There is absolutely no Berlin's agreement to stop the offensive. Whatever has been done - or not - you have to push on!

The Russian 50th Army defending Tula had been strongly reinforced and had turned the town into a fortress. Guderian pushed his Panzer Army east and then north around the town.Russian counter attacks in the area on November 17th halted him once more.He wrote to his wife:"the icy cold,the wretched accommodation,the insufficient clothing,the heavy losses of men and material and the meager supplies of fuel are making military operations a torture.I am getting increasingly depressed by the enormous weight of responsibility which,in spite of all the words,no-one can take off my shoulders."An attempt by 4th Army to renew its attack broke down. Over the next 14 days the offensive north and south also collapsed. Between the weather and Soviet spoiling attacks,only local advances occurred. T-34 tanks struck Guderian's right flank catching the 112th Infantry Division with no weapons that could stop them, and sending most of the division in panicked retreat.Members of a most-forward German patrol saw the towers of the Kremlin,as legend has it,perhaps not.Temperatures sank to minus 20 degrees Celsius,the German army was not able to cope with such cold,they lacked winter clothing and the number of frostbite cases rose to 228,000. Tanks,weapons,and radios failed.Bock doubted the value of pushing on,and asked OKH to suspend the operation but Brauchitsch,fearful of Hitler's anger, insisted the attacks must continue.
