Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, commander of the Second Panzer Group, meets with senior officers during the invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).
He is shown here wearing the regulation general’s greatcoat, with gold and silver braid shoulder straps identifying his rank. In the background can be seen a Horch Kfz. 21 staff car marked with the Second Panzer Group’s white ‘G’ symbol.
Guderian was a highly experienced but headstrong commander, often leading from the front and having to avoid capture during the advance across Belorussia.
The Second Panzer Group was attached to Army Group Centre, which by late-July had closed large Soviet ‘pockets’ at Minsk and Smolensk. The eastward push towards Moscow led to the first major Axis victories of the invasion, before Guderian was ordered to move south and capture Kiev in late August.
By Ibrahim Zamir
Empire of History 