Battle of Brody (1941)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Brody was a tank battle fought between the Panzer Group 1's IIIrd, XLVIII Army Corps (Motorized) and five Soviet Mechanized Corps of the Soviet 5th Army and 6th Army
in the triangle formed by the towns Dubno
, Lutsk
and Brody
in Ukraine
between 23 and 30 June 1941 known in Soviet historiography as a part of the Border Defensive Battles. Although the Red Army
formations inflicted heavy losses on the German forces, they were outmaneuvered and suffered large losses in tanks. This was one of the most intense armoured engagements in the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa
and remained the largest tank battle of World War II until the Battle of Kursk
two years later.
was ordered to secure the Bug River
crossings, and advance to Rovno and Korosten
with the strategic objective of Kiev
. It deployed two Corps forward and advanced between Lviv
and Rovno in the attempt to cut the Lviv - Kiev railway line, driving a wedge along junction point between the Soviet 5th and 6th Armies.
The Southwestern Front under the command of Mikhail Kirponos, despite incomplete intelligence on the size and direction of the German attack were surprised by the decision of STAVKA to order a general counterattack on the authority of Georgy Zhukov, under the title of directive No. 3. Most of the headquarters staff were convinced that the general order would be to remain in a defensive posture until the situation clarified. Later H. Baghramyan, a staff officer of the front headquarters, who was charged with writing the initial report to Moscow, said that "our first combat report to Moscow was full of generalities and unclarities."
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the general orders of directive No. 3, read:
By the end of the night of the 22nd, Chief of General Staff G. K. Zhukov
was on his way to the Southwestern Front headquarters at Tarnopol along with Nikita Khrushchev
, the former head of Organizational Department of the Ukrainian Communist Party's Central Committee, to ensure these orders were carried out.
.
To achieve this the 8th Mechanized Corps was transferred from the command of the 26th Army, positioned to the south of the 6th Army, and placed under the command of N. I. Muzychenko's 6th Army. This in essence brought the entire mobile assets of the South Western Front to bear against the base of von Kleist's thrust toward Kiev.
The primary German infantry formation operating on this sector of the front, IV Army Corps (von Schwedler) of the 17th Army
(Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel
) were advancing in the south-easterly direction with the objective of cutting Lviv-Kiev railway line.
, including but not limited to the main battle of Brody, was as follows.
Still the Soviet's sent whatever aircraft that had survived to support the offensive.
The air battle resulted in heavy casualties for the attacking Soviets. JG 3 under the command of Fliegerkorps IV shot down 24 Tupolev SB
s on the first day. Among the casualties was the Commander of 86 SBAP, Podpolkovnik Sorokin. Just 20 of the initial 251 SBs remained with the unit. German losses were also heavy, 28 destroyed and 23 damaged (including 8 He 111s and Ju 88s).
The efforts of the Red Army Air force were not without effect and the Southwestern Front Air force flew 523 sorties between June 22 and 24th and dropped 2,500 bombs. Gustav Shrodek a tank commander of the 15th Panzer regiment (11th Panzer Division): "At dawn of June 24th, the regiment underwent its first attack by Russian bombers. It shall not be the only one this day; completely the opposite. As a result of this the regiment now has several dead and wounded."
Otherwise, near total Luftwaffe air superiority was to be a major factor in breaking up the Soviet counterattack.
commander Kirponos
. Under the 5th Army command, K.K. Rokossovsky
's 9th and N. V. Feklenko's 19th Mechanized Corps were to be deployed north-west of Rovno, while the 22nd Mechanized Corps was to assemble northeast of Lutsk. To the south, under the command of the 6th Army, Ryabyshev
's 8th and I. Karpezo's 15th Mechanized Corps were to be deployed to the south-west and north-east of Brody
, while The 4th Mechanized Corps under A. Vlasov
was to be deployed between Sokal
and Radekhov
, on the left flank of the 15th Mechanized Corps.
The plan called for these forces to assemble and begin offensive operations at 2200 hours, on 23 June, 36 hours after the initial German onslaught, in an attempt to catch the attackers off guard, and before they could solidify their position by bringing up reinforcements from the rear in support of their fast advancing 11th Panzer Division.
The Soviet Corps commanders suffered under conditions of confusion caused by the shock of the initial German attack, loss of communications, constant harassment by the Luftwaffe, lack of transportation and the outflow of massive number of refugees and retreating soldiers fleeing the German advance, clogging the roads and making it difficult for the counter-attacking forces to properly assemble at their jumping off points.
While communication between the Front headquarters and the individual army commands was generally good, communication to the front line units themselves was seriously flawed because it was dependent on the civilian telephone and telegraph network. German sappers, air attacks, and even Ukrainians nationalists guerrillas had aggressively targeted this system with the desired result. Operating in the dark, many front line Soviet front line commanders were left to their own devises, and this had numerable impacts on the effectiveness of Soviet command and control. In one instance, the commander to the 41st Tank Division of the 22nd Mechanized Corps, for want of any new directives followed pre-war plan and moved his division to the predesignated assembly point for his corps at Kovel
, and in so doing, moved his division away from the fighting.
