Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt

While Shestopalov’s corps was beginning a piecemeal attack on the supposed flank of Panzergruppe 4, there was considerable armoured activity occurring to the east around Raseiniai and Kedainiai. After easily overrunning the 48th Rifle Division northeast of Taroggen, the 6.Panzer-Division advanced 55km and occupied Raseiniai by the afternoon of 23 June. Generalmajor Landgraf’s two panzer kampfgruppen secured separate bridgeheads over the Dubysa River and he paused the division in Raseiniai to refuel and re-arm. Meanwhile, General-major Egor N. Solyankin’s 2nd Tank Division force-marched 100km from Kedainiai in order to retake Raseiniai. Solyankin’s division included six different tank types, including thirty-two KV-I, nineteen KV-II and fifty T-34, further complicating combat logistics. The KV heavy tanks fared particularly poorly on the long road march due to clogged air filters and transmission malfunctions; nearly half broke down en route to the battlefield. However, Solyankin managed to get a good portion of his force near Raseiniai late on 23 June and he planned to attack at dawn the next morning.

Oddly, the 6.Panzer-Division was not expecting a major Soviet armoured counterattack, even though reconnaissance aircraft from Panzergruppe 4 had spotted tanks approaching from Kedainiai. Thus the Germans were doubly shocked on the morning of 24 June, when not only were they attacked by a large Soviet armoured group, but also by three different types of tanks that they did not even know existed. Solyankin directed his main effort – two tank regiments and part of a motor rifle regiment – against Kampfgruppe Seckendorff.

The Soviet tanks attacked in waves, with the light BT and T-26 types out front, followed by T-34s and then the KV heavy tanks. Although shocked by the appearance of T-34, KV-I and KV-II tanks, the German panzerjäger followed doctrine and did not engage with their 3.7cm and 5cm Pak until the Soviet tanks were within 200 meters. The German AP rounds simply bounced off and then the Soviet heavy tanks overran the panzerjägers and part of Kradschützen-Abteilung 6. No German infantry had yet been overrun by enemy tanks in the Second World War and this was terrifying. After bashing their way through Kampfgruppe Seckendorff, three KV heavy tanks led by Major Dmitry I. Osadchy forded the Dubysa River and attacked part of Schützen-Regiment 114. The KV tanks managed to overrun part of a German artillery battery before being engaged by direct fire from 15cm howitzers. Although the howitzers could not penetrate the KV’s thick armour, they managed to blow off the tracks, immobilizing them.

The 6.Panzer-Division was shocked by the violence of this attack. Most histories of the Battle of Raseiniai depend upon Erhard Raus’ account, even though he was only lightly engaged in this action.⁵ Raus’ account focuses on his efforts to destroy a single KV-2 that managed to get behind his kampfgruppen and sever his supply line, but says little about the decimation of Kampfgruppe Seckendorff. The Soviet attack subsided when the commander of the 3rd Tank Regiment was killed by shell splinters and his tanks ran low on fuel and ammunition. The Soviet pause granted the Germans a short reprieve. Due to constant Soviet bomber attacks on the German supply columns crossing the Lithuanian border, Panzergruppe 4 had kept its available 8.8cm flak batteries in the rear and none were available near the front at Raseiniai. Reinhardt quickly ordered a flak battery to move forward to support 6.Panzer-Division and, in the meantime, Landgraf was on his own against Solyankin’s tanks. Oberst Richard Koll, commander of Panzer-Regiment 11, led a counterattack with his diminutive Pz.35(t) light tanks and a handful of Pz.IV against the Soviet tanks pounding on Schützen-Regiment 114, but this was a hopeless gesture and Koll broke off the attack after suffering significant losses. Another odd thing about the Battle of Raseiniai is the absence of the Luftwaffe; the arrival of Stukas might have tipped the balance, but they were nowhere in sight.

Solyankin launched six separate attacks on 24 June, which considerably upset the Germans, but Soviet armour power waned as fuel and ammunition were exhausted. Soviet combat logistics fell apart. Most of the T-26 and BT-7 light tanks, as well as the motorized infantry, were lost early in the battle, leaving the remaining KV and T-34 tanks unsupported. The Soviet heavy tanks made one last effort to break through to Raseiniai late in the day, but by this point an 8.8cm flak battery and a 10cm heavy howitzer battery had arrived and they succeeded in immobilizing several tanks, causing the attack to falter.