Operation Barbarossa
The Wehrmacht had amassed 3,206,000 soldiers and over 3,330
assorted panzers. over 7,100 artillery pieces 600,000 motor
vehicles 625,000 horses 250 assault guns, the Luftwaffe had
amassed 2,840 aircraft.
Northern Sector
Erich
Hoepner, 4th Panzer group attacked from the East Prussian
frontier north of Memel and south of Tilsit. Supported by
heavy artillery fire, and air intervention,
Georg-Hans
Reinhardt 41st Panzer Corps and
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps struck Sobennikov's 8th
Army, taking the Soviet command by surprise. Forward units
were easily overrun.
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps pierced the 8th Army's
left flank and advanced quickly through closely wooded territory,
and went by Rasainiai to reach the Dubissa River and secure
a crossing after a audacious assault upon their Airogola viaduct.
Rasainiai fell to supporting in infantry after a brief engagement
Georg-Hans
Reinhardt 41st Panzer Corps launched its assault from
Tilsit, hitting a single rifle division in the centre of the
8th Army with two panzer, one motorised and one infantry divisions.
The lone defending division fighting desperately at the frontier
was unable to hold back the German attacks and collapsed opening
the road to Taurage. Pushing deep into the frontier zone
Georg-Hans
Reinhardt 41st Panzer Corps, The advance was slower than
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps as the Soviets hurled repeated
counter-attacks.
Fyodor Kuznetsov attempted to rally his forces throughout
the day, but the Luftwaffe's air superiority precluded any
effective countermeasures at the border. The HQ of the Baltic
military district, now renamed the North West front at Subach,
along with many Soviet command and communication facilities
came under fierce attack by the Luftwaffe As the panzers pressed
ahead, the infantry began their long march.
The 18th Army commanded by
Georg
von Küchler moving out of its cramped assembly areas
behind
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps fanned out into Lithuania,
pressing north along the coast towards Libau to lever the
right flank of the 8th Army away from the coast. Further inland,
costly engagements raged along woodland tracks, a small detachments
of Soviet troops ambushed German units delaying the advance
before they were destroyed or pulled back into the interior.
General
Ernst
Busch, led his infantry forward on the right wing of Heeresgruppe Nord (Army Group North) pushing East from the East Prussian border towards Niemen
River. These units hit the right wing of the 8th Army and
the northern wing of the 11th army. Seriously shaken Fyodor
Kuznetsov, armies started to break up. Early on in the day
as
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps drove along the road to
Airogola viaduct, Fyodor Kuznetsov ordered the 3rd and 12th
Mechanised Corps to concentrate for a counter-attack aimed
at stopping the Germans pushing towards Siauliai. Subordinating
both corps to the 8th Army commanded by Fyodor Kuznetsov ordered
an attack at midday on the 23rd June 1941. The 12th Mechanised
Corps ordered its forces to co-operate with the 3rd Mechanised
Corps and attack the Germans at Taurage. However, due to the
catastrophic break down of communications the battlefront
commander was for the most part unaware of the dangerous situation
evolving on the 11th army's sector. In essence Fyodor Kuznetsov
was coping with a lesser of two evils his movements, only
delaying
Georg-Hans
Reinhardt 41st Panzer Corps, advance momentarily, while
Erich
von Manstein 56th Panzer Corps pressed almost unhampered
towards the Dvina River.
Central Sector
Fedor
von Bock Heeresgruppe Mitte (Army Group Centre) started its offensive, as
the Luftwaffe arrived over Soviet air bases and military facilities
behind the frontier. South West of Vilnius,
Hermann
Hoth 3rd Panzer Group ripped open the southern flank of
Morozov 11th Army pushing the East for the Niemen River. With
the 57th Panzer Corps on the left, 39th Panzer Regiment to
its right and infantry following,
Hermann
Hoth 3rd Panzer Group severed the joint of the North West
and West Front. As a consequence, Fyodor Kuznetsov was required
to detach the 12th Mechanised Corps and the 3rd Mechanised
Corps from Sobennikov's 8th Army and bring them South to aid
the collapsing 11th Army. Even so, the movement of the two
mechanised corps was harassed by the Luftwaffe, and was finally
be halted by
Georg-Hans
Reinhardt 41st Panzer Corps in the first major tank battle
of the campaign.
