1941March, Lundstedt was transferred to the eastern line as commander-in-chief of the southern army group. Before that, he had never participated in the planning and preparation of the Barbarossa Plan, nor opposed the Barbarossa Plan like Marshal brauchitsch, the commander in chief. But in the end, Lundstedt accepted the appointment. The Southern Army Group under his command had 36 German regular infantry divisions and 5 armored divisions, as well as the 16 mixed infantry division jointly established by Italian, Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak troops. Aiming at Kiev, Ukraine, Marshal Butioni of the Soviet Union is in charge of Ukraine's defense work.
On June 22nd, Germany used 100 divisions, 3,580 tanks and 4,980 planes to blitzkrieg the Soviet Union in the expanded mode of Polish aggression. In one day, the Soviet Union lost more than 1200 planes. By July 9, 28 divisions of the Soviet Red Army were completely annihilated, and 70 divisions lost more than half of their personnel or weapons. The Germans advanced 300 to 600 kilometers in three directions. Lundstadt's southern army group occupied zhitomir and advanced to Kiev.
On July 1 1, Lundstedt's first tank cluster was blocked by Soviet fortifications at15-20km west of Kiev. But in the following days, the Kiev offensive of the southern army group progressed slowly. After a month of fierce fighting, Lundstedt's troops only advanced 8 to 10 km.
Prior to this, on July 16, guderian's Second Armored Corps had captured Smolensk and was approaching Moscow. Rundstedt, on the other hand, believes that if we want to capture Moscow, we must solve the budyonny troops east of Kiev, and the sooner the better.
On August 2 1 day, Lundstedt issued No.34 instruction, asking guderian Corps to cooperate with the southern army group to surround the Soviet troops near Kiev. This strategic thinking was recognized by Hitler, so he ordered the Central Army Group to modify and seconde some infantry divisions of the Second and Third Armored Corps and other two army groups on the spot to assist the Southern Army Group in carrying out siege warfare in Kiev.
Subsequently, with the assistance of two armored clusters (* * * 5,865,438+0 tanks) and the Fourth Air Brigade (265,438 bombers +00 and more than 200 other aircraft), the expanded Southern Army Group officially launched a fierce battle with seven Soviet Army Groups in Ukraine.
On September 16, the largest panic attack in the history of World War II-the Battle of Kiev was launched until the end of the Battle of Kiev on September 26. The Germans captured 665,000 Soviet officers and soldiers, including Potapov, commander of the Fifth Army. Kirponos, commander, chief of staff and political commissar of the Southwest Army of the Soviet Red Army, was killed, and the Germans seized a large number of Soviet weapons and equipment. In this battle, the southwest military strength of the Soviet Red Army almost disappeared, and it had to launch a large-scale conscription at home, recruit troops from far away Siberia, and build fortifications in deeper areas. After that, the Southern Army Group pushed eastward and attacked Kharkov. After the occupation, Lundstedt suggested not to attack Rostov for the time being. But to reorganize and supplement, and proposed to postpone the attack plan next spring, but it was not approved by the army headquarters.
Later, some troops of Lundstedt's southern army group were transferred to the central army group to help other war zones. At this time, the Southern Army Group left about 40 German divisions (3 armored divisions and 2 motorized divisions) and other joint forces. Lund Stedt was ordered to command the reorganized Southern Army Group to attack Rostov, and his troops advanced to the Caucasus through the Donetsk basin. In mid-June, 5438, the continuous rainstorm in+10 greatly slowed down the speed of the troops. 165438+rundstedt10 suffered a heart attack at the beginning of October, but he refused to be admitted to the hospital and continued to direct the troops to advance, and the temperature dropped to MINUS 20 degrees.
It was not until165438+1October 65438+June 6 that the Southern Army Group launched an attack on Rostov City and conquered Rostov on June165438+/October 20. Later, it was violently countered by the Soviet Red Army. At first, Lundstedt still hoped that the army headquarters would reinforce Rostov. Later, due to the bad weather and the high morale of the Soviet Union, he asked to retreat 100 km, which was approved by the Army Headquarters. 65,438+065,4381October 28th, Lundstedt's troops left Rostov. 165438+1October 30th, Hitler ordered to stop the retreat, and Lundstedt's plea to retreat again was rejected. Subsequently, his resignation application for heart disease treatment was approved, and Marshal Reichenau took over the command. Before leaving, Lundstedt lamented: A noble nation will be defeated by an unyielding nation.