Invasion of Belarus. Summer 1941

Invasion to Belarus. Summer 1941

I bought three tightly rolled rolls of black and white 35mm German Agfa film at an Internet auction in Germany. The seller knew almost nothing about what these negatives were, who the author was, or where they were taken. On one of the boxes were the name and address of the photo studio where the pictures were developed — Bochum, Jagerstr. 1, Germany (Foto-Grosche, Bochum, Jagerstr. 1, phone 62127). Maybe the author of this archive lived in this city. When the films came to me, it turned out to be quite dirty, which of course is not surprising 81 years after it was shot. All three rolls of film (more than 80 frames) were shot by a German tank man during the invasion of the Nazi army into the territory of the USSR and its advance into the territory of Belarus in the summer of 1941. Based on the emblems and insignia on the vehicles, it was found out that the photographer was in the 7th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht at that time. The 7th Panzer Division was formed from light divisions after the end of the Polish campaign in October 1939. The division consisted of three tank battalions (218 tanks), two rifle regiments, one motorcycle battalion, and one antitank battalion. The young General Erwin Rommel, who had served in the Führer’s headquarters during the Polish campaign, was appointed commander of the division with Hitler’s encouragement. From June 1941, the 7th Panzer Division participated in combat operations on the Eastern Front. At the beginning of the campaign, the division had about 400 officers and 14,000 lower ranks.

In July 1941 the photographer captured the beginning of realization of the ambitious plan of the operation «Barbarossa». At that time the division turned southeast in the direction of Minsk — Borisov — Vitebsk. On June 26, the 7th Panzer Division reached the highway northeast of Minsk and occupied Smolevichi, but was stopped there. In early July 1941 the division continued its offensive eastward toward Vitebsk, capturing Lepel on July 4, but was stopped again east of Beshenkovichi and had to repel Soviet counterattacks by the 7th Mechanized Corps of the Red Army. On July 11 it continued its offensive to the east, capturing Demidov, Dukhovshchina and on July 15 for the second time reached the Moscow highway near Yartsevo, almost closing the Smolensk cauldron from the north.

The photographer left many historically important pictures showing the beginning of the war from the German point of view. The photos show the advance of the tank division on settlements, burned and destroyed houses, trophy Soviet flags, destroyed Soviet military equipment and trains, on which Soviet tanks, which did not even have time to take the battle, remained. At the same time, the photographer captured the everyday life of German tank crews: planning offensive operations, resting during breaks, reading newspapers, writing letters and diaries, and photographing soldiers taking pictures of each other. The photographer also spent time on «tourist» photography. One can see that he was interested in the foreign culture, people and traditions. He took pictures of women harvesting wheat in the fields, wooden houses, and communication between the local population of the occupied villages and the German military. Unfortunately, the exact location of the photograph, the name of the photographer and his fate could not be identified.