Spring 1941. Nazi Germany dominates Europe.
Poland and France have been occupied. Only the British Commonwealth fights on. Hitler now turns east to the Soviet Union, where Nazi dreams of a new land empire
are to be fulfilled. Episode 1 - Barbarossa April 1941. In a field in western Ukraine,
a satisfied Soviet pilot counted bullet holes
in the aircraft he’d just shot down. The twin-engined German aircraft
had civilian markings. But the military bearing
of the pilots was obvious. The smell of burning plastic was
further cause for suspicion. It came from a smouldering
pile of photographic film, which the Germans
had hurriedly tried to destroy. In the spring of 1941 Nazi Germany
and the Soviet Union were allies. But everyone knew it could not last. German reconnaissance aircraft,
flying 33,000 feet above the Soviet Union, usually passed unnoticed.
But on 15th April 1941, engine trouble forced
one Junkers 86 to lose altitude. It was quickly intercepted and shot down. Under interrogation, the Junkers pilots
said they’d lost their way flying to Krakow in German-occupied Poland.
It wasn’t very convincing. They’d been shot down near Rovno,
more than 200 miles from Krakow — deep inside the Soviet Union. The pilots were from the elite ‘Rowel’
high-altitude reconnaissance squadron. They had been secretly photographing
Soviet territory for months, in preparation for the German
invasion of the Soviet Union. Ten days later, a top-secret report arrived
in Moscow from Major General Tupikov, the Soviet military attaché in Berlin. His report made two conclusions.
“Number One — The Germans are planning war
with the Soviet Union. Number Two — They plan to attack soon —
definitely before the end of the year.” In the spring of 1941,
neither Tupikov nor other Soviet agents could say exactly when
the German invasion would come. Stalin’s best spy, Richard Sorge, had claimed that the invasion
would begin around March, after the harvest was sown.
Then, he said the end of May. When that passed,
he said the second half of June. The reports from Soviet agents
were confused and contradictory. In short, no one in Moscow was certain
if or when the Germans would invade. In later years it was rumoured that the
German invasion plans were on Stalin’s desk almost as soon as they were signed.
But in reality, no such plans were stolen. Masses of information was received
from the Soviet intelligence network. But only a few reports
received proper analysis. Many valuable ones got lost
in the Soviet bureaucracy. 5 months earlier, in December 1940,
Hitler had issued Fuehrer Directive 21. It ordered German forces to prepare
for the invasion of the Soviet Union – codename: Operation Barbarossa. Now, German troops
were streaming eastwards, taking up position
along the Soviet frontier. Hitler would later claim that the Red Army
had been massed along the border, poised to invade Germany.
Thus he claimed Operation Barbarossa was a pre-emptive strike —
a legitimate act of self-defence. But this was classic Nazi propaganda.
Hitler wanted others, particularly in the neutral countries,
to believe his invasion was justified. But few were fooled. In private, Hitler was more candid
about his reasons for invading the USSR. “It is only the possibility of Russia
entering the war”, he said, “that now gives the English hope.
If that hope is ruined, the English would have to make peace.” Operation Barbarossa was
an ambitious invasion plan, relying on the blitzkrieg tactics that
had proved so effective against the French and British the previous year. The attack was to be spearheaded
by 4 Panzer Groups. Their tank and motorised infantry divisions
would seek to make rapid advances deep into enemy territory,
leading to the encirclement and destruction of enemy armies
on the frontier. The four panzer groups
were commanded by generals von Kleist… Hoepner… Guderian… and Hoth. The ultimate goal was the capture of Moscow,
and the whole of European Russia. German strategists believed
that their military superiority would lead to victory in 3 to 4 months. For the invasion, German forces
were divided into three formations. Army Group North was to advance
towards Leningrad… Army Group Centre towards Moscow… and Army Group South towards Kiev
and the Donets Basin. Army Groups North
and South each had one panzer group. Army Group Centre had two, including
Third Panzer Group commanded by Hoth. Colonel-General Herman Hoth
had distinguished himself in the campaigns against Poland and France. He was 56 years old,
and referred to affectionately by his soldiers as “Papa” Hoth. Unlike Russia, where many senior officers
had been killed in political purges, Germany could call on
a wealth of experienced commanders. Most Soviet generals were in their 40s.