Another endemic problem was the lack of transport for the infantry component of the Mechanized Corps. These were "motorized" division in name only. Many of these divisions only had partial compliments of their full transportation establishment. Individual corps commanders had to improvise solutions to bring their full complement of soldiers to their assembly points.
Rokossovsky succeeded in commandeering 200 trucks from the district reserve at Shepetovka, but this still left him in the position of mounting much of his infantry on tanks. Even then much of his infantry had to walk, since the trucks were used for carrying critical munitions and supplies. In one case, valuable heavy artillery belonging to the 22nd Mechanized Corps, was simply left behind for want of tractors to pull them. The commander of the 19th Mechanized, simply marched his corps forward in two echelons, with the tank divisions far in advance of his lagging infantry, meaning that his armored units arrived in the battle fields without infantry support. Ryabyshev the commander of the 8th Mechanized reported similar problems, since its artillery was towed by exceedingly slow tractors that held up the movement of the entire columns: "The columns were moving at top speed. Unfortunately, the tractor towed corps artillery was falling severely behind; the difference in speed was slowing down the overall concentration of forces."
These complications were compounded by the apparent inability of the Soviet commanders to assess an appropriate axis of attack in the context of the rapidly developing German salient—Between June 22 and June 24, the 8th Mechanized Corps was given three separate instructions about the precise point at which it was supposed to assemble, the original order from the Front Command, a new one from the commander of the 6th Army, and then again on the 24th of June again another new order from the Front command, meaning that the Corps crossed its own path and backtracked several times before finally arriving at Brody.
Later, the commander of the 8th Mechanized Corps, D. I. Ryabyshev, was to write:
As a consequence of the multiple problems of assembling the forces proposed for the attack the original ambitious schedule of attack was set back 6 hours to 0400 on the 24th of June.
By the time this decision was made on the evening of the 23rd of June, barely 48 hours since the war had begun, the 11th Panzer Division had already penetrated 40 miles into Soviet territory with the 16th Panzer Division traveling in its wake. The 14th Panzer Division and 13th Panzer Division were well their way up the road to Lutsk
, with the objective of reaching the Styr River
on the 24th, and the 298th Infantry Division, the 44th Infantry Division and the 299th Infantry Division
moving up to consolidate the advance.
Even with the delayed schedule the counterattack would begin piecemeal since the full complement of the force proposed for the counterattack could not be brought into the position until two days later. The 4th, 8th, 9th, and 19th Mechanized Corps were still on the march. Supporting infantry corps were even further away.
Kirponos's Chief of Staff, General Purkayev
, argued against the political officer attached to the Southwest Front, Commissar Nikolai Vashugin
, on this point but Vashugin and Zhukov won out: the attack would begin without delay. Only two tank divisions of 15th Mechanized Corps in the south and a single tank division of 22nd Mechanized Corps in the north were in position to begin the attack on the 24th.
and KV tanks were 4th, 8th, and 15th Mechanized Corps. In fact 717 such tanks (both types counted together) were almost a half of the country's 1600 produced.
Throughout the battles, the exact scale of the intended operations and the precise role of each corps in that plan were communicated poorly or not communicated at all. One of the commanders (Ryabyshev) noted "the Corps battle orders spoke only to its own mission objectives". There was little to none communication between the individual corps to ensure co-ordination, therefore their actions are described separately.
from the German infantry, losing 2 tanks. Next day it faced the German 11th Panzer Division there, destroying 20 German tanks and losing 6 T-34 tanks and 20 BT tanks. It withdrew orderly for the lack of ammunition. On 26 June 1941, the division destroyed 23 German tanks and infantry battalion near Radekhiv
, losing 13 KV and 12 BT-7 tanks.
-Brody
-Busk
, driven by a series of inconsistent orders. Except for the two aforementioned actions of the 10th Tank Division, its remaining forces were not in combat. On 7 July 1941 it reported in Berezovka
(300 kilometers from the ex-border) with 9% of the tanks.
unsuccessfully. On 15 July 1941 the 22th MC had 4% of the tanks.
from the north, but failed to reach it by a few kilometers. On 29 June the corps had 32 tanks remaining out of the original 453.
On 26 June 1941, the 8th Mechanized Corps as a whole attacked successfully in the direction Brody
–Berestechko
against parts of the German 11th PD. Despite haphazard arrangements and difficulties the Soviet attack seemed to have met with a certain amount of initial success, catching the Germans on the move and outside of prepared positions, their tanks sweeping aside hastily arranged German anti-tank positions manned by motorcycle troops attached to the 48th Panzer Corps
Later the 8th MC acted divided into the Popel's group and a second force remaining under the command of Ryabyshev.
