During the Second World War, the German surprise attack caught the Soviet Union off guard, coupled with the well-trained and well-equipped German army, which caused the Soviet Union heavy losses; but the stubborn resistance of the Soviets also made the German army a headache, it can be said that except for the initial Minsk Battle, which was relatively easy to win, the other battles were very difficult to fight, and here to say that the Battle of Smolensk after the Battle of Minsk.
After the Battle of Minsk, the Germans made a rapid surprise attack, and soon opened a 400-kilometer-wide strategic gap in the center of the front, and the "Eastern Front" that the Soviets had painstakingly established before had little effect, and the German armored forces quickly broke into the Soviet border. At that time, the German army was preparing to encircle and defend the Soviet army in the West Dvina and Dnieper rivers, and then capture the areas of Orsha, Smolensk, and Vitebsk, opening a shortcut to Moscow.
Smolensk is one of the most critical cities, because Smolensk is only 360 kilometers away from Moscow, and has always been a very important military strategic point, so the Soviet Union deployed a large number of troops here; after the Battle of Minsk, the Soviet Union urgently transferred the strength of five army groups to supplement the Western Front commanded by Marshal Timoshenko, the task was very simple, that is, to hold Smolensk and not let the German army rush to Moscow.
Therefore, this battle is very important and critical, if the German army can quickly defeat the Soviet Union's western front, it can quickly reach the city of Moscow all the way unimpeded; and at that time, Moscow was not ready for defense, whether it was the mobilization of troops or the construction of fortifications had not yet begun, if the German army could quickly break into Moscow, it is estimated that the Soviet Union could only be forced to choose to move the capital, if the capital was moved, it basically meant that the Soviet Union was defeated.
Marshal Bock's Army Group Center was the most elite and largest army group in Germany at the time, with millions of troops, but also the Second Panzer Group commanded by Guderian, the Third Panzer Group commanded by Hoth, the Fourth Army, the Ninth Army, and the SS "Reich" Motorized Division and the Great German Infantry Regiment. The pressure on Timoshenko was great, and the Soviet top brass knew it, so they constantly gathered troops to support Timoshenko.
Another problem that Timoshenko faced was that they simply did not have time to establish a stable defense in depth, which was very fatal; but at this time there was no room for Timoshenko to hesitate, he could only command the army below as much as possible, exchanging depth for time and numbers for time, which was very cruel, but also helpless. In the first stage of the war, the Soviet army urgently built a defensive line while retreating, and chose a local counter-offensive after resisting the German attack.
In the second phase of the war, the Soviets organized a large-scale counteroffensive in the west, where the counter-offensive had been successful, and although the counter-offensive failed and suffered heavy losses, it broke the attack of Army Group Center on Moscow, forcing the German high command to decide to eliminate the threat posed by the Soviet army to the two wings of Army Group Center before attacking Moscow. In fact, in the second stage, it can already be declared that the Battle of Smolensk is over, because the Soviet army in Smolensk at that time can no longer organize a decent counteroffensive.
But the change was in Kiev, yes, the Battle of Kiev could be said to have occurred at the same time as the Battle of Smolensk, and Kiev had a large number of Soviet troops stationed in Kiev; coupled with the importance of Ukraine, the German high command was overwhelmed, so a large number of troops of Army Group Center were drawn to assist the Army Group South commanded by Marshal Lundstedt. This plan was implemented almost perfectly, and the Soviet troops stationed in Kiev were almost completely annihilated, with 193,200 casualties and 652,000 prisoners.
However, the withdrawal of Army Group Center gave the Soviets near Smolensk the opportunity to have the third phase and the fourth phase of the campaign that followed; although the Soviets still suffered heavy losses during the third and fourth phases, they also caused heavy casualties to the Germans. In the end, the Battle of Smolensk ended in the defeat of the Soviet Union, with Soviet casualties of up to 345,000 people, more than 400,000 captured, and countless losses of various types of equipment; but the Soviet resistance was not ineffective, and the Germans also suffered heavy losses and were forced to use the strategic reserve.
Inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans was on the one hand, and on the other hand, it delayed the German offensive; the entire Battle of Smolensk began on July 10, 1941, and lasted until September 10, 1941, when Moscow had used these two months of precious time to establish a perfect defense system, and a steady stream of troops gathered around Moscow from all directions, not only to defend Moscow, but also to prepare for the great counteroffensive after the end of the Moscow Campaign.
Therefore, in the Battle of Smolensk, although the German army was defeated, the Soviet Union was defeated; on the surface, it eliminated a large number of Soviet troops, but the Soviet Union did not lack the strength of the troops, the early several major battles made the Soviet Union lose more than one million troops, but the strength gathered in Moscow was still as high as more than two million, and then during the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Union gathered more than three million troops. On the other hand, the German army is fighting less and less, after all, the population base gap is there. The only way for germany to win was to quickly capture Moscow, but the Germans wasted too much time in Smolensk and were doomed to defeat.