By December 1941, the German 9th Army was making its last effort in trying to reach Moscow from the northwest. Some motorcycle elements of the 62. Panzepioniere Regiment reached Chimki, a mere 23 kilometers northwest from the Kremlin. Different units of Rokkosovsky’s 16th Army were thrown into the fray in order to stop this last desperate effort. The exhausted Germans were stopped cold in their last attempt to take the capital.