, a road crossing of strategical importance. This was the most successful Soviet action of the time, as it cut off supply lines of the German armored spearhead – the 11th PD. However, this was not exploited by Soviet command who failed to communicate with Popel' and to provide supplies or reinforcements. The group waited in Dubno and prepared for defence, losing the operational initiative.
The situation was considered "serious" by the German high command:
By 28 June Germans gathered enormous forces. The Popel's group came under attack by elements of 16th Motorized, 75th Infantry Division
, two other infantry divisions, and the 16th Panzer Division. Encircled in Dubno, Popel' defended until 1 July, when he retreated.
, where on 7 July 1941 it had 43 tanks – 5% of the pre-war number.
Besides these, there were no more notable Soviet counterattacks in this battle.
At the time when Soviet forces have taken Dubno and cut off the leading edge of the main German attack, Kirponos have thought that the same German attack threatened to outflank and encircle the Soviet forces attacking from the south. This led Kirponos to issue orders for a halt to the offensive and a general retreat in order rationalize (shorten) his front line, "so as to prevent the enemy tank groupings from penetrating into the rear of the 6th and 26th Armies", according to H. Baghramyan.
Georgy Zhukov was quick to have these orders countermanded after a debate with the Front commander and his staff. Orders for a renewed attack were issued two hours later. This led to even more of the confusion that was symptomatic of the Soviet command at the Battle of Brody. Rokossovsky, who was in command of the 9th Mechanized Corps attacking from the north, simply balked at these new orders stating that "We had once again received an order to counterattack. However, the enemy outnumbered us to such a degree, that I took on the personal responsibility of ordering to halt the counteroffensive and to meet the enemy in prepared defenses", while Ryabyshev commanding the 8th Mechanized Corps to the south dutifully complied and remounted the attack.
Ryabyshev seems to take the position held by Zhukov at the time, which is that if the attack had continued aggressively, and without delay, the Soviet effort might have been met with eventual success. On the other hand subsequent events seem to vindicate Kirponos's position, which was that the attack was premature and would destabilize the solvency of the entire front. Shortly after the routing of the Soviet counter-attack Marshal Semyon Budyonny
was given overall command of the combined Southwestern and Southern Front. Disaster unfolded at the Battle of Uman
and one and a half million Soviet soldiers fell into captivity when the 26th and 12th Armies were encircled after Army Group South renewed its attack by pivoting south from the positions it had achieved during the Battle of Dubno -- an outcome that Kirponos had foreshadowed in his arguments with Zhukov about the wisdom of the counter attack at Dubno.
After the morning of the 27th the fact that Rokossovsky and Ryabyshev were following different scripts unknown to each other, can not have helped matters either way.
The confrontation between Kirponos and Zhukov is no doubt what led Zhukov to tell the Southwestern Front political officer, Nikita Khrushchev
, "I am afraid your commander (Kirponos) here is pretty weak", a charge that Kirponos would never be able to answer since he died in the battle of Kiev after it was surrounded.
tanks were almost immune to their weapons. The new KV-1 and KV-2 heavy tanks were impervious to virtually all German anti-tank weapons, but the Red Army's supply had completely broken down due to Luftwaffe attacks.
The German Kampfgeschwader, namely KG 51, KG 54 and KG 55 contributed a series of heavy low-level attacks against the Soviet ground targets. The headquarters of the Soviet 15th Mechanised Corps was destroyed, and its commander, General-Major Ignat Karpezo, was wounded. The Luftwaffe destroyed some 201 Soviet tanks in this area.
The five Red Army corps were mishandled while being concentrated into large powerful groups. The German troops sought to isolate individual units, and destroy them. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe was ranging over the battlefields and were able to separate the supporting infantry and deny them resupply of fuel and ammunition. Ultimately due to lack of adequate planning and overall coordination the Soviet counter-attack failed to meet at Dubno.
6th Army (Soviet Union)
The 6th Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army formed four times during World War II and active with the Russian Ground Forces up until 1998...
in the triangle formed by the towns Dubno
Dubno
Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
, Lutsk
Lutsk
Lutsk is a city located by the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of the surrounding Lutskyi Raion within the oblast...
and Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
between 23 and 30 June 1941 known in Soviet historiography as a part of the Border Defensive Battles. Although the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
formations inflicted heavy losses on the German forces, they were outmaneuvered and suffered large losses in tanks. This was one of the most intense armoured engagements in the opening phase of Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
and remained the largest tank battle of World War II until the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
two years later.
Prelude
Panzer Group 1 led by KleistPaul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was a leading German field marshal during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
was ordered to secure the Bug River
Bug River
The Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...
crossings, and advance to Rovno and Korosten
Korosten
Korosten is a historic city and a large railway node in the Zhytomyr Oblast of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Korosten Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on the Uzh River.The city was founded over a...
with the strategic objective of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. It deployed two Corps forward and advanced between Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
and Rovno in the attempt to cut the Lviv - Kiev railway line, driving a wedge along junction point between the Soviet 5th and 6th Armies.
