von Saucken) retreated to form a defence before Maladzyechna, an important rail junction; but the 5th Guards Tank Army cut the route between there and Minsk on 3 July. Deployments Wehrmacht Southern flank of 3rd Panzer Army (Colonel-General Georg-Hans Reinhardt) XXVI Corps (General Gerhard Matzky) Garrison of Vilnius (Major-General Rainer Stahel) Remnants of Fourth Army (General Kurt von Tippelskirch) XXXIX Panzer Corps (General Dietrich von Saucken) Sperrgruppe Weidling 340th Volksgrenadier Division Theodor Tolsdorff Red Army 3rd Belorussian Front (General Ivan Chernyakhovsky) 11th Guards Army (General Kuzma Galitsky) 5th Army 33rd Army (Lieutenant-General Vasily Kryuchenkin) 39th Army 31st Army 5th Guards Tank Army (General Pavel Rotmistrov) 1st Air Army The offensive Chernyakhovsky ordered his main mobile 'exploitation' forces, the 5th Guards Tank Army and 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps to continue their advance from Minsk on 5 July towards Vilnius, to reach the city by the following day: they were to encircle Vilnius from the south and north respectively. The 5th Army's rifle divisions were ordered to follow and close up to them. To the south, the 39th Army was directed to move on Lida, while the 11th Guards Army would advance in the Front's centre. Soviet reports suggested that units on their northern flank advanced according to the schedule, noting some resistance from scattered remnants of the destroyed VI Corps of Third Panzer Army, but stated that the 11th Guards Army in particular encountered strong German resistance and several counter-attacks. However, the 5th Panzer Division was unable to hold Maladzyechna. The Soviet 5th Army advanced to the Vilnius' outskirts by 8 July, while the 5th Guards Tank Army encircled the city from the south, trapping the garrison. Lida, another rail junction, was taken by the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps on the evening of 8 July, after the German defenders (largely from the notorious SS units of Gruppe von Gottberg and the Kaminski Brigade) abandoned their positions in old World War I trenches, despite reinforcement from Weidling's units. The latter gave up their attempt to hold the city on 9 July. The battle for Vilnius During the battle for the city itself, the Soviet 5th Army and 5th Guards Tank Army engaged the German garrison of Fester Platz Vilnius, consisting of Grenadier-Regiment 399 and Artillery Regiment 240 of the 170th Infantry Division, Grenadier-Regiment 1067, a battalion from the 16th Parachute Regiment, the anti-tank battalion of the 256th Infantry Division and other units)