After Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941, the corps, part of the 18th Army, fought in the border battles, attempting to repulse the German attack in Right-bank Ukraine. In July the corps, as part of the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front, fought to the west of Stanislav and in the Battle of Uman. Galanin took command of the Southern Front's 12th Army on 25 August, and 2 November he transferred to the Volkhov Front to command the 59th Army. After leading the latter during the Tikhvin counteroffensive, he became commander of the "Galinin Army Group" under the 16th Army in April 1942 on the Western Front.