As the advance of the panzers got underway General
Adolf
Strauß 9th Army hit forward elements of Fyodor Kuznetsov
3rd Army. The surprised Soviet forces already out of touch
with their HQ and hard-pressed by German ground and air attacks
endured awful casualties. Provisions ran low towards the end
of the day due to relentless Luftwaffe attacks on forward
supply dumps. The cohesion of the hard-pressed battlefront
formations began to collapse after just the first few hours
of armed combat.
Close to Grodno German infantry were involved in a ferocious
struggle with the Soviets Fyodor Kuznetsov vainly tried to
bring his armour into the battle. But despite that fact the
11th Mechanised Corps was deployed close to Grodno, it could
not deploy being hampered in its movements by
Albert
Kesselring 2nd Air Fleet. Soviet armoured losses on the
approach roads were crippling.
In the centre of the Heeresgruppe.
Heinz
Guderian 2nd Panzer Group launched a ferocious assault
upon the garrison of Brest-Litovsk. Despite repeated attacks,
they were not able to capture the city, the NKVD (The People's
Commissariat for Internal Affairs) border guards, put up fierce
resistance. After confused fighting in the outskirts the Soviets
pulled back into the citadel and prepared to resist a sustained
German siege. North and South of the city, the rest of
Heinz
Guderian 2nd Panzer Group started their offensive.
Joachim
Lemelsen 47th Panzer Corps moved across the river Bug
north of the town and pushed towards Pruzhany, where it met
resistance from elements of the 14th Mechanised Corps.
Leo
Geyr von Schweppenburg 24th Panzer Corps, succeeded in
crossing the River Bug south of Brest. As armor penetrated
the Soviet defences The marching infantry of
Günther
von Kluge 4th Army got to grips with the Soviets left
behind. As with the
Hermann
Hoth 3rd Panzer Group, infantry came after each armored
corp of
Heinz
Guderian 2nd Panzer Group.
As in the North in the centre the Germans had taken the Soviets
completely by surprise. The 3rd, 4th and the10th Armies, together
with battlefront commander Dmitry Pavlov, having been caught
completely unawares. Many Soviet units were under continuous
ground and air attack and broke up in the first few hours
of fighting. Nevertheless isolated detachments fought back
ferociously inflicting heavy casualties upon the attacking
German divisions.
The Luftwaffe was extremely active throughout the day, bombing
Soviet concentrations at Bialystok, Grodno, Lida, Volkovsky,
Brest-Litovsk and Kobrin the latter HQ of Andreevich Korobkov
4th Army communications throughout the now redesignated West
Front collapsed leaving Dmitry Pavlov, unaware of the disasters
that were unfolding around him. In only two hours constant
Luftwaffe attacks managed to shatter the command structure
of the 4th Army. Fuel and ammunition dumps, came under particularly
fierce attack, while numerous airfields were disabled. K.D.
Golubev 10th Army, deep inside the Bialystok salient also
came in for a considerable beating many of its supply facilities
being lost.
Across the Central sector, the Soviet defences continue to
remain wide open. K.D. Golubev 10th Army, in spite of fierce
fighting were already losing their battle against
Adolf
Strauß 9th Army and
Günther
von Kluge 4th Army. With much of his rear services destroyed.
It was only a matter of time before the army bled to death.
K.D. Golubev reported to Dmitry Pavlov, that is 6th Cavalry
Corps had been all but decimated and the remnants of his frontier
rifle divisions were falling back. In an effort to restore
the situation, Dmitry Pavlov, ordered the 14th Mechanised
Corp to move from Pruzhany and launch an immediate counter-attack
to throw the Germans back to the border. Despite severe difficulties
in deploying the 14th Mechanised Corp managed to engage the
18th Panzer Division (
Joachim
Lemelsen 47th Panzer Corps) and embroiled it in a drawn-out
armored dual for most of the day.
