First Crisis at Army Group North

When Army Group North moved toward the River Dvina, the Russian command responded by detailing the 3rd Mechanized Corps to meet and destroy Manstein’s units. On June 24th, the Soviet armored force made contact with the 6th Panzer Division, the …

1941-06-25

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When Army Group North moved toward the River Dvina, the Russian command responded by detailing the 3rd Mechanized Corps to meet and destroy Manstein’s units. On June 24th, the Soviet armored force made contact with the 6th Panzer Division, the spearhead of XLI Panzer Corps. Over a hundred of the Soviet tanks were the super-heavy KV models. The size and power of these stunned the panzer crews and baffled the AT gunners - neither seemed to possess a gun that could penetrate the armor of their opponents. The German advance was halted and the 6th Panzer Division cut off. The following day, the 1st Panzer Division was ordered to relieve and reinforce the 6th, while the Soviet force moved to continue its advance. These two efforts immediately collided. The Soviet tanks simply drove through the German units toward their objectives. The German armor commanders responded with careful maneuver and precision fire, turning their tanks around to follow the Russian advance while the infantry attempted to close assault the Russian behemoths. These tactics eliminated a few Russian vehicles, but the rest continued their steady advance until they ran into German AA and artillery positions in the rear. Unlike the AT and tanks guns, these weapons had a fair chance of penetrating the thick armor of the Russian tanks. The Soviet advance ground to a halt.

Raseiniai, Lithuania

The Battle of Raseiniai was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps with the 12th Mechanized Corps, in Lithuania, 75 km (47 mi) north-west of Kaunas. The Red Army tried to contain and destroy the German troops that had crossed the Neman River but was unable to prevent them from advancing.

Wikipedia: Battle of Raseiniai

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