Several Moscow 42 Questions

[ComradeP]

This is just a guess, but maybe 16th Army's fixed to give the Germans a chance to pull back in some reasonably good order. With the initial setup, it could push down the highway rather quickly whilst its historical gains until the 15th were actually quite small (~10 kilometres or so). Likewise, maybe the forces opposing 2nd Panzer Group are fixed for a little while longer to allow the Germans a chance at making the historical retreat, which aside from heavy equipment losses seems to have gone fairly well.

The Germans do have some flexibility as the forces opposing part of 5th Army and 16th Army are not fixed, but that will generally mean you can pull back a bit to somewhat better defensive positions together with the rest of the front. 16th Army's still very powerful and will hit you hard when it activates.