Insufficient Resolve

In an effort to replicate the spectacular successes at Belostok and Minsk during the first weeks of BARBAROSSA and to prevent Soviet forces from escaping towards Moscow, Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Center initiated an encirclement of Smolensk. By the second week of July, however, it was evident that …

1941-08-02

S084

In an effort to replicate the spectacular successes at Belostok and Minsk during the first weeks of BARBAROSSA and to prevent Soviet forces from escaping towards Moscow, Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock’s Army Group Center initiated an encirclement of Smolensk. By the second week of July, however, it was evident that Soviet resistance in the Smolensk pocket was greater than anticipated and would take longer than hoped to reduce. Hitler, fuming at the delay, issued Directive 34 on 30 July which temporarily halted Bock’s drive on Moscow in favor of armored thrusts towards Leningrad and Kiev. Generaloberst Heinz Guderian’s Panzergruppe 2 moved southeast of Smolensk where it encountered Group Kachalov, an ad hoc Soviet formation under LT. General Vladimir Iakovlevich Kachalov assembled to relieve units trapped in the pocket. Kachalov launched a series of costly frontal attacks that the Germans easily repulsed. Guderian than slipped south along the Roslavl-Smolensk road, where Soviet forces attempted to regroup in villages around Roslavl in an effort to slow Guderian’s advance.

Roslavl, 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. The Soviet 16th, 19th and the 20th armies were encircled and destroyed just to the east of Smolensk, though many of the men from the 19th and 20th armies managed to escape the pocket. Some historians have asserted that the cost to the Germans during this drawn-out battle and the delay in the drive towards Moscow led to the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Moscow of December 1941.

German

Russian

Scenario Type = Starter Kit