Operation Bagration

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Operation Bagration
(Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation)
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
BagrationMap2.jpg
Deployments during Operation Bagration
Date22 June – 19 August 1944
LocationSoviet Union (present day Belarus, Baltic states), Ukraine, and eastern Poland
Result Soviet victory
Territorial
changes		 Soviets liberate all of Byelorussian SSR and gain foothold in eastern Poland.
Belligerents
 Germany  Soviet Union
Poland
Commanders and leaders
Units involved
Strength
Initially:
Frieser:
486,493 personnel[1]
118 tanks[2]
452 assault guns[2]
3,236 field guns and howitzers[2]
920 aircraft[2]
In total:
Soviet sources:[3]
1,036,760 personnel
800 tanks
530 assault guns
10,090 guns
1,000–1,300 aircraft		 Initially:
Frieser:
1,670,300 personnel
3,841 tanks[2]
1,977 assault guns[2]
32,718 guns, rocket launchers and mortars[2]
7,799 aircraft[2]
In total:
Frieser:
2,500,000 personnel
6,000 tanks and assault guns[2]
45,000 guns, rocket launchers and mortars[2]
8,000 aircraft[2]
Glantz and House:[4]
1,670,300 personnel
5,818 tanks
32,968 guns and mortars
7,790 aircraft[5]
Casualties and losses
c. 390,000–540,000
Glantz and House:[4]
450,000 casualties
Frieser:
26,397 killed
109,776 wounded
262,929 missing and captured
399,102 overall[details][6]
Zaloga:
150,000–225,000 killed or missing; 150,000 captured[7]
Isayev:
500,000 casualties[8]
Soviet sources:[9]
381,000 killed
158,480 captured

Glantz and House:[10][11]
770,888

180,000 killed or missing
340,000–590,848 wounded and sick
2,957 tanks and assault guns[12]
2,447 guns[13]
822 aircraft[13]

Operation Bagration (/bʌɡrʌtiˈɒn/; Russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation,[14] (Russian: Белорусская наступательная операция «Багратион», Belorusskaya nastupatelnaya Operatsiya Bagration) a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern Front of World War II.[15] The Soviet Union achieved a major victory by destroying the German Army Group Centre and completely rupturing the German front line.

On 23 June 1944, the Red Army attacked Army Group Centre in Byelorussia, with the objective of encircling and destroying its main component armies. By 28 June, the German Fourth Army had been destroyed, along with most of the Third Panzer and Ninth Armies.[16][17] The Red Army exploited the collapse of the German front line to encircle German formations in the vicinity of Minsk in the Minsk Offensive and destroy them, with Minsk liberated on 4 July. With the end of effective German resistance in Byelorussia, the Soviet offensive continued further to Lithuania, Poland and Romania over the course of July and August.

The Red Army successfully used the Soviet deep battle and maskirovka (deception) strategies for the first time to full extent, albeit with continuing heavy losses. Operation Bagration diverted German mobile reserves to the central sectors, removing them from the Lublin-Brest and Lvov–Sandomierz areas, enabling the Soviets to undertake the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive[18] and Lublin–Brest Offensive.[19] This allowed the Red Army to reach the Vistula river and Warsaw, which in turn put Soviet forces within striking distance of Berlin, conforming to the concept of Soviet deep operations—striking deep into the enemy's strategic depths.[20]

Background[edit]

Panther on the Eastern Front, 1944

Germany's Army Group Centre had previously proved tough to counter as the Soviet defeat in Operation Mars had shown. But by June 1944, despite shortening its front line, it had been exposed following the withdrawals of Army Group South in the battles that followed the Battle of Kursk, the Second Battle of Kiev, and the Crimean Offensive in the late summer, autumn, and winter of 1943–44. Operation Suvorov had seen Army Group Centre itself forced to retreat westwards from Smolensk during the autumn of 1943.

By the middle of June 1944, the Western allies on the Cotentin Peninsula were just over 1,000 km (620 mi) from Berlin, while the Soviet forces at the Vitebsk Gate were within 1,200 km (750 mi) of the German capital. For the Third Reich, the strategic threats were about the same.[21] Adolf Hitler underestimated the threat posed by Soviet troops facing Army Group Centre, and had redeployed one-third of Army Group Centre's artillery, half their tank destroyers, and 88 percent of their tanks to the southern front where the German high command expected the next major Soviet offensive.[21] Army Group Centre only had a total of 580 tanks, tank-destroyers, and assault guns. They were opposed by over 4,000 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns. The redeployment of forces from Army Group Center left only 80 men defending every kilometer of the front line.

