Barbarossa Derailed: the Battle for Smolensk 10 July-10 September 1941: The German Offensives on the Flanks and the Third Soviet Counteroffensive, 25 August-10 September 1941 Book

List of Illustrations vi

List of Maps vii

List of Tables x

Abbreviations xii

Preface 14

1 Introduction 17

Context 17

Army Group Center's Achievements, 22 June-6 August 1941 19

Army Group Center's Problems by 6 August 1941 21

Soviet Problems, 22 June-6, August 1941 24

Army Group Center's Achievements, 6-24 August 1941 25

German Problems, 6-24 August 1941 27

Competing Strategies in Late August 1941 29

2 The Northern Flank: Group Stumme's Advance to Toropets, 22-28 August 1941 31

Context 31

22nd Army's Encirclement and Soviet Command Confusion, 22-24 August 35

The German Pursuit To Toropets, 26-28 August 42

3 German Strategic Planning and Jockeying for Position along the Desna River, 22-24 August 1941 54

German Strategic Planning: The Tilt Toward Kiev, 22-25 August 55

The Operational Lull: Jockeying for Position along the Desna River, 22-24 August 68

German Preparations for the Kiev Offensive, 22-24 August 94

4 Second Panzer Group's Advance across the Desna River, The Stavka's Offensive Plan, and Group Stumme's Advance to Andreapol' and Zapadnaia Dvina, 25 August-9 September 1941 103

Guderian's Advance Across The Desna River, 25-28 August 103

The Stavka's Offensive Plan 129

The Northern Flank: Group Stumme's Advance to Andreapol' and Zapadnaia Dvina, 29 August-9 September 139

5 The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Western Front's Dukhovshchina Offensive, Preliminaries and the First Stage, 25-31 August 1941 162

Preliminaries, 25-27 August 162

The First Stage, 28-31 August 187

6 The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The "western Front's Dukhovshchina Offensive, The Second Stage, 1-10 September 1941 230

The Western Front's General Assault, 1-3 September 230

1 September 234

The Western Front's General Assault, 4-5 September 278

Dénouement, 6-9 September 295

The Western Front on the Defense, 10 September 300

Problems and Critiques 310

7 The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Reserve Front's El'nia Offensive, 30 August-10 September 1941 322

Planning and Preliminaries, 24-29 August 322

24th Army's Assault, 30 August-3 September 332

The German Withdrawal, 4-5 September 347

Postscript 354

Conclusions: Dukhovshchina and El'nia Compared 358

8 The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Briansk Front's Roslavl'-Novozybkov Offensive, the First Stage, 29 August-I September 1941 364

The Situation On 29 August 364

Planning and Operations, 29-31 August 371

The Briansk Front's Forces and Problems 375

The Briansk Front's Offensive Planning and Operations, 31 August-1 September 400

9 The Third Soviet Counteroffensive: The Briansk Front's Roslavl'-Novozybkov Offensive, the Second Stage, 2-14 September 1941 425

The General Counteroffensive, 2-6 September 425

Postscript: The Road to Kiev, 7-14 September 488

Conclusions 497

10 Conclusions 504

The Missions of Operation Barbarossa 504

German Strategy and Operations 506

Postwar Critiques 512

Soviet Strategy and Operations 515

The Red Army's Problems 525

Comparative Losses 527

The Soldiers and their Commanders 542

Summary Judgments 545

What's New about the Battle for Smolensk 546

11 Photographs of Commanders 550

German 550

Soviet 552

Appendices

A Comparative Orders of Battle, I August-I September 1941 554

B The Numerical Composition of Soviet Forces in the Battle of Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941 567

C The Numerical Composition of Enemy Groupings Operating in the Sector of the Groupings of Soviet Forces at the Beginning of the Battle for Smolensk 568

D The Red Army's Personnel Losses during, the Battle for Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941 569

E Army Group Center's Personnel Losses during the Battle for Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941 (A Soviet Perspective) 570

F Army Group Center's Losses in Weapons and Equipment during the Battle for Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941 (A Soviet Perspective) 571

G The Composition of the Pinsk Military Flotilla in the Battle for Smolensk, 10 July-10 September 1941 572

H The Red Army's Strength on 30 September 1941 573

Selective Annotated Bibliography 574

Index 582