The Southwestern Front under the command of Mikhail Kirponos, despite incomplete intelligence on the size and direction of the German attack were surprised by the decision of STAVKA to order a general counterattack on the authority of Georgy Zhukov, under the title of directive No. 3. Most of the headquarters staff were convinced that the general order would be to remain in a defensive posture until the situation clarified. Later H. Baghramyan, a staff officer of the front headquarters, who was charged with writing the initial report to Moscow, said that "our first combat report to Moscow was full of generalities and unclarities."
Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the general orders of directive No. 3, read:
- "While maintaining strong defense of the state border with Hungary, the 5th and 6th armies are to carry out concentric strikes in the direction of LublinLublinLublin is the ninth largest city in Poland. It is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 350,392 . Lublin is also the largest Polish city east of the Vistula river...
, utilizing at least five mechanized corps and aviation of the Front, in order to encircle and destroy the enemy group of forces advancing along the front Vladimir-Volynski-Krystonopol, and by the end of June 24th to capture the vicinity of Lublin."
By the end of the night of the 22nd, Chief of General Staff G. K. Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
was on his way to the Southwestern Front headquarters at Tarnopol along with Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, the former head of Organizational Department of the Ukrainian Communist Party's Central Committee, to ensure these orders were carried out.
Disposition of Forces
Six Soviet mechanized corps, with over 2,500 tanks, were massed to take part in a concentric counterattack through the flanks of Panzer Group 1 in an effort to convert it into a pincer movement from the north (5th Army) and south (6th Army) that met west of Dubno in order to trap parts of the 6th and 17th German Armies, the northern flank of the Army Group SouthArmy Group South
Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...
.
To achieve this the 8th Mechanized Corps was transferred from the command of the 26th Army, positioned to the south of the 6th Army, and placed under the command of N. I. Muzychenko's 6th Army. This in essence brought the entire mobile assets of the South Western Front to bear against the base of von Kleist's thrust toward Kiev.
The primary German infantry formation operating on this sector of the front, IV Army Corps (von Schwedler) of the 17th Army
17th Army (Germany)
The German Seventeenth Army was a World War II field army.-Commanding officers:* General der Infanterie Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel * Generaloberst Hermann Hoth...
(Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel
Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel
Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, was a German general and a member of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.-Early life:...
) were advancing in the south-easterly direction with the objective of cutting Lviv-Kiev railway line.
Balance of the tank forces
On 22 June 1941, the balance of tanks over the entire area of the German Army Group South and the Soviet Southwestern FrontSoviet Southwestern Front
The Southwestern Front was a name given to a Front by the Imperial Russian Army during the First World War, by the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic during the Russian Civil War, and by the Red Army during the Second World War.The Southwestern Front in this article describes several...
, including but not limited to the main battle of Brody, was as follows.
| German corps | German divisions | Total German tanks | Tanks with 37 mm cannon (incl. Panzer 38(t) Panzer 38(t) The Panzerkampfwagen 38 was originally a Czech tank of pre-World War II design. After Czechoslovakia was taken over by Germany, it was adopted by the German Army, seeing service in the invasions of Poland and Russia. Production ended in 1942, when its armament was deemed inadequate. In all, over... and Panzer III Panzer III Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and... ) | Tanks with 50 mm or larger cannon (incl. Panzer III Panzer III Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and... and Panzer IV Panzer IV The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz... ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| III Panzer Corps (Germany) | 13th, 14th | 296 | 42 | 140 |
| XXXXVIII Panzer Corps (Germany) | 11th, 16th | 289 | 47 | 135 |
| XIV Panzer Corps (Germany) | 9th | 143 | 11 | 80 |
| Any other unit of Army Group South | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 728 | 355 | ||
| Soviet corps | Soviet divisions | Total Soviet tanks | T-34 and KV Kliment Voroshilov tank The Kliment Voroshilov tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection during the early war, especially during the first year of the invasion of the Soviet... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 19th, 41st, 215th | 712 | 31 |
| 15th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 10th, 37th, 212th | 749 | 136 |
| 4th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 8th, 32nd, 81st | 979 | 414 |
| 8th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 12th, 34th, 7th | 899 | 171 |
| 9th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 20th, 35th, 131st | 316 | 0 |
| 19th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 40th, 43rd, 213th | 453 | 5 |
| 16th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 15th, 39th, 240th | 478 | 76 |
| 24th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 45th, 49th, 216th | 222 | 0 |
| (from the Soviet Western Front Soviet Western Front The Western Front was a Front of the Red Army, one of the Red Army Fronts during the Second World War. This sense of the term is different from the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front usually operates within designated... ) |
109th Armored Division | 209 | 0 |
| 2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) 2nd Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) The 2nd Mechanised Corps was a formation in the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War.Initially formed in June 1940 in response the German victories of 1940 it was attached to the Odessa Military District, & attached to the 9th Army in the Odessa fortified region in Soviet Union It was under... |
11th, 16th, 15th | 527 | 60 |
| 18th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union) | 44th, 47th, 218th | 282 | 0 |
| Tanks scattered over various other units | Ordinary rifle divisions, etc. | not incl. | - |
| Total | 5826 | 893 |
Battle in the Air
The condition of the VVS South-Western front air force followed the pattern of the entire front line, with the great majority of its aircraft being destroyed on the ground, as a result of Stalin's refusal to put Soviet forces on alert, disregarding intelligence that German attack was imminent. In one example, Lieutenant Arkhipenkos 17th Fighter regiment were caught on the ground and finished off by the third day of the war, the remainder of the regiment, comprising only ten I-153's and one Mig 1 were retreated to a reserve airfield near Rovno.Still the Soviet's sent whatever aircraft that had survived to support the offensive.