Operation Bagration, in combination with the neighboring Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive launched a few weeks later in Ukraine, allowed the Soviet Union to recapture Belorussia and Ukraine within its 1941 borders, advance into German East Prussia, but more importantly, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation allowed the Red Army to reach the outskirts of Warsaw after gaining control of Poland east of the Vistula river. The operation enabled the next operation, the Vistula–Oder Offensive, to come within sight of the German capital.[22] The Soviets were initially surprised at the success of the Belorussian operation which had nearly reached Warsaw. The Soviet advance encouraged the Warsaw uprising against the German occupation forces.

The battle has been described as the triumph of the Soviet theory of the "operational art" because of the complete co-ordination of all the strategic front movements and signals traffic to fool the enemy about the target of the offensive. The military tactical operations of the Red Army successfully avoided the mobile reserves of the Wehrmacht and continually "wrong-footed" the German forces. Despite the massive forces involved, Soviet front commanders left their adversaries completely confused about the main axis of attack until it was too late.[23]

Soviet Plan[edit]

Strategic aims and deception[edit]

Further information: Russian military deception

The Russian word maskirovka is roughly equivalent to the English word camouflage, but it has broader application in military use. During World War II the term was used by Soviet commanders to describe measures to create deception with the goal of inflicting surprise on the Wehrmacht forces.[24]

The Oberkommando des Heeres expected the Soviets to launch a major Eastern Front offensive in the summer of 1944. The Stavka considered a number of options. The timetable of operations between June and August had been decided on by 28 April 1944. The Stavka rejected an offensive in either the L'vov sector or the Yassy-Kishinev sectors owing to the presence of powerful enemy mobile forces equal in strength to the Soviet strategic fronts. Instead they suggested four options: an offensive into Romania and through the Carpathians, an offensive into the western Ukrainian SSR aimed at the Baltic coast, an attack into the Baltic, and an offensive in the Belorussian SSR. The first two options were rejected as being too ambitious and open to flank attack. The third option was rejected on the grounds the enemy was too well prepared. The only safe option was an offensive into Belorussia which would enable subsequent offensives from Ukraine into Poland and Romania.[25]

The Soviet operation was named after the Georgian prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration (1765–1812), a general of the Imperial Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars

The Soviet and German High Commands recognised western Ukraine as a staging area for an offensive into Poland. The Soviets, aware that the enemy would anticipate this, engaged in a maskirovka campaign to catch the German armoured forces off guard by creating a crisis in Belorussia that would force the Germans to move their powerful panzer forces, fresh from their victory in the First Jassy–Kishinev Offensive in April–June 1944, to the central front to support Army Group Centre. This was the primary purpose of Bagration.[26]

In order to maximize the chances of success, the maskirovka was a double bluff. The Soviets left four tank armies in the L'vov-Peremyshl area and allowed the Germans to know it. The attack into Romania in April–June further convinced the Soviets that the Axis forces in Romania needed removing and kept the Germans concerned about their defences there and in southern Poland, while drawing German forces to the L'vov sector.[27] Once the offensive against Army Group Centre, which lacked mobile reserves and support, had been initiated, it would create a crisis in the central sector that would force the German armoured forces north to Belorussia from Poland and Romania, despite the presence of powerful Soviet concentrations threatening German-occupied Poland.[28]

The intent of the Soviets to strike their main blow towards the Vistula can be seen in the Red Army's (albeit fragmented) order of battle. The Soviet general staff studies of both the Belorussian and L'vov-Sandomierz operations reveal that the L'vov-Przemyśl operation received the overwhelming number of tank and mechanized corps. Six guards tank corps and six tank corps along with three guards mechanized and two mechanized corps were committed to the L'vov operation. This totaled twelve tank and five mechanized corps. In contrast, Operation Bagration's Baltic and Belorussian Fronts were allocated just eight tank and two mechanized corps.[29] The 1st Belorussian Front (an important part of the L'vov-Peremshyl operation) is not mentioned on the Soviet battle order for the offensive. It contained a further six armies and was to protect the flank of the Lublin–Brest Offensive as well as engage in offensive operations in that area.[30]

