No Soviet fighters appeared and the Soviet 23rd Tank Division sustained particularly severe losses, Ju 88s from Luftflotte 1 attacking at low level, setting 40 vehicles, including tanks and lorries on fire. The concentration of Soviet armour was detected by the Luftwaffe, which immediately attacked tank columns of the 12th Mechanised Corps south-west of Šiauliai. Near Raseiniai, the XLI Panzer Corps was counter-attacked by the Soviet 3rd and 12th Mechanised Corps. The next day, Kuznetsov committed his armoured forces to battle. īy the end of 22 June, the German armoured spearheads over the Niemen had penetrated 80 km (50 mi). North-west of Kaunas, forward elements of LVI Panzer Corps reached the Dubysa and seized the vital Ariogala road viaduct across it.
By the evening, Soviet formations had fallen back to the Dubysa. By noon, the Soviet divisions began to fall back and the German columns then began to swing towards Raseiniai, where Kuznetsov was concentrating his armor for a big counter-attack on the next day. Īt 9:30 AM on 22 June, Kuznetsov ordered the 3rd and 12th Mechanized corps to take up their counter-attack positions, intending to use them in flanking attacks on the 4th Panzer Group, which had broken through to the river Dubysa (Dubissa). Soviet aircraft had been on one-hour alert but were held on their airfields after the first wave of German bombers passed. Šiauliai, Vilnius and Kaunas were also bombed. German bombers destroyed many of the signals and communications centers, naval bases and the Soviet airfields from Riga to Kronstadt. Their objective was to cross the Neman and Daugava, the most difficult natural obstacles in front of the Army Group North and to drive towards Leningrad. The 4th Panzer Group advanced in two spearheads, led by the XLI Panzer Corps (General Georg-Hans Reinhardt) and LVI Panzer Corps (General Erich von Manstein). Location map of Lithuania showing Raseiniai On 22 June 1941, the Northwestern Front had two mechanised corps, the 3rd Mechanised Corps (Major General Alexey Kurkin) had 31,975 men and 669 – 672 tanks and the 12th Mechanized Corps (Major General Nikolai Shestapolov) had 28,832 men and 730 – 749 tanks only BT-7s and T-26 tanks were available. The front had the 8th and 11th Armies with the 27th Armies in its second echelon the Northwestern Front had 28 rifle, 4 tank and 2 motorized divisions. The Soviet military administrative control over the Baltic republics area where the Army Group North would be deployed was exercised by the Special Baltic Military District which after the invasion was renamed into the Northwestern Front (Colonel General Fyodor Kuznetsov). Air support was provided by Luftflotte 1 (1st Air Fleet). The Germans had 20 infantry divisions, three Panzer and three motorized infantry divisions. Army Group North controlled the 18th Army and the 16th Army, along with the 4th Panzer Group (General Erich Hoepner). The fighting around Raseiniai was one of the main battles of the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa, referred to in Soviet historiography as the Border Defensive Battles (22–27 June 1941) and formed part of the larger Soviet Baltic Strategic Defensive Operation.Īrmy Group North, commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, and staging in East Prussia prior to the commencement of the offensive, was the northern of three army groups participating in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The result of the battle was the destruction of most of the Soviet armoured forces of the Northwestern Front, which cleared the way for the Germans to attack towards the crossings of the Daugava River (Western Dvina). The Red Army tried to contain and destroy the German troops that had crossed the Neman River but was unable to prevent them from advancing. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps with the 12th Mechanised Corps, in Lithuania, 75 km (47 mi) north-west of Kaunas. The Battle of Raseiniai (23–27 June 1941) was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
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