| German Capture of Kiew In the initial attack on the Soviet Union, Panzer Group 1, under General von Kleist, had punched deep into the Western Ukraine, unhinging the Russian front at the junction of the Russian 5th and 6th Armies. Within a fortnight von Kleist had captured Berdichev, bringing the battle to the gates of Kiev and threatening an encirclement of five entire Soviet Armies. The Rumanian attack, delayed until July 1st, provided the anvil upon which the shattered Russian Armies were increasingly pressed by the blows of von Kleist's armour. The Rumanian armies, however, were neither experienced nor particularly well equipped, and the German armies of Army Group South were comparatively disadvantaged by earlier priorities to concentrate the force of the attack in the centre of the front. Advancing against Soviet forces nearly two million strong, and incorporating fully half the armoured and mechanised units of the Red Army, the German infantry was unable to fully exploit the advantage of surprise and confusion. The tenuous embrace of von Kleist's armoured pincer was equally strained by furious Soviet attempts to break out to the East. To ensure the entrapment of the Soviet Armies in the Ukraine, the destruction of which, he believed, would signal the death knell of the Red Army, Hitler halted the drive on Moscow, ordering Panzer Group 2, under General Gudarian, to strike South, across the Desna and into the path of the Russian retreat. To Hitler the prospect of ... |
