See Map 71. Army Group Center’s situation late on 12 August 1941.

Shortly after Guderian’s panzers began operations southward across the Sozh River on 8 August, the Stavka ordered Timoshenko’s Western and Zhukov’s Reserve Fronts to commence massive coordinated assaults against German Army Group Center’s defenses in the sector from east of Dukhovshchina southward to El’nia. However, the first round of assaults, which began on 11 August, ended in failure late the same day. In a report he submitted to the General Staff at 1800 hours on 12 August, Timoshenko described the attacks and the impact they had on the Germans and, after proposing two variants for future offensive operations, recommended his preferred course of action:

See Volume 3 (Documents), Appendix O, 1.

•	General Situation – the enemy has gone over to the defense opposite the Western Front and is opposing the attacks by Khomenko [30th Army], Konev [19th Army], and Lukin [20th Army] with small reserves. Konev, Khomenko, and Rokossovsky continued their attacks on 11 August to penetrate the enemy’s defenses and link up with General Boldin’s group of 1,500 men and were successful by evening. Group Boldin escaped with 1,500 armed men and with a large number of carts and three guns, and, according to Konev, the enemy’s 5th Infantry Division lost up to 2,000 men. Lukin’s divisions inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and advanced forward slowly protecting the right flank of the Reserve Front’s El’nia grouping.
•	Observations – the enemy is exhausted and lacks reserves in many sectors, and our forces, which suffered heavy losses in men and weapons, are severely weakened and cannot conduct operations with “decisive aims.” As a result, the enemy may be able to shift forces from the Smolensk axis to the Roslavl’ axis and, after defeating our forces there, once again assemble forces for a major attack against the Western and Reserve Fronts.
•	Judgments – we must attract enemy forces away from the Roslavl’ axis by defeating and destroying enemy forces along the Smolensk axis in two possible variants:

♦	First variant:

⋄	Reinforce the Western Front with three rifle and two tank divisions and one cavalry divisions and assign them to Konev’s 19th Army and Khomenko’s 30th Army.
⋄	Missions:

▪	Konev’s 19th Army and Khomenko’s 30th Army, cooperating with Maslennikov 29th Army, will attack toward Dukhovshchina and Smolensk;
▪	Lukin’s 20th Army and Rokossovsky’s 16th Army, cooperating with the Reserve Front’s El’nia Group (24th Army), will attack toward Smolensk and Pochinok;
▪	The El’nia Group (24th Army), if 16th and 20th Armies are successful, and after destroying the enemy at El’nia, will attack toward Roslavl’ in the rear of Guderian’s Second Panzer Group operating southward from Roslavl’; and
▪	The Central Front will attack to tie down Guderian’s Second Panzer Group.

⋄	In favorable circumstances, this variant might include operations by the Western Front with limited aims, such as exhausting the enemy’s Smolensk group and distracting enemy forces from the southern axis.

♦	Second variant:

⋄	Reinforce the Western Front with at least eight rifle, three tank, and two cavalry divisions;
⋄	Missions – The Western Front, cooperating with the Central Front and the Reserve Front’s El’nia Group (24th Army), will attack to reach the region west of Smolensk and decisively defeat the enemy’s main forces operating along the Smolensk and Roslavl’ axes.

•	Objective – If successful, this offensive will “inescapably compel the enemy to conduct only passive operations along the Velikie Luki and Gomel’ front for a prolonged period.”9