Operation Barbarossa - the Drive on Smolensk
Hitler's ego gets the best of him after successes throughout northern Europe, in the Balkans and on Crete - next stop: Moscow.
With conquests over Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete - Hitler now looks to taking down the Red monster in the East. Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union - is enacted. In doing so, he has now committed Germany to a second front that it could ill-afford. What follows is an early success for the German Army, encircling and annihilating Soviet army divisions until eventually taking Smolensk itself.
With momentum and weather on its side, the German Army has Moscow for the taking. Unfortunately for them, German High Command orders General Guderian (master of the Blitzkrieg) to now concentrate his forces to the south towards the Soviet Army near Kiev. This single strategic move would become the unraveling of any future German Army action on Soviet soil.
Though early returns of the massive operation faired comparatively well to early invasions schemes, Adolph Hitler had inevitably underestimated Soviet defiance within this simple statement:
"You only have to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down."
Total Events: 24
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Operation Barbossa is put into effect - the German invasion of the Soviet Union. |
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General Guderian's Panzergruppe 2 meets General Hoth's Panzergruppe 3 in Minsk. |
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Russian army forces are encirlced at key cities across the Soviet Union. |
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Panzergruppe 2 and Panzergruppe 3 cross the Berezina River west of Minsk, heading towards Smolensk and Vitebsk. |
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Panzergruppe 2 and Panzergruppe 3 now form up as part of General Gunther von Kluge's 4th Panzer Army. |
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Soviet defenses at Brest-Litovsk, Bialystok, Volkovysk, Gorodishche and Minsk fall to the invading German Army. |
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Panzergruppe 3 continues north to Vitebsk. |
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Gurderian's army moves south towards Mogliev. |
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Guderian's forces cross the Dniepr River 50 miles outside of Smolensk. |
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The Soviet 20th Army arrives in Smolensk. |
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Defenses across Smolensk are prepared under the direction of the Soviet 16th Army. |
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The Soviet 19th Army makes its way into Smolensk. |
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Panzergruppe 3 heads towards Yartsevo. |
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Marshal Timoshenko and his 4th and 13th Armies near the Sohz River counterattack the Germans at Smolensk. |
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Smolensk falls to the German 29th Motorized Division. |
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The German Army begins to tighten the noose around the encircled Soviet forces numbering some 25 divisions. |
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A German High Command directive calls for the army to complete the destruction of Soviet forces around Smolensk and then head south to tackle forces in Kiev instead of marching on Moscow herself - this decision is viewed as the turning point to Germany's defeat in Russia. |
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The Soviet counterattack at Smolensk is driven back by Guderian's forces. |
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The German Army begins to encircled in Soviet Army pockets held up outside of Smolensk, Vitebsk and Mogilev. |
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A Soviet offensive meant to break the German stranglehold fails due to poor coordination. |
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The German encirclement of Soviet forces is completed. |
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The drive to Smolensk nets a total of 600,000 Russian prisoners of war, 5,700 tanks and 4,600 artillery pieces. |
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The Soviet defense of Smolensk is obliterated and falls taking with it the end of the Soviet 16th and 20th Armies. |
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300,000 Soviet prisoners, 3,200 tanks and 3,100 artillery guns are captured by the Germans at Smolensk. |
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