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

At the same time as Hoth’s Panzergruppe 3 attacked the Northwest Front’s 11th Army along the Neman, 200km to the south, Generaloberst Heinz Guderian’s Panzergruppe 2 attacked the Western Front’s 4th Army near the fortifications at Brest-Litovsk. Guderian decided to bypass Brest-Litovsk, with General der Artillerie Joachim Lemelsen’s XXXXVII Armeekorps (mot.) to the northwest and General der Panzertruppen Leo Freiherr Geyr von Schweppenburg’s XXIV Armeekorps (mot.) to the south. Both corps had to cross the 90-meter-wide Western Bug River, which represented a substantial obstacle. In addition to division-level pioneers, Heeresgruppe Mitte provided Guderian with substantial engineer support, including Sturmbootkommando 902, with eighty-one assault boats.⁸ The Luftwaffe’s II Fliegerkorps, which included 115 Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers from St.G. 77 and eighty-three Bf-110 fighter-bombers from SKG 210, was assigned to provide close air support to Guderian’s Panzergruppe.

Although Generalleutnant Walter Model’s 3.Panzer-Division was able to seize the Koden bridge intact with a coup de main, there were no bridges in the area Lemelsen chose to cross the Western Bug. Instead, after 8.8cm flak guns were used to knock out Soviet bunkers on the eastern bank of the Western Bug near Pratulin with direct fire, the 18.Panzer-Division sent 120 infantrymen from its Kradschützen-Abteilung across in assault boats to secure the far side at 0415 hours.⁹ German artillery and Stuka bombardments were used to suppress the Soviet defenders on the eastern bank. Thirty minutes later, Major Manfred Graf von Strachwitz led his I/Panzer-Regiment 18, equipped with submersible Pz.III and Pz.IV tauchpanzer, across the river by driving along the bottom. Model’s Panzer-Regiment 6 was also equipped with tauchpanzer, but the capture of the Koden bridge obviated their use in this role. Once both corps had established bridgeheads on the opposite shore, German pioneers began to build a 16-ton pontoon bridge for each panzer division and improve the crossing sites. Yet aside from the tauchpanzers and Model’s spearhead, the mass of Guderian’s armour would not begin to cross the Western Bug until about 1220 hours on 22 June, and it would take about six hours for an entire panzer regiment to cross. Thus, the bulk of Guderian’s combat power would not cross the bridges until the evening of the first day.

Across the river, the closest Soviet armoured formation was General-major Stepan I. Oborin’s 14th Mechanized Corps. By chance, most of the units of the 14th Mechanized Corps had been engaged in training exercises on the night of 21–22 June, and General-major Vasiliy P. Puganov’s 22nd Tank Division was 40km away from its normal garrison in Brest-Litovsk. Puganov, formerly in charge of combat training for the GABTU, had taken most of his T-26 tanks to gunnery ranges near Zabinka, while his artillery and rear services were still at Brest. The opening German artillery and air attacks on Brest-Litovsk demolished much of the 22nd Tank Division’s ammunition and fuel stockpiles, as well as much of its artillery. Oborin’s command post was bombed at 0500 hours, demolishing his communications links, so he was not able to alert his corps until after the Germans had already begun crossing the Bug River. Nevertheless, Puganov dispatched a tank battalion towards the river, but it was unable to seriously interfere with the German crossing. Despite continued Luftwaffe bombing, Oborin was gradually able to gather the combat elements of the 22nd and 30th Tank Divisions around Zabinka by late morning.

Neither Guderian nor Model waited for the pioneers to complete their work at the fording sites, but crossed to the eastern bank to lead their advance guards. Guderian moved with Strachwitz’s tauchpanzer battalion to capture an intact bridge over the Lesnaya River, north of Brest, while Model jumped aboard an Sd.Kfz.231 (8-rad) armoured car and pushed toward Kobrin. Polkovnik Semyon I. Bogdanov, commander of the 30th Tank Division, responded by dispatching one of his tank regiments to counterattack Strachwitz’s panzers at 1200 hours. However, Guderian requested Luftwaffe close air support sorties, which defeated the counterattack. Oborin decided to call off any further hasty attacks and issued an order at 1830 hours: the 14th Mechanized Corps would temporarily shift to the defensive, but launch an all-out three-division counterattack on the German bridgeheads at 0500 hours on 23 June. Puganov used the night to refuel and rearm his tanks from warehouses in Kobrin. Oborin was an artilleryman with no experience of armour and he opted for the safe, textbook approach taught at the Frunze military academy, but he also gave Guderian a quiet night to bring the bulk of his armour across the Bug.