The northern pincer, performed by Mountain Corps Norway, approached Murmansk straight by crossing the border at Petsamo. Throughout the rest of July, the Military of Karelia advanced additional southeast into Karelia, coming to a halt at the previous Finnish-Soviet border at Mansila. On 18 July, the panzer groups came to within ten kilometres (6.2 mi) of closing the hole but the trap did not finally close until 5 August, when upwards of 300,000 Pink Army troopers had been captured and 3,205 Soviet tanks were destroyed. The twenty ninth Motorised Division captured Smolensk on sixteen July but a hole remained between Army Group Centre. That meant seizing the industrial centre of Kharkov, the Donbas and the oil fields of the Caucasus in the south and the speedy capture of Leningrad, a major centre of army production, in the north. Apart from the psychological importance of capturing the Soviet capital, the generals identified that Moscow was a significant centre of arms production, the centre of the Soviet communications system and an vital transport hub. The delays gave the Soviets time to organise a massive counterattack towards Military Group Centre.