The air battle resulted in heavy casualties for the attacking Soviets. JG 3 under the command of Fliegerkorps IV shot down 24 Tupolev SB
Tupolev SB
The Tupolev ANT-40, also known by its service name Tupolev SB , and development co-name TsAGI-40, was a high speed twin-engined three-seat monoplane bomber, first flown in 1934....
s on the first day. Among the casualties was the Commander of 86 SBAP, Podpolkovnik Sorokin. Just 20 of the initial 251 SBs remained with the unit. German losses were also heavy, 28 destroyed and 23 damaged (including 8 He 111s and Ju 88s).
The efforts of the Red Army Air force were not without effect and the Southwestern Front Air force flew 523 sorties between June 22 and 24th and dropped 2,500 bombs. Gustav Shrodek a tank commander of the 15th Panzer regiment (11th Panzer Division): "At dawn of June 24th, the regiment underwent its first attack by Russian bombers. It shall not be the only one this day; completely the opposite. As a result of this the regiment now has several dead and wounded."
Otherwise, near total Luftwaffe air superiority was to be a major factor in breaking up the Soviet counterattack.
Mobilization
The attack combined six mechanized corps under the command 5th Army to the north and the 6th Army to the south, under the general direction of the Southwestern FrontSouthwestern Front
Southwestern front may refer to one of the following.*A Southwestern front, a particular geographical area where armies are engaged in conflict* The Soviet Southwestern Front, one of the Soviet Fronts in World War Two...
commander Kirponos
Mikhail Kirponos
Mikhail Petrovich Kirponos was a Soviet Ukrainian general of the Red Army. Being accorded the highest military decoration, the Hero of the Soviet Union title, for the skill and courage in commanding a division in the 1939-1940 Finnish campaign, Kirponos is mostly remembered for his crucial role...
. Under the 5th Army command, K.K. Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill...
's 9th and N. V. Feklenko's 19th Mechanized Corps were to be deployed north-west of Rovno, while the 22nd Mechanized Corps was to assemble northeast of Lutsk. To the south, under the command of the 6th Army, Ryabyshev
Dmitry Ryabyshev
Dmitry Ivanovich Ryabyshev , was a Soviet military commander, commander of 8th mechanized corps .- Before World War II :Ryabyshev was born in Kolotovka, , Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 he was a commander of the 42nd Brigade, 14th Division of the 1st Cavalry Army during...
's 8th and I. Karpezo's 15th Mechanized Corps were to be deployed to the south-west and north-east of Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
, while The 4th Mechanized Corps under A. Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
was to be deployed between Sokal
Sokal
Sokal is a town located on the banks of the Bug River in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Sokal Raion , the city itself also ranks as a separate raion within the oblast.- History :...
and Radekhov
Radekhiv
Radekhiv is a city in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Radekhiv Raion. Population is 9,230 .Ed Stelmach, the current premier of the Canadian province of Alberta, is descended from immigrants who arrived in Canada from Radekhiv....
, on the left flank of the 15th Mechanized Corps.
The plan called for these forces to assemble and begin offensive operations at 2200 hours, on 23 June, 36 hours after the initial German onslaught, in an attempt to catch the attackers off guard, and before they could solidify their position by bringing up reinforcements from the rear in support of their fast advancing 11th Panzer Division.
The Soviet Corps commanders suffered under conditions of confusion caused by the shock of the initial German attack, loss of communications, constant harassment by the Luftwaffe, lack of transportation and the outflow of massive number of refugees and retreating soldiers fleeing the German advance, clogging the roads and making it difficult for the counter-attacking forces to properly assemble at their jumping off points.
While communication between the Front headquarters and the individual army commands was generally good, communication to the front line units themselves was seriously flawed because it was dependent on the civilian telephone and telegraph network. German sappers, air attacks, and even Ukrainians nationalists guerrillas had aggressively targeted this system with the desired result. Operating in the dark, many front line Soviet front line commanders were left to their own devises, and this had numerable impacts on the effectiveness of Soviet command and control. In one instance, the commander to the 41st Tank Division of the 22nd Mechanized Corps, for want of any new directives followed pre-war plan and moved his division to the predesignated assembly point for his corps at Kovel
Kovel
Kovel is a city located in the Volyn Oblast , in northwestern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Kovelskyi Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population is around 65,777.Kovel gives its name to one of the...
