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The year 1941

Peremilovskaya Hill

The Peremilovskaya Hill, the place of bloody battles during the Great Patriotic War in 1941, is named after the nearby village of Peremilovo in the Dmitrov Municipal District of the Moscow Region. Due to its steep slopes, which stretch for 2 kilometers along the Moscow Canal (until 1947 it was called "Moscow–Volga"), the Peremilovskaya Hill rises above it by more than 50 meters. This is the easternmost point of the German advance on the fronts north of Moscow.

Map of the battles in the north of the Moscow region at the end of 1941

At the end of November 1941, the front line was approaching the canal. German aircraft began flying over the towns of Dmitrov and Yakhroma. On November 26-27, advanced detachments of German troops approached the town of Yakhroma. By this time, the townspeople had already been evacuated. The canal route from the Tourist railway station (south of the town of Yakhroma) to the Ivankovo reservoir became the frontline zone.

Battles near the town of Yakhroma

At about 7 a.m. on November 28, enemy tanks and infantry attacked the left flank company of the 2nd battalion of the 29th Infantry Brigade, which was defending the western outskirts of the town of Yakhroma. The company had no anti-tank weapons and could not withstand a tank attack. The Germans captured the town of Yakhroma. A group of German tanks crossed the channel, the enemy gained a foothold on its eastern shore and captured the village of Peremilovo. German troops came close to Dmitrov.

The Red Army soldiers of the 3rd battalion of the 29th Infantry Brigade under the command of Lieutenant G.Lermontov stood in the way of the enemy. A fierce battle began with the support of two guns, which covered the withdrawal of troops, against 14 enemy tanks accompanied by infantry. In the article "Exemplary Gunners" the newspaper "To Defeat the Enemy" wrote about these events that the guns under the command of Lieutenant Lermontov fired over four hundred shells.

Crew of armored train No.73

Armored train No. 73, commanded by Captain Malyshev, arrived at Dmitrov station and managed to delay the enemy's advance. In a few hours of combat, the armored train repelled five enemy attacks.

Lieutenant General V.I.Kuznetsov

In a telephone call with the commander of the First Shock Army, Lieutenant General V.I.Kuznetsov, who was in town of Dmitrov at the time, Supreme Commander I.V.Stalin demanded "to throw the invaders back over the canal.".

Panorama: The Battle of Moscow at the Victory Museum (Moscow)

The First shock army was formed a few days earlier from residents of Zagorsk (now Sergiyev Posad) and Dmitrov districts. After completing a short training course in two days, the soldiers went to the front. At that time, Kuznetsov had only one rifle brigade at his disposal. He decided to attack the village of Peremilovo, despite the numerical superiority of the enemy. On November 28, at 2 p.m., the first attack on the hill was lcarried out, it ended unsuccessfully. A small reinforcement force arrived in the town of Dmitrov at night, and a second attempt took place before dawn the next day. The 29th and 50th rifle brigades under the command of Colonel Subbotin secretly approached the enemy at 150-200 meters under cover of darkness, suddenly launched an attack and broke into the village of Peremilovo. The enemy lost up to a company of soldiers, retreated in disorder to the west bank of the canal across the bridge and gained a foothold there. A lightning strike on Moscow from the north was thwarted.

Blown up bridge over the Moskva-Volga canal

Для создания дополнительных препятствий наступающему противнику было решено взорвать мост через канал. Но ещё существовала возможность форсировать канал по льду. С помощью шлюзов часть воды из канала была спущена, образовалось пространство между льдом и водой. Танки попытались перейти на восточный берег, но провалились под лёд. Потом воду пустили вновь, и она доломала остатки льда. Канал превратился в водную преграду шириной 80 метров. Пойма рек Яхромы и Сестры на многие километры оказалась затоплена и стала дополнительной преградой для наступления противникаTo create additional obstacles for the advancing enemy, it was decided to blow up the bridge over the canal. But there was also the possibility of crossing the channel over the ice. With the help of locks, some of the water from the canal was drained, creating a space between ice and water. The tanks tried to cross to the eastern shore, but fell through the ice. Then the water was turned on again, and it broke off the remaining ice. The canal has turned into a water barrier 80 meters wide. The floodplain of the Yakhroma and Sestra rivers was flooded for many kilometers and became an additional obstacle to the enemy's offensive.

Map of flooding after water was released into the canal through the locks

On December 6, Soviet troops launched an offensive along the entire front near Moscow. On December 8, the town of Yakhroma was liberated, and by December 10, the entire Dmitrov district of the Moscow Region was liberated. This was the first turning point in the course of the entire Great Patriotic War. It was from here that Soviet troops under the command of Rokossovsky and Lelyushenko launched a victorious counteroffensive near Moscow.

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