 After the German defeat in the Battle of Moscow, his army was driven back by Soviet counter-attack during the winter of 1941−42.Troops under Reinhardt's command implemented the OKH policy of "liquidating" mentally infirm; in December 1941 they murdered ten mental patients in the Russian city of Kalinin, on the pretext that they posed a security threat.From early 1942 until June 1944, the 3rd Panzer Army operated around Vitebsk and Smolensk.