Battle of Smolensk (1941)
| First Battle of Smolensk | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of The Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
 The eastern front at the time of the Battle of Smolensk. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
.svg){kind=small} Germany |
 Soviet Union | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Heinz Guderian Hermann Hoth |
Semyon Timoshenko Georgi Zhukov Fyodor Isodorovich Kuznetsov Andrei Yeremenko | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,200 Tanks |
581,600 men[1] 700 Tanks | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
300,000 Captured 45,000 Killed & Wounded[2] All Tanks Destroyed | |||||||
The Battle of Smolensk was a major battle of encirclement fought between Army Group Centre's 2nd Panzer Army led by Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Army led by Hermann Hoth against the Soviet Western Front commanded by Timoshenko, the Soviet Reserve Front commanded by Zhukov, the Soviet Central Front commanded by Kuznetsov, and Soviet Bryansk Front commanded by Yeremenko. Ultimately the 16th, 19th and the 20th Soviet Armies were encircled just to the south of Smolensk but large parts of the 19th Army managed to escape the pocket. As a result of large parts of Soviet soldiers escaping the net, Hitler called off the battles of encirclement as the premier means of defeating the Soviet Union and concentrated on inflicting severe economic damage to the Soviet Union.
Prelude
On July 3rd, the day as Stalin had called for a Great patriotic war against the Nazi invader, the Infantry armies of the German Army Groups had finally caught up and the Panzer Armies were at last got the go ahead to resume their drive east.
The main Panzer forces had been static for almost a week and now on the very day the general offensive was resumed, a sudden rainstorm typical of early July turn the roads into streaming rivers of mud and advancing armies found themselves immobile for hours at a time. All the while the Russian defense became more determined. Many bridges were blown and for the first time, the Russians were laying mines to slow down the Germans, an easy task as the Germans were confined to the very few roads. The delays gave the Soviets time to organize for a massive armor counter blow.
The Battle
The ultimate objective of Army Group Center was the city of Smolensk which commanded the road to Moscow. Facing the Germans along the River Dnieper and Dvina were stretches of the old Stalin line fortifications. The defenders were the 13th Army of the West Front, and 20th, 21st and Twenty-Second Armies of the Supreme Command Reserve. Another army, the 19th was forming up at Vitebsk while the 16th Army was arriving at Smolensk. It was the threat in the north from 3rd Panzer Army's 39th Panzer Corps that most worried the Soviets. On July 6th, the Soviet 20th Army's 7th and 5th Mechanized Corps launched an attack with 700 Tanks. The Germans had overwhelming air support and in a 3 day battle, the 2 Soviet Mechanized Corps were virtually wiped out.
Meanwhile, 3rd Panzer Army's 20th Panzer Division won a bridgehead on the east bank of the River Dvina and threatened Vitebsk. To the south, away from the main crossings, 2nd Panzer Army launched surprise attacks forcing the River Dnieper. The Soviet 13th Army was pushed back, losing 5 divisions. As both German Panzer Armies drove east, three Soviet Armies, the 20th, 19th and 16th faced the prospect of encirclement around Smolensk.
South of Smolensk, Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army advanced at speed and its 29th Motorized Infantry Division took the city on July 16th. In the North, Hoth's 3rd Panzer Army was moving much more slowly. The terrain was swampy, the rain was still a problem, and the Russians were fighting desperately to escape the trap that was developing. On July 18th, the great armored pincers of the two German Panzer Armies came within 10 miles of closing the gap. But the jaws would not finally snap shut for another 8 days. It would take the Germans another 10 days to liquidate the pocket. In the end, although 300,000 Soviet soldiers were captured, more than 200,000 would break out to stand between the Germans and Moscow.
After the Battle
The failure of the Germans to close the gap and thereby allowing 200,000 Russians to escape made Hitler give up on the concept of Battles of encirclement. 4 Weeks into the campaign and it was clear to Hitler and his high command that despite immense losses of men and material that the Soviet Union was not about to fall apart and the flanks of Army Group Center were now becoming increasingly vulnerable to Soviet counter attacks. Hitler decided that tanks from Army Group Center should be sent to Army Group North and South as Germany will defeat Russia by inflicting severe economic damage. This meant a speedy capture of Leningrad in the north and the seizure of the oil fields in the South. Nearly all of the city of Smolensk was destroyed during the battle. In 1985 it was awarded the title Hero City.