On June 22, 1944, the largest Soviet attack on the Eastern Front took place (Operation "Bagration"). The following day the 1st Belorussian Front (formation equivalent to Army Group in the Western armies), under Rokosovsky, began its attack against the German 9th Army, which covered the front of Army Group (OS) "Center" from its entrance Rogatsev, up to the junction of the Pripet (Pripyat) marshes.
The 9th Army, under General Jordan had deployed on its left the XXXV Army Corps (SS) with the 134th, 296th, 6th, 383rd and 45th Infantry Divisions (IP), from north to south, all lined up in the front line. The center of the Army consisted of the XXIII Panzer Corps (SPa), with the 35th, 36th and 129th MP and the right LV SS with the 292nd and 102nd MP. As a reserve, the Army had the 707th Transportation Security Division and the overworked 20th Panzer Division (MPa). The latter was placed in the second tier, behind the over-extended XXV SS.
The "fortress", the fortified town of Borbuisk, also came under the responsibility of the Army. The 9th Army, having 12 divisions could be considered a very strong formation. However, the front he had to cover exceeded 300 km Thus each German front-line division had to defend a front 30 km long on average. Especially small front manpower was present in the area of the Soviet entry, north of Rogachev, where the 9th and 4th Armies were connected. This dangerous sector was covered by the 57th MP of the 4th Army and the 134th MP of the 9th Army. At that point, however, General Rokosovsky had gathered at dawn on June 23rd his 3rd Army which extended five infantry corps (13 divisions) and the 9th Armored Corps (THSS) with three armored and one motorized brigades. In his center, Rokosovsky ordered his 48th Army with 3 infantry corps (9 Rifle Divisions - MTF), with the mission of surveillance of the German "Center".
On the contrary, he also gathered very strong forces against the German right, against which he commanded three armies, the 61st, the 28th and the powerful 65th, which had two infantry corps, one armored and one motorized. As a reserve, Rokosovsky also had cavalry divisions. From the disposition of the Soviet forces alone it is easy to see that Rokosovsky's plan was to crush the two wings of the German 9th Army, surround it and destroy it. The command of the 9th Army was of course not aware of the Soviet arrangement, but it could have realized that the defense of Rogachev's entrance by a single division entailed serious risks. On the other hand the front of the 9th Army was so extensive and the divisions occupied such large sectors that there were no forces to fill the gap.
Soviet paver in action
The Soviet attack developed in exactly the same way as against the other armies of OS "Center". The attack was preceded by attempts by raiding parties, which were repulsed in all but two cases. Rokosovsky then launched – at 04.00 – the main bombardment of his incredibly powerful artillery. "Shoulders from countless guns of all calibers pierced the German positions. Giant craters were changing the shape of the landscape. There were shell craters everywhere and more craters. Amidst this pandemonium of fire, explosions, the crushing of men, weapons, and positions, the roar of individual guns could not be heard.
"Enemy obstacles were blown up, bunkers leveled, buried, lines of trenches pulverized. Direct hits hit machine gun positions, mortar positions. “The enemy artillery positions simply disappeared in a cloud of gray smoke. You could see cannons flying through the air, their ammunition exploding. Dead and bloody dying men lay everywhere among the columns of explosions, in the excavated ground.
“The survivors burrowed deep into what was left of their trenches, not caring to know what was happening on the surface of the earth. Aircraft with the red star insignia dominated overhead, dropping bombs and leaving plumes of smoke in their wake. After that the Soviet divisions attacked". This is how a Russian officer described the initial bombardment of German positions by Rokosovsky's artillery and the Red Air Force. To the Germans it was as if hell had opened its flaming bowels and was preparing to swallow them.
It was absolute terror , the same Charon who was flying above this field of death, to which Hitler's megalomania had condemned them, as he refused every proposal for a more favorable development of the German forces, blindly insisting on the defense of the "fortresses", according to him, poles – of fortresses. The Soviet 3rd Army, under General Gorbatov succeeded in breaking the German front, at the junction of the 4th and 9th Armies, at a depth of 10 km. The 48th Army carried out only limited attacks, more to occupy the German forces opposite it. Also, the attack of General Betov's 65th Army went so well that its commander decided to exploit the breach his forces had already opened in the German front, which was still smoking from the bombardment.
General Batov threw the 1st Guards Corps, which had four tanks, about 250-300 tanks, into the breach his infantry had opened. The advance of the Soviet tanks crushed the last pockets of German resistance. By the evening of June 23, the breach that the Soviets had achieved reached a depth of 8 km and a length of 24 km.
The fire pump... 20 MPa
The commander of XXIII SP, General Weidling, nevertheless remained optimistic and believed that he could turn the situation around. He reckoned that the only serious reserve of the 9th Army, the 20th Panzer Division, would be available to him. The 20th BA had been formed in the autumn of 1940. It had been on the Eastern Front since 1941. Its commander was Lieutenant General Mortimer von Kessel, an experienced panzer officer who had also seen action in Kursk.
But the division was not complete. He had the 21st Panzer Regiment, but the 2nd Army was in Germany for reorganization. Only the 1st Division was present which had 71 Pz IV tanks with 75mm guns. 48 calibers. It also had the 59th and 112th Grenadier Panzer Regiments, the 92nd Artillery Regiment and other divisional units. The 20th Infantry Division, with the first news that the Soviets had split the front at the point of contact with the 4th Army, was ordered to immediately rush to the area with the task of reuniting the front.