, and in so doing, moved his division away from the fighting.
Another endemic problem was the lack of transport for the infantry component of the Mechanized Corps. These were "motorized" division in name only. Many of these divisions only had partial compliments of their full transportation establishment. Individual corps commanders had to improvise solutions to bring their full complement of soldiers to their assembly points.
Rokossovsky succeeded in commandeering 200 trucks from the district reserve at Shepetovka, but this still left him in the position of mounting much of his infantry on tanks. Even then much of his infantry had to walk, since the trucks were used for carrying critical munitions and supplies. In one case, valuable heavy artillery belonging to the 22nd Mechanized Corps, was simply left behind for want of tractors to pull them. The commander of the 19th Mechanized, simply marched his corps forward in two echelons, with the tank divisions far in advance of his lagging infantry, meaning that his armored units arrived in the battle fields without infantry support. Ryabyshev the commander of the 8th Mechanized reported similar problems, since its artillery was towed by exceedingly slow tractors that held up the movement of the entire columns: "The columns were moving at top speed. Unfortunately, the tractor towed corps artillery was falling severely behind; the difference in speed was slowing down the overall concentration of forces."
These complications were compounded by the apparent inability of the Soviet commanders to assess an appropriate axis of attack in the context of the rapidly developing German salient—Between June 22 and June 24, the 8th Mechanized Corps was given three separate instructions about the precise point at which it was supposed to assemble, the original order from the Front Command, a new one from the commander of the 6th Army, and then again on the 24th of June again another new order from the Front command, meaning that the Corps crossed its own path and backtracked several times before finally arriving at Brody.
Later, the commander of the 8th Mechanized Corps, D. I. Ryabyshev, was to write:
- "Around the second half of June 25, the Corps’ units deployed to the northwest of Brody. During the nearly 500 kilometer march, the Corps lost up to half of its older tanks and a substantial portion of its artillery and anti-tank guns to both enemy air attack and mechanical breakdowns. All of the tanks still in service also required varying degrees of maintenance work and were not capable of operating over long distances. Thus, even before the start of the counteroffensive the Corps found itself in a drastically weakened state."
As a consequence of the multiple problems of assembling the forces proposed for the attack the original ambitious schedule of attack was set back 6 hours to 0400 on the 24th of June.
By the time this decision was made on the evening of the 23rd of June, barely 48 hours since the war had begun, the 11th Panzer Division had already penetrated 40 miles into Soviet territory with the 16th Panzer Division traveling in its wake. The 14th Panzer Division and 13th Panzer Division were well their way up the road to Lutsk
Lutsk
Lutsk is a city located by the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of the surrounding Lutskyi Raion within the oblast...
, with the objective of reaching the Styr River
Styr River
The Styr River is right tributary of the Pripyat River, with a length of 494 km. Its basin area is 13,100 km².The Styr River begins near Brody, in the Ukrainian Oblast of Lviv, then flows into the Rivne Oblast, Volyn Oblast, then into the Belarusian voblast of Brest where it finally...
on the 24th, and the 298th Infantry Division, the 44th Infantry Division and the 299th Infantry Division
299th Infantry Division (Germany)
The German 299th Infantry Division was a World War II infantry formation, which fought in France and the Russian Front until February 1945.The 299th Infantry Division was formed in March and April 1940 from men from Hesse and Thuringia. The 299th Infantry Division first saw action in the 1940...
moving up to consolidate the advance.
Even with the delayed schedule the counterattack would begin piecemeal since the full complement of the force proposed for the counterattack could not be brought into the position until two days later. The 4th, 8th, 9th, and 19th Mechanized Corps were still on the march. Supporting infantry corps were even further away.
Kirponos's Chief of Staff, General Purkayev
Maksim Purkayev
Maksim Alexeyevich Purkayev , 1894, in the village of Nalitovo, Dubyonsky Uyezd, Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire - January 1, 1953, Moscow) was a Soviet military leader, reaching service rank of Army General....
, argued against the political officer attached to the Southwest Front, Commissar Nikolai Vashugin
Nikolai Vashugin
Nikolai Nikolaevich Vashugin was a Soviet general and a political officer.-Early life:...
, on this point but Vashugin and Zhukov won out: the attack would begin without delay. Only two tank divisions of 15th Mechanized Corps in the south and a single tank division of 22nd Mechanized Corps in the north were in position to begin the attack on the 24th.
Soviet counterattacks
The three Soviet formations notable for deploying a potent force of modern T-34T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
and KV tanks were 4th, 8th, and 15th Mechanized Corps. In fact 717 such tanks (both types counted together) were almost a half of the country's 1600 produced.
Throughout the battles, the exact scale of the intended operations and the precise role of each corps in that plan were communicated poorly or not communicated at all. One of the commanders (Ryabyshev) noted "the Corps battle orders spoke only to its own mission objectives". There was little to none communication between the individual corps to ensure co-ordination, therefore their actions are described separately.