In contrast, Guderian was 53... Hoepner 55... and von Kleist 60. Panzer Group command staffs arrived at the
Soviet frontier during the winter of 1940. At first only staff officers
and signals troops were sent. The tanks were not to arrive
until the very eve of the attack. By keeping his tanks in the west, Hitler wanted it to look like
he still planned to invade Britain, and prepared only defensive
operations in the east. And so an invasion army quietly
assembled on Russia’s doorstep. In 1941, the Wehrmacht was
at the height of its power. Its divisions had been
brought to full strength. Morale was high after victory in the west. The last few months had been spent
in intensive training for blitzkrieg operations. In contrast, the Red Army was dispersed
across the Soviet Union, with many of its units still
at peacetime strength. The forces at the border spent much of
their time listening to political lectures. It would take two or three weeks of
redeployment to properly reinforce them. And there was little preparation
for defence — after all, the Red Army always expected to attack. Furthermore, Stalin was in no rush
to fight a war against Nazi Germany. He knew the Soviet Union was not ready. In 1939 Nazi Germany and
the Soviet Union had signed an alliance. But Stalin harboured no illusions. Intensive military construction
was under way in the USSR. The Red Army had grown from strength
of one and a half million troops, to five million.
In the summer of 1941, Soviet armed forces were still in the midst
of reorganisation and expansion. Fortifications were still being built,
airfields overhauled, and new units formed. Until these preparations were complete, Stalin was desperate to stave off
any conflict with Hitler’s Germany. But the reports from Soviet intelligence
were becoming more ominous. In early June 1941,
the Germans started moving armoured and motorized divisions
towards the frontier. This no longer looked like preparations
for a defensive operation. 8 days before the invasion,
the Soviet state news agency, TASS, printed a report in one of its newspapers. It read, “In the British
and foreign press in general, there are rumours circulating
about an imminent war between the Soviet Union and Germany. Soviet official circles believe that
these rumours are absolutely groundless.” It was an invitation from Stalin to Hitler to settle their differences
through negotiation. But in reply,
there came only deathly silence. Stalin finally ordered reinforcements
sent to the frontier. Even now,
three days after the TASS message, Soviet spy Richard Sorge reported: “The invasion has been delayed
until the end of June.” Stalin hoped once more
that war could be put off. But it was too late: the invasion was now
less than one week away. On 22nd June the Red Army
was formed in three echelons, stretching from Poland
to the Dnieper River. Most Soviet troops were only just beginning
to move west to face the Nazi threat. In contrast German forces were massed
on the frontier, ready to strike. At the start of the invasion, in the Baltic republics 21 Soviet divisions
would face 34 German divisions. In Byelorussia, 26 Red Army divisions
faced 36 German divisions. In Ukraine 45 Soviet divisions
would meet 57 Wehrmacht divisions. The Red Army was outnumbered, and
although it had more tanks and aircraft, they would prove to be of little value. On 21st June, German high command
transmitted the signal “Dortmund”. It confirmed Operation Barbarossa
for the next morning. Tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks
moved to jumping-off positions. That evening, German officers
summoned their men, to read them a proclamation
from Adolf Hitler to his troops. It declared, “The fate of the German
Reich is now in your hands.” In the days to come, German soldiers
were to be guided by directives such as those from General Hoepner: “Your struggle must pursue the objective
of turning today’s Russia into ruins, and must be carried out
with extreme severity.” But not all soldiers wanted to be part of
this so-called “crusade for civilization”. Sapper Alfred Liskow, a secret communist,
made for the border. He crossed the Bug River,
and surrendered to Soviet border guards. Stammering with excitement,
he told them that at dawn the next day, the Nazis would attack. Before the sapper was dry his words
were on their way to Stalin. Similar information came from a Soviet
agent in the German Embassy, Gerhard Kegel. On the morning of 21st June he reported
that the war would begin within 48 hours. In the Kremlin, General Zhukov,
Marshal Timoshenko and General Vatutin managed to persuade Stalin
that action was needed. A directive placed all troops
in a state of readiness, but with a warning that the Germans
may be trying to provoke them. The orders reached front line units just
after one o’clock in the morning. In Minsk, General Pavlov, Commander
of the Byelorussian Military District, arrived at his headquarters
in the middle of the night. Waiting for him was a report from the town
of Grodno near the frontier. It read, “Ammunition has been distributed.
