Vitebsk: The Fight and Destruction of Third Panzer Army (Die Wehrmacht im Kampf)

The city of Vitebsk in Belarus was of strategic importance during the fighting on the Eastern Front, as it controlled the route to Minsk. A salient in the German lines, Vitebsk had been declared a Festerplatz—a fortress town—meaning that it must be held at all costs. A task handed to 3rd Panzer Army in 1943.

Otto Heidkämper was chief of staff of Georg-Hans Reinhardt's 3rd Panzer Army, Army Group Center, which was stationed around Vitebsk and Smolensk from early 1942 until June 1944. His detailed account of the defense of Vitebsk through the winter of 1943 into 1944, right up to the Soviet summer offensive, is a valuable firsthand account of how the operations around Vitebsk played out. Twenty maps accompany the narrative. During this time, 3rd Panzer Army undertook numerous military operations to defend the area against the Soviets; they also engaged in anti-partisan operations in the area, deporting civilians accused of supporting partisans and destroying property.

Finally, in June 1944, the Soviets amassed four armies to take Vitebsk, which was then held by 38,000 men of 53rd Corps. Within three days, Vitebsk was encircled, with 53rd Corps trapped inside. Attempts to break the encirclement failed, and resistance in the pocket broke down over the next few days. On June 27, the final destruction of German resistance in Vitebsk was completed. Twenty thousand Germans were dead and another 10,000 had been captured.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Maps

1 The combat situation of the Third Panzer Army in the summer of 1943
2 The retreat on the right wing of the Third Panzer Army
3 The Soviet penetration at Nevel
4 The retreat of the VI Corps to the Panther Line
5 Concerns about personnel
6 Enemy activity in the Nevel breakthrough area from 18 October 1943
7 Commencement of the Soviet offensive east of Vitebsk
8 The critical development of the situation on the northern front, and withdrawal combat on the northeastern front
9 Further developments on the front to the east of Vitebsk
10 Combat and preparations for withdrawal on the northern front of the Third Panzer Army
11 Suspected enemy intentions after the frost returned
12 The first winter defensive battle around Vitebsk
13 Regrouping at the front
14 The second winter defensive battle around Vitebsk, and the first signs of the fighting to come
15 Regrouping of the Third Panzer Army, and further combat on its right wing
16 The removal of units from the Third Panzer Army, and the first discussion of a ‘Vitebsk fortress’
17 The end of the winter defensive battles, and renewed defensive combat on the Luchesa
18 The struggle of the Third Panzer Army against the designation of Vitebsk as a ‘fortress’
19 Assessment of the situation in the middle of May 1944
20 Anti-bandit operations in the rear area of the Panzer Army
21 The Soviet summer offensive of 1944: the advance against the Third Panzer Army
22 Closing remarks

Appendix 1: The units under the command of the Third Panzer Army between May 1943 and June 1944
Appendix 2: Affi davit on anti-bandit warfare
List of Heidkämper’s sources for Vitebsk
Index

• The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944-1945 (Modern War Studies)
• Operation Don's Main Attack: The Soviet Southern Front's Advance on Rostov, January-February 1943 (Modern War Studies)
• Case Red: The Collapse of France
• Panzers East and West: The German 10th SS Panzer Division from the Eastern Front to Normandy
• The Kuban 1943: The Wehrmacht's last stand in the Caucasus (Campaign)
• Dubno 1941: The Greatest Tank Battle of the Second World War
• Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket
• Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy
• Panzers on the Vistula: Retreat and Rout in East Prussia 1945
• The End of the Gallop: The Battle for Kharkov February-March 1943