The bulk of tactical resources, in particular anti-tank artillery, was allocated to the 1st Ukrainian Front, the spearhead of the Vistula, L'vov-Premyshl operation. Thirty-eight of the 54 anti-tank regiments allocated to the Belorussian-Baltic-Ukrainian operations were given to the 1st Ukrainian Front.[31] This demonstrates that the Soviet plans for the L'vov operation were a major consideration and whoever planned the offensive was determined to hold the recently captured territory.[31] The target for this operation was the Vistula bridgehead and the enormous anti-tank artillery forces helped repulse big counter-attacks by German armoured formations in August–October 1944.[32] One American author suggests that these Soviet innovations were enabled, in part, by the provision of over 220,000 Dodge and Studebaker trucks by the United States to motorize the Soviet infantry.[33]

Most of the aviation units, fighter aircraft and assault aviation (strike aircraft) were given to the L'vov operation and the protection of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Of the 78 fighter and assault aviation divisions committed to Bagration, 32 were allocated to the L'vov operation, nearly fifty percent of the aviation groups committed to Bagration[34] and contained more than was committed to the Belorussian operation.[32] This concentration of aviation was to protect the Vistula bridgeheads against air attack and to assault German counter offensives from the air.[35]

Success of deception[edit]

Towards the beginning of June 1944, the German High Command, Army Group Center and the army commands had identified a large part of the concentration against Army Group Centre, although they still considered that the main operation would be against Army Group North Ukraine. On 14 June the Chief of Staff of Army Group Centre told General Kurt Zeitzler, the Chief of the Army General Staff, that "...the Russian concentration here [in front of 9th Army] and at the Autobahn clearly indicates that the enemy attack will be aimed at the wings of the Army Group". On 10 June the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) adopted the opinion of Army Group Centre in its estimate of the enemy situation:

When it is still to be considered that the attack against Army Group Centre will be a secondary operation in the framework of the global Soviet offensive operations, it must be taken into account that the enemy will also be capable in front of Army Group Centre to build concentrations of which the force of penetration cannot be underestimated in view of the ratio of forces between the two sides.[36]

On 19 June Army Group Centre noted in its estimate of the enemy situation that the concentration of enemy air forces had become greater (4,500 out of 11,000) and that this left new doubts regarding OKH's estimate. OKH saw no grounds for this supposition.[37] Shortly before the beginning of the Soviet offensive, the army commands had detected some enemy forces near the front and had identified the places where the main Soviet attacks would take place, with the exception of 6th Guards Army near Vitebsk. The Soviet strategic reserves were not detected.[38]

Operations Rail War and Concert[edit]

The start of Operation Bagration involved many partisan formations in the Belorussian SSR, which were instructed to resume their attacks on railways and communications. From 19 June large numbers of explosive charges were placed on rail tracks and though many were cleared, they had a significant disruptive effect. The partisans were also used to mop up encircled German forces once the breakthrough and exploitation phases of the operation were completed.[39]

The Stavka had committed approximately 1,670,300 combat and support personnel,[Gc 1] approximately 32,718 artillery pieces and mortars, 5,818 tanks and assault guns and 7,799 aircraft. German strength was approximately 486,493 combat and support personnel and 3,236 field guns and other artillery pieces (not including mortars) but only 495 operational tanks and assault guns and 920 available aircraft, of which 602 were operational. Army Group Centre was seriously short of mobile reserves: the demotorized 14th Infantry Division was the only substantial reserve formation, though the 20th Panzer Division was positioned in the south near Bobruisk and the understrength Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadier Division was also held in reserve. The relatively static lines in Belorussia had enabled the Germans to construct extensive field fortifications, with multiple trench lines to a depth of several kilometres and heavily mined defensive belts.

Disposition of forces[edit]

Wehrmacht[edit]

Panther on the Eastern Front, June 21, 1944

Feste Plätze[edit]

The Wehrmacht's forces were based on logistic lines of communications and centres, which on Hitler's orders were declared Feste Plätze (fortified towns to be held at all costs) by OKH. General Jordan of 9th Army was very worried at how vulnerable this immobility made the army, correctly predicting that "if a Soviet offensive breaks out the Army will either have to go over to a mobile defence or see its front smashed".[40] However, because the initial offensive in Belarus was thought to be a feint, the Feste Plätze spanned the entire length of the Eastern Front. North to south these Feste Plätze were designated as follows.

