33rd Army

Yefremov's 33rd Army held the Naro-Fominsk sector on the old Warsaw highway through the November battles, the cork in the bottle on the most direct road to Moscow. In December it joined the counteroffensive, recapturing Naro-Fominsk and Maloyaroslavets, and in January 1942 it drove deep toward Vyazma, the hub of the German centre. Overextended and cut off in February, its forward groups fought encircled in the forests south of Vyazma; Yefremov refused evacuation and fell with his troops. In February 1942 Yefremov's forward group, some 10,000 men, was cut off south of Vyazma and fought encircled for two months alongside Belov's cavalry; twice wounded, Yefremov shot himself in April rather than be captured, and the Germans buried him with full military honours. Soviet sources count heavy losses in the encirclement, and Yefremov's grave at Vyazma remains a memorial. The tracks recorded here are schematic headquarters-area positions, not surveyed front lines.