Read Online Hitler Moves East, 1941-1943 by Paul Carell - Free Book Online

his platoon swiftly through the antitank defences along the Soviet frontier. The 800-yard-long causeway through the marsh was cleared of the enemy. Soviet posts were overcome in hand-to-hand fighting. In the morning 40 Russians lay dead by their machine-guns at the bridge and in the marsh. But Jordan's platoon paid a heavy price: 24 men killed or wounded.
The offensive of Eleventh Army was gaining momentum. Its direction was towards the north-east, towards the Dniester. But things did not go according to schedule; Schobert was not able to drive a retreating enemy into a trap, but had to content himself with slowly pushing back a strongly resisting enemy.
After ten days of very fierce fighting Rundstedt's armoured divisions had penetrated 60 miles into enemy territory. They were involved with superior forces, compelled to beat back counter-attacks from all sides, and defend themselves from the right and the left, from the front and the rear. A strong enemy was offering stubborn but elastic resistance.
Colonel-General Kirponos succeeded in evading the planned German encirclement north of the Dniester and in taking his troops back, still in an unbroken front, to the strongly fortified Stalin Line to both sides of Mogilev. Rundstedt had therefore not succeeded in achieving the planned large-scale breakthrough. The timetable of Army Group South had been upset. Could the delay be made up?
On the Central Front, on the other hand, all went well. After a swift break-through the armoured and motorized divisions of Hoth's and Guderian's Panzer Groups on the wings of the Army Group advanced rapidly according to plan, right through the startled and badly led armies of the Russian Western Front, and got into position for their large- scale pincer movement. It was here on the Central Front that the decisive action of the entire campaign had been scheduled from the outset: it was to be prepared by some 1600 tanks and to be finally consummated—in collaboration with Fourth Panzer Group under Colonel-General Hoepner, then still operating in the area of Army Group North—by the capture of Moscow. The plan seemed to work. The Panzer divisions were once more giving a demonstration of Blitzkrieg—as in the old days, as in Poland and in the West. At least, that was how things looked from where the armoured spearheads stood. The infantry here, as on the northern sector, had a somewhat different experience. The fortress of Brest-Litovsk was a typical example.
On 22nd June, 45th Infantry Division did not suspect that it would suffer such heavy losses in this ancient frontier fortress. Captain Praxa had prepared his assault against the heart of the citadel of Brest with great caution. The 3rd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment, was to take the Western Island and the central area with the barracks block. They had studied it all thoroughly at the sand-table. They had built a model from aerial photographs and old plans from the days of the Polish campaign, when, until it had to be surrendered to the Russians, Brest was in German hands.
Guderian's staff officers realized from the outset that the citadel could be taken only by infantry, since it was proof against tanks.
The circular fortress, occupying an area of nearly two square miles, was surrounded by moats and river branches, and sub-divided internally by canals and artificial watercourses into four small islands. Casemates, snipers' positions, armoured cupolas with anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, were established, well camouflaged, behind shrubs and under trees. On 22nd June there were in all five Soviet regiments in Brest; these included two artillery regiments, one reconnaissance battalion, an independent anti-aircraft detachment, and supply and medical battalions.
General Karabichev, who was captured beyond the Berezina very early in the campaign, stated under interrogation that in May 1941 he had been instructed, as an expert in fortification engineering, to inspect the western defences. On