Army Group North had Feste Plätze at Reval (Tallinn), Rakvere, Jõhvi, Dorpat (Tartu), Pleskau (Pskov), Ostrov, Opochka, Rēzekne.

Army Group Centre had Feste Plätze at [41] Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Baranovichi, Borisov, Minsk, Babruysk, Slutsk, Luninets, Pinsk, Kovel, Vilnius.

Army Group Northern Ukraine had Feste Plätze at Brody, Tarnopol, Proskurov, Zhmerynka.

Army Group Southern Ukraine had Feste Plätze at Vinnitsa, Uman, Novoukrainka, Pervomaisk, Voznesensk, Nikolayev.

Order of battle[edit]

The battle – first phase: the tactical breakthrough[edit]

Operation Bagration began on 22 June 1944, the same calendar day on which the Germans had previously invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, with probing attacks throughout the German lines. The main offensive began in the early morning of 23 June, with an artillery bombardment of unprecedented scale against the defensive works. Within hours, some sectors of the German defenses were in danger of being breached.[44]

The first phase of Soviet deep operations, the "deep battle", envisaged breaking through the tactical zones and forward German defences. Once these tactical offensives had been successful, fresh operational reserves exploited the breakthrough and the operational depths of the enemy front using powerful mechanized and armoured formations to encircle enemy concentrations on an Army Group Scale.

Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive[edit]

Generalleutnant Alfons Hitter, standing, interrogated by General Ivan Chernyakhovsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky after the battle of Vitebsk
Main article: Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive

The operation was conducted by the 1st Baltic Front and 3rd Belorussian Front against the positions of the Third Panzer Army, and the northern flank of the Fourth Army.

In the north, the 1st Baltic Front pushed the IX corps over the Dvina, while encircling the LIII Corps in the city of Vitebsk by 25 June. To the south, the 3rd Belorussian Front drove through the VI Corps, shattering it. Vitebsk was taken by 27 June, the entire LIII Corps of 30,000 men being destroyed.

The 3rd Belorussian Front simultaneously opened operations against Fourth Army's XXVII Corps holding Orsha and the main Moscow-Minsk road. Despite a tenacious German defense, Orsha was liberated by 26 June, and the 3rd Belorussian Front's mechanized forces were able to penetrate far into the German rear, reaching the Berezina River by 28 June.

Mogilev Offensive[edit]

Main article: Mogilev Offensive

The primary aim of the Mogilev Offensive, and of the 2nd Belorussian Front, was to pin down the majority of Fourth Army while the developing Vitebsk-Orsha and Bobruysk Offensives encircled it. The 2nd Belorussian Front's units attacked on 23 June, aiming to force crossings of the Dnepr against two of Army Group Centre's strongest corps, the XXXIX Panzer Corps and XII Corps.

The Dnepr was crossed by the 49th Army by 27 June, and by 28 June it had encircled and taken the town of Mogilev. The XXXIX Panzer Corps and XII Corps began to fall back towards the Berezina River under heavy air attack, but were retreating into a trap.

Bobruysk Offensive[edit]

Main article: Bobruysk Offensive
Two destroyed Panzer IV tanks belonging to the 20th Panzer Division, June 1944

The Bobruysk Offensive, against Ninth Army on the southern flank of Army Group Centre, was opened by the 1st Belorussian Front on 23 June, but suffered heavy losses attempting to penetrate the German defenses. Rokossovsky ordered additional bombing and artillery preparation, and launched further attacks the next day.

The 3rd Army broke through in the north of the sector, trapping the German XXXV Corps (Germany) [fr] against the Berezina. The 65th Army then broke through the XXXXI Panzer Corps to the south; by 27 June, the two German corps were encircled in a pocket east of Bobruysk under constant aerial bombardment.

Some elements of Ninth Army managed to break out of Bobruysk on 28 June, but up to 70,000 soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. The 1st Belorussian Front's forces liberated Bobruysk on 29 June after intense street fighting.