10th Tank Division
Soviet 10th Tank Division was subordinate to 15th MC. On 22 June 1941, the forward battalions captured RadekhivRadekhiv
Radekhiv is a city in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Radekhiv Raion. Population is 9,230 .Ed Stelmach, the current premier of the Canadian province of Alberta, is descended from immigrants who arrived in Canada from Radekhiv....
from the German infantry, losing 2 tanks. Next day it faced the German 11th Panzer Division there, destroying 20 German tanks and losing 6 T-34 tanks and 20 BT tanks. It withdrew orderly for the lack of ammunition. On 26 June 1941, the division destroyed 23 German tanks and infantry battalion near Radekhiv
Radekhiv
Radekhiv is a city in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Radekhiv Raion. Population is 9,230 .Ed Stelmach, the current premier of the Canadian province of Alberta, is descended from immigrants who arrived in Canada from Radekhiv....
, losing 13 KV and 12 BT-7 tanks.
15th Mechanized Corps
The 15th MC as a whole had 749 tanks, including 136 of T-34 and KV tanks. Corps spent the battle moving chaotically in the triangle RadekhivRadekhiv
Radekhiv is a city in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine. It is administrative center of the Radekhiv Raion. Population is 9,230 .Ed Stelmach, the current premier of the Canadian province of Alberta, is descended from immigrants who arrived in Canada from Radekhiv....
-Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
-Busk
Busk
A busk is the rigid element of a corset placed at the centre front.In stays, the corsets worn between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the busk was intended to keep the front of the corset straight and upright. It was made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with...
, driven by a series of inconsistent orders. Except for the two aforementioned actions of the 10th Tank Division, its remaining forces were not in combat. On 7 July 1941 it reported in Berezovka
Berezovka
Berezovka is an air base in Murmansk Oblast, Russia located 13 km southwest of Umbozero. It contains few facilities and no buildings identifiable on satellite imagery, and was likely intended for use as a forward bomber staging base during the height of the Cold War....
(300 kilometers from the ex-border) with 9% of the tanks.
22th Mechanized Corps
On 24 June it attacked towards Viinytsya. On 29 June it reported as having 19% of the former number of tanks. On 1 July one regiment attacked toward DubnoDubno
Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
unsuccessfully. On 15 July 1941 the 22th MC had 4% of the tanks.
19th Mechanized Corps
On 26 June it attacked towards DubnoDubno
Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
from the north, but failed to reach it by a few kilometers. On 29 June the corps had 32 tanks remaining out of the original 453.
8th Mechanized Corps
Ryabyshev's 8th Mechanized Corps finally arrived on the scene on the 25th.On 26 June 1941, the 8th Mechanized Corps as a whole attacked successfully in the direction Brody
Brody
Brody is a city in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Brody Raion , and is located in the valley of the upper Styr River, approximately 90 kilometres northeast of the oblast capital, Lviv...
–Berestechko
Berestechko
Berestechko is a city in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine. It is located at around . It is located on the Styr River. As of 2001, its population was 1,904.Berestechko received Magdeburg rights in 1547. In 1651, the Battle of Berestechko took place near the town....
against parts of the German 11th PD. Despite haphazard arrangements and difficulties the Soviet attack seemed to have met with a certain amount of initial success, catching the Germans on the move and outside of prepared positions, their tanks sweeping aside hastily arranged German anti-tank positions manned by motorcycle troops attached to the 48th Panzer Corps
Later the 8th MC acted divided into the Popel's group and a second force remaining under the command of Ryabyshev.
Popel's group
The group had about 300 tanks, including no less than 100 T-34 and KV tanks. On 27 June, Popel's group surprised and defeated the rears of 11th PD and captured DubnoDubno
Dubno is a city located on the Ikva River in the Rivne Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Dubno Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast...
, a road crossing of strategical importance. This was the most successful Soviet action of the time, as it cut off supply lines of the German armored spearhead – the 11th PD. However, this was not exploited by Soviet command who failed to communicate with Popel' and to provide supplies or reinforcements. The group waited in Dubno and prepared for defence, losing the operational initiative.
The situation was considered "serious" by the German high command:
By 28 June Germans gathered enormous forces. The Popel's group came under attack by elements of 16th Motorized, 75th Infantry Division
75th Infantry Division (Germany)
The 75th Infantry Division was a German division in World War II. It was formed on 26 August 1939.-75. Infanterie-Division 1939:*Infanterie-Regiment 172*Infanterie-Regiment 202*Infanterie-Regiment 222...
, two other infantry divisions, and the 16th Panzer Division. Encircled in Dubno, Popel' defended until 1 July, when he retreated.
Ryabyshev's group
The group had 303 tanks, including 49 T-34 and 46 KV. On 28 June in an attempt to follow Popel', it met and attacked German 57th Infantry and 75th Infantry Divisions, as well as elements of 16th Panzer Division. The attack was unsuccessful and Soviets quickly retreated. On 1 July Ryabyshev reported in Tarnopol with 207 tanks, including 31 T-34 and 43 KV tanks. With no further combat, the 8th MC moved to KoziatynKoziatyn
Koziatyn is a city in the Vinnytsia Oblast of western Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Koziatynsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located from oblast capital, Vinnytsia, at around...
