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Today we are again embedded with a recon unit in the 20th Panzer Division as it advances first on the Russian city of Olita and then as it took part in the operation to take the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. We’ll see the different types of vehicles that the panzer division had on hand at the time and we’ll finish up by look at a German newspaper from June 22, with the declaration of war on Soviet Union. Stick around to see that I’m sure you find it interesting.

Even having known about the incomplete Soviet defenses, that first day was significantly easier than divisional command had expected. The 20. had brought in 500 captured soldiers, 20 of those being officers, 10 trucks and plenty of weapons and ammunition.

Arriving to the city of Olita, the 7. PzD had managed to capture the bridge over the river Nieman and establish a small bridgehead on the far side. At the time a counter attack from the Russian 5th Tank Division was was underway but the two German armored divisions together were able to beat it off.

As a result of the traffic jams on the road to Olita, fuel trucks were unable to keep up with the attacking panzers and now the advance had to wait. The entire logistical planning necessary for the movement of such large quantities of men and material had not yet been adequately developed by the Wehrmacht. Distances were simply on a different scale than had been experienced in the earlier campaigns. We go into this deeper in the videos related to the 7. PzD so take a look.

Here we are looking at motorized radio Funkers which maintain the communication between the units.

On the morning of June 23 the fuel finally had arrived that was necessary to continue the advance and at 9 hundred hours the 20. moved out in the direction of Vilnius.

During these first few days of combat the problems associated with having such a large variety of vehicle types became clear. Spare parts were not uniform which meant that the necessary stock on hand had to be larger than usual in order for the mechanical crews to keep the vehicles operational. The French vehicles also proved to be less capable on the comparatively primitive Russian roads. As the seasons changed with the introduction of the Russian mud and then snow these problems would become much more acute.

From around midday at the city of Eigirdony and thereafter the division was engaged by enemy tanks and infantry. Progress from now on was slow which was to a large extent because of the soft sandy and marshy ground which couldn’t well support the heavy weight of the armored vehicles. Not only did this slow progress but it also wasted fuel that was already critically low on supply.

Here we are looking at the advance of the 20. PzD on June 23.

Another problem caused by the heavy vehicles traveling on the dried out sandy roads was that huge clouds of dust were thrown up that showed Soviet bombers exactly where the division was located. Numerous bomber attacks forced the division to halt however relatively little damage was done. Finally 4 German fighters engaged a squadron of 7 attacking bombers and were able to shoot down 4. From then on the division was able to advance unhindered.

The 20. role in taking Vilnius would be to cut off the city to the West and South West with the 7. PzD to its right flank. As this was happening a courier and translator was sent out to find a representative of the Soviet forces in the city to ask them to surrender. As they were entering it was seen that the enemy troops had already left and elements of the 7. PzD began streaming in. At 16:00 it was reported that the city had been occupied, basically without a fight. During the fighting from June 22 and 23 the 20. PzD had destroyed 26 enemy tanks.

This is a complete collection of Illustrierter Beobachter which was an illustrated propaganda magazine that was published by the NAZI party in Munich from 1926 to 1945. This collection contains all the papers for the year 1941. Tucked into the collection, in June, I found this random Niedersächsische Tageszeitung which was a daily paper for June 22.

So on that day as the troops we’ve been talking were storming forwards, or depending on the hour, sitting stuck in a traffic jam, in Hannover this paper was being read by the German population. It’s amazing to think that until this moment most had little to no idea that war with Russia was a serious possibility. Was that really the case?

This is how the government wanted the German population to find out about the war. The main title on this weighty day was - Getting even with Moscow, which implies that the Soviets had brought the coming war on themselves.

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