Second phase: Strategic offensive against Army Group Centre[edit]

The second phase of the operation involved the entire operation's most significant single objective: the retaking of Minsk, capital of the Belorussian SSR. It would also complete the large-scale encirclement and destruction, set up by the first phase, of much of Army Group Centre.

Minsk Offensive[edit]

Main article: Minsk Offensive
Civilians carry belongings out of burning houses, early July 1944

From 28 June, the main exploitation units of the 3rd Belorussian Front (the 5th Guards Tank Army and an attached cavalry-mechanised group) began to push on to secure crossings of the Berezina, followed by the 11th Guards Army. In the south, exploitation forces of the 1st Belorussian Front began to close the lower pincer of the trap developing around the German Fourth Army.[45] The Germans brought back the 5th Panzer Division into Belorussia to cover the approaches to Minsk, while the units of Fourth Army began to withdraw over the Berezina crossings, where they were pounded by heavy air bombardment. After forcing crossings of the Berezina, Soviet forces closed in on Minsk. The 2nd Guards Tank Corps was the first to break into the city in the early hours of 3 July; fighting erupted in the centre, which was finally cleared of German rearguards by the following day. The 5th Guards Tank Army and 65th Army closed the encirclement to the west of Minsk, trapping the entire German Fourth Army, and much of the remnants of Ninth Army.[46]

Over the next few days, the pocket east of Minsk was reduced: only a fraction of the 100,000 soldiers in it escaped. Minsk had been liberated, and Army Group Centre utterly destroyed, in possibly the greatest single defeat suffered by the Wehrmacht in the whole war. Between 22 June and 4 July 1944, Army Group Centre lost 25 divisions and 300,000 men. In the few subsequent weeks, the Germans lost another 100,000 men.[47]

Polotsk Offensive[edit]

Main article: Polotsk Offensive
Soviet soldiers in Polotsk, 4 July 1944

The Polotsk Offensive had the dual objective of taking Polotsk itself, and of screening the northern flank of the main Minsk Offensive against a possible German counter-offensive from Army Group North.

The 1st Baltic Front successfully pursued the retreating remnants of Third Panzer Army back towards Polotsk, which was reached by 1 July. German forces attempted to organise a defense using rear-area support units and several divisions hurriedly transferred from Army Group North.

Units of the 1st Baltic Front's 4th Shock Army and 6th Guards Army fought their way into the city over the next few days, and successfully cleared it of German forces by 4 July.

Third phase: strategic offensive operations in the north[edit]

As German resistance had almost completely collapsed, Soviet forces were ordered to push on as far as possible beyond the original objective of Minsk, and new objectives were issued by the Stavka. This resulted in a third phase of offensive operations, which should be regarded as a further part of Operation Bagration.

Field Marshal Walter Model, who had taken over command of Army Group Centre on 28 June when Ernst Busch was dismissed, hoped to reestablish a defensive line running through Lida using what was left of Third Panzer, Fourth and Ninth Armies along with new reinforcements.b

Šiauliai Offensive[edit]

Main article: Šiauliai Offensive

The Šiauliai Offensive covered the operations of the 1st Baltic Front between 5 and 31 July against the remnants of Third Panzer Army; its main objective was the Lithuanian city of Šiauliai (Russian: Shyaulyai; German: Schaulen).

The 43rd, 51st, and 2nd Guards Armies attacked towards Riga on the Baltic coast with 3rd Guards Mechanised Corps attached. By 31 July, the coast on the Gulf of Riga had been reached. 6th Guards Army covered Riga and the extended flank of the penetration towards the north.

A hurriedly organised German counter-attack managed to restore the severed connection between the remnants of Army Group Centre and Army Group North. In August, the Germans attempted to retake Šiauliai in Operation Doppelkopf and Operation Cäsar, but they failed.

Vilnius Offensive[edit]

Main article: Vilnius Offensive
Soviet and Polish Armia Krajowa soldiers in Vilnius, July 1944

The Vilnius Offensive was conducted by units of the 3rd Belorussian Front subsequent to their completion of the Minsk Offensive; they were opposed by the remnants of Third Panzer and Fourth Armies.

Units of Fourth Army, principally the 5th Panzer Division, attempted to hold the key rail junction of Molodechno, but it was taken by units of the 11th Guards Army, 5th Guards Tank Army and 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps on 5 July. German forces continued a precipitate retreat, and Soviet forces reached Vilnius (Russian: Vilna; Polish: Wilno), held by units of the Third Panzer Army, by 7 July.

