Smolensk

Army Group Center, spearheaded by Guderian's 2nd Panzergruppe with Hoth's 3rd Panzergruppe on his left, scattered 3 Soviet armies as they advanced on Smolensk. Desperately trying to stiffen Resistance, the Soviets hoped to stop the Germans' drive toward Moscow by …

1941-07-01

1757

Army Group Center, spearheaded by Guderian's 2nd Panzergruppe with Hoth's 3rd Panzergruppe on his left, scattered 3 Soviet armies as they advanced on Smolensk. Desperately trying to stiffen Resistance, the Soviets hoped to stop the Germans' drive toward Moscow by using the natural defensive lines of the Desna and Dnieper rivers. The forces of the Soviet Western Front (Timoshenko), Reserve Front (Zhukov), Central Front (Kuznetsov), and Bryansk Front (Yeryomenko), scrambled to hold the line along these rivers. Smolensk fell on July 16, but Soviet Resistance in the area remained fierce and they even managed several counter-attacks. At one point they broke the German encirclement for a while and evacuated troops out of the Smolensk pocket. The bitter fighting considerably delayed the overall German advance toward Moscow, giving time for defenses further east to be strengthened. German losses eventually totaled 250,000 men. Despite the lack of street fighting, Smolensk was progressively razed to the ground by a Soviet air force hell bent on punishing the German occupiers! After the battle for Smolensk was won, Hitler diverted Army Group Center's Panzers south to Kiev and the oil fields beyond. While yielding some 600,000 prisoners, this was considered the mistake (or the miracle, as the Allied generals saw it) that saved Moscow!

Smolensk, Russia

The First Battle of Smolensk was a battle during the second phase of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, in World War II. It was fought around the city of Smolensk between 10 July and 10 September 1941, about 400 km (250 mi) west of Moscow. The Ostheer had advanced 500 km (310 mi) into the USSR in the 18 days after the invasion on 22 June 1941.

Wikipedia: Battle of Smolensk (1941)

German

Russian

Game Type: Standard

Board Type: Countryside

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