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Today we’re embedded with the 10. Pz. Rgt., that was part of the 8. Pz. Div. in Army Group North, as it moved into the Soviet Union in June of 1941. We’ll look at more from that reel of private footage and talk about the history of the division, we’ll take a quick look at the illustrated journal Signal that was published at the time and we’ll see the next clip from the tank training film that was shown earlier.

This is the situational map from June 21, the day before operation Barbarossa began. We’ll be looking at Army Group North which was tasked with advancing through the Baltic states and taking Leningrad. The army group was allocated 20 infantry divisions, three motorized infantry divisions and 3 panzer divisions.

Standing in their way within this 800 km stretch were 18-20 Soviet infantry divisions, 8 or 9 mechanized brigades, and two calvary divisions. The plan was to penetrate and drive through enemy line quickly and destroy the bulk of the army in a 300 km area to the west of the Dvina River. If this couldn’t be accomplished the Soviets would be able to build a formidable defensive line on the eastern bank of the river.

The motorized divisions were to overrun the Soviet resistance and leave all moping up for the infantry that would be moving in behind. To keep the element of surprise, the panzer divisions were not to move forward to their starting position until the the night of the 21st. With the limited space mobility was complicated. During the opening phase of the operation the supplying of the Panzer Divisions would have priority over the bringing in of reinforcements.

The 8th. PzD was being lead by General der Panzertruppe Erich Brandenberger. and was attached to Erich von Manstein’s LVI (56th) Panzer Corps, part of Panzer Group 4.

This photo is from June 21 and shows Brandenberger, to the left, and Manstien in Eastern Prussia discussing the coming operation. Here we see Brandenberger again on June 22 with a Panzerjäger or anti-tank unit of his division.

It’s interesting seeing the different field uniform that he’s wearing here in contrast to what he had on in the other photo. There’s no point in giving a possible Soviet sniper an easily distinguishable high value target.

Here’s footage of the 8 PzD that was taken on the morning of June 22.

At exactly 3.05 the distant thunder of 120 artillery pieces could be heard and the 8th began advancing.

This footage is from the Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 564 from the 25.6.1941 and shows German troops of Army Group North crossing the border and moving into Lithuania.

Erich Brandenberger maneuvered his division skillfully along a gap between enemy units where they encountered little resistance. By the afternoon a number of bridges across the Dubysa river were taken intact and by the end of the day 70 km had been travelled.

To the the north the operations had also been successful however the 6th PzD had been involved in intense combat in a forrest area and had taken heavy losses. The hold up of their advance was worrying to the 8. because 6th had been intended to be the other half of the armored pincher.

The 6th had been able to finally break the enemy resistance but their advance to the east was constantly slowed by engagements with enemy armor. On the morning of June 23 what the 8th was now to do was a complicated question. Extended as it already was and with a dangerously exposed flank, the decision was made that the division would keep its momentum and continue racing east.

Surprisingly the soviet armor in the area bypassed the 8th and moving westwards to engage the 6th.

At 1:50 word was sent back to headquarters that it would be possible to send a relieving force to support the 6th but headquarters again insisted that the division continue its eastern advance. It would stay in contact with the 6th in order to react if necessary however the objective would be to seize the city of Kedainiai which would bring relief to the units to the north by eliminating the retreat route to the south east of the enemy units engaging them.

By the evening the 8th PzD had managed to take the town of Josvainiai, just 10 km west of Kedainiai and had so far only encountered weak resistance. Everything had gone smoothly for the division. But arial reconnaissance had located 350 enemy tanks nearby that would certainly soon have to be dealt with.

A subscriber asked me to confirm that the crosses shown next to the names of the correspondents in the opening Deutsche Wochenschau credits mean that they were killed in action, and that’s correct. I’ve looked back and see that these journalists, Carl and Hammer, which are shown in DW Nr. 566 from July 10 of 1941 are the first ones listed during the Eastern campaign.

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