To try to create a huge water obstacle in front of their positions, the Germans now blew up the Istra dam, turning the River Istra into a raging torrent. The Das Reich men and the other German units managed to hold this improvised front for just over a week, until the Soviets tanks found routes around to the north and south of their positions by moving across country. The Soviet T-34 tanks had wide tracks that made their weight-per-inch ratios lighter than that of an infantryman, so they could easily speed across the snow-covered landscape. German tanks, with their narrow tracks, would soon be stuck fast if they tried similar manoeuvres.

Faced with having the only open road to the west cut, the Das Reich Division again retreated towards Ruza, 64km (40 miles) to the west, where a new line was being formed against the Soviets. With its mobility and firepower severely limited by the snow, the Das Reich Division had to rely on its few surviving StuG III assault guns and 75mm self-propelled infantry guns to act as mobile strike forces to rush to threatened sectors of its front and repel Soviet attacks. As the retreat gathered momentum, Russian ski troops harried the SS men with hit-and-run attacks. The Das Reich Division was allowed no respite.

The German front is ripped apart

Another Soviet offensive was unleashed on 5 January 1942 to smash Army Group Centre before it had time to recover. This time the Soviet Fifth Army assaulted the weak German divisions to the south of Das Reich, and threatened to overrun its supply line. Once again the desperate SS men had to retreat, this time 97km (60 miles) across the freezing steppe with Soviet ski troops and Cossack cavalry squadrons snapping at their heels.

By 12 January the division was at Gzhatsk, where its defensive line halted the Soviet offensive, which was now running out of steam through lack of supplies and heavy casualties. Zhukov, however, had another trick up his sleeve and had three shock armies poised far to the north ready to sweep down on the rear flank of Army Group Centre.

The Soviet blow struck on 2 January, and opened a huge breach in the German Ninth Army's lines north of Rzhev. Hitler raged that the Ninth Army "will not take one more step back". With few reserves available, the army group high command had to commit any soldier who could carry a gun to the battle. The only major unit uncommitted in the threatened sector was the Waffen-SS Cavalry Brigade under the command of Hermann Fegelein, the brother-in-law of Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun. It was dispatched across country to take on the Soviets, dragging its heavy equipment and supplies on improvised sleds. Although it cut a dash with its horses, the Cavalry Brigade was not equipped or trained to take on Soviet armoured units.

The SS Cavalry Brigade

The SS Cavalry Brigade launched its counterattack on 7 January, but after a day's fighting was forced back when it ran out of ammunition. One of its battalions suffered 75 percent casualties in the horrendous fighting in the woods north of Rzhev. It was a futile effort, which did little to halt the torrent of Soviet troops heading southwards to encircle German troops sheltering around Vyazma, including the Das Reich Division. Hitler was furious that his orders to fight to the last man were being ignored by army commanders outside Moscow. A raft of senior generals were sacked for lack of resolution, and new men sent to put some backbone into the ranks of the troops at the front. One such man was Lieutenant-General Walther Model, who was sent to take over the Ninth Army.

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