NAZIS TAKE BREST-LITOVSK, GAIN IN SOUTH; SOVIET CLAIMS 5,000 PRISONERS, 300 TANKS (6/24/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 6/24/41 | Daniel T. Brigham, C.L. Sulzberger, Turner Catledge, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Larry381]

On 22 June 1941, 6th Panzer Division crossed the German frontier near Tilsit, as part of the 4th Panzergruppe led by the former divisional commander, Hoepner.
The army, supported by strong Luftwaffe elements, was to strike through the Baltic states on the far northern flank of the German invasion, aiming for Leningrad.
From the first day the resistance was somewhat stiffer than had been expected, with Soviet border defences fighting stubbornly, and the Panzer IVs running out of ammunition before noon for the first time.
Nevertheless all units took their objectives, and for the next few days they rolled north-east across Lithuania.

At Rasyeinyai the division was hit by a counterattack by the 2nd Soviet Tank Division equipped with heavy KV-I and KV-2 tanks.
Armed respectively with a 76.2mm gun and a 152mm howitzer, these tanks had armor proof against anti-tank weapons up to 75mm calibre. The prototypes had been tried out during the Russo-Finnish War, and about 500 had been built by the outbreak of war with Germany; despite this, their existence was unknown to the Panzerwaffe, to whom they came as a considerable shock.

In an effort to stop these monsters two Panzer battalions and the anti-tank battalion concentrated their fire, but without effect. Fortunately the Russian tanks were poorly led and their fire was very inaccurate; some even closed with the German tanks and rammed them.
They were generally vulnerable to the German 88mm flak-gun, and some success was also achieved by rather desperate measures such as concentrating MG fire on the vision devices and turret rings to blind the crew and jam the turret race, and attacking their vulnerable points in close combat with petrol cans, grenades and high-explosive engineer charges.

That day changed the character of tank warfare, as the KV represented a wholly new level of armament, armor protection and weight.
German tanks had hitherto been intended mainly to fight enemy infantry and their supporting arms. From now on the main threat was the enemy tank itself, and the need to 'kill' it at as great a range as possible led to the design of longer-barreled guns of larger calibre. Tank guns of less than 75mm became more or less useless; and until HEAT ammunition was supplied in 1942 the L/24 75mm gun of the PzKpfw IV, with its low muzzle velocity of 385ms, was generally ineffective against the new Russian vehicles.

snapshot of a roadside conference between elements of 1st and 6th Panzer Divisions during the advance on Leningrad, 1941. The SdK.fz 221 and (background) 261 armoured cars belong to the reconnaissance battalion of 1st pz.Div.; Oberstleutnant Siebert, CO of 2nd Bn., 11th pz.Regt. briefs a despatch rider

[Larry381]

In a village outside Bialystok, Polish peasants greet German troops entering their village-June 24th

Scene in eastern Poland-late June

German traffic jam-June 25-Army Group South

Shocked Russian troops surrender on second day of war near Kobrin

[toddausauras]

I look forward to this more than ever now that Barbarossa is on. Every day for a long time is going to be damn fun reading.

[BroJoeK]

Homer: "I Homer is not going anywhere. There's a war on, you know."

I also at first thought the post was talking about you, Homer, and suddenly I felt like an addict who wasn't going to get his daily fix!
Then I re-read and thought, naw, no way, Homer's still going to be here for us.

Whew! Thanks again!

[BroJoeK]

Homer: "Despite what my tagline says I don’t believe the regular people of the Soviet Union and Germany deserved that fate.
Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from the history of the twentieth century is that socialism causes human suffering.
WWII on the eastern front may be the most exterme example of this."

Thanks for your brilliant analysis, Homer.
I think you are spot on.
Like some other posters, all of my ancestors emigrated from what later became Germany, and I lived there for many years -- during the Cold War.
So my sympathies go naturally to Germans.

However, I never forget that there were specific reasons why each of many ancestors left Germany -- German behavior which grew and blossomed during the Second World War, especially, into stark raving mass insanity.

Historical psychologists, sociologists & other scholars try to explain why, and all of that is important.
But for those of us who know and love Germans, it's the same feeling we might have towards a close relative who suffered serious mental deterioration.
They needed help, but first they had to be stopped from damaging themselves and others.

[BroJoeK]

Wonderful photos, and no complaints from me about being "fair and balanced"!

;-)

[dfwgator]

Keep in mind, at this stage what the Nazis are invading is occupied Poland, and not the Soviet Union proper.

[Larry381]

I appreciate that.