September 1941

Eastern Front

The fighting in the Litsa line intensifies as the Germans push slowly forward to heights 173.7 and 314.9. Strong Soviet resistance brings the speed of the advance down to a crawl.

Army Group North commences its main assault upon Leningrad as the XLI Panzer Corps, with the XXXVIII Corps in support, attacks toward Krasnoye Selo. The XLI penetrates the Soviet positions, its 36th Motorized and 6th Panzer Divisions advancing 6 miles and cutting the Krasnoye Selo to Krasnogvardievsk road. The 6th Panzer is involved in heavy fighting at Krasnoye Selo. Attacks by the XXVIII Corps fail to make progress in the face of fierce resistance by the 55th Army. Furious artillery fire falls upon the Soviets, but the Baltic Fleet, anchored around Kronstadt, lays down a counter-barrage in support of the hardpressed units.

The XXIV Panzer Corps extends its bridgeheads across the Seim as it advances toward Konotop. Backmach falls to the Germans.

Elements of the 17th Army cross the Dniepr, consolidating the positions of the 1st Panzer Group at Kremenchug. Belatedly, the Stavka orders the 5th and 37th Armies to fall back behind the Desna, but the 2nd Army has already broken into the rear of this position, trapping the Soviet armies between itself and the 6th Army that is advancing north of Kiev.

The Stavka orders the withdrawal of the 5th Army and the right wing of the 37th Army to the Desna.