Puławy, a small city on the banks of the Vistula River, was also an unavoidable passage for the Russian military heading south. From here, another day's march southeast would bring them to Lublin. And from Lublin, the headquarters of the Russian Southwestern Front Army was not far away.
However, Puławy was now under German military control. The 8th Armored Division, along with the 24th Infantry Division of the 11th Corps, which had detoured south by truck, arrived first and seized this important city.
In order to seize Puławy ahead of everyone else, the German military had paid no small price. The 8th Armored Division alone had fewer than a hundred tanks still able to move after reaching Puławy. That was only after the armored troops had scavenged intact parts from the corpses of other tanks and used them as replacements. Otherwise, that number would have been cut in half again.
But even so, they had successfully achieved their strategic objective. Having blocked the Russian 9th Army Corps' path south, all they needed to do next was tighten the noose and finish them off.
An hour after the German military occupied Puławy, a unit of Cossack cavalry appeared outside the city. But when they saw the German military digging defensive works beyond the city walls, their faces changed drastically, and they immediately fled into the distance.
News of the German military's occupation of Puławy quickly reached General Letsky.
"Damn it! How could the Germans have moved so fast?" General Letsky seemed unable to accept the outcome. After all, according to his calculations, even though their retreat had slowed because they hid by day and traveled by night, they had originally held an advantage of more than a day over the main German force. In General Letsky's view, they should have been