104 - "There are no Soviet Prisoners of War, only Traitors" - WW2 - August 22, 1941

by Panzer
Hello?
Wait...
Wait, okay,
they’re supposed to hold the line, and also attack?
And also divert a bunch of
their forces to another command?
How are they supposed to do that?
Ah, the order doesn’t say how, it just says do it.
Right.
August 22, 1941
Imagine you’re an army commander and you’ve
fought the good fight, but you’ve run out of ammunition and food and been surrounded
by a larger enemy force.
You surrender to save your men’s lives.
But from this week if you’re in the Red Army- you’ve officially just committed treason.
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week Winston Churchill and FDR met in Newfoundland and created the Atlantic Charter,
a statement of the principles of their policy and a condemnation of the aggressive nature
of others.
Adolf Hitler issued new orders about the direction of his attacks on the USSR, and down in Ukraine
those attacks once again take POWs in six digit numbers.
But there is still plenty of fighting there this week.
In fact, some units of Heinz Guderian’s panzers from German AG Center have been pushing
south and by the 18th they and 2nd Army’s infantry have taken Pochep and nearly reached Gomel.
His attack also threatens to separate the defending Soviet 13th and 21st armies, which
would drive a wedge between the Soviet Central and SW Fronts.
Back on the 14th, Stalin tried to prevent this and Stavka created the Bryansk Front,
under Andrey Yeremenko, to close the gap between the Central and SW Commands, and to protect
Kiev from an attack from the north.
A Command is a temporary HQ and is superior to a front.
For this new Front, he sent in as much new tech and equipment as he could- battalions
of T-34 tanks and batteries of Katyusha rockets.
This force is to counterattack into the gap between Gerd von Rundstedt’s spearhead in
the south, and Guderian’s approaching panzers.
On the 21st, Hitler issued orders that the entire Second Army and entire Second Panzer
Group should ALL attack southward into Ukraine.
The renewed attacks will begin in a few days.
Semyon Budenny has already begun withdrawing as many Soviet troops as possible behind the
Dnieper River and on the 21st Soviets pull out of Gomel.