NKVD Defense at Mir

Elements of Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group have cornered a Soviet company trying to break through German lines by the wooded area of Mir, southwest of Minsk. Instead of surrendering, NKVD elements drive Red Army units to a fanatical defense. From …

1941-06-30

AtB02

Elements of Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group have cornered a Soviet company trying to break through German lines by the wooded area of Mir, southwest of Minsk. Instead of surrendering, NKVD elements drive Red Army units to a fanatical defense. From the south, another Soviet Rifles platoon arrives in its effort to escape through the German lines.

Minsk, Russia

The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa, lasting from 22 June to 9 July 1941. The Army Group's 2nd Panzer Group under Colonel General Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group under Colonel General Hermann Hoth decimated the Soviet frontier defenses, defeated all Soviet counter-attacks and encircled four Soviet Armies of the Red Army's Western Front near Bialystok and Minsk by 30 June. The majority of the Western Front was enclosed within, and the pockets were liquidated by 9 July. The Red Army lost 420,000 men against Wehrmacht casualties of somewhat over 12,157. The Germans destroyed the Soviet Western Front in 18 days and advanced 460 kilometers into the Soviet Union, causing many to believe that the Germans had effectively won the war against the Soviet Union.

Wikipedia: Battle of Biaystok-Minsk

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