Land Leviathans

Under pressure to hold Smolensk, Yeremenko was desperate to halt the German offensive. On 1 July, he committed his sole armored reserve: the 1st Moscow Motorized Rifle Division. It was a crack unit, the pride of STAVKA. Equipped with the …

1941-07-03

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Under pressure to hold Smolensk, Yeremenko was desperate to halt the German offensive. On 1 July, he committed his sole armored reserve: the 1st Moscow Motorized Rifle Division. It was a crack unit, the pride of STAVKA. Equipped with the new T-34 and KV-2 tanks, the division moved off to meet and defeat the 18th Panzer Division, the spearhead of Guderian’s 2nd Panzergruppe. On 3 Julyat Lipki, six miles east of Borisov, contact was made. A number of light Russian AFV’s, supported by a single KV-2 and a single T-34, advanced on the lead elements of the 18th Panzer Regiment. Stunned by the appearance of the two armored monsters not encountered before on the Army Group Center front, the German infantry scattered. A handful of German tanks were all that stood in the path of the Soviet advance. The T-26 and BT tanks were routed by the Pz IIIs. The German 37mm shells were unable, however, to affect the KV-2 or T-34. Two panzers were quickly destroyed. At that point, several Pz IVs arrived to engage the KV-2, while the remaining Pz IIIs concentrated on the T- 34’s vulnerable tracks. Soon both Russian heavy tanks were out of action, the KV-2 bogged on soft ground and the T-34 with its treads shot away. Without the threat of the KV-2 or T-34, the infantry were able to hold their position.

Lipki, 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)

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