We’re taking up defensive positions. Commander of the 3rd Army,
Vasiliy Kuznetsov.” Vasiliy Ivanovich Kuznetsov had been
conscripted to fight in the First World War. He later rose to command
a rifle regiment in the Russian Civil War. When the Second World War began,
he was 47 years old, and would endure its hardships
from the first day, to the very last. The warnings about an invasion
didn’t surprise Kuznetsov. His troops had been listening
to the roar of engines from across the border for many hours.
It could mean only one thing. The first Germans to cross the border
were from the Brandenburg Regiment, an elite German special forces unit. With a mixture of trickery,
stealth and surprise, the German commandos secured key
bridges across the Bug River. The Luftwaffe was already airborne. They were heading for major
Soviet cities in the west, and airfields identified
by German air reconnaissance. The Soviet Air Force,
its aircraft parked in neat rows, had no idea of what was about to hit it.
As German pilots made their final approach, they were the first to see
the sun rise on that fateful day. At 4am their bomb doors opened…
and destruction rained from the sky. Russia's Great Patriotic War had begun. Dawn on the 22nd June 1941.
Soviet airfields were under attack. One squadron commander,
Captain Berkal, was quick to act, ringing the alarm and getting his men
into the air as fast as possible. Where Soviet fighters did manage
to get airborne, they found the unmanoeuvrable
German dive bombers were easy prey. Mlynuv airfield in Ukraine became
a graveyard for German bombers. Here the German Edelweiss
squadron lost 7 aircraft. But these were token victories in a
disastrous day for the Red Army Air Force. Some airfields survived
the first German strikes. But then the Luftwaffe
hit them again, and again. In the course of five
or six German air raids, most Soviet air bases in the west
had been put out of action. In the air, although the Soviets
had many good combat aircraft, their pilots lacked the combat experience
of the Messerschmitt fighter-pilots. Major General Kopets,
Air Commander of the Western Front, made an aerial inspection
of the damage to his airfields. After landing, he shot himself. By the end of the first day,
the Soviet Air Force had lost 700 aircraft in Byelorussia, half its strength. In Ukraine, 300 planes were lost —
one sixth. And in the Baltic, about
a hundred planes, or one tenth. The first German onslaught
was overwhelming. The Red Army Air Force had been decimated. It would be many months before it was able
to play its part effectively in the war. German ground troops began
their advance at 4.15 am. Hoth’s tanks advanced between
50 and 70 km on the Baltic front, capturing key bridges
at Alytus and Merkine. Hoth wrote: “All three bridges across
the Niemen River were captured intact. This was completely unexpected.” German generals quickly began
to dream of the great prize. Hoth recalled: “Everyone longed to get
on the road to Moscow as soon as possible.” For the moment, Hoth’s panzer group
attacked in the direction of Vilnius. The aim was to envelope Soviet armies
in Byelorussia from the north. But not everything went according to plan
for the Germans on the first day. At one point
on the frontier in Byelorussia, events took an unexpected
turn for both sides — at the 19th century
Russian fortress of Brest. The fortress was supposed to have
a garrison of just one battalion. But units from two Soviet divisions,
totalling about 7,000 soldiers, were stationed here
when the invasion began. On the morning of 22nd June the fortress came
under sustained air and artillery attack. Many soldiers took shelter
within its walls, where they became trapped
by the bombardment. The Germans had expected
the fort to be taken in just a few hours. But instead a bloody siege
began which was to last several days. The fortress garrison defended
every inch of ground, fighting on in small isolated groups —
some of them refusing to surrender. After four days the Germans had
captured the outlying fortifications. The Red Army garrison
retreated to the citadel. 400 survivors, led by Major Gavrilov,
fought off 7 or 8 attacks a day. On 29th June the Germans began
a two-day assault on the fortress, and finally captured the citadel. By now the defenders were running out of
food and water. But still they fought on. It was a full month after the invasion when the Germans finally
captured Major Gavrilov. The doctor who treated him recalled that
