The launch of Operation Typhoon had begun well for the Germans. What was intended to be the final battle of the year, the assault on Moscow, had seen further sweeping Blitzkrieg operations that had encircled even more of the Soviet forces.
Then, after just a week of such success, everything changed. Diary after diary notes the sudden deterioration in the weather.
Ludwig Kolodzinsk1, serving with the 2nd Panzer Army, was woken by his radio operator at 2 am on the 8th October and urged to look outside:
It was snowing! The wind drove thick clouds of snowflakes across the earth and the ground was already covered in a thin sheet of snow. Even the assault guns parked outside on the road had taken on a curious appearance. They were completely white as if covered in icing sugar!
I recorded this first snowfall in my diary and went back inside to lie down again. When I awoke in the morning and glanced outside, the snow had already gone. But as a consequence the road was covered in mud and the land around totally soaked.
