The goal of the drive for Army Group Center was to go through White Russia, and seize the cities of Minsk, Smolensk, and Moscow. On June 22, they began their offensive into Soviet territory, and had great success, for the reasons that were already stated. They captured, like all fronts, hundreds of thousands of troops at the beginning of their offensive with giant encircling operation with their armed forces. In just about a week, they captured Minsk, which is 200 miles from the front line, and 290,000 men with it. The Germans are able to continue their advance with a little more  resistance from the Red Army, and take Smolensk in another three weeks, traveling about another 200 miles. However, at this point, Hitler makes one of his characteristic changes of plan, and on August 3, commands General Guderian, the general leading the armored spearhead, to turn south, in order to aid in the capture of Kiev and the Caususes. This dramatically slows the advance of Army Group Center, as they have no substantial armored spearhead to puncture the lines and continue the blitzkrieg. Army Group Center spent nearly two months having a static front, giving the Russians a substantial amount of time to set up their defenses, as well as time for winter to start to set in. On October 2, the drive on Moscow began again, as Guderian's panzers had returned from their duties in the South. The German Army Group drives hard, but the extra time to set up defenses as well as the much more tenacious defense from the Russians was able to slow the German advance significantly. On November 25, the final drive on Moscow by the Germans began, but was stopped by the Russians by December 5, stopped up by a superior Russian defense as well as the onset of winter. The Germans made it about 210 miles in two months, within 20 miles of Moscow. At this time, the Russians counter-attacked all along the front, costing the Germans many men trying to hold every inch of ground, as per Hitler's orders. The Russians still seized quite a bit of land back from the Germans, but there was a significant German presence still in the Soviet Union.