he was almost unconscious with exhaustion, without even the strength left to swallow. But an hour before,
Gavrilov had been fighting furiously, throwing grenades that killed
and wounded several Germans. Despite the heroic resistance
of Major Gavrilov and his men, it was simple enough
for Guderian’s panzer group to bypass the Brest Fortress
and cross the Bug River. One advantage held by the Red Army seemed
to lie in their huge number of tanks. They had about 10 thousand tanks
in the western military districts. But for Red Army light tanks
like the T-26 and BT-7, it was to be a very short,
and very bloody war. The T-26’s front armour
was just 15 millimetres thick. The BT-7’s was not much better
at just 22 millimetres. Both were extremely
vulnerable to German guns. What’s more, their 45 millimetre
guns weren’t powerful enough to pierce the armour of modern German
tanks except at point-blank range. The poor design of Soviet shells meant many simply shattered on contact
with German armour. For the Red Army, the first tank
battles were a terrible shock. On the second day of the war, Red Army tanks met a German panzer
division near Pruzhany. (PROO-SHAN-NYE) The battle turned into a massacre. More than a hundred T-26 tanks were
destroyed in just a few hours of combat. On the third day of the war,
in a battle near Voynitsa, about 150 T-26 tanks were destroyed. The next day, Soviet T-26 tanks
counterattacked near the town of Pošilé, in the Baltic. (PORSHH-EE-LAY) At the start of the day the Soviet 28th
Tank Division had 130 tanks. By its end, just 50 remained. The pride of the Red Army lay wrecked and
smoking across the German invasion route. The German army had 4,000 tanks and self
propelled guns for the invasion of Russia. Half of them were the virtually
obsolete Panzer I and II light tanks. Only 1,400 of them were the new
Panzer 3 and Panzer 4 tanks. Each German panzer division had 200 tanks and more than 2,000 command
and support vehicles. A Soviet tank division had almost twice
as many tanks, but fewer support vehicles. Events would prove
that the Germans had got it right. Without enough support vehicles
to keep them supplied with fuel, ammunition and spare parts,
hundreds of Soviet tanks would be abandoned
en route to the battlefield. German tank crews went into combat
convinced of their own superiority. But a nasty surprise lay in store. German tanker Gustav Schrodek of the 11th
Panzer Division was in action near Radekhov. He recalled: “We sent the first shell
into them. It struck the turret. The second shot was another hit.
But the lead enemy tank kept advancing. What was going on?! We had always joked
that all we had to do was “spit” at a Russian tank, and it would blow up!” Other reports began to arrive of
a new model of Soviet tank that seemed to be immune to German guns. Near Raseiniai, these new Soviet heavy
tanks shrugged off multiple hits, before bursting into the German position
and crushing guns, trucks and vehicles. The only effective way to stop
these monsters was with the powerful 88mm
antiaircraft guns. The new Soviet tanks
were called T-34 and KV-1. They were names German soldiers
would come to dread. As fighting raged along the frontier,
Kuznetsov’s 3rd Army near Grodno was the only one
that managed to bring artillery to bear on the advancing German troops. Kusnetsov’s troops fought
the German 9th Army to a standstill. German General Ott wrote:
“Stubborn resistance by the Russians has forced us to fight
by the rule-book once more. We could afford to take certain chances
in Poland and in the West, but not now.” Kuznetsov was also
the first Soviet commander to launch an armoured counter-attack. The Soviet 6th Mechanized Corps
had almost 1,000 tanks, including 350 of the new T-34s and KV-1s. The decision on where to counter-attack
had to be made very quickly. When a concentration of German
tanks was reported near Grodno, where Kuznetsov’s Third Army was fighting, General Pavlov decided
that that was the place to strike. It was a catastrophe. The 6th Mechanized
Corps was virtually wiped out. Most tanks ran out of fuel or broke down, because supply depots had been
destroyed by air attack. When the remaining tanks
were encircled by the Germans, the crews blew up their
vehicles and retreated. It also became clear that there was
only German infantry near Grodno. So while the 6th Mechanized Corps
made its doomed counterattack, Hoth’s panzers advanced
unhindered on Vilnius. German control of the air meant
Soviet commanders in Byelorussia had no access to air reconnaissance.