By 8 July, the city had been encircled, trapping the garrison, who were ordered to hold fast at all costs. Soviet forces then fought their way into the city in intense street-by-street fighting (alongside an Armia Krajowa uprising, Operation Ostra Brama). On 12 July, 6th Panzer Division counter-attacked and temporarily opened an escape corridor for the besieged troops, but the majority of them were lost when the city finally fell on 13 July (this phase of the operation is commonly known as the Battle of Vilnius). On 23 July, the Fourth Army commander, Hoßbach, in agreement with Model, committed the newly arrived 19th Panzer Division into a counter-attack with the intention of cutting off the Soviet spearheads in the Augustow Forest. This failed.

Belostock Offensive[edit]

Main article: Belostock Offensive

The Belostock Offensive covered the operations of 2nd Belorussian Front between 5 and 27 July, with the objective of the Polish city of Białystok.

The 40th and 41st Rifle Corps of 3rd Army, on the front's left wing, took Białystok by storm on 27 July, after two days of fighting.

Lublin–Brest Offensive[edit]

Main article: Lublin–Brest Offensive

The Lublin-Brest Offensive was carried out by Marshal Rokossovsky's 1st Belorussian Front between 18 July and 2 August, and developed the initial gains of Operation Bagration toward eastern Poland and the Vistula. The 47th and 8th Guards Armies reached the Bug River by 21 July, and the latter reached the eastern bank of the Vistula by 25 July. Lublin was taken on 24 July; the 2nd Tank Army was ordered to turn north, towards Warsaw, to cut off the retreat of forces from Army Group Centre in the Brest area. Brest was taken on 28 July and the Front's left wing seized bridgeheads over the Vistula by 2 August. This effectively completed the operation, the remainder of the summer being given over to defensive efforts against a series of German counter-attacks on the bridgeheads. The Operation ended with the defeat of German Army Group North Ukraine and Soviet bridgeheads over the Vistula river west of Sandomierz.[48]

Kaunas Offensive[edit]

Main article: Kaunas Offensive

The Kaunas Offensive covered the operations of Chernyakhovsky's 3rd Belorussian Front from 28 July to 28 August, towards the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, subsequent to their completion of the offensive against Vilnius. By 30 July all Wehrmacht resistance on the approaches to the Neman River had retreated or been annihilated. Two days later the city of Kaunas was under Soviet control.

Osovets Offensive[edit]

Main article: Osovets Offensive

This offensive covered the operations of 2nd Belorussian Front from 6–14 August, after their completion of the Belostock Offensive, with the objective of the fortified area at Osowiec on one of the tributaries of the Narew River. The very large fortress complex there secured the approaches to East Prussia through the region's marshes.

German forces were able to stabilise their line of defense along the Narew, which they held until the East Prussian Offensive of January 1945.

Aftermath[edit]

Abandoned vehicles of the German 9th Army at a road near Bobruisk

This was by far the greatest Soviet victory in numerical terms. The Red Army liberated a vast amount of Soviet territory whose population had suffered greatly under the German occupation. The advancing Soviets found cities destroyed, villages depopulated, and much of the population killed, or deported by the occupiers. In order to show the outside world the magnitude of the victory, some 50,000 German prisoners, taken from the encirclement east of Minsk, were paraded through Moscow: even marching quickly and twenty abreast, they took 90 minutes to pass.[49][50][51]

The German army never recovered from the materiel and manpower losses sustained during this time, having lost about a quarter of its Eastern Front manpower, similar to the percentage of loss at Stalingrad (about 17 full divisions). These losses included many experienced soldiers, NCOs and commissioned officers, which at this stage of the war the Wehrmacht could not replace. An indication of the completeness of the Soviet victory is that 31 of the 47 German divisional or corps commanders involved were killed or captured.[52] Of the German generals lost, nine were killed, including two corps commanders; 22 captured, including four corps commanders; Major-General Hahne, commander of 197th Infantry Division disappeared on 24 June, while Lieutenant-Generals Zutavern and Philipp of the 18th Panzergrenadier and 134th Infantry Divisions committed suicide.

