The Battle of Raseiniai

[Benoit Douville]

It was a Tank Battle in the beginning of operation Barbarossa by the 4th Panzer Army led by Erich Hoepner in Lithuania. I am looking for the exact numbers of casualties on both sides during that Battle. I read that the Germans had completely destroyed all the Soviet tanks!

[AMVAS]

Well, hardly you can get figures of the Soviet casaulities. They simply had no oportunities to count them
As for tanks and other vehicles, really a large number of those were destroyed.
It was the 2nd Tank Division/3rd Mechanised Corps from the soviet side to defense in that area.
Data about its strength you can find on my page:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... ps/3mk.htm

Some maps can be found here:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... m#Baltic41

Regards
Alex

[Jan-Hendrik]

From KTB of XXXXI.AK:

Jan-Hendrik

[[email protected]]

Dear all,

Regarding this issue, has anyone some maps or schemes of the operations carried out by the 2 Tankovaya Divizia in the area of Raseiniai?

Greetings

[AMVAS]

Dear all,

Regarding this issue, has anyone some maps or schemes of the operations carried out by the 2 Tankovaya Divizia in the area of Raseiniai?

Greetings

Hardly you can find much, because original documents were lost in fights. So, it can be only some modern art more or less exact

[[email protected]]

Sorry for the late answer, but I appreciate very much your comments.

Greetings!

[lufty1]

Some fotos from this battle changed hands on ebay last weekend

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orig-Foto-Pan ... 53fd12f906
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orig-Foto-Pan ... 3a84529474
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orig-Foto-Pan ... 3a8452926c

and there are others with no caption but different views of the above

[[email protected]]

Very interesting pictures, lufty1. It also impressed me the amount of money these pictures are sold for...

What a nasty surprise would have been to face for the first time these KV tanks and to see how your 3,7 cm. shells bounced off them just scratching the paint! I have found some german descriptions of the encounter, but no one from the soviet side. I would like to read the experiences of one of those soviet KV tankers in one of these first fights...

[ViKinG]

Soviet 3rd mechanised Corps - Major General A.V. Kurkin Baltic military district
749 tanks on hand on June 22, total should have been 1031 tanks as with most MC was not up to strenght
2nd Tank division – 200 (30 KV tanks) (full strength should have been 375 tanks)
5th Tank division – (25 KV, 52 T-34 tanks) total tanks not avail. (full strength should have been 375tanks )
84th Motorised division - actual numbers NA (full strength should have been 275 tanks)
Also had 5th Motorcycle Regiment included
3rd mechanised corps was roughly 73% equipped on June 22nd 1941.

On June 22nd, 3rd MC was sent against Panzergruppe 4 and ran into XLI panzer korps, mainly attacking 6th panzer division. Although 3rd MC had to travel nearly 50-70kms to reach its target causing high fallout rates within its ranks of obsolete tanks. (Mostly BT and t-26's) it had a few newer model tanks. Some of its KV tanks managed to hold up 6th panzer for quite a while. 1st panzer division was required to turn around and help 6th panzer div. 3rd mechanised corps was defeated during June 23-27. Mostly only the 2nd tank division took place in the battle, the 5th tank and 84th motorised attacked further south, nearly ran out of fuel and were defeated piecemeal by the German 16th army.

ViKing

[Tom Houlihan]

If you're interested in that battle, I'd recommend Prit's book:

http://www.amazon.com/Between-Giants-Ba ... 1780961634

[ViKinG]

Just got it in the mail today actually =) Should be a good read!

[Griffin brigade]

Has anyone ever visited this Battlefield ? Is there anyhting to see memorial wise etc ?

[Panzermahn]

Finally there is a Russian historian named Maksim Kolomiets who actually found out what happened to the single KV-1 that fought against overwhelming odds at the famous Battle of Raseiniai, 1941.

http://www.mk.ru/social/2015/04/29/odin ... ilova.html







Facts (according to Maksim):
- The KV-1 is most likely from the 3rd company, 1st battalion, 4th Tank Regiment of the 2nd Tank Division

- After more than 22 hours, German sappers finally overwhelmed the crew of KV1 with grenades pushed into the holes caused by 88mm flak guns

- The German were amazed by the extraordinary heroism of these Soviet crewman and reburied the crew with full military honors

- 3 of the 6 fallen Soviet tank crewman were identified during the reburial of their remains in 1965. They were:
V.A. Smirnov (name etched on the spoon retrieved from the remains of the Soviet crewman)
N.A. Sh. (initials etched on the spoon retrieved from the remains of the Soviet crewman)
E.P. Egorovich (identified from a half-decayed Komsomol ticket found inside a cigarette case)

- These relics together with 2 commanders belt were kept in the museum in Raseiniai

- There are after-action reports by the Germans that even mentioned an officer as well as a unit of sappers that assaulted the KV-1 unit


If any forum members of Lithuania that were able to visit the Raseiniai museum, please share with the forum with any information with regards to the relics of the fallen Soviet crewman of the Battle of Raseiniai. Any info during the 1965 reburial of the Soviet crew remains would be appreciated as well

Thanks
PZM

[Kelvin]

Well, hardly you can get figures of the Soviet casaulities. They simply had no oportunities to count them
As for tanks and other vehicles, really a large number of those were destroyed.
It was the 2nd Tank Division/3rd Mechanised Corps from the soviet side to defense in that area.
Data about its strength you can find on my page:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... ps/3mk.htm

Some maps can be found here:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... m#Baltic41

Regards
Alex

Hello, Alex, cannot open that link. May you post their tank strength of 3rd Mechanized Corps ? division by division ? Thank

[AMVAS]

Well, hardly you can get figures of the Soviet casaulities. They simply had no oportunities to count them
As for tanks and other vehicles, really a large number of those were destroyed.
It was the 2nd Tank Division/3rd Mechanised Corps from the soviet side to defense in that area.
Data about its strength you can find on my page:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... ps/3mk.htm

Some maps can be found here:
http://www.rkkaww2.armchairgeneral.com/ ... m#Baltic41

Regards
Alex

Hello, Alex, cannot open that link. May you post their tank strength of 3rd Mechanized Corps ? division by division ? Thank

the address changed a bit due to my hoster:
http://armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/form ... ps/3mk.htm