Have a little hair, and they would have escaped! Fortunately, others are more determined than you are ...

When operation Barbarossa opened on the 22nd of June 1941, one of the most prominent axes, was the one from Bialystok to Minsk. The pattern of the border in this area formed a prominent bulge to the west of Bialystok, which offered German forces a tempting opportunity to attack the Russian flanks and encircle large concentrations of Russian forces. On the 27th of June, elements of the 23rd Infantry Division captured Bialystok and German forces began to squeeze the perimeter of the pocket from the north, south and west. The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups raced towards Minsk and Bobruisk, closing the pocket shut to the east. Remnants of some units slipped through the weak German cordon to rejoin the Russian front line further east and some joined the growing number of Partisan groups in the area. The Panzers had moved so quickly that bypassed and scattered Russian units often re-appeared out of the dense forests and swamps at the German rear creating havoc amongst the lines of supply and communication. The Red Army had lost 250,000 men killed or captured and vast amounts of vehicles and heavy equipment destroyed or captured. 