German prisoners of war in Moscow, 15 July 1944.

Overall, the near-total destruction of Army Group Centre was very costly for the Germans. Exact German losses are unknown, but newer research indicates around 400,000 overall casualties.[a] Soviet losses were also substantial, with 180,040 killed and missing, 590,848 wounded and sick, together with 2,957 tanks, 2,447 artillery pieces, and 822 aircraft also lost.[details][11]

The offensive cut off Army Group North and Army Group North Ukraine from each other, and weakened them as resources were diverted to the central sector. This forced both Army Groups to withdraw from Soviet territory much more quickly when faced with the following Soviet offensives in their sectors.

The end of Operation Bagration coincided with the destruction of many of the strongest units of the German Army engaged against the Allies on the Western Front in the Falaise Pocket in Normandy, during Operation Overlord. After these stunning victories, on both eastern and western fronts, supply problems rather than German resistance slowed the subsequent rapid Allied advance, and it eventually ground to a temporary halt. However, the Germans were able to transfer armoured units from the Italian front, where they could afford to give ground, to resist the Soviet advance near Warsaw.

This was one of the largest Allied operations of WWII with 2.3 million troops engaged, three Axis armies eliminated, and vast amounts of Soviet territory recaptured. [53]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Adair, pages 85–86, estimates 2,500,000 men, half in the front line and half in support.
  • a The exact casualties of the German forces during Operation Bagration will never be known, as not much research has been done on this subject.[54] Wartime Soviet estimates claim 539,480 German overall casualties (including 158,480 captured).[55][9] Western estimates put German casualties lower at about 300,000 – 350,000 men.[54] Newer research done by the MGFA and led by historian Karl Heinz Frieser put German casualties at 399,102 soldiers.
  • b Bergstrom lists the following losses:
    Second Army: 7,080 killed, 32,833 wounded, 12,976 missing
    Ninth Army: 2,955 killed, 13,957 wounded, 64,762 missing
    Fourth Army: 8,015 killed, 29,383 wounded, 113,155 missing
    Third Panzer Army: 8,311 killed, 33,508 wounded, 72,066 missing[10]
  • c Soviet dead break down into the following figures:
    First Baltic Front: 41,248
    Third Belorussian Front: 45,117
    Second Belorussian Front: 26,315
    First Belorussian Front: 65,779
    Dnyepr Flotilla: 48
    First Polish Army: 1,533 killed and missing[10]
  • d Figures for total German losses along the Eastern Front from 1 June–29 August 1944 were 71,685 killed, 503,564 wounded and 325,381 missing, for a total of 900,630.[10]
  • e The German Order of Battle for Army Group Centre in mid-July shows the remnants of Ninth Army incorporated in Second Army; Third Panzer Army reduced to Korps-Abteilung G and fragments of IX and XXVI Corps; and Fourth Army consisting of the battered 5th Panzer and 50th Infantry Divisions along with Kampfgruppe Flörke, some remnants of security divisions and part of the Totenkopf (all under the command of Helmuth Weidling, who had previously been commanding a corps of Ninth Army at Bobruisk) plus 7th Panzer (see Hinze, Ostfrontdrama 1944). Though Soviet forces were exhausted and their supply lines dangerously extended, the extremely weak forces arrayed against them encouraged commanders to push on as far as possible.

