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Declassified documents about fierce battles near Smolensk in 1941
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.MOSCOW , September 10, 2021 , 08:38 - REGNUMThe Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) has published declassified documents from the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation related to the Battle of Smolensk during the Great Patriotic War. You can get acquainted with them on the History.rf portal. "The next collection of documents is dedicated to the Battle of Smolensk on July 10 - September 10, 1941, when, during two months of fierce fighting in the central sector of the Soviet-German front, the Red Army soldiers managed, due to stubborn defense and bold counterattacking actions, to disrupt the offensive dates provided for by the Barbarossa plan Hitlerites to Moscow," said in the RVIO. The published collection includes declassified combat maps, orders, operational reports, combat and political reports. These documents "reveal the extreme degree of fierce fighting and dedication with which the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army blocked the path of the German Army Group Center on the territory of the Smolensk region and a number of neighboring regions." "These documents will be of interest to both scientists and researchers, and a wide audience of people interested in the history of the Great Patriotic War," added the society. The RVIO recalled that it was during the Battle of Smolensk that for the first time the BM-13 "Katyusha" rocket mortars from the first separate experimental rocket artillery battery under the command of Captain Ivan Flerov were brought down on the enemy. "The soldiers and commanders of the 16th, 19th and 21st armies, fighters of the destroyer battalions, covered themselves with eternal and unfading glory during the Smolensk battle," the Historical Society said. Recall that the Battle of Smolensk began on July 10, 1941. Until July 20, the Nazis achieved serious successes, and the troops of the Red Army were forced to withdraw to the east. On July 13, during an offensive on the left (southern) flank of the Western Front towards Bobruisk, the Red Army launched an offensive and drove the Germans out of the cities of Rogachev and Zhlobin. However, on July 16, the Nazi troops still managed to capture Smolensk. Interesting to note that there were in toto, seven Soviet armies involved in the Smolensk defensive operation, though the article only identifies only three. That is because those other four armies were still under command of Stalin's reserve front, which was still forming up armies and moving them to the west. Even more interestingly, in my estimation, was the commander of the Soviet 24th Army, commanded by NKVD General Konstantin Rakutin. Until this year little data was available about Rakutin's career between the Russian Civil War and his command of 24th Army. Rakutin was a political instructor (politruk) and a reliable henchman for the Communist Party. One more fact not mentioned in the Russian article was that directly after the conclusion of the Smolensk Defensive Operation, the first limited offensive of the Red Army were launched in the wake of the defensive. The offensive was conducted by none other than Marshal Semyon Timoshenko Posted by: badanov 2021-09-23 |
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