August 1941

Eastern Front

The XXXIX Panzer Corps attacks the 48th Army, forcing it back and taking Lyuban. The 18th Motorized Division pushes ahead toward Kolpino and the 20th Motorized toward Volkhov.

Velikiye Luki is surrounded by the LVII Panzer Corps, which storms the city and begins the destruction of the isolated elements of the 22nd Army.

Trubchevsk falls to Lemelsen's XVII Panzer Corps after a brisk battle. The Germans are deep into the northern wing of the Southwest Front, threatening the rear of the 21st and 40th Armies. Konotop falls to the Germans.

With the large-scale destruction of its forces facing the southern wing of Army Group Center, the Stavka disbands Kuznetsov's badly mauled Central Front, transferring the 3rd and 21st Armies to the Bryansk Front, which has already deployed the 50th and 13th Armies. Since July 26 the front has lost 79,000 killed and missing and 28,000 wounded.

The new 20th and 43rd Armies are sent up to the West Front, deploying to the north of the Elnya salient. Stavka orders the West, Reserve and Bryansk Fronts to mount counterattacks along the line Smolensk-Elnya-Novozybkov in order to deter the 2nd Panzer Group's southerly thrust. The Western Front is to attack with the 16th, 19th, 20th and 30th Armies toward Dukhovschina, the 22nd and 29th Armies are to support by moving upon Belyi and Velizh. The West Front is given the target of Smolensk. The 24th and 43rd Armies are to flatten the Elnya salient.

Budenny suggests to the Stavka that either the 5th Army be transferred to the Central Front or the 21st or 3rd Armies be moved over to the Southwest Front. The Stavka turns down the requests and instead orders the newly forming 40th Army, with the 135th and 239th Rifle Divisions, 10th Tank Division and the II Para Corps, to deploy onto the northern wing of the Southwest Front.

The South Front is allocated the reformed 6th Army under Gen Malinovsky and the 12th Army under Gen Galanin, which have been hastily formed around Dnepropetrovsk.