Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, Episode 136,

The Fall of Minsk.

As covered previously, Army Group Center under the command of Field Marshal Bach would be

Hitler's killing blow.

Therefore, it received two of the four Panzer Groups.

Bach's armor was to swing around each side of the Biali-Stok salient, capture as many

Soviet troops of the first offensive line as they could between them, while other panzers

would be forming an even deeper net further to the east, capturing other troops or those

of the first that managed to retreat.

It would still end up surrendering just west of Minsk.

This would, hopefully, allow German forces to take that city without much issue.

From there, the armor was to keep moving east and help capture or destroy as many Soviet

troops as they could, while still west of the NEPA River.

According to the attack plan, this would basically free up enough of Army Group Center

to then continue on to Smolensk, repeating their encirclement or keel of Soviet troops

just west of that town, to then have it fall.

After that, if enough bridges could be captured, the panzers would continue east and begin

to encircle Moscow.

Stalin, the king, would be checked, and the political game, at least, would be over.

The same thing was to happen north and south of Army Group Center, the dreaded panzers

making this possible.

And within time, European Russia would be in German hands, the Soviet state in shambles.

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