![]() ![]() Battle Initial assault 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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