, where on 7 July 1941 it had 43 tanks – 5% of the pre-war number.
4th Mechanized Corps
The 4th Mechanized Corps, commanded by Andrei Vlasov, was the strongest in the Ukraine having a 313 of T-34 and 101 of KV among the total the 979 tanks. It reacted slowly to the orders, and failed to assemble for attack. The most it achieved was on 28 June, when it secured the retreat of 15th Mechanized Corps from the pushing German infantry. Not attacking and not being attacked, on 12 July, the corps reported it retained no more than 6% of KV tanks, 12% of T-34 tanks, and 4% of light tanks.Besides these, there were no more notable Soviet counterattacks in this battle.
Decision, Indecision and Confusion of Command: The Historical Debate
The exact effect of the hesitation and confusion of command on the 27th of June on the outcome of the battle and the German attack into Ukraine is hard to determine.At the time when Soviet forces have taken Dubno and cut off the leading edge of the main German attack, Kirponos have thought that the same German attack threatened to outflank and encircle the Soviet forces attacking from the south. This led Kirponos to issue orders for a halt to the offensive and a general retreat in order rationalize (shorten) his front line, "so as to prevent the enemy tank groupings from penetrating into the rear of the 6th and 26th Armies", according to H. Baghramyan.
Georgy Zhukov was quick to have these orders countermanded after a debate with the Front commander and his staff. Orders for a renewed attack were issued two hours later. This led to even more of the confusion that was symptomatic of the Soviet command at the Battle of Brody. Rokossovsky, who was in command of the 9th Mechanized Corps attacking from the north, simply balked at these new orders stating that "We had once again received an order to counterattack. However, the enemy outnumbered us to such a degree, that I took on the personal responsibility of ordering to halt the counteroffensive and to meet the enemy in prepared defenses", while Ryabyshev commanding the 8th Mechanized Corps to the south dutifully complied and remounted the attack.
Ryabyshev seems to take the position held by Zhukov at the time, which is that if the attack had continued aggressively, and without delay, the Soviet effort might have been met with eventual success. On the other hand subsequent events seem to vindicate Kirponos's position, which was that the attack was premature and would destabilize the solvency of the entire front. Shortly after the routing of the Soviet counter-attack Marshal Semyon Budyonny
Semyon Budyonny
Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny , sometimes transliterated as Budennyj, Budyonnyy, Budennii, Budenny, Budyoni, Budyenny, or Budenny, was a Soviet cavalryman, military commander, politician and a close ally of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.-Early life:...
was given overall command of the combined Southwestern and Southern Front. Disaster unfolded at the Battle of Uman
Battle of Uman
The Battle of Uman was the German and allied encirclement of the 6th and 12th The Battle of Uman (15 July–8 August 1941) was the German and allied encirclement of the 6th (General Lieutenant I.N. Muzyrchenko) and 12th The Battle of Uman (15 July–8 August 1941) was the German and allied...
and one and a half million Soviet soldiers fell into captivity when the 26th and 12th Armies were encircled after Army Group South renewed its attack by pivoting south from the positions it had achieved during the Battle of Dubno -- an outcome that Kirponos had foreshadowed in his arguments with Zhukov about the wisdom of the counter attack at Dubno.
After the morning of the 27th the fact that Rokossovsky and Ryabyshev were following different scripts unknown to each other, can not have helped matters either way.
The confrontation between Kirponos and Zhukov is no doubt what led Zhukov to tell the Southwestern Front political officer, Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
, "I am afraid your commander (Kirponos) here is pretty weak", a charge that Kirponos would never be able to answer since he died in the battle of Kiev after it was surrounded.
Summary
The battle between Panzer Group 1 and the Soviet mechanized corps was the fiercest of the whole invasion, lasting a full four days. The Soviets fought furiously and crews of German tank and anti-tank guns found to their horror that the new Soviet T-34T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
tanks were almost immune to their weapons. The new KV-1 and KV-2 heavy tanks were impervious to virtually all German anti-tank weapons, but the Red Army's supply had completely broken down due to Luftwaffe attacks.
The German Kampfgeschwader, namely KG 51, KG 54 and KG 55 contributed a series of heavy low-level attacks against the Soviet ground targets. The headquarters of the Soviet 15th Mechanised Corps was destroyed, and its commander, General-Major Ignat Karpezo, was wounded. The Luftwaffe destroyed some 201 Soviet tanks in this area.
The five Red Army corps were mishandled while being concentrated into large powerful groups. The German troops sought to isolate individual units, and destroy them. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe was ranging over the battlefields and were able to separate the supporting infantry and deny them resupply of fuel and ammunition. Ultimately due to lack of adequate planning and overall coordination the Soviet counter-attack failed to meet at Dubno.