19th of July
Meretskov was already tired of hearing about Kowel and the "successes" there, but as the 19th of July was still in its early hours, he finally had reason to start hoping for a conclusion. The enormous tug o' war over the Bug near Kowel seemed to finally reach its ending phase, as the german panzer divisions were battered near the breaking point. During the night, four german panzer divisions remained on the eastern bank of the Bug, covered by few divisions of hungarian infantry, who could only thank the lack of daylight as their saviours. 39 Soviet divisions were preparing to make a final push in the sector to conclude the battle once and for all, with the 8th Army in reserve after being pulled out of the offensive a few days earlier. A total of 51 Red Army divisions have contributed to the gigantic battle of attrition against the very best of Germany's armoured forces. In the end, it was inevitable that the nearly million men that could be called upon to defend the Soviet Union in the sector would prevail.
Victory at Kowel, if it could now be finalized and pushed through, would mean little in the grand strategic scheme positioning-wise. The defence in depth doctrine still stood, and the Bug was not a defense line to hold until winter. Southwards Lvov had been abandoned days earlier, and a new battle would take place there once the Axis units had stretched their supplies enough. Northwards, Brest-Litovsk was also left to the Wehrmacht in fears that the large battles continuously fought on its flanks in Kowel and Bielsk would make the position in Brest a liability. It was planned that Kowel could, in the future, once more become a massive battlefield, as it was a great stage where the hammer of the Red Army could meet the proverbial anvil that was the Bug, trapping the Axis between them. And in the end, success in 1941 would be measured in numbers, not maps.
At nine o'clock, the fate of Kowel was clear - the German panzers had retreated over the river and no replacements for them had yet arrived. Stavka had reason to look at the coming weeks with optimism, since even better news arrived hours later - that the Leningrad Front could now muster the 7th Army, a veteran formation that had fought two wars in Finland, to do battle at Latvia. The tide couldn't yet be turned, but it could be broken.
The question was, how to proceed? If Kowel was not to be held, and the same for Lvov, what should be done with Zhukov and his Mechanized Army? Zhukov himself advocated that he should stay between the Bug and Kowel to engage any attempts to conquer Kowel from the Germans as well as presenting a grave danger to a possible Axis advance on Lvov. As Meretskov was busy reorganizing his 2nd Ukrainian Front, he agreed with Zhukov and allowed his forced to remain in the front. The conventional armies were still pulled back to cover the rear and reorganize to provide a safe haven for Zhukov's eventual retreat. In the coming week, the 1st Mechanized was not to see rest just yet, but it would work as a sponge to absorb all the revenge of the Wehrmacht to give time for the regulars that had been disorganized and demoralized in the massive collision to recuperate.
Sure enough, Zhukov found himself under pressure instantly. Old romanian formations, nominally led by Field Marshal Antonescu, who was bumbling on a train to Siberia, attempted to perhaps shock the T-34 fronted Mechanized Army. It was a commendable attempt, as the armoured formations was indeed starting to run short on ammunition and supplies, but the sturdy armada would hold out and inflict more and more casualities to Axis troops.
In the Baltics, Konev's own Mechanized Army was a bit more tired, and it was attacked by a strong and rested Axis force commanded by Feldmarschall von Brauchitsch. But seeing the arrival of the 7th Army at Riga, General Kolpakchi ordered his well-rested 2nd Army into Siauliau to assist Konev after a speech in Stavka by a Meretskov in a most jovial mood. Apparently Field Marshal Timoshenko had convinced Meretskov that Memel would make for the perfect place to hit the Germans hard and divert attention away from the somewhat lackluster Belorussian Front. So it was not only the 2nd Army that marched forward to the frontlines, but also the newly arrived 7th Army in Riga.