the 9th army and 3rd Panzer army advancing on Moscow. Fourteen days into the battle, Dinort was replaced by Paul-Werner Hozzel. Second gruppe was still in Africa. Hozzel could only call upon Stab, I. and III./StG 2 for the offensive; the units could muster 70 aircraft which was approximately 70 percent of the wing's strength. Hozzel's forces supported the push to Klin during the encirclement phase of the battle along with the advances on Kalinin and then Tula. From 21 October it fought over Torzhok against Soviet forces trying to encircle the 1st Panzer Division. The temperature soon dipped and by the first week of November it fell to –20°. Ju 87 engines failed to start. Hozzel noted in his diary that only one operation was permitted on 13 November and one more five days later in support of the 110th Infantry Division. Hozzel utilised different ordnance depending on the mission supporting the advance across the Leningrad –Moscow Railway. For engaging Soviet armour, a 500 kg (1,102 lb) bomb with anti-tank warhead or a combination of three 250 kg (551 lb) bombs under the wings and fuselage. Primary targets at this time were troop concentrations, roads and railway traffic. Hozzel moved the wing six miles north of Mozhaysk, ten miles west of Moscow, on the Moskva River. Soviet resistance and the Russian Winter brought the advances to a halt. On 5 December 1941 the Red Army counter offensive ended the threat to Moscow and threatened to destroy Army Group Centre. Gustav Preßler and III./StG 2 remained on the Eastern Front. Bruno Dilley [who replaced Hitschhold in October] commanding I group returned to Germany and did II./StG 2 which left Africa in January 1942; it became part of StG 3 and reformed in East Prussia. Dilley's group recorded the temperature at –50° when it left the front with virtually no serviceable aircraft. Over the course of October the wing lost nine aircraft, a single Ju 87 in November, and five in December. Eastern Front 1942; Moscow and Stalingrad III./StG 2 pulled back to Rzhev on 16 December losing seven Ju 87s in the transfer. II./LG 2 was attached to the gruppe but the combination could muster only 30 aircraft. JG 51 and the two bomber groups formed a provisional tactical command. The 4th Shock Army captured the supply hub at Toropets. The capture began a series of intensive battles which lasted