highway from Orel. His own assessment was that rear area forces such as 36th Motorcycle Rgt and the Tula Artillery School would be best employed to move towards the German advance, collecting retreating forces as they went. This strategy was approved and following the loss of Orel itself, Mtsensk, on the Zusha river, became the ‘red line’ beyond which retreat could not occur. The newly formed Corps detrained here on 4 October 1941 in the face of the advance. Whilst Lelyushenko's blocking force was not only a new organisational structure but one composed partly of newly raised formations, some of these were notably well-equipped. For example, Katukov's 4th Tank Brigade was fully armed with the new T34, which was at the time arguably the best battle tank in existence. In the following battles until 11 October, Lelyushenko succeeded in a quite vital task. Forming a corps in the face of the enemy, he eventually fought off Guderian’s Panzer Group in the southern Moscow approaches. He was personally thanked by Stalin for this action which arguably saved the Soviet capital and began to suggest a high-water mark of the overall invasion. Guderian’s memoir notes that at this stage for the Germans “the prospect of rapid… victories was fading”. 16 October saw Lelyushenko now defending the historic Borodino area along the Moscow highway. Here, he was wounded when forced into personal combat with the reserve tank brigade against a German incursion. Once recovered, during mid-November Lelyushenko was placed in charge of the 30th Army, still in front of Moscow. The Germans were held at bay during further extremely difficult fighting but by 1 December the Soviets were in a position to plan a strong winter counteroffensive. Lelyushenko commanded part of this operation, launched during full darkness on 5 December and drove his men, specifically the 371st Rifle Division, forward, as usual from an advanced position near the fighting. By the 1941 he had helped defend Moscow from three separate directions, successfully on all occasions. The capture of the Soviet capital had arguably ceased to be a practical proposition for the enemy, whose main offensives during the following year would be directed to the south and, eventually, Stalingrad. Actions around Stalingrad In November 1942, after a year continuing to defend the Moscow approaches with much less difficulty than previously, Lelyushenko also went south, to take command of the 1st Guards Army. At this