 In the opening hours of the invasion , the Luftwaffe destroyed the Western Front 's air force on the ground , and with the aid of Abwehr and their supporting anti @-@ communist fifth columns operating in the Soviet rear paralyzed the Front 's communication lines , which particularly cut off the Soviet 4th Army headquarters from headquarters above and below it . On the same day , the 2nd Panzer Group crossed the Bug River , broke through the 4th Army , bypassed Brest Fortress , and pressed on towards Minsk , while the 3rd Panzer Group bypassed most of the 3rd Army and pressed on towards Vilnius . Simultaneously , the German 4th and 9th Armies engaged the Western Front forces in the environs of Białystok . On the order of Dmitry Pavlov , the commander of the Western Front , the 6th and 11th Mechanized Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps launched a strong counterstrike towards Grodno on 24 – 25 June in hopes of destroying the 3rd Panzer Group . However , the 3rd Panzer Group had already moved on , with its forward units reaching Vilnius on the evening of 23 June , and the Western Front 's armoured counterattack instead ran into infantry and antitank fire from the V Army Corps of the German 9th Army , supported by Luftwaffe air attacks . By the night of 25 June , the Soviet counterattack was defeated , and the commander of the 6th Cavalry Corps was captured . The same night , Pavlov ordered all the remnants of the Western Front to withdraw to Slonim towards Minsk . Subsequent counterattacks to buy time for the withdrawal were launched against the German forces , but all of them failed . On 27 June , the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups met near Minsk and captured the city the next day , completing the encirclement of almost all of the Western Front in two pockets : one around Białystok and another west of Minsk . The Germans destroyed the Soviet 3rd and 10th Armies while inflicting serious losses on the 4th , 11th and 13th Armies , and reported to have captured 324 @,@ 000 Soviet troops , 3 @,@ 300 tanks , 1 @,@ 800 artillery pieces . On 30 June , Stalin relieved Pavlov of his command , and on 22 July tried and executed him along with many members of his staff on charges of " cowardice " and " criminal incompetence " . 
