Battle at Borodino Field

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For the 1812 battle, see Battle of Borodino.

Date	13 October-18 January 1941
Location	Borodino, Russian SSR
Result	German victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders

Günther von Kluge

Dmitry Lelyushenko

Strength

2nd SS Division Das Reich
10th Panzer Division
18th Panzer Brigade
19th Panzer Brigade

32nd Rifle Division
82nd Rifle Division
36th Motorcycle Regiment
509th Anti-Tank Regiment

v • d • e

Eastern Front

Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Blue – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Battle of Narva – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Baltic – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Lublin-Brest – Balkans (Iassy-Kishinev) – Budapest – Vistula-Oder – East Prussia – East Pomerania – Silesia – Vienna – Berlin – Prague

The Battle at Borodino Field was an encounter in the Battle of Moscow, on the Eastern Front of World War II. While referring to the battle in Russian, the Borodino Field is actually more commonly applied rather than just Borodino, cf. Georgi Zhukov ("...this division [32nd] was forced to cross the arms with the enemy on the Borodino Field...").^[1]

On October 13, 1941, at noon German Junkers and Messerschmitt aircraft appeared over the Borodino Field,^[2] the site of the French-Russian clash. On October 16 severe fights have broke out in the center of Borodino Field, subsequently the Germans managed to take the field. The Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery was burnt and the Borodino Museum suffered a damage.^[1] Borodino Field was freed by the 82nd Soviet Rifle Division during the counter-offensive.

Subsequently a monument was erected in the field with the inscription on bas-relief: "Here, on the lines of the sacred Borodino Field in October, 1941 the heroic units of the 5th Army have been fighting to the bitter end, rebutting the furious onslaught of German fascist usurpers".^[1]