Mike Yaklich writes:
Vyazma ("Wjasma" may also be the Polish spelling) figured prominently in the twin battles of encirclement that characterized the first phase of "Operation Typhoon," the belated major German offensive to take Moscow (October 1941). Benefitting from good weather, the Germans made surprisingly quick breakthroughs, despite the extra time the Soviets had been granted to prepare defenses on this front as a result of Hitler's decision to turn south (which led to the gigantic battle of the Kiev pocket in September, where total Soviet causalties may have approached a million men, including 665,000 captured).
There were three German "panzer groups" (in December
'41 these were upgraded in title to "Panzer Armies" without any
appreciable increase in strength) involved in the "Typhoon"
offensives, out of four "panzer groups" on the whole Russian front.
These all managed breakthroughs and an initial rapid advance, which led to the
formation of two "pockets" of surrounded Soviet forces, one centered
at Bryansk, and the other around Vyazma. The eventual clearing of these pockets
yielded almost as big a bag as the monumental Kiev/Ukraine battle, some 663,000
reported captured. It was at this time that signs of a real panic set in in the
Soviet capital, and the government was evacuated to Kuibyshev not long
afterwards (Stalin, however, remained in Moscow to direct the defenses).
However, the fall rainy season, the "rasputitsa," arrived when the
clearing of the two pockets was still in progress (the first snow fell a week
into October on some parts of the front), soon turning the roads into quagmires.
Meanwhile, the first of Stalin's Siberian reserves were in action in front of
Moscow before the end of the month (playing a prevalent part in extremely
vicious battles around Borodino, where the Czar's armies had also lost a battle
but bled Napoleon's forces more heavily than in any of Bonaparte's other
battles).
The combination of muddy roads, progressive exhaustion of German troops, machines, and supplies, and the strengthened resistance (especially by the well-equipped and highly motivated Siberian forces) meant that after the first phase of Typhoon-- which seemed to indicate that the "Blitzkrieg" was still alive and well-- the final push to Moscow itself turned into a slow crawl, which became an almost imperceptible forward motion as the front froze in November. A group of motorcyclists on a raid managed to reach a Moscow suburb, about six miles from the city center (and between Moscow and its present-day airport), in early December, while German troops had actually reached points east of Moscow north of the city, and were besieging Tula due south, but these were the last gasps of an effort doomed to failure.