The
3rd Mechanised Corps was first formed in July 1940; on 22 June 1941, was stationed at
Vilnius in the
Baltic Military District under MG
Alexey Kurkin. It consisted of 2nd Tank Division (Maj. Gen.
Yegor Solyankin)
5th Tank Division,
84th Motorised Division, 15th Motorcycle Regiment, an artillery regiment, and engineer and signals battalions. On 22 June, the 2nd Tank Division was located in the forest in Gajzhuny, in the Ionava area. On 22 June 1941, the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 31,975 men & 651 tanks, of which 110 were new
T-34 and
KV-1 types. The division was heavily engaged in the first battles of
Operation Barbarossa, particularly during the
Baltic Operation (1941) and at the
Battle of Raseiniai. On 23 June,
Kampfgruppe Von Seckendorff of the German
6th Panzer Division, consisting of
114th Panzergrenadier Regiment (motorized infantry), Aufklärungsabteilung 57 (Panzer Reconnaissance
Battalion 57), one company of
Panzerjäger Battalion 41, and, that morning only, Motorcycle Battalion 6, was overrun by 2nd Tank Division near
Skaudvilė. The German
Panzer 35(t) tanks and antitank weapons were ineffective against the Soviet heavy
KV-1 and
KV-2 tanks—some of them were out of ammunition but closed in and destroyed German antitank guns by driving over them. The Germans concentrated on immobilising the Soviet tanks by firing at their tracks and then by tackling them with
artillery, anti-aircraft guns, or by blowing them up with explosive charges of the
sticky bomb type. On 24 June 1941, a single
KV-2 heavy tank of 2nd Tank Division, at a crossroads in front of
Raseiniai, managed to cut off elements of the
6th Panzer Division which had established bridgeheads on the
Dubysa. It stalled the Division's advance for a full day while being attacked by a variety of antitank weapons, until it finally ran out of ammunition. General
Erhard Raus, the Officer commanding
6th Panzer Division's
Kampfgruppe Raus, which was the unit held up by the lone vehicle, described the incident. Raus said that the vehicle was damaged by several shots from an
88 Anti-Tank Gun firing at the vehicle from behind whilst it was distracted by
Panzer 35(t) tanks from Panzer Battalion 65 and the crew were killed by
grenades from a
Pioneer Engineer unit. The grenades were pushed through two holes made by the gun whilst the turret had started moving again, the other five or six shots having not apparently penetrated completely. The crew had remarkably only been apparently stunned by the shots which had entered the turret. Afterwards they were buried nearby with honours by the German soldiers of the unit held up. The 2nd Tank Division was encircled and destroyed at
Raseiniai. On 11 July 1941 Col P Poluboiarov, Northwestern Front armoured directorate reported that the 3rd Mechanised Corps had 'completely perished', having only 400 men remaining who escaped encirclement with 2nd Tank Division and only one
BT-7 tank. ==Second Formation==