With a roar of Maybach engines, the 1st Panzer Division surged forward. They were the tip of the spear for Army Group North, tasked with a lightning strike across the Baltics toward Leningrad. The Race to the Dubysa
Inside the cramped, oil-scented hull of his Panzer III, Feldwebel Kurt Himmels checked his throat microphone one last time. His loader, a nineteen-year-old named Hans, was sweating despite the morning chill, his hands hovering near the 50mm shells. Achtung Panzer, Marsch! With the 1st German Pan...
The first few days were a blur of motion and dust. The Panzer III was a thoroughbred of the plains, and the 1st Panzer pushed it to the limit. They bypassed pockets of Soviet infantry, leaving them for the following motorized divisions. Their goal was the bridges. With a roar of Maybach engines, the 1st
As Kurt looked back at the smoke rising from the Leningrad suburbs, he felt a sense of grim foreboding. They were the "First"—always the first into the breach, the first to the bridge, the first to see the enemy. But the vastness of the East was beginning to swallow the steel. His loader, a nineteen-year-old named Hans, was sweating