Red Army General Kurkin's 3^rd Mechanized Corps, whose strength was 651 tanks, including 110 of the heavy KV-1 and KV-2 models, threw a fright into the 6^th Panzer Division, which led the XXXXI Motorized Corps' advance towards the Dvina.

Attacking just east of Raseinai with its 2^nd Tank Division, two battalions of KV tanks crushed the 6^th Panzer Division's reconnaissance elements and drove the division to the outskirts of the town.
But after the Soviets failed to exploit their success, German sappers and 88mm Flak guns systematically destroyed the Soviet tanks.

Later they learned that the Soviet tanks ran out of fuel and had orders to 'ram' the German tanks, since the KV's had not been bore-sighted and thus could not fire a round.

Within 24 hours after the engagement, German forces bypassed, encircled and subsequently destroyed the immobile Soviet tank division thus opening the was to the Dvina.