I agree that that in itself does not make him right.
But what it does show, is that the idea of pushing east instead of north, was something people that were there believed in as well.
And that it isn't an idea limited to people with perfect hindsight.
Thing is they do push east as well, they did attack all the strong points on the line
It should be pointed out that the objective wasn't to secure the flank against Kalinin.
Instead, it was to drive straight through that city in order to link up with AG North that was about to start attacking southwards 400km to the north
I'm not sure that's right at least not on the scale we're talking, in terms of a couple of weeks in Oct and all the mud AGN is on the moon. The Germans actually kind of did what wiking is talking about (just not as fast), Gudarian ends up at Klin (he actually skirts it leaving it for infantry). It's just they had to deal with Kalinin first not just screen it.
The question then becomes if 9th Army is capable of defending most of the northern flank if such an attack is cancelled, and the advance northwards is far more limited.
I don't have the answer to that - but it is an interesting idea.
The 9th army isn't free to move until the 24th Oct having finally crushed the Vyazma pocket (Barbarossa to Berlin vol 1 pg153). This is my point you can't go on to do the next thing if you haven't done the last thing, and even units not directly involved in the last thing will still need to coordinate with those units that were and aren't available until then
I have to saying having buts out my copies of Barbarossa to Berlin by Brain Taylor and looks at what happened day by day, the overall issue here is that even though there's a timeline of attacks there is near constant fighting pretty much everywhere all the time. The usual story is German units push forward do well then get counter attacked, repulse the counter attack, push forward again. It's little faster in some areas than others, and Russian resistance is better in some ares than others but that's the general story here. However teh Germans seem to think that every time they'd push forward teh Russians would pull back, only they generally speaking did counter attack and even if the counter attack didn't reclaim teh ground it did delay teh German and cause casualties. Every day they're doing this they're losing fuel and men and machines. Something you get a couple of times is a Panzer division giving up their remaining fuel to a Panzer brigade and waiting for resupply because the division no longer has enough fuel to operate as a division!.
Take the point about 41st PzCorp yes It could east and not north east to Kalinin, but that one Corp isn't going to be the magic thing that makes this work
if you look at 41st during Oct it goes to Beyli, then on to Rzhev then on to Kalinin OTL
so Ok instead it goes east straight for Volokolomamsk / Istra basically it's going to join teh 56th , but I don't thjnk this one Krop is going to make all these differences especially as changes with Germans will mean Russian changes too. especially as per above you also planing of using the 9th army to bloke teh north you have to wait so I'm not sure you gain time here anyway..
So all in all i get the appeal of the idea of basically "stop messing around too much north and south on the approach to Moscow just go east keeping your attack narrow". You save fuel and time. And don't get me wrong punching through won't be the issue IMO. It's what happens next, because by doing that you haven't negated or encircled those Russian formations. They just going to pull back and by doing so they're going to pull back onto your beak through line's of communication/supply
Now even that doesn't matter if you think all you need to is just get tanks to Moscow in what ever shape.
But this leads to teh next issue Wiking seem to think that all the Germans have to do is get element of a panzer division into Moscow streets. But that is not enough, to take a city the size and numbers of Moscow you can't just drive in pop the hatch and say "all this is ours please line up for processing". Even if you not going fora long siege you going to have to encircle teh city and establish a perimeter even if it's just a light one, and also attack into if you not relying on staving them out! To take a city that big you need a lot of infantry but their no good to you still slogging though the muddy approaches to Moscow and those Russians still milling around.
On top of that the Germans dont actually know what's waiting for them in Moscow. We know Is Zhukovs mobilised population and while I think thy're going to out up more of a fight than Wiking does, yeah it's not Guards divisions. But the Germans don't know that. Plus what's the German experience been pretty much from Aug onwards. They've met encircled and defeated more than their own number of soviet soldiers and equipment, but they still keep running into more Russian in front of them. Remember they were told that it was just a matter of meeting the Soviet army in the field beating it and the Russians will collapse (ala France), only they've been meeting and beating the Russian army in large numbers since June and there has been no collapse just more Russians. So I very much doubt the Germans who are that close to Moscow standing in front the Zhukov's 90,000 are thinking whew this time these really are the last Russians in army uniforms we'll see.
so while I get the appeal of the plan, I think it's unrealistic on two big points
1). The faster straight narrow push to Moscow: The Germans are not in fit state to pull it it off, and even if the they punched through the Russians are going have a say in it as well
2). It doesn't help anyway because the German don't actually think to take Moscow all they need to do it pop some Panzer hatches in Moscow and declare victory and this time unlike all the other times the Russians will roll over. Now some in central command might think this, and some on teh front might wish this, but generally speaking I think most the German commanders there not being stupid men are realising the difference between Nazi propaganda and reality after four months of it.