Background
The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Army Group Centre during the penetration of the Soviet border region in the opening stage of Operation Barbarossa lasting from 22 June to 3 July 1941. Its goal, the encirclement and destruction of the Red Army’s Western Front forces around Minsk, was accomplished. All major Soviet counter-attacks and break-through attempts failed and the defenders were defeated, allowing for the Wehrmacht to take many Soviet prisoners and to further advance into the Soviet Union at a pace so swift that some believed the Germans had effectively won the war against the Soviet Union already.
Commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, Army Group Centre was tasked with attacking from Poland through the Białystok – Minsk – Smolensk axis towards Moscow. The Army Group included the 9th and 4th Armies. Its armored forces were Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group and Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Group. The two infantry Armies fielded 33 divisions and the Panzer Armies fielded nine armored divisions, six motorized divisions and a cavalry division. Army Group Center could call upon Luftflotte 2 for air support.
Facing Army Group Center was the Red Army’s Western Front commanded by General of the Army Dmitry Pavlov. It included the 3rd, 4th, and 10th Armies along the frontier. The 13th Armywas held as part of the Stavka High Command Reserve and initially existed as a headquarters unit only, with no assigned forces. All together, the Soviet Western Front had 25 rifle and cavalry divisions, 13 tank and 7 motorized divisions.
The Red Army disposition in Belarus was based on the idea of avoiding a war of attrition by engaging in an aggressive counterattack to any invasion, carrying the war into German-occupied Poland. The plan suffered from weakness along the flanks, created by circumstances such as the line of demarcation placement following the division of Poland in 1939. The forward placement of both German and Soviet forces in a double-bulge position enabled both sides to try the double envelopment. However, it was the OKH that undertook it successfully thanks to preempting hostilities, destroying much of the Red Air Force in the airfields while simultaneously severing most of the Soviet Western Front’s land forces from lines of communication with other Soviet fronts. They fell to a double envelopment, centred on Białystok and Novogrudok. While the engagement was later known as “The Battle of Białystok–Minsk”, this is actually a slight misnomer.
The Soviet troops trapped in the gigantic pockets continued fighting, and concluding operations resulted in high German casualties. An estimated 250,000 Soviet troops escaped because of the lack of German infantry troops’ motor transport that slowed the encirclement process. Most of them were later sent to penal battalions.
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance claims that withdrawing Soviet troops committed regular crimes against the inhabitants of Białystok and its areas, including cases of whole families being executed by firing squads.
There were 290,000 Soviet soldiers captured, and 1,500 guns along with 2,500 tanks were destroyed, but 250,000 Soviet troops managed to escape. The quick advance east created the possibility for the Wehrmacht to advance rapidly towards the land bridge of Smolensk from which an attack on Moscow could be planned. It also created the impression in the OKW that the war against the Soviet Union was already won within days of its start. Still, Hitler blamed the Panzer generals for leaving gaps in the lines. The Panzer generals were deeply frustrated as for almost a week their advance east had been stopped while they closed the pocket and waited for the infantry to catch up. They feared the momentum of the armored offensive would be lost.
Front Commander General Pavlov and his Front Staff were recalled to Moscow and accused of intentional disorganization of defense and retreat without battle. They were soon executed by the NKVD for cowardice and “failure to perform their duties” and their families were repressed. They were pardoned in 1956.
An exception was Pavlov’s operations officer, general Ivan Boldin, who had been cut off by the German advance at a forward headquarters in the first days of the invasion but then fought his way back to Soviet lines, with over 1000 other soldiers a month and a half later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bia%C5%82ystok%E2%80%93Minsk
The Game
Terrain: The play area is 5×9 feet. Ground is firm and dry. The River is considered difficult terrain. The lake is impassible. Brown areas are hills; the number indicates number of levels. Green areas are standard woods. Tan lines are roads. Grey boxes are buildings.
Scenario Rules: Game starts in daylight with unlimited visibility. Play is from West (right side) to the East (Left side). Soviets infantry sets up first in the zone between 18” of the Western edge and the Eastern edge. Soviet reserves appear on the road near Grabyosh as delayed reserves. All Soviets are deployed dug in and start the game “pinned” and may not move while pinned. All German units are deployed east of the river.
Victory Conditions: The Germans must maintain a clear road from West to East and exit as least 10 combat units off the road on the eastern edge of the board by Turn 12. Trucks and Halftracks do not count as combat units. Otherwise the Soviets win.
Soviet Forces
- 1 x Strelk Battalion HQ with:
- 2 x rifle cmd, 2 PTRD stands
- 2 x infantry companies of three platoons with 9 stands each, plus 1 Maxim HMG.
- 2 x platoons of 81mm Mortars (6 stands)
- 1 Platoon of 45mm AT guns (4 guns)
- 1 Platoon of 76.2mm Artillery (4 guns)
Soviet Delayed Reserves
- 1 company of T-60A tanks (10)
- Possibility of one T-26 company (10) arriving
All Soviets are rated as Confident Conscript.
German Forces
- 1 x Leichte Panzer Company HQ (2 PZ-IIIG tanks)
- 2 x PZ-IIIG platoons (5 tanks)
- 1 xPZ-IVE platoon (4 tanks)
- 1 x Panzerjager 1 platoon (4 vehicles)
- 1 x Motorized Infantry Battalion HQ – 2 x SMG
- 2 x Motorized Infantry Companies consisting of:
- 1 x SMG HQ, 2 HMGs
- 3 x infantry platoons (6x MG teams, 1x MG cmd, 1 x Light mortar)
- (one company is in Halftracks, the other is in trucks)
- 1 x 105mm Light Motorized Artillery Battery (4 guns) with trucks
All Germans are rated as Confident Veteran.
The Germans set up wide and assaulted the Soviets all along the front, using their armor to try to outflank the Soviets on the right. The Germans ground forward slowly crushing all resistance that the Soviets could put in front of them. The Soviet center was able to hold out for a little while and cause some heavy losses to the Germans attacking the town, but that luck could only hold out for so long, as both Soviet flanks were crumbling in the face of the superior German units. While the Germans were chewing up the forward Soviet units, the Soviet reserves entered the field. They opted to try to fortify the rear town and give the surviving Soviet infantry someplace to fall back to. The strategy worked in the end, as the Soviets still held the rear town with infantry and armor and denied the Germans the breakthrough. However, the cost to Mother Russia had been high, as more than eighty percent of the Soviet force was destroyed, against a mostly intact German force. An ahistorical Russian victory!
– Manteuffel