Russia at war 1941-1945

In the course of the day, regular German troops fought our frontier troops and

achieved minor successes in a number of sectors. In the afternoon, with advance

field forces of the Red Army arriving at the frontier, the attacks of the German

groups have been repelled along most of the frontier with heavy losses to the enemy.

That the General Staff itself had no very clear idea of what was happening on the first day of the war is confirmed by the second directive given to the troops in the frontier area. The South-Western Army Group was to start, on the very next day, a major

offensive, which would lead, by the end of June 24, to the capture of Lublin, some thirty miles beyond the Soviet border! The North-Western Army Group was at the same time to capture Suvalki, and all three Army Groups were, moreover, ordered to surround any

German forces that had penetrated into Soviet territory.

Absurd though the order was, a pathetic attempt was made to carry it out; in a number of places the Russians succeeded in concentrating what tanks they still had in the frontier areas; but, in the absence of air support they were wiped out by German bombers.

The German advance continued almost without a hitch. Large Russian forces were

trapped in the Belostok pocket and eleven divisions in the Minsk area. By June 28 the Germans had already reached the city of Minsk, were pushing deep into the Baltic

Republics and were approaching Pskov, on the straight line to Leningrad.

A few days later the remnants of sixteen Russian divisions were facing two powerful

German tank formations along the Berezina, and under these conditions it was

unthinkable to form a new 220 miles long defence line; some delaying actions were,

however, fought with great gallantry by the Russians, notably east of Minsk, at Borisov, where they threw in a large number of tanks, though most of them obsolete. These

delaying actions to some extent helped to gain time in which to bring up reserves and organise a defence in depth in what already came to be known as the "Smolensk-Moscow direction".

Some minor delaying actions were also fought, with suicidal bravery, against the German Army Group South. Held up in the Rovno area and unable to pursue their advance

towards Kiev, the Germans turned north and got bogged down for some time in what

were described as "battles of local importance". But by July 9, the Germans had broken through to Zhitomir, which was captured, and were threatening to break through to Kiev and to encircle the main Russian forces in the Northern Ukraine. But here again, at

Berdichev, the Russians threw in some armour and there was heavy fighting around

Berdichev for almost a week.

Chapter III MOLOTOV AND STALIN SPEAK

It was not until several hours after the Germans had invaded the Soviet Union that an official announcement was made over the radio by Foreign Commissar Molotov. "Men and women, citizens of the Soviet Union," he began in a faltering, slightly stuttery voice.

"The Soviet Government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have instructed me to make the following statement:

At four o'clock this morning, without declaration of war, and without any claims

being made on the Soviet Union, German troops attacked our country, attacked our

frontier in many places, and bombed from the air Zhitomir, Kiev, Sebastopol,

Kaunas and some other places. There are over 200 dead or wounded. Similar air

and artillery attacks have also been made from Rumanian and Finnish territory.

The next sentence betrayed Molotov's extraordinary dismay and suggested that, in its dealings with the Germans, the Soviet Government would have been willing to consider almost any concessions to put off the evil hour:

This unheard-of attack on our country is an unparalleled act of perfidy in the

history of civilised nations. This attack has been made despite the fact that there was a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, a pact the terms of