Army Group South, under Feldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt, had the furthest to go and his attack also faced the stiffest Soviet resistance during the
Barbarossa offensive. Most of the Russian armour was on this front. On August 8 1941 the Germans surrounded two Soviet armies, capturing 100,000 men in the Uman pocket, and reached the Dnieper River. The naval port of Odessa on the Black Sea was also besieged. Up to this point all seemed to be going well, the only major problem being the time needed for the infantry to catch up with the panzers and mop up pockets of Russian defence. But Soviet resistance was now stiffening, despite catastrophic losses. A German salient around Yelnya, south-east of Smolensk, was recaptured in a costly but successful counterattack. The Soviets were completely fooled by German moves. Five Soviet armies were trapped in a vast salient around Kiev. By the end of September Kiev had fallen and over 650,000 Russian troops killed or captured. The Germans pushed along the Black Sea coast and into the Crimea, laying siege to Sevastapol. In October Kharkov fell, but by now the Germans were exhausted. The fighting had severely depleted their ranks and supply lines were stretched to the limit. For now, the southern front stayed where it was. In the north too, Waffen-SS and the German forces had reached their limit. Credit: author Ian Carter. Top image: a group of Waffen-SS men in late summer of 1941 secure the services of a local translator to explain the legend on this recently captured Soviet flag which reads:
Fight for Lenin and Stalin – be prepared! The soldiers have been positively identified as members of SS-Hauptsturmführer Hugo Kraas
Kradschützenkompanie of the Leibstandarte SS. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Middle image: an original Nazi era propaganda postcard showing men of the Leibstandarte SS with a MG 34 mounted on a tripod in a Ukrainian village. Photo by SS-Kriegsberichter
Franz Roth on September 15 1941. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom screenshot: Wehrmacht soldiers part of Army Group South during the beginning of Barbarossa campaign. Credit: Julia Kotterias. Die Deutsche Wochenschau - the official German war newsreel.
My Father was Falschirmjager in Army Group Center (Smolensk). I have some pictures of his taken on the Russian Front, found them in a cigar box with cousins in Florida. His brother was a Tanker, died in Russia but I don't know where.
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