“Nazi’s 50 miles from Minsk”
In fact, 3rd Panzer Group is just 18 miles southwest of Minsk, having captured a large Soviet fuel dump intact, in the town of Sluck, the night before.
The dump was so large, it allowed 3Panzer, 4 Panzer, 17 Panzer to completely refuel during the night, and continue the advance on the 27th.
17th Panzer has already begun moving toward Minsk, with 29th Infantry some miles behind them, not even to Sluck yet. 3rd and 4th Panzer are already moving past Minsk to the south, heading for the town of Bobruisk.
From Feldgrau:
“On the following day (27 of June) at 11:30 hours, the Corps’ Commander, had radioed to the division expressing that the fast advance towards the river was of vital importance for all the campaign.
Only one hour later (12: 30 hours) the battle group acting as vanguard, moved quickly towards Bobruisk (accompanied by the Commander of the Division), hit Russian troops in a wooded zone. The Soviets held the fire until last moment and fired upon at short-distance with cannons and machine-gun causing serious losses to the Germans .
The German troops soon overwhelmed the Soviet infantry, but they were shocked and did resume the march only after having buried to his deads.
The Commander of Division ordered that the I./PR 6 joined with the battle group and at 16:00 hours it resumed the march having mixed one panzer approximately each 100 meters between the soft skinned vehicles.
At 21:00 hours Generalleutnant Model ordered the attack against Bobruisk, while the AA 1(Recon battalion) had to reconnoiter the land southwards.”
This feat was repeated by Rommel at Tobruk in 1942, and is just what Hitler expected from his forces in Operation Watch on the Rhine in December of 1944.
However, in December 1944, along with other problems (weather, roads, etc.) the Germans will run into some unexpectedly stiff resistance.