Days before, at Army Group Center’s headquarters, a distraught Bock had asked General Blumentritt on Kluge’s staff, “Please ask Guderian for me whether or not he is in position to carry out the order I gave him three days ago to link up with Panzer Group 3 near Yartsevo. If not, I have to commit other forces to do so.”⁶⁶ Therefore, thanks to this lapse and the strenuous efforts of Group Rokossovsky, the “hatchway” to Smolensk from the east remained open.

Meanwhile, on 22 July the fighting raged on in and around Smolensk as Kurochkin’s 20th Army struggled to defend its shrinking pocket, the forces marshaled by Lukin’s 16th Army pounded German 29th Motorized Division’s defenses in Smolensk, and 34th Rifle Corps’ 127th and 158th Rifle Divisions finally made their presence known southeast of the city. In fact, it was the heavy though futile assaults by the latter against the weak forces on 29th Motorized Division’s right wing south and southeast of Smolensk that forced Lemelsen’s XXXXVII Motorized Corps to dispatch 17th Panzer Division to the region. Now commanded by Major General Ritter von Thoma, who had replaced Weber after he was wounded on 17 July in the fighting for Krasnyi, Thoma’s panzers managed to stabilize the situation southeast of Smolensk in two days of heavy fighting but in the process lost their focus on the most important target – the Dnepr River south of Iartsevo.

See Map 20. The situation, 2300, 22 July 1941.

Once again, the operational summary the Western Front issued at 2000 hours on 23 July captured the intensity and chaotic nature, if not the real significance of the fighting:

See Map 21. The situation, 2300, 23 July 1941 and Volume 3 (Documents), Appendix F, 11.

•	20th Army – after regrouping to attack the enemy penetrating toward Smolensk, defending the Bol’shaia Ploskaia, Berezina River, and northern bank of the Dnepr River line, while repelling persistent enemy attacks from Rudnia and along the Orsha-Smolensk road.

♦

69th RC

⋄	144th RD – after sustained enemy attacks and air strikes, withdrew to the Molevo Boloto and Bol’shaia Ploskaia Station line [45 kilometers northwest of Smolensk] by 1100 hours on 22 July.
⋄	233rd RD – fighting along the Bol’shaia Ploskaia Station and Shchedritsy line [45 kilometers northwest of Smolensk].

♦	229th RD – repelling enemy attacks and defending the Orlovka and Dubrovno line [30 kilometers west-northwest of Smolensk].
♦	73rd RD – defending the Dubrovka and Mikhailovka line along the Dnepr River [45-30 kilometers south-southwest of Smolensk], while repelling enemy infantry conducting persistent attacks eastward along the Orsha-Smolensk road.
♦	57th TD – occupied Vydra [25 kilometers southwest of Smolensk], cutting off enemy forces there.
♦	153rd RD and 5th MC – no changes in positions reported.

•	16th Army – conducting sustained street fighting in Smolensk, capturing the northern and northwestern parts of the city, with the enemy conducting a fighting withdrawal to the northern bank of the Dnepr River, and 34th RC finally attacking Smolensk from the southeast.

♦

32nd RC

⋄	152nd RD – captured the northwestern part of Smolensk.
⋄	129th RD – seized the northern and northeastern parts of Smolensk, reaching the water tower and cemetery, while the enemy withdrew to the Dnepr River’s northern bank.

♦	46th RD – attacked by strong air strikes and enveloped by enemy mobile groups on both flanks, suffered significant losses and withdrew to the Pomogailovo, Dushatino, and Kholm line [25 kilometers north of Smolensk], where it is putting itself in order and preparing to attack Syro-Lipki and Domanov [35 kilometers north of Smolensk] to protect 16th and 20th Armies’ rear areas.
♦	34th RC – 127th RD (600 men) and 158th RD (100 men), armed but without any machine guns, attacked an enemy force of a regiment of infantry with a small number of tanks and armored cars at Riabtsevo Station [25 kilometers southeast of Smolensk] at 1200 hours on 20 July, but were repelled after a five-hour-battle and forced to abandon the station and withdraw to Lozyn’ at 1700 hours.
♦	Headquarters, 16th Army – the grove north of Zhukovo State Farm.

•	Group Rokossovsky – after fighting along the Vop’ River, the group’s units were concentrating along the eastern bank of the Vop’ River in jumping-off positions for an attack.

♦	107th TD – reached the Korytnia, Pochinok, and Pokikhino region [50 kilometers north of Iartsevo].
♦	101st RD – no information received.
♦	38th RD – after repeated raids by enemy aircraft and enemy artillery and mortar fire, withdrew and dug in along the Vop’ River’s eastern bank, destroying the crossings behind it.
♦	Headquarters, Group Rokossovsky – Krasnobaevka.67