![]() ![]() All together, the Soviet Western Front had 25 rifle and cavalry divisions, 13 tank and 7 motorized divisions. The 13th Army was held as part of the Stavka High Command Reserve and initially existed as a headquarters unit only, with no assigned forces. It included the 3rd, 4th, and 10th Armies along the frontier. ![]() Army Group Center could call upon Luftflotte 2 for air support.įacing Army Group Center was the Red Army's Western Front commanded by General of the Army Dmitry Pavlov. The two infantry Armies fielded 33 divisions and the Panzer Armies fielded nine Panzer divisions, six motorized divisions and a cavalry division. Its armored forces were Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group and Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group. ![]() The Army Group included the 9th and 4th Armies. Prelude Ĭommanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, Army Group Centre was tasked with attacking from Poland through the Białystok – Minsk – Smolensk axis towards Moscow. The Germans destroyed the Soviet Western Front in 18 days and advanced 460 kilometers into the Soviet Union, causing many to believe that the Germans had effectively won the war against the Soviet Union. The Red Army lost 420,000 men against Wehrmacht casualties of over 12,157. The majority of the Western Front was enclosed within, and the pockets were liquidated by 9 July. The Army Group's 2nd Panzer Group under Colonel General Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group under Colonel General Hermann Hoth decimated the Soviet frontier defenses, defeated all Soviet counter-attacks and encircled four Soviet Armies of the Red Army's Western Front near Białystok and Minsk by 30 June. The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa, lasting from 22 June to 9 July 1941. ![]()
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