Operation Barbarossa...

Operation Barbarossa is reported on in its very early days. Here is a good six page article on the first days of the Nazi invasion of the USSR, as reported in the June 30th, 1941 Time magazine.

See:

Germany: How Long For Russia? - TIME

 

"Nothing is certain in war but un-certainty"....ain't that the truth of the matter!

"Time" magazine was obviously very confident of the outcome. But political magazines are not meant to dispence uncertainty...only reinforce the "truth", as seen through appropriately tinted glasses.

I wonder if the recordings mentioned of the border battles have survived?

 

can someone tell me the difference between panzer division, motorized division and armoured divisions in ww2 terminology?

 

panzer division =german for armoured division
motorized division =motorised =with more automobile means of transport than an infantry division
In 1943(?) the German motorized divisions were called Panzergrenadier divisions (to make things complicate)
had PD the same amount of automobile transport as MD ?Theoretically,I think so,but practically all MD and PD had different amount of automobile transport.
At the end of the war a lot of MD were motorised only by name

 

Panzer division was of course tanks and self propelled guns such as Panzerjaeger and sturmgeshutz 3. In theory the self-propelled guns belonged to the artillery but in practice they were commanded by panzer officers and used as part of panzer units. Also those half-track armored personel carriers you've probably seen pictures of, were used mainly by the Panzer grenadier divisions in order to keep up with the panzers as they advanced. The panzer grenadiers function was to follow behind the panzers as they advanced and on a radio request from the panzers, hop out and deal with defending infantry that the panzers couldn't. The panzers in theory protected the grenadiers from the heavy weapons, and the grenadiers dealt with the enemy infantry who were often equipped with anti tank rifles (useful on occasion for attacking vision slits and other weak areas of the panzers) and usually armed with molotov cocktails for tossing onto the panzer's engine deck.

"Motorized divisions" was mostly a Soviet term, i don't recall the Germans ever calling any of their units by that term. The Germans always had a shortage of trucks so these were usually used to tow artillery and to carry ammunition and the crew. The Soviets, thanks to American lend lease, had no shortage of studebaker trucks, and and used these for everything, from carrying troops into battle, to hauling supplies, and even mounted banks of katyusha rockets on them. Thus the Soviets had many units of motorized troops.

 

I've seen "Panzergrenadier" (or "mechanized") defined in WWII as having a majority of it's infantry transport as tracked or half-tracks, while "Motorized' was basically truck mobile. The SS divisions (regiments) were originally motorized, but later in the war against Soviets converted to Panzergrenadier. PzGrd were much more effective in supporting Panzer divisions in off-road or cross country conditions, especially in the USSR which had a poorer road net than in France