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Frieser 2007, p. 531.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Frieser 2007, p. 534.
  3. ^ Glantz & Orenstein 2004, p. 4.
  4. ^ a b Glantz & House 1995, p. 132.
  5. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 201.
  6. ^ Frieser p. 593–594
  7. ^ Zaloga 1996, p. 71
  8. ^ Алексей Исаев. Цена Победы. Операция «Багратион» Эхо Москвы. 17.08.2009
  9. ^ a b Glantz & Orenstein 2004, p. 176.
  10. ^ a b c d Bergstrom 2008, p. 82.
  11. ^ a b Glantz & House 1995, p. 298.
  12. ^ Krivosheev 1997, p. 371.
  13. ^ a b Krivosheev 1997, p. 203.
  14. ^ Alternative spellings for Belorussian Offensive are Byelorussian Offensive and Belarusian Offensive
  15. ^ Not to be confused with the 1943 Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation (3 October–31 December 1943).
  16. ^ Willmott 1984, p. 154.
  17. ^ Zaloga 1996, p. 7.
  18. ^ Watt 2008, p. 699.
  19. ^ Watt 2008, p. 669.
  20. ^ Watt 2008, p. 670.
  21. ^ a b Ziemke 1969, p. 11.
  22. ^ Watt 2008, pp. 699–700.
  23. ^ Watt 2008, pp. 673–4.
  24. ^ Glantz 1989, pp. xxxvii–viii.
  25. ^ Watt 2008, p. 683.
  26. ^ Watt 2008, p. 685.
  27. ^ Watt 2008, pp. 683–4.
  28. ^ Watt 2008, p. 684.
  29. ^ Watt 2008, p. 686.
  30. ^ Watt 2008, p. 687.
  31. ^ a b Watt 2008, p. 690.
  32. ^ a b Watt 2008, p. 691.
  33. ^ Connor 1987.
  34. ^ Watt 2008, p. 692.
  35. ^ Watt 2008, pp. 691–3.
  36. ^ Niepold 1987, pp. 22–3.
  37. ^ Niepold 1987, p. 28.
  38. ^ Niepold 1987, pp. 31–2.
  39. ^ Adair 2004, p. 69–80.
  40. ^ Adair 2004, p. 66–68.
  41. ^ Adair 2004, p. 67.
  42. ^ Adair 2004, p. 173–175.
  43. ^ Adair 2004, p. 175–176.
  44. ^ Adair 2004, p. 87.
  45. ^ Glantz & House 1995, pp. 206–7.
  46. ^ Glantz & House 1995, pp. 207–9.
  47. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 209.
  48. ^ Glantz 2002, p. 1.
  49. ^ Rus Vitulina (9 May 2011). "Проконвоирование немцев через Москву 17 июля 1944" – via YouTube.
  50. ^ "German Prisoners Walking Across Moscow - English Russia". englishrussia.com.
  51. ^ Adair, 2004. page 157
  52. ^ Willmott, p. 138
  53. ^ "Operation Bagration: Soviet Offensive of 1944 | HistoryNet". www.historynet.com. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  54. ^ a b Zaloga 1996, p. 71.
  55. ^ "День Победы. 70 лет". День Победы. 70 лет.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Adair, Paul (2004) [1994]. Hitler's Greatest Defeat: The collapse of Army Group Centre, June 1944. Weidenfeld Military. ISBN 1-85409-232-4.
  • Bergstrom, Christer (2008). Bagration to Berlin: The Final Air Battles in the East: 1944–1945. Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-903223-91-8.
  • Connor, William M. (1987). "Analysis of Deep Attack Operations: Operation Bagration, Belorussia, 22 June – 29 August 1944" (PDF). Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  • Frieser, Karl-Heinz; Schmider, Klaus; Schönherr, Klaus; Schreiber, Gerhard; Ungváry, Kristián; Wegner, Bernd (2007). Die Ostfront 1943/44 – Der Krieg im Osten und an den Nebenfronten [The Eastern Front 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts]. Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg [Germany and the Second World War] (in German). VIII. München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. ISBN 978-3-421-06235-2.
  • Glantz, David M. (1989). Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War. London: Frank Cass. ISBN 0-7146-3347-X.
  • Glantz, David M. (2002). The Battle for L'vov, July 1944. Routledge Press. ISBN 978-0-7146-5201-6.
  • Glantz, David M.; House, Jonathan (1995). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-0899-0.
  • Krivosheev, G. F. (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 1-85367-280-7.
  • Niepold, G. (1987). Battle for White Russia: The Destruction of Army Group Centre June 1944. Translated by Simpkin, R. London: Brassey's. ISBN 0-08-033606-X.
  • Watt, Robert N. (December 2008). "Feeling the Full Force of a Four Front Offensive: Re-Interpreting the Red Army's 1944 Belorussian and L'vov-Peremshyl' Operations". The Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 21 (4): 669–705. doi:10.1080/13518040802497564.
  • Willmott, H. P. (1984). June, 1944. Blandford Press. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8.
  • Zaloga, S. (1996). Bagration 1944: The Destruction of Army Group Centre. Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-478-7.
  • Ziemke, Earl F. (1969). Battle For Berlin: End Of The Third Reich. London: Macdonald.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Media related to Operation Bagration at Wikimedia Commons

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