Operations of the USSR in 1944. Offensive operations of the Red Army
By 1944 the situation had changed even more in favor Soviet Union. The final period of the war in Europe began. But the path to its end was difficult. The fascist army still remained strong. Due to the absence of a second front, Germany continued to keep its main troops on the Soviet-German front. Its 236 divisions and 18 brigades operated here, which included more than 5 million people, 54 thousand guns, 5,400 tanks, 3 thousand aircraft. Germany still controlled the resources of almost all of Europe.
To strengthen the Eastern Front, the command of the German troops by the end of 1943 transferred 75 divisions and a large number of military weapons from the west. However, German industry was no longer able to satisfy the continuously increasing demand for military equipment.
From the autumn of 1944 to military service More than 200 thousand people were mobilized into the German armed forces every month. But this replenishment did not compensate for the losses that if the German troops.
In December 1943, Stalin, in a “narrow circle of people,” raised the question of new form conduct of the 1944 military campaign: superiority over the enemy in terms of strategic initiative, favorable location of troops, sufficient human and material and technical resources made it possible to conduct large operations not in one or two directions, but consistently along the entire front.
The offensive operations of 1944, called "Ten Stalinist blows", began immediately after the completion of the 1943 offensive, not allowing the enemy to come to his senses after the defeat in the battles near Kursk and the Dnieper . The task was to develop a sequence of attacks on the enemy that would be unexpected for him, be continuous, and would deprive him of the opportunity to maneuver his forces to repel the main attack.
Thus, main task for 1944 was as follows: to finally defeat the main German groups and complete the expulsion of the invaders from Soviet soil.
Features of military operations in 1944:
1) Almost the entire military campaign of 1944 was developed at the end of 1943. It was the Soviet troops who dictated the nature of actions at the front.
2) Offensive actions were carried out along the entire length of the front, but not simultaneously, but in the form of a series of successive operations on separate sections of the front.
3) These attacks were carried out on opposite sectors of the front, which did not give German troops the opportunity to transfer reserves.
4) The actions of the partisans were coordinated and carried out within the framework of a common strategic plan.
The first blow as a result of which the long-term defense of the Germans was broken, was inflicted by our troops in January 1944 near Leningrad and Novgorod . As a result of this blow, a half-million fascist army was defeated and thrown back to the Baltic States.
Second strike was inflicted in February - April 1944 in Right Bank Ukraine (Korsun-Shevchenko operation) . There, a group of Germans (10 divisions) in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky area was destroyed. After this, in the midst of the spring thaw, a large-scale offensive was launched. This was so unexpected for the Germans that, fleeing for their lives, they abandoned their equipment and weapons due to the impassability of the roads, and retreated across the river. Bug and Dniester. Right Bank Ukraine was liberated from the enemy. Soviet troops entered the territory of Moldova, and on March 26 they reached the border with Romania.
In April–May 1944 our troops inflicted third crushing blow against the enemy in the area of Crimea and Odessa . It took the Germans 250 days to capture Crimea, and Soviet troops liberated it in 5 days (May 7 - 12, 1944).
Before the Germans had time to recover from the attacks in the south, in June 1944 was brought down on them fourth strike – in the Karelia region. As a result, the Red Army defeated the Finnish troops, liberated Vyborg and Petrozavodsk, and liberated part of the Karelo-Finnish Republic.
Under the influence of the successes of the Red Army, our allies were no longer able to delay further opening of a second front. On June 6, 1944, the American-British command, two years late, began a large landing in Northern France.
Fifth strike was inflicted on the Germans in June – August 1944 during the largest offensive operation in Belarus “Bagration” .
On May 20, 1944, the General Staff completed the development of the plan for the Belarusian offensive operation. It was included in the operational documents of the Headquarters under the code name "Bagration". The successful implementation of the plan of Operation Bagration made it possible to solve a whole series others, no less strategically important tasks.
1) Completely clear the Moscow direction from enemy troops, since leading edge the ledge was located 80 kilometers from Smolensk;
2) Complete the liberation of the entire territory of Belarus;
3) Reach the coast of the Baltic Sea and the borders of East Prussia, which made it possible to cut the enemy’s front at the junctions of army groups “Center” and “North” and isolate these German groups from each other;
4) Create favorable operational and tactical prerequisites for subsequent offensive actions in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine, in the East Prussian and Warsaw directions.
