the monument.
