During the first gigantic battle of annihilation between
Bialystok-Novogrodek and Minsk General Potaturchev, commander of the
soviet 4th Armoured Division and a few officers broke away from their
surrounded men. They intended to make their way on foot to Minsk and
fight their way through from there to Smolensk. Potaturchev walked
until his feet were sore, and, because he did not want to be seen on
the roads as a shambling, bedraggled general, he got some civilian
clothes from a farm. Nevertheless, he was intercepted by the Germans
near Minsk and put in a POW cage. There he revealed his identity to
the officer of the guard. During his iinterrogation Potaturchev's
information shocked his captors: they had had no idea of his
division's fire power. The Soviet 4th Armoured Division had 355 tanks
and 30 armoured scout-cars; the tanks included 21 T-34s and 10 huge
68-ton KV models with 15.2-cm. guns. The artillery regiment was
equipped with 24 guns of 12.2- and 15.2-cm. calibre. A bridge-building
battalion had pontoon sections for bridges 60 yards long and capable
of carrying 60-ton tanks-Not a single German Panzer division in the
East in the summer of 1941 was so well equipped. Guderian's entire
Panzer Group with its five Panzer divisions and three and a half
motorized divisions had only 850 tanks. But then, on the other hand,
no German Panzer division was so badly led or so senselessly
sacrificed as Potaturchev's 4th.
Hitler Moves East 1941-1943-Paul Carell
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