"When I mentioned the matter of the linking up of both my panzer groups in the Minsk area and the difficulties of their subsequent advance from there, I received no clear statement on it, the same sort of answer Tresckow had received in Berlin recently. The question is important, for between Minsk and the 'gateway to Smolensk' - the land bridge between the Dniepr and the Dvina - lie the marshes from which the Beresina springs; massing armored forces near Minsk would therefore be very detrimental to their further forward movement"
I find this interesting since when it is put into practice, the encirclement around Minsk leaked like a sieve. I can't help but wonder how bad it would have been had moved deeper in their initial encirclement.
It more than likely would have been much worse. The Minsk encirclement “leaked like a sieve” because, even at that stage, the German infantry was beginning to lag seriously behind the Panzers and mechanized infantry [keeping in mind that only about 10% of the German Army was mechanized or motorized].
In using a deeper envelopment at Minsk, the practical result would have been that the Panzers would have been even further away from the infantry, and the “Kessel” would have been a great deal bigger.