First Battle of Kharkov

First Battle Of Kharkov

Operation Barbarossa
  • Brest
  • Bialystok-Minsk
  • Raseiniai
  • Brody
  • Bessarabia
  • Smolensk
  • Uman
  • Odessa
  • 1st Kiev
  • Tallinn
  • Yelnya
  • Leningrad
  • 1st Kharkov
  • 1st Crimea
  • 1st Rostov
  • Moscow

The 1st Battle of Kharkov so named by Wilhelm Keitel was the 1941 tactical battle for the city of Kharkiv (Ukrainian SSR) during the final phase of Operation Barbarossa between the German 6th Army of the Army Group South and the Soviet Southwestern Front. The Soviet 38th Army was ordered to defend the city while its factories were dismantled for relocation farther east.

The German 6th Army needed to take the city in order to close the widening gap between the 4th Panzer Group and the 17th Army. By 20 October the Germans had reached the western edge of the city, and the city was taken by the 57th Infantry Division by 24 October. By that time, however, most of Kharkov's industrial equipment had been evacuated or rendered useless by the Red Army.

Read more about First Battle Of Kharkov:  Occupation of Kharkov

Famous quotes containing the word battle:

    I remember the scenes of battle in which we stood together. I remember especially that broad and deep grave at the foot of the Resaca hill where we left those gallant comrades who fell in that desperate charge. I remember, through it all, the gallantry, devotion and steadfastness, the high-set patriotism you always exhibited.
    Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)