So largely working in the dark, Pavlov estimated that he faced only
one or two German tank divisions. But on the third day of the war, a German reconnaissance unit
was ambushed near Slonim. After the battle
a German staff officer’s map was found and sent
to Pavlov’s headquarters. After one glance at the map,
Pavlov realised his terrible mistake. Instead of one or two tank divisions, the
whole of Guderian’s Second Panzer Group — five panzer divisions
and 2 motorised infantry divisions, was advancing on Minsk and Bobruisk. All of Pavlov’s forces were
about to be encircled. Pavlov immediately ordered all his troops
to retreat eastwards, but it was too late. Guderian’s panzers burst into Slonim, blocking the only good road
from Białystok back to Minsk. In Byelorussia’s landscape
of marshland and dense forest, controlling a single road like
this could be decisive. Other lines of retreat simply didn’t exist. German panzer groups
seemed to be advancing at will. Their commanders tried to find weak points
in the enemy line, and burst through them, moving fast and threatening
the enemy with encirclement. To maintain momentum they simply
bypassed areas of stubborn resistance. These were dealt with by infantry divisions
that followed in their wake. Armoured cars
and motorised infantry in trucks and motorcycles accompanied
the panzer columns. Reconnaissance units led the way,
and were the first to engage the enemy. Finally, close co-operation with Luftwaffe
ground attack aircraft made this, in 1941, an unparalleled offensive force. Guderian and Hoth, commanding
2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups, were advancing on Moscow.
But now they received new orders — Minsk was the new priority.
Both generals were outraged, they saw Moscow as the grand prize. But both reluctantly diverted
their tanks towards Minsk, to help complete the encirclement
of Pavlov’s doomed army. Minsk had been bombed since
the first day of the war. From its ruins, huge columns of black
smoke rose, obscuring the sun. Now Hoth's tanks were
approaching to seal its fate. First they would have to fight their way
through a line of Soviet fortifications. But when one of Hoth’s divisions
broke through the line, it was immediately counterattacked
and its forward units cut off. Hoth’s panzer group, as he later described, had to “break though Soviet fortified
positions situated on the highway, amidst heavy fighting”. But the tried-and-tested tactics
of the Wehrmacht now proved their worth. A German tank platoon normally
deployed in a V-formation, with its two prongs facing the enemy. This allowed German
tanks to attack on a narrow front — 50 or 60 tanks across 1000 metres. In 1941, a Soviet division’s orders
stated that anti-tank guns should be spread evenly along the front. This meant 50 German tanks would
only face between 5 and 10 anti-tank guns. The German tanks overwhelmed
these guns by weight of numbers, then turned right and left to attack
the rest of the line from the side and rear. What made the situation even worse for
Soviet troops was their inadequate weaponry. Their staple 45 millimetre antitank
gun could only penetrate the front armour of German tanks at very close range. Using superior tactics and weaponry, the Germans broke through
the Red Army defences around Minsk after two days of fighting. As German trooped entered the city,
Dmitry Pavlov, Commander of the Soviet Western Front, could
only watch helplessly as the trap closed. Like British and French
generals before him, Pavlov, had been overwhelmed by the speed
and fury of the German blitzkrieg. But he did get
one important decision right. As soon as he saw
the German plans for encirclement, he ordered a retreat to the east
as fast as possible. It gave many soldiers
a fighting chance of escape. It was with that hope that his men
now fell back towards Minsk. But for most, there was to be no salvation. One week after the German
invasion of the Soviet Union, more than 300,000 Soviet soldiers
were encircled around Bialystok and Minsk. Some Red Army units were able to fight
their way out of the pocket through lightly-held German
positions to the southeast. Others, including the remnants
of Kuznetsov’s 3rd Army, tried to make their way back to Soviet
lines through the swamps and forests. The rapid German advance meant
Red Army lines were now far to the east. Most would spend weeks walking through the
forests before they reached their own lines. Around Białystok and Minsk,
the many thousands who did not make it out
faced death or captivity. They fought on,
launching desperate counterattacks in a bid to escape the encirclement. They inflicted heavy
casualties on the enemy. But finally, two weeks after the invasion,
resistance in the pocket came to an end. 290,000 Soviet soldiers entered captivity,
a fate from which few would return. General Pavlov,
Commander of the Western Front, his Chief of Staff Major
General Klimovskikh, and Commander of the 4th Army General
Korobkov, and several other officers, were all arrested on charges of cowardice
and criminal incompetence. Under NKVD interrogation
Pavlov denied his guilt, citing the enormous difficulties he had
faced. But Stalin needed scapegoats. The trial’s outcome was never in doubt.
