The main body of the corps left Drogobych with the break of dawn. Its commander, General Ryabyshev, accompanied the 7th Motorized Rifle Division. Commissar Popel went with the 12th Tank Division. The route of this division went through the town of Striy, the very town where division was stationed. Now for the second day in the row, the town was subjected to heavy German air attacks, and large parts of it were burning. Popel recalls how difficult it was for the men of the 12th Tank Division to maintain their disciple and keep driving in convoy through town while not knowing the fate of their families who lived just a few blocks away. After moving through Striy, the 12th Tank Division halted in the woods east of it. While men rested, those officers who lived in town were given an hour’s break to run back to town and check on their families.
Instructing General Mishanin to get his division moving as soon as possible, Popel set off for Lvov, accompanied by his driver and an adjutant. On the way there, his car was strafed several times by German aircraft, which were hunting down even individual Soviet vehicles. Popel credited his driver Mikhail Kuchin’s skills for saving their lives.
Ryabyshev was already waiting for him at the command post of the Sixth Army, in a small forest northwest of Lvov. Lieutenant General I. N. Muzychenko, commander of the Sixth Army, gave Ryabyshev and Popel their immediate mission. They were to support the VI Rifle Corps under Maj. Gen. I. I. Alekseyev at Yavorov in its attack on June 24. A messenger has been sent to Ryabyshev already, but, obviously, he did not find Ryabyshev while still on the road.
By noon, the forward elements of the 8th Mechanized arrived at their staging areas near Lvov, with the bulk of the corps was still strung out along the roads. In order not to lose time concentrating his divisions near Lvov, Ryabyshev attempted to intercept his straggling units on the march and turn them towards Yavorov. He sent out his senior staff officers to ensure that the majority of his units received new directives. Corps commissar N. K. Popel went to the 34th Tank Division, and corps Chief of Counterintelligence M. A. Oksen to the 7th Motorized Rifle Division. One of the tank regiments from the 12th Tank Division was already at its designated area near Lvov, and Ryabyshev gave its commander new instructions in person. After arranging to meet Popel in Yavorov, at the command post of the VI Rifle Corps, Ryabyshev himself set off to find the main body of 12th Tank Division.[14]
They managed to divert the main body of VIII Mechanized Corps while still on the march and sent them along the dirt roads to Yavorov. The roads leading away from the borders were now chocked with multitudes of refugees, on foot and in vehicles, by trucks evacuating property, by wounded. Mixed in with the wounded and refugees, apparently able-bodied soldiers could be spotted.
At one road intersection, Popel spotted a team of draft artillery horses, without cannon, with soldiers mounted on them. The panicked soldiers told Popel about how their 45mm artillery battery was overrun by German panzers. These few men abandoned their weapons and threw away most of their gear. Popel ordered these men arrested and turned over to military police.
Around 1700 hours, Popel arrived in Yavorov at the command corps of the VI Rifle Corps under Maj. Gen. I. I. Alekseyev and began getting acquainted with the situation. Shortly thereafter, Popel and Alekseyev received a disturbing report that the highway, which Popel just used to get to Yavorov, was cut off by German motorcycle troops. Popel became concerned that Ryabyshev might blunder into Germans while attempting to reach him in town.
The situation in Yavorov was quickly becoming chaotic. As nearby explosions rocked the command post, reports came in that German tanks were already in the city. Popel decided to make a break for it and rejoin the VIII Mechanized Corps at their designated staging area. After spending most of the night driving around the unfamiliar town and its vicinity, Popel and his two companions managed to find their corps south of Yavorov. Ryabyshev was already there.
Popel could not believe the news Ryabyshev had for him. Around 2200 hrs, while Ryabyshev was en route to Yavorov, his chief of intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Losev, caught up with him. Losev brought new orders from headquarters of the South-Western Front. Not believing his eyes, Ryabyshev read that he was to turn east yet again and concentrate in the area of Brody by the end of June 24. He was to establish contact with the commander of the XV Mechanized Corps and, after ensuring close cooperation, attack together in the morning of June 24 in general direction of Berestechko and destroy enemy tank forces there “as situation develops.”[15] Not wanting to use up any time, Ryabyshev drove directly to his corps’ assigned staging area south of Yavorov, instead of checking in with the VI Rifle Corps and linking up with Popel there. There was no way to inform General Alekseyev that the VIII Mechanized Corps would not be supporting him on the morrow, and the beleaguered infantrymen were left on their own.
Once again, Ryabyshev and his staff officers had to search for their scattered units at night along the dirt tracks. Only two tank battalions, one from 12th Tank Division and the other from the 34th, were within immediate reach. Ryabyshev ordered them to make haste to Brody after refueling in Lvov. These two battalions were to take up defenses along the west, north, and east outskirts of Brody, establish communications with any Soviet force already there, and conduct reconnaissance.
A majority of combat units of the corps did not receive their instructions while on the march and concentrated near Yavorov by morning of June 24. As quickly as possible, Ryabyshev briefed division commanders on their new mission and ordered them to make haste preparing to move out as soon as possible. The two tank divisions were to lead off, followed by corps support elements. Corps headquarters was to set up on the west outskirts of Brody. The 7th Motorized Rifle Division was to stay in reserve in the woods two miles southwest of Brody.
Meanwhile, straggling units of the VIII Mechanized Corps continued crawling into Yavorov. It took until 1000 hours on June 24 before the main body of the corps set out to follow their lead two battalions.
XV Mechanized Corps, Maj. Gen. I. I. Karpezo Commanding
Approaching Radekhov from the southeast, Major General Karpezo’s XV Mechanized Corps marched to the sound of the guns. This small, dusty town became the sight of the first significant tank battle in Ukraine. Since the previous day, Radekhov was occupied by a task force of two tank battalions and one motorized rifle battalion from the IV Mechanized Corps. This scratch formation was headed by commander of the 323rd Motorized Rifle Regiment, Lt. Col. Georgiy E. Lysenko. North of Radekhov, between it and the equally small and insignificant town of Stoyanov, was the leading two-battalion element of 10th Tank Division from XV Mechanized Rifle Corps.
Continuing its progress south and east towards Radekhov at 0330 hours, the leading battalion from the 15th Panzer Regiment of the 11th Panzer Division briefly traded shots with several of 10th Division’s tanks south of Stoyanov. Brushing the small Soviet detachment aside, the regiment continued south to Radekhov and approached it around 0530 hours. As the panzers drew near the small town, German aerial reconnaissance reported approach of significant numbers of Soviet armor advancing from the east. This was the main body of Soviet 10th Tank Division. The whole of 15th Panzer Regiment halted and deployed into line, supported by strong elements of divisional field and air-defense artillery. This pause allowed the forward detachment from the 10th Tank Division to fall back into Radekhov and join Lysenko.