Since the morning of June 24, the 1st Antitank Artillery Brigade had had a difficult fight on its hands in the direct vicinity of the western suburbs of Lutsk. During the previous night, Moskalenko deployed his brigade in three defensive lines. They made the enemy pay dearly, and as the Germans overcame each successive line, the surviving Soviet gunners fell back to the next one.
During the night of June 24–25, Moskalenko’s depleted brigade was ordered to abandon its positions on the southwest outskirts of Lutsk and fall back north to the town of Rozhysche. This small town on the Styr River was becoming a focal point of Soviet defenses on the northern flank of Potapov’s Fifth Army. Pushing the XV and XXVII Rifle Corps ahead of them, the Germans were attempting to pierce a gap between the two beleaguered corps at Rozhysche and capture beachheads across the Styr River. The shattered XXII Mechanized Corps and the 135th Rifle Division were falling back on this town as well, and Moskalenko’s units were to form the keystone of the antitank defenses around town.
As the 1st Antitank Artillery Brigade arrived at the bridge near Rozhysche, which it intended to use to cross to the eastern side of the Styr River, it found the bridge destroyed under orders of General Artemenko, commander of the XXVII Rifle Corps. In the general chaos of the retreat, the Soviet demolition detachment charged with destroying the bridge was not informed to wait for Moskalenko’s crossing before blowing up the bridge. Now the brigade was trapped on the western side of the river.[7]
Fortunately, Moskalenko’s scouts soon located another bridge nearby. This one was a railroad bridge. While it was possible to move the artillery across the cross ties and rails of this bridge, it would take time. The Soviet gunners began digging in near the bridge’s western end, forming a crescent with the flanks resting on the river. At approximately the same time, some rear-echelon support units from the 27th Rifle and XXII Mechanized Corps arrived at the railroad bridge as well.
As the Soviets began frantically digging shallow trenches and foxholes, sporadic German artillery and mortar fire began falling among them. They were quickly followed by determined German infantry and armor attacks around 0600 hours. The Germans pressed very hard, hoping to rush the bridge and trap as many Soviets as possible on the west bank. During one attack, the German panzers broke through the first Soviet line of shallow trenches. In the ensuing close-quarters fighting, one Soviet battery was destroyed, but Germans were forced to fall back.
Utilizing the lull in fighting, Moskalenko began hurriedly transferring his units to the eastern side of the railroad bridge. He barely had enough time to send one battalion over when an unexpected delay took place.
The rear echelon units of the XXVII Rifle and XXII Mechanized Corps rushed the bridge in panic. Several hundred men and horses, pushing and shoving, tried to force their way to the eastern side. In the ensuing panic, men and animals trampled over each other in the narrow confines of the bridge. Wagons, people, and horses lost their footing or were shoved over the sides and plunged into the water. The draft horses began breaking their legs between railroad ties, creating ungodly tangles of overturned artillery pieces, crushed men, flying hooves, splintered wagons, and stalled vehicles. Adding to the panic, German artillery shells began falling among the crowds at the bridge.[8] The whole scene resembled Napoleon’s disastrous retreat over Berezina River in 1812.
An indescribable panic ensued. Drivers began unhitching horses; some men jumped in the river and tried to swim across. The debris on the railroad bridge completely blocked the passage and created such an obstacle that it would have taken several hours to clear it. In order to quickly remove the obstacle, Moskalenko sent two heavy KV-1 tanks from 19th Tank Division to bodily push the obstruction off the bridge. The huge tanks flattened, crushed, and pushed the debris off the bridge, and those units that maintained their cohesion began crossing at once. After the rear-guard motorcycle regiment from the XXII Mechanized Corps crossed the bridge, it was blown up.[9]
North of Moskalenko’s location, Maj. Gen. I. I. Fedyuninskiy’s XV Rifle Corps was retreating as well. Falling back with Fedyuninkiy’s corps, the 41st Tank Division fought several sharp rear-guard actions, keeping the hard-pressing German reconnaissance units at arm’s length. The rear echelons of the 41st Tank Divisions suffered heavily from German air attacks during the daytime retreat. Meager antiair defenses of this tank division amounted to only four antiaircraft cannons and could not prevent the German planes from getting in close to the strung-out Soviet columns.[10]
Following on the heels of retreating Soviet units, German III Corps deployed a fresh panzer division, the 13th, which looped around Lutsk and entered the town in late afternoon on the 25th.
DUBNO, 11TH PANZER DIVISION
After crushing the left flank of Soviet XXVII Rifle Corps and brushing aside the elements of XV Mechanized, the 11th Panzer Division continued advancing towards Dubno.
Even though several shattered and disorganized Red Army units put up feeble resistance, the Soviet Air Force was present in strength. The Soviet bombers, almost always unprotected by their fighter brethren, launched numerous attacks against the German division. Gustav Schrodek informs us of fifty such attacks recorded during the day; this number seems a little inflated. German fighter aircraft falling upon virtually defenseless Soviet bombers took a terrible toll on these valuable aircraft, often shooting down whole squadrons as they helplessly and unwaveringly droned on to their targets.
Pushing aside weak Soviet defenses and shrugging off air attacks, 11th Panzer Division continued forward:
While the [15th Panzer Regiment was] continually entangled and stopped by new fights with enemy detachments, the 11th Panzer Division continued its advance on Dubno under cover of a small forest in two columns.
The Recon Battalion 231 (motorized) [attacked] towards Mlynov from the north. The 110th Infantry Regiment, which spent the whole night destroying the weaker enemy units while advancing, [reached] Dubno with its advance elements south of the city and [continued] to penetrate the area at 0730 hours. By 1100 hours, Dubno could be attacked from both south and the north. After defeating a flank attack during which the Russians also used tanks, the 11th Panzer Division announced in the early afternoon on June 25th that Dubno was firmly in their hands at 1400 hours.
In the evening, a rumor of Soviet armor units advancing from Ostrow caused big confusion with the supply units in the rear, and they [returned] to Lopatin. Some columns [turned] back, [causing] major jams on the route of advance. However, the retreat was stopped and intended hasty burn of the timber bridge of Styr at Merva [was] prevented.[11]
IX MECHANIZED CORPS, MAJ. GEN. K. K. ROKOSSOVSKIY COMMANDING
Throughout June 25, the IX Mechanized Corps continued fighting south of Lutsk-Rovno highway against German 13th and 14th Panzer divisions. The Germans were pushing hard to cut the highway and encircle Lutsk from the east. Instead of preparing for the offensive the next day, Rokossovskiy’s corps was forced to fight a defensive battle.