Last man Standing (Blitzkrieg - Second World War in Fight, First Edition, No. 19)

June 1944: With the 18th Armored Infantry Division in the Battle of MogilevBy Christopher Neuber

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Length2h 11m

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After the Red Army captured the Crimea in May 1944 and the Soviet spring offensive ended, the German Wehrmacht succeeded in stabilising the remaining Eastern front. Army Group South Ukraine, with the 6th and 8th Army, protected the entrance to the lower Danube and the Balkan Peninsula at the lower Dniester River, westwards past Jassy, and into the Carpathian Mountains. At Colomea it was joined by Army Group North Ukraine and the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, who held the line from the northeastern Carpathian Mountains to north of Kowel. At that point the line was continued by Army Group Centre with an eastward arc of more than 300 kilometres, running along the Pripjet marshes south of Pinsk and defended by the 2nd Army. Both sides of the Berezina River southeast of Bobruisk were held by the 9th Army, which connected with the 4th Army standing between the Berezina and Dnieper Rivers. The 4th Army formed a sprawling bridgehead from Stary Byshoff to northeast of Orsha. The 3rd Panzer Army was responsible for the area around Vitebsk and could barely maintain continuity with the 16th Army of Army Group North. As a result, the Russians were able to drive a dangerous wedge towards Dinaburg (Daugavpils) between the 3rd Panzer Army and the 16th Army. In mid-May 1944 the German army command did not yet have any indication where along the front the expected summer offensive of the Red Army might occur. The High Command of the Army (OKH) felt that a massing of forces on the front north of the Carpathians, against Army Group North Ukraine, was likely. “A calm summer” was predicted for Army Groups North and Centre. But as of early June 1944 German reconnaissance reported Russian troop movements and a concentrated deployment along the front of Army Group Centre. The Germans had only 38 Infantry Divisions left to guard this 1,100-km-long line. This situation is the background to the first-hand account that follows. The author, then a young Leutnant, belonged to the 1st Battery of Artillery Regiment 18 (18th Panzergrenadier Division). At his observation post near Mogilev he was able to report on the regrouping and new formation of Russian battle and assault units in mid-June 1944. The Soviet summer offensive against the German Eastern front seemed to take Army Group Centre by surprise and with full force. The author of this report is right in the thick of it! Blitzkrieg - Second World War in Fight, First Edition, No. 19

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