By dusk, the Germans had committed elements of the 28th Rifle
Corps (
Günther
von Kluge 4th Army) in Brest-Litovsk and determined to
capture the city as quickly as possible. At the same time
K.D. Golubev decided to begin the withdrawal of his 10th Army
behind the Narew River to prevent its encirclement the collapse
of his northern and southern flanks having jeopardised the
whole army. The 6th Mechanised Corp was ordered to move up
to the Narew River to protect the rear of the retiring rifle
divisions. In an effort to ascertain what was happening at
the K.D. Golubev 10th Army, Dmitry Pavlov sent his deputy
General Boldin, to K.D. Golubev unit. Late in the evening
General Boldin managed to locate K.D. Golubev, whose HQ had
been moved to some woods South West of Bialystok. Here General
Boldin was informed that the 10th Army had suffered extremely
severe casualties, and the 6th Mechanised Corp's was badly
short of tanks, but was moving to the east bank of Narew River
to cover the withdrawal of the frontier units. Reporting these
developments to Dmitry Pavlov, General Boldin was ordered
to put a shock group together to stop any potential German
incursion towards Volkovysk. During the night of the 22nd
to 23rd June 1941 General Boldin trying to put together his
small force. He planned to attack towards Grodno from the
North-East of Bialystok, where he assumed the 11th Mechanised
Corp was already in action.
Southern Sector
Field Marshal
Rudolf
von Rundstedt Heeresgruppe Süd launched the first
phase of its offensive against Soviet forces in the north
west Ukraine. Once again the Luftwaffe was very active, attacking
Soviet defences and airfields across the entire combat sector.
Within hours the Luftwaffe had destroyed nearly 300 Soviet
aircraft. While the Luftwaffe pounded Soviet ground and air
forces, German panzers and infantry crossed the frontier.
Paul
von Kleist 1st Panzer Group with
Walter
von Reichenau 6th Army in close support, crossed the border
between Rava-Russki and Strumilov to maintain pressure upon
the joint of the Soviet 4th, 5th and 6th Armies. In the Rava-Russki
region the 6th Rifle Corps was heavily engaged and despite
bitter fighting, failed to prevent German forces crossing
the River Bug. Assault troops successfully overwhelmed the
NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) guards
on the bridges over the River Bug, opening the road to the
interior.
The 3rd Panzer Corp, 14th and the 48th Panzer Corps of
Paul
von Kleist 1st Panzer Group were able to begin their advance
towards Kiev, with only minor losses.
Carl-Heinrich
von Stülpnagel 17th Army also attacked, aiming to
crush the Soviet 6th and 26th Armies deployed around Lvov.
Fierce battles raged between Tomasov and Przemysel as the
German infantry fought to break through the Russian frontier
units. Around Przemysl, the 8th Rifle Corps of Kostenko's
26th Army, tried to hold of these attacks, but failed to prevent
a crossing of the San River. Late in the day Przemysl fell
to the Germans, but the 8th three Corps launched an prompt
counter-attack, preventing the German exploitation of their
gains.
As the day went on, the Germans set up secure bridgeheads
over the River Bug so that by noon both
Walter
von Reichenau 6th Army and
Carl-Heinrich
von Stülpnagel 17th Army were across the river which
had barred their advance. Amongst fierce fighting the Soviet
border formations gave way to the attacks of 3rd Panzer Corp,
the 15th Rifle Corp which was on the right flank of Potapov's
5th Army collapsed at the joint of the 5th and 4th Armies.
Not long afterwards, the two armies lost contact. Further
German pressure against the joint of the 5th and 6th Armies
prompted Kirponos the commander of the South West Front as
the Kiev military district have been redesignated to commit
the 22nd and 4th Mechanised Corp. Nevertheless, by dusk he
was aware of the danger represented by the deep advance of
Paul
von Kleist 1st Panzer Group into the northern flank and
began the difficult task of concentrating his armour to counter
the German thrust. The main obstacle to the execution of this
decision was a complete superiority the Germans had already
gained in the air.
Go To: 23rd
June
Articles:
The Second Great War.
Edited by Sir John Hamilton
The War Illustrated.
Edited by Sir John Hamilton
2194 Days Of War.
ISBN-10: 086136614X
For a complete list of
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