29th Infantry Division (mot.) Part 3 - Guderian - Dnjeper Crossing at Kopys - Artillery Training

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This footage showing a river crossing under fire fits in well with the material we’ll be looking at today. We’re continuing with part three of the series of private footage of the 29 ID, the Falke-Division, and cover the period from July 5th to the 11th of 1941. This includes the crossing of the Dnjeper which set up the strategically significant capture of Smolensk. We’ll see an artillery battery in action and then finally I’ll introduce part of a German artillery training film. If you haven’t yet subscribed to the channel I suggest you hit that red subscribe button right now. You won’t be sorry.

This is a situational map for the Eastern Front from from July 5th of 1941. We are looking at the German units involved in the destroying or taking prisoner most of the Soviet 3rd, 10th, and 13th Armies and part of the 4th Army, in total about 20 divisions which lasted until July 9.

Here to the south east we can see the 29th. ID and their approximate positioning when the beginning of footage we are looking at today was taken.

To put things in context with the other units we’ve been talking about here we see the 20th. ID Mot. moving east and the 20. PzD which had raced all the way up the the Duna river. The 51. Nebelwerfer Regiment followed behind the 20th PzD and played an important role in crossing of that river and the taking of the city Ulla. If you haven’t seen the private footage associated with these units you’ll find links at the end of this presentation. Take a look, it’s worth it.

Following the Führer order which had stated that none of the trapped Soviets should be allowed to escape the pocket, this elite motorized unit had done its duty in wearing down the enemy but now was itching to have a more prominent role. There was talk among the men that the war would soon be over and that they might miss out.

Finally on July 6th, the Falka-Division was ordered to head East to become part of the main German attack on Smolensk which would then be followed up with the decisive attack on Moscow. Among the troops there was an air of excitement.

Although most had only become more confident with the coming final victory, the reality was that certain difficulties were becoming more acute. The poor Russian roads were wearing heavily on the German vehicles, munitions and fuel were already running low and German casualties had already surpassed what had been suffered during the operations in the West.

Generaloberst Guderian was convinced that time was on the Russians side. At all cost the retreating elements of what was left of Marschall Timoschenkos West front needed to be beaten to the Dnjeper river in order to stop them from reinforcing the troops positioned in the well fortified Stalin line. Had the Soviets arrived first, the German advance could have been held up for weeks. But the Germans arrived first.

Here we’re looking at July 11 see the aftermath of the elimination of the Soviet pocket. The 29th was able to advance East along the Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow highway for much of the distance which meant that progress was relatively fast. Late on the evening of the 9th The Falke-Division arrived to its staging position across the river from the city of Kopys. Guderian had guessed correctly that choosing this location to force a crossing would be unexpected, and therefor lightly defended, by the Russians.

On their arrival there was a low intensity artillery duel in progress. On the July 11th at 5:15 in the morning under the covering fire of artillery and Sturmgeschütze the division together with pionier elements on Sturm and inflatable boats successfully forced a crossing. Within 45 minutes 6 attacking battalions had secured the east bank of the river.

This is fantastic private footage of Geberaloberst Heinz Guderian inspecting the construction of the bridge. He is widely credited with developing the offensive strategy of Blitzkrieg and the use of concentrated armor. His theories were presented to tank crews recruits in the training film “Panzer Greifen an” or Tanks Attack.

The units we see crossing here rushed forwards and took part in the rapid taking of Smolensk.

The original artillery training film has a runtime of 16:44 Min. Today we will look at part 1.

Among the most dangerous accident that can happen to an artillery crew is a barrel burst. Here is an example of how this can happen.

This battery is firing for effect. The crew chief declares that an 8er charge should be loaded. Not following protocol, the crewman loads charge 1 in the shell and then loads specialty charges 7 and 8 on top. When interviewed after the accident, he explained that he’d believed that it was necessary to load charge 1 in order to correctly ignite charges 7 and 8. When fired, the barrel burst occurred. He was lucky to have survived the incident.