The decisive moment of the Battle of Rzhev

The beginning of 1942. After the defeat near Moscow, the German units roll to the west. The central section of the front is literally cracking at the seams. The fate of the Wehrmacht hangs in the balance. The hysterical orders of Hitler in the spirit of "not a step back!" Rush from Berlin. It seems that another effort, another blow of the Red Army - and the enemy defense will collapse. In this situation, the Soviet General Staff plans a grand offensive that exceeded even the Stalingrad operation in its scale - the giant ticks of the Kalinin and Western fronts should close in the Vyazma region, having cut off and buried four German armies in the Rzhevsky boiler! If this plan had been implemented, the Wehrmacht would hardly have recovered after such a crushing defeat, which meant a radical fracture during World War II - the whole war could go a different scenario much more favorable for the USSR. Why was these hopes were not destined to come true? By whose fault, the operation ended in failure, and the Red Army “stuck” near Rzhev for long fifteen months? Who is responsible for defeat and monstrous losses? How did the Germans manage to avoid defeat and stabilize the front?
Why did the offensive, which could become the greatest triumph of Soviet weapons, went down in history as a "Rzhevsky meat grinder"?
Analyzing the decisive moment of the Rzhev battle, the authors of this book answer the most difficult and painful issues of the history of the Great Patriotic War