Battles of Smolensk & Roslavl, 1941

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This volume by Hans Seidler is brimming with black and white photographs showing soldiers from Heeresgruppe Mitte. The focus is on the Battles of Smolensk and Roslavl, conflicts that readers may not be terribly familiar with. The city of Smolensk commanded the route to the Russian capital of Moscow, and as German forces closed in on it, Russian forces launched a counterattack. This resulted in a large clash in early July 1941. However, the German juggernaut could not be halted, and Smolensk eventually fell on 16 July, with half a million enemy soldiers caught in the Smolensk pocket. Soon after this, General Guderian sought to defeat Soviet forces further east around the town of Roslavl. He launched a sudden and powerful attack on 1 August, and within two days the town was taken. These twin battles were among the most decisive and swiftest of all German successes on the Eastern Front.