battle at Borodino Field

{{Short description|Smaller battle in the greater Battle of Moscow, 1941}}

{{For|the Napoleonic-Era battle|Battle of Borodino}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox military conflict

| conflict = Battle at Borodino Field

| image = Памятник Мертвым великой армии церемониал.JPG

| caption = Monument to the " Dead of the Great Army" on the Shevardinsky Redoubt

| partof = the Battle of Moscow

| place = Borodino, Russian SFSR

| coordinates = {{Coord|55|30|31|N|35|49|16|E|region:RU_type:event|display=inline,title}}

| date = 13 October 1941 – 18 January 1942

| result = German victory in October
Soviet victory in January

| combatant1 = {{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}

| combatant2 = {{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}

| commander1 = Günther von Kluge

| commander2 = Dmitry Lelyushenko

| strength1 = 2nd SS Division Das Reich
10th Panzer Division
18th Panzer Brigade
19th Panzer Brigade

| strength2 = 32nd Rifle Division
82nd Rifle Division
36th Motorcycle Regiment
509th Anti-Tank Regiment

| casualties1 =

| casualties2 = |

}}

{{Campaignbox Axis-Soviet War}}

The Battle at Borodino Field was a part of the Battle of Moscow, on the Eastern Front of World War II. While referring to the battle in Russian, the Borodino Field is actually more commonly applied rather than just Borodino, cf. Georgy Zhukov ("...this division [32nd] was forced to cross the arms with the enemy on the Borodino Field...").{{cite web|url=http://www.borodino.ru/41_45.shtml |script-title=ru:Бородино в годы Великой Отечественной Войны. 1941-42 гг. |publisher=Borodino.ru |access-date=1 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080405172338/http://www.borodino.ru/41_45.shtml |archive-date=5 April 2008 |language=ru |url-status=dead |df=dmy }}

At noon on 13 October 1941, German Junkers and Messerschmitt aircraft appeared over the Borodino Field,{{cite book | last =Lelyushenko | first =D. | title =Moscow-Stalingrad-Berlin-Prague | publisher =Nauka | year =1987 | location = Moscow| pages =62 }} site of the climactic 1812 French-Russian clash. On 16 October, severe fighting broke out in the center of Borodino Field. Subsequently, the Germans managed to take the field. The Spaso-Borodinsky Monastery was burnt and the Borodino Museum suffered damage. Borodino Field was freed by the 82nd Soviet Rifle Division during the Russian counter offensive.

Reportedly, Col. Victor Polosukhin of the Red Army, whose unit was on Borodino Field, looked in on the museum shortly before it was damaged. He signed the visitors' guestbook and under "Purpose of Visit" wrote "I have come to defend the battlefield".Braithwaite, Rodric. Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War. Random House, 2006, p. 210