Rocket Launcher Regiment 51 Part 3 - Nebelwerfer - Stalin Line - Abwehrflammenwerfer 42 - Minsk

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With the taking of Minsk which the 51st Regiment took part in, the defensive Stalin-Line which went along the 1939 western border of Russia was breached. We’ll talk about its importance historically, take a look at how the line was defended, and see a novel specialty weapon that was first encountered by the Germans there - that’s what you see here in the photo. Finally we’ll continue with the 3 part of the series following the 51st Rocket Launcher Regiment and the race to Witebsk.

As talked about in Part 2, a spontaneous victory parade in the north of newly occupied Minsk led to a traffic jam of vehicles in that sector, leaving the south of the city and its suburbs vulnerable for the Russians to reorganization their resistance. This is not mentioned in he German propaganda newsreels from the time. Had the Russian air force been active, the results could have been catastrophic.

As a bad omen of things to come the first problems of supply now appeared that would later become acute. Fuel and munition had absolute priority and for the first time still the troops were forced to dig into their reserve rations.

This original late 1941 film has a run time of 3 min 4 seconds and is called the Makeup of the Stalin-Line. It shows the Moscow highway and the depth of defenses that was build up around Minsk.

Here we’re looking at the first line of Mine FOG-1 automatic flamethrowers. To be more accurate they were triggered by a lever at a distance so they weren’t actually automatic. The weapons only became operational in April of 1941 and they were intended to be used against both foot soldiers and vehicles. They were usually shot together in unison creating an impressive pyrotechnic effect that was meant to break the moral of an advancing enemy.

After being confronted by the weapon the Germans took the idea back and developed the Abwehrflammenwerfer 42 (Defensive Flamethrower). The weapon could shoot a cone of fire to a distance of 30 meters, a width of 4.5 meters and a height of 2.7 meters. There was enough fuel in its tanks to discharge for 1.5 seconds.

The Stalin-Line was a name created by the German propagandists that stuck. The Russians never used the term. In September of 1939 when the non-aggressions pact was signed dividing Poland the Soviets moved a majority of their border garrison troops to the new western border. An important reason the Germans had been able to roll through them so easily in June of 1941 is that the Soviets had not finished construction of the new defensive positions. And with the loss of such men and material in those opening weeks of the war, when the Germans got to the old defensive line it also was much easier to breach. The Germans had calculated correctly about being able to easily kick in the rotten front door, but the house did not collapse in behind it as they’d expected.

On July 2nd, the 20th PzD was able to advance straight up behind Minsk and cutting off the retreating Soviet troops and creating a huge pocket. Liquidating this pocket would last until July 9th and resulted in a loss of 420,000 Russian soldiers against Wehrmacht casualties of about 12,100.

But the 20th PzD didn’t take part in reducing the pocket, they raced north east on a 62 hour forced march covering 400 km encountering little resistance. The troops were kept awake using pervitine tablets, commonly known as “Stuka-Tablets” to the soldiers, which was a methamphetamine.

Nebelwerfer Regiment 51 followed their path and the unit caught up in front of the destroyed bridge at the city of Ulla where the division was preparing for a river crossing under fire.

Here we are looking at an original situational map from July 4th, of 1941. To the west you can see the so-called “Western Pocket” of Soviet troops being worn down. To the east you see that the 20th PzD has advanced all the way to the Duna river, and is situated just across from the city of Ulla. The successful taking of Ulla would put the important city of Witebsk within striking distance.

The German Pioneers were in place with their assault boots ready, waiting for the enemy positions to be adequately softened up.

The rocket launcher crews of the 51st were under constant machine-gun fire and could only view the enemy using trench periscopes but they were able to adequately target the enemy.

The task of the rocket launchers would now be to take out task the heavy Russian guns positioned in firing batteries behind the entrenched enemy soldiers on the far bank of the river.

On the evening of July 8th, after the massive rocket bombardment, the pioneers managed to cross the river, clear the enemy trenches and secure the far bank.

The following morning the 51st Regiment was able to cross and see the results of their work first hand. Here among destroyed vehicles and KIA Russian soldiers, an officer of the unit is being presented with the Iron Cross, second class.