User:Nicolas Perrault III/Timeline of the Battle of Smolensk

German order of battle

The armed forces branch are given in hierarchical order with their commands and commanders in brackets.

The German army on the eastern front in 1941 was arranged in three army groups:

• Heer, army (OKH, Walther von Brauchitsch with Franz Halder as chief of staff)
  • Army Group North (Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb) drove northeast towards Leningrad.
  • Army Group Center (Fedor von Bock) drove east on the Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow axis.
  • Army Group South (Gerd von Runstedt) drove east on the Kiev-Kharkov-Stalingrad axis.

Army Group Center and Air Fleet 2 (Luftflotte 2) fought the Battle for Smolensk and were organised as follows. Only branches relevant to this article are listed.

• Wehrmacht, armed forces (OKW, Hitler)
  • Luftwaffe, air force (OKL, Göring)
    • Air Fleet 2 (Kesselring)
  • Heer, army (OKH, Brauchitsch with Halder as chief of staff)
    • Army Group Center (Bock)
      • 4th (Panzer) Army (Kluge)
        • Panzer og 3 (Hoth)
          • 7th Panzer Division (Funck)
          • 19th Panzer Division (Knobelsdorff)
          • 20th Panzer Division (Stumpff)
        • Panzer Group 2 (Guderian)
          • XXIV Panzer Corps (Schweppenburg)
            • 3rd Panzer Division (Model)
          • XLVII Panzer Corps (Lemelsen)
            • 18th Panzer Division (Nehring)

For concision, this hierarchy is not duplicated in the text. Please refer to these trees as needed.

Soviet order of battle

The Red Army was organised in so-called fronts, and was reorganised several times during the Battle of Smolensk. Facing Army Group Center in the surroundings of Smolensk, the Red Army was organised as such from north to south:

• Soviet Armed Forces (Stavka, Timoshenko to 10 July, Stalin to August 1945)
  • Soviet Air Forces (Zhigarev)
  • Red army
    • Western Front (Pavlov to 28 June, Eromenko to 2 July, Timoshenko to 19 July, Eromenko to 30 July, Timoshenko to 12 September)
    • Reserve Front (formed 14 July, ... to 20 July, Zhukov to 12 September)
    • Central Front (formed 24 July, annihilated 25 August)
    • Briansk Front (formed 16 August)
    • Southwestern Front

Border battles before Smolensk, 22 June-1 July 1941

26 June

Army Group Center's two large Panzer Groups (2 and 3) are consolidated under the even larger formation of the Fourth (Panzer) Army. This arrangement would last until 28 July.

28 June

Fall of Minsk.

29 June

Eremenko arrives at his new headquarters in Mogilev.

30 June

The OKH orders Bock to advance on Smolensk.

1 July

Stalin relieves Pavlov of his command of the Western Front and replaces him with Eremenko.

The approach towards Smolensk, 2-9 July 1941

2 July

Fall of Borisov, a major town on the Minsk-Smolensk axis.

3 July

The Battle of Białystok–Minsk concludes.

8 July

The pockets of Białystok and Minsk are eliminated. In German historiography, this marks the beginning of the Battle for Smolensk.

German outlook

General Gotthard Heinrici notes that German infantry divisions are straggling behind the motorised divisions by 200 kilometres, a gap they try to close with 20-hour daily forced marches.

9 July

Timoshenko notices a German breech developing in his defenses in and around Vitebsk. Determined not to withdraw and hold position west of Smolensk, he orders Konev's unassembled 19th Army (and 20th and 22nd Armies) to counterattack with any forces available. To David Glantz, "[t]he Soviet refusal to withdraw meant that another decisive encirclement was in the making".

The encirclement of Smolensk, 10 July -

10 July, Germans cross the Dnieper

In dark brown, German positions on 10 July 1941.

German Panzer Groups 2 and 3 supported by Air Fleet 2 cross the Dnieper river. In Soviet historiography, this marks the beginning of the Battle for Smolensk.

At dawn (4am), Panzer Group 2 (4th Pz. and 10th Motorised Divs.) crosses the Dnieper at and north of Staryi Bykhov, 29-32 km south of Mogilev. Short on artillery ammunition, Panzer Group 2's attacks succeed thanks to a rolling barrage of Luftwaffe airstrikes. The barrage was planned to continue on 11 July, but was ultimately cancelled.

One hundred km to the north, 100 km to the east of Smolensk, Konev begins his counterattack on the German breeches at Vitebsk. Uncoordinated and without any reserves, it founders two days later.

German outlook

• The OKH informs the German army that no more tyres are to be supplied, rubber being in short supply.
• Hundreds of kilometres to the south, Hitler orders Army Group South to stop its advance on Kiev, so that an eventual German attack from the north by Army Group South's Panzer Group 1 may encircle troops in Kiev, rather than push them back. As Army Group Center continues its advance to the east, Army Group South can no longer protect Army Group Center's southern flank.

Soviet outlook

• Following a request by the Stavka, the Soviet State Defense Committee takes extreme reorganisation measures to improve command of frontline troops everywhere from Leningrad to Kiev. (These measures would ultimately prove ineffective because there was not enough qualified personnel to staff this new command structure.)
• The Stavka appoints Timoshenko to the Main Western Direction Command, complicating his problems of troop control.

11 July, German Dnieper bridgeheads secured

Noon: Panzer Group 2's motorised corps have secured bridgeheads on the east of the Dnieper to the north of Mogilev at Kopys and Shklov and to the south of Mogilev at Novyi Bykhov.

15 July

Panzer Group 3 (19th Pz. Div.) captures the town of Nevel, 200 km to the north-west of Smolensk.

8:30 PM: the 7th Panzer Division of Panzer Group 3 captures the town of Iartsevo, east of Smolensk on the road to Moscow, blocking by fire the main artery between the two cities. Thus mechanised forces complete the northern half of the encirclement. Panzer Group 2, lagging far behind, has not yet completed the southern half of the encirclement. Because German infantry has yet to reach the region, the northern half-encirclement is fragile and still susceptible to Soviet breakthroughs.

German outlook

The war diary of Panzer Group 2, commanded by Heinz Guderian complains that supplying the advancing divisions is becoming more and more difficult because of bad roads, increasing distance from supply centres, and insecure rear areas.

The war diary of Panzer Group 3 complains that, like at Minsk, Panzer Group 2 has failed to complete the southern half of the encirclement in time and predicts that the Soviet front of Timoshenko at Smolensk is on the verge of collapse. The diary of Panzer Group 3's 20th Panzer Division worries about a drastic surge in fuel consumption, likely due to landscape unfavourable to mechanised warfare.

Bock phones Brauchitsch and expresses his concern that the OKH is taking the situation too lightly, reminding Brauchitsch that the Soviet army is not yet in disarray.

19 July

Panzer Group 3 (19th Pz. Div.) captures the town of Velikiye Luki, 200 km to the north-west of Smolensk.

20 July

In light brown, German positions on 20 July 1941.

The Soviets counter-attack the rear flanks of the German corridor to Velikiye Luki, guarded by the 14th Motorised Division. Kluge is forced to order the 19th Pz. Div. back to protect its rear.

4 August

In light red, German positions on 4 August 1941.