Page 16 - History of War - Issue 29-16

Frontline
MARCH TO MOSCOW

Hitler’s plan to conquer and eventually repopulate the Soviet

Union led to the creation of the bloody Eastern Front 7

1 BATTLE OF RASEINIAI LUFTWAFFE BOMBS KRONSTADT
22 JUNE 1941 KRONSTADT, NEAR LENINGRAD
RASEINIAI, LITHUANIA: 23-27 JUNE 1941 THE STALIN LINE IS DEVASTATED
Alongside extensive air operations across the region, Axis 8 JULY 1941 PSKOV OBLAST, RUSSIA
forces began Operation Barbarossa with the Battle of Raseiniai,
which saw the 4th Panzer Group and the 3rd Mechanised Corps
utterly eviscerate Soviet armour in southern Lithuania. GERMANS CAPTURE SHLISSELBURG
7 SEPTEMBER 1941, LENINGRAD OBLAST, RUSSIA
2 BATTLE OF BRODY LATVIA

BRODY, WESTERN UKRAINE: 23-30 JUNE 1941
Another tank-based battle, and another decisive victory for the Axis 200,000 SOVIETS STAND BETWEEN
THE AXIS AND MOSCOW
saw the Nazis rout a force of 3,500 Soviet armoured vehicles with a 26 JULY 1941, SMOLENSK
force of only 750. It was another testament to German tactics and
another obliterated obstacle on the road to Moscow. 1
LITHUANIA

4
BELARUS

3
GOEBBELS ANNOUNCES
THE INVASION 2ND AND 3RD PANZER
22 JUNE 1941 BERLIN, GERMANY GROUPS UNITE
27 JUNE 1941 MINSK, BELARUS
BERLIN ATTACK ON
SOVIET-CONTROLLED POLAND
22 JUNE 1941, POLAND MASS REVOLT AT SOBIBÓR
EXTERMINATION CAMP
GERMANY POLAND 14 OCTOBER 1943, EASTERN POLAND

Left: German artillery moves 2 6
through the ruins of Minsk
after its capture
SOVIET MOLDOVA INVADED
UKRAINE 2 JULY 1941, MOLDOVA

3 BATTLE OF BIAŁYSTOK-MINSK 5

MINSK, BELARUS: 22 JUNE – 3 JULY 1941 SEVASTOPOL
Easily one of the most devastating battles of the operation, a force PORT ATTACKED
of 750,000 German troops surrounds the key Soviet installation 30 OCTOBER 1941, CRIMEA
in the Belarusian city of Minsk. The German losses are high, but
Minsk eventually falls.
ROMANIA

4 BATTLE OF SMOLENSK
SMOLENSK, RUSSIA: 6 JULY – 5 AUGUST 1941
430,000 German infantry and 1,000 tanks assault the Smolensk
region of the Soviet Union, crushing Soviet forces in opposition
(around 300,000 of the 580,000 present were killed or captured)
and taking the region.

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