They were all sentenced to death. Pavlov was shot on that same day
by the secret police. To the south in Ukraine,
the Red Army’s South-Western Front managed to evade mass encirclements
in the first week of the war. The Germans advanced between
150 and 170 kilometres, before the disaster at Minsk forced the Red
Army to pull back to the Dnieper River. German High Command was in high spirits
following these early victories. Surely, it was thought, the Russians
can’t survive the loss of so many men, tanks and aircraft. Soviet collapse
had to be just around the corner. Franz Halder, Head of the
German General Staff, wrote, “It would be no exaggeration to say
that the war against Russia has been won in the first 14 days.” The Germans’ next objective was Smolensk…
But this would not be so straightforward. For a start, German forces
had been concentrated for the early battles on the frontier. Now their forces were spread out
from the Baltic to southern Ukraine. Secondly, Soviet reserve armies
had begun to reach the battlefield. They played no part in the early fighting, but now stood ready on the banks
of the Dnieper and the Dvina. Guderian and Hoth’s panzer groups
started rolling east once more. Their mission was to advance far ahead of
the main force and join up east of Smolensk. But soon Guderian’s
2nd Panzer Group came under attack from fresh Soviet armies arriving
from the east. After ferocious fighting, Guderian was forced onto the defensive. Soon Hoth also had to switch to defence. A Soviet counterattack forced his men
to give up Velikiye Luki. It was the first Russian city
to be recaptured from the Germans. The speed of their advance
had left the German panzer groups isolated. Not until the main force of the German
army caught up could their advance resume. Army Group North had also run into trouble. The assault on Novgorod
had ground to a halt. Moreover, the German 8th Panzer Division
became encircled near the city of Soltsy, and had to fight its way out. A German officer recorded in his diary, “We have no sensation of entering
a defeated country, as we had in France. Instead we have resistance, permanent
resistance, no matter how hopeless it is.” By August the Red Army had somehow
managed to stabilise the situation. A front line was re-established, allowing thousands of stragglers
to catch up with the retreating army. After struggling through forests
and marshes for a month, the remnants of Kuznetsov’s army
finally reached their own lines. There were many such stragglers
trekking east in the summer of 1941, in groups of a dozen,
to a thousand or more. Meanwhile Guderian was preparing
a fresh assault on Moscow. On 21st August his units were at their
start positions near the city of Starodub. But the same day Hitler issued a directive
that shocked his army group commanders. General Halder would describe it as the
decisive moment of the entire campaign. Army Group Centre was refused
permission to advance on Moscow. Instead, Hoth was ordered north
to reinforce the assault on Leningrad. Guderian was ordered south to assist the
encirclement of Soviet troops in Ukraine. Guderian immediately flew to Berlin
to demand an audience with Hitler. In person, he forcefully made his case that
now was the moment to strike at Moscow. In his memoirs Guderian wrote: “I pointed out the serious consequences
that would surely arise if operations in the south dragged on
too long. If that happened, then it would be too late
to assault Moscow that year.” Hitler and the Army High Command
remained adamant. Summer was already drawing to a close
as Guderian’s panzer group struck south, against the flank of the Soviet
South-Western Front. If he could reach the German-held
bridgeheads across the Dnieper River, the Red Army forces defending Kiev
would all be trapped. After his escape
from the Minsk encirclement, General Kuznetsov had been put
in command of the 21st Army. His troops were right in the path
of Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Group. The Soviet High Command
had to make a choice: to fight it out along the Dnieper River,
and risk further massive encirclements if the line was breached —
or retreat further east to buy their troops some breathing space. In the end, it was decided
the Dnieper was too strong a position to abandon without a fight. A close watch was kept on
the German panzer divisions. But in August,
they seemed bound for Moscow. The main threat to the South-Western
and Southern Fronts seemed to be from
von Kleist’s 1st Panzer Group, far to the south on the lower
reaches of the Dnieper. By August 1941, the Red Army
was chronically short of tanks. Its mechanized units had been annihilated
in the opening battles of the campaign. Kuznetsov’s 21st Army, for example,
had just 16 tanks remaining. Kuznetsov’s weakened 21st Army
was brushed aside by Guderian’s troops, as they smashed their way towards
Lokhvitsa — 125 miles east of Kiev. Guderian was about to cut off all the Soviet
troops defending the Ukrainian capital. It seemed high time to order the troops of
the Soviet South-Western Front into retreat. But the Soviet High Command hesitated, waiting for the latest information
from the front. The Germans meanwhile strengthened
their bridgehead over the Dnieper River near the city of Kremenchuk. There they built an enormous
floating bridge half a mile long. Von Kleist’s 1st Panzer Group
raced to Kremenchuk at full speed. The tanks crossed the Dnieper
under the cover of darkness and rain, and joined up
with Guderian’s forces at Lokhvitsa. The Soviet High Command
had hesitated too long. All troops of the South-Western Front
in the Kiev area were now trapped. For the Red Army the unfolding disaster
at Kiev set a bleak record – it was the largest encirclement
in the history of warfare. An estimated 532,000 troops
were encircled at Kiev. Only 15 to 20,000 would escape. The fighting in the Kiev pocket dragged on
until the end of September. The Red Army’s chronic
shortage of tanks was revealed by how many were captured
at Kiev — just 50. Meanwhile German Army Group Centre, having been stripped
of Guderian and Hoth’s tanks, fought off large-scale Soviet
counter-attacks near Smolensk. In these desperate battles
the Red Army Guards units were born. For the bravery shown amidst
heavy fighting around Yelnia, the 100th Rifle Division was awarded
the title of 1st Guards Rifle Division. General Hoth later wrote:
“We sustained heavy casualties, especially amongst the junior officers. The losses were higher
than during previous attacks, and were only partially recovered
through replacements.” According to the German
General Staff’s timetable, the Soviet Union was supposed to collapse
in just one more month of fighting. But to exhausted German units
on the frontline, their final objectives seemed more
and more remote. The Red Army was also desperate. With the
encirclement of so many troops at Kiev, the Soviet High Command was forced to throw
every available unit into the front line. And now, with the final
crushing of the Kiev pocket, Guderian, Hoepner and Hoth’s panzer groups
once more turned towards Moscow. Of these panzer generals, Guderian would be
removed from command in just a few months. Hoepner would be dismissed by Hitler
“for cowardice and disobeying orders”. Only Papa Hoth would keep his job. Meanwhile offensives near Moscow…
battles around Stalingrad… and a return to Byelorussia,
all lay in store for General Kuznetsov. In 1945, his men would lead the attack
on Berlin,and on the Reichstag itself. And on 1st May 1945, soldiers of the
150th Division of General Kuznetsov’s 3rd Assault Army — Aleksey Berest,
Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria — would hoist the hammer
and sickle over the Reichstag. But for now, the war was
just three months old. And in a few days,
the Battle for Moscow would begin.
Links to the first of 17 episodes in a playlist. Good stuff.