Indeed the division, drawn up behind the XXV SS immediately moved to the area and engaged the units of the Soviet 3rd Army. Colonel Fricke, adjutant of the 59th Grenadier Regiment, described the scene:
“Our attack began with the Grenadiers fighting on foot supported by the tank guns. But suddenly, as our attack developed we were ordered to stop. The order said to disengage immediately and move immediately south to meet a serious enemy attack." What had happened; It's just that the German command, lacking forces, thought that it could turn the 20th BA into a funfair horse, sending it to face the attacks of two Soviet armies at two diametrically opposite points on the horizon!
"However, the division, already engaged in the struggle with the divisions of the 3rd Soviet Army, was not able to disentangle itself as easily as the command had believed and rush as a fire pump to the scene of the greatest destruction yet inflicted on the Germans by its attack Soviet 65th Army. If in the middle of battle a unit is ordered to disengage by the enemy it is in serious trouble. “It was extremely difficult to unhook from an opponent strong in armor. The roads behind us were full of fuel and ammunition transport vehicles and beyond the roads the ground was marshy and we could not move. We were constantly under attack from the air. We also wanted to take care of our wounded. We could not leave them behind", he concluded.
Von Kessel then decided to leave a group of tanks in direct support of the 134th MP and move with the other elements of the Division to the South. He succeeded and at 06.00 on June 24, the 20th Panzer officially joined the force of XXXXI Spa. It was immediately ordered to attack the Soviet points with its infantry in first echelon and tanks in second. The division fought well, but the Soviet tanks were outnumbered 6:1. Although it destroyed 60 Soviet tanks, the 20th Infantry Division was left with 40 of its own in working condition and was forced to retreat in the face of the Soviet barrage, always fighting against overwhelmingly superior enemy forces.
General Jordan then realized that the 20th Panzer alone was unable to contain the Soviets in both sectors where they had succeeded in breaking the German front. He judged that the split in the XXV SS sector, east of Bobruisk, was more dangerous, because if left unchecked the Soviet spikes threatened to cut off two-thirds of the 9th Army and trap them between their tanks and the Pripet marshes. Jordan asked the commander of the OSS "Center" Marshal Bush to either allow the retreat of the XXXV SS, or to send him reinforcements. Bush replied:“Your requests were expected. But you have to keep Zlobin, it is a transport hub. I can't agree on anything with you tonight. I have to talk to OKI (German Army High Command) first and it's too late to do that now!
Badness and crash
In the war diary of the 9th Army, in the entry of June 25, the following is stated:"Since the OS does not send us reinforcements, the 9th Army is unable to contain the enemy in the XXV SS sector, when in fact, the 20th MPa has been sent to the XXXXI Spa sector. Her attack there, against an entire enemy body of tanks, in marshy ground indeed, has no chance of success." General Jordan had now realized Bush's inability to coordinate and direct a rapidly evolving battle across a broad front.
“The staff of the 9th Army is fully aware of the disastrous consequences of all these orders emanating from the OS. Nevertheless, I am obliged to carry them out, since a commander must follow the orders of his superiors, even if he does not agree with them . However, behind this behavior of the marshal I cannot discern a commander who is trying to do his best, but simply the executor of orders which developments have already overtaken, at the time of their issuance," Jordan wrote in his diary. Under these circumstances, Jordan no longer had any doubts about the fate of his 9th Army.
By the morning of June 26 it had already become apparent that the 20th Army was unable to hold back the Soviet advance south of Bobruisk and it was ordered to disengage again and try to cover the south-western approaches to the city. But the Soviets had blown up a vital bridge, which was a mandatory crossing point for the Germans. So the 20th Infantry Division was forced to make a long detour to get to the new positions it was ordered to occupy. However, only part of the Division managed to cross the Titofka bridge, north of Bobruisk, before this bridge too was captured by the Soviet forces who had crushed the XXII SS of the 4th Army and were now advancing unmolested into the German rear.
At the same time, Soviet tanks of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced west with the aim of Baranovichi and the complete encirclement of the 9th Army. On June 26 Bush was received by Hitler and tried to persuade the "Führer" to abandon the tactics of static defense and allow the general retreat of the OS before it was too late. Along with Marshal Bush, he had gone to Hitler's headquarters and General Jordan to apologize for the management of the 9th Army and the 20th Army. Hitler gave his approval for the 9th Army to retreat to the "Bobruisk location", not knowing that the Soviets already held most of the location and had already encircled most of the 9th Army's divisions.
Hitler blamed Jordan for his handling of the 20th Infantry Division, advocating various views as to how it would have been best used, including the view that the Division could be split into two tactical groups, each tasked with stopping the two Soviet peaks north and south of Bobruisk! And all this the 20th Army, according to Hitler, could achieve with the 71 tanks it had, facing some Soviet armored and motorized corps. Even for Hitler this thought was monstrous. Jordan, however, sacrificed himself and was removed from command of the army, just like Bush. The 9th Army "finished" with them in a wider disaster that made the defeat at Stalingrad look like a school trip. The army lost 80,000 of its men these days.