Operation Wotan
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- Wotan may also designate a part of German East Wall defensive line.
| Operation Wotan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II (Eastern Front) | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
 Germany |
 Soviet Union |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Heinz Guderian Albert Kesselring Ewald von Kleist Erich Hoepner Maximilian von Weichs |
Andrei Yeremenko Andrey Vlasov |
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| Eastern Front |
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| Barbarossa – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague |
Operation Wotan was a codename for the German tank operation with the goal of capturing Moscow during the World War II, developed mainly by Hitler.[1] The name refers to Wotan, the chief Anglo-Saxon deity.
The operation was scheduled to be launched by Army Group South on September 9, 1941 and to last no more than eight weeks.[1] The date was established on August, 29 in declaration addressed to the OKH. The start was slowed down by initial Soviet attacks of Semyon Budyonny and Semyon Timoshenko. However Guderian's tank units soon smashed the Soviet troops between Oryol and Kursk, forming a gap which was used by Kleist's 1st Panzer Group. It was decided to make the main strike towards the Dankov-Kasimov-Gorkiy direction, but it was changed by Kesselring. The German tank units passed through several Soviet sites , including Kulebyaki and Vyksa which were captured by the 3rd Panzer Group on October 28, and Arzamas captured the next day. However the German troops experienced severe difficulties concerning the casualties and the subsequent frosts. An opportunity for Soviet counter-offensive occurred shortly after.