Operation Bagration was carried out June 23 - August 29. To defeat the enemy, the Soviet Supreme High Command allocated fronts: 1st Baltic (Army General I.Kh. Bagramyan), 1st (Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky), 2nd (Army General G.F. Zakharov), 3rd (Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky) Belarusian - a total of 17 armies, incl. 1 tank and 3 air, 4 tank and 2 Caucasian corps, cavalry-mechanized group, Dnieper military flotilla . The actions of the fronts were coordinated by Marshals of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, G.K. Zhukov.
By the end of June 22, 1944, a front stretching over 1,100 km in Belarus ran along the line of Lake Nescherdo, east of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Zhlobin, along the Pripyat River, forming a huge ledge. Here the troops of Army Group Center defended, which had a well-developed network of railways and highways for wide maneuver along internal lines, blocking the Soviet troops’ path to Warsaw. When transitioning Soviet troops on the offensive, she could deliver powerful flank attacks on the troops of the Baltic and Belorussian fronts
The fascist German troops occupied a pre-prepared, deeply echeloned (2.50-270 km) defense, which was based on a developed system of field fortifications and natural lines. Defensive lines ran, as a rule, along the western banks of numerous rivers that had wide swampy floodplains.
The plan of the Soviet command provided for a simultaneous breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses in 6 sectors in order to dismember his troops and defeat them piece by piece. Particular importance was attached to the defeat of the strongest flank groupings of the Nazis defending in the areas of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, which provided conditions for the rapid advance of large forces of the 3rd and 1st Belorussian Fronts and the development of their success along converging directions to Minsk.
The surviving enemy troops were to be thrown back to a depth of 200-250 km into an area near Minsk unfavorable for defensive operations, cut off their escape routes, encircle them and eliminate them. Subsequently, building up the attack and expanding the front of the offensive, Soviet troops were supposed to reach the western border of the USSR.
The operation consisted of 2 stages. At the first (June 23 - July 4), the Vitebsk-Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Polotsk, and Minsk operations were carried out. As a result of the 1st stage of the Belarusian operation, the main forces of Army Group Center were defeated, a 400-kilometer gap was formed in the center of the Soviet-German front, and Soviet troops were able to advance to the West.
At the 2nd stage (July 5 - August 29), the Vilnius, Bialystok, Lublin-Brest, Siauliai, and Kaunas operations were carried out.
During the operation, the partisans cut off the enemy’s retreat routes, captured and built new bridges and crossings for the Red Army, independently liberated a number of regional centers, and participated in the liquidation of encircled enemy groups. The Belarusian operation created the conditions for the further advance of the Red Army into German territory.
For participation in the Belarusian operation, more than 1,500 generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 662 formations and units received honorary names after the names of the cities and localities they liberated. In honor of the operation, the Mound of Glory of the Soviet Army, the liberator of Belarus, was built on the 21st km of the Minsk-Moscow highway. The liberation day of Minsk on July 3 is celebrated as Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus
As a result sixth strike (in July – August ) The Red Army drove the Germans back beyond the San and Vistula rivers with the liberation of Western Ukraine and consolidation of the bridgehead west of Sandomierz ( Lviv-Sandomierz operation ).
IN August 1944 (Iasso – Chisinau operation ) our troops inflicted seventh strike- in the Chisinau-Iasi region, where 22 German divisions were surrounded and defeated, forcing the Romanian army to surrender. As a result of this operation, Moldova was completely liberated, Romania and Bulgaria were withdrawn from the war.
As a result the eighth strike (in September - October 1944 ) near Tallinn and Riga German troops were defeated and expelled from the Baltic states, and Finland, which declared war on Germany, was also withdrawn from the war.
Ninth strike our troops inflicted in October 1944 between Tissa and Danube in Hungary and Yugoslavia . As a result of this blow, Hungary was withdrawn from the fascist bloc and a significant part of Yugoslavia was liberated. The troops crossed the Carpathian ridge and entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.
But the northern part of the Soviet-German front still remained. In the plans of the fascist German command, a significant place was occupied by the issue of capturing the northwestern regions of the Soviet Union, mastering the Soviet Arctic, the sea routes of the Northern Arctic Ocean and the capture of Murmansk railway. This would allow Nazi Germany to secure its northern flank, as well as isolate the USSR from the outside world and prevent shipping between our northern ports and the ports of England and the USA. The Nazis also believed that the capture of the Soviet North would best ensure German communications for the removal of strategic raw materials from the USSR and supplying the troops of the 20th Mountain Army.
The tenth blow in October 1944 there was an operation troops of the Karelian Front and ships of the Northern Fleet to defeat the 20th mountain German army in Northern Finland , as a result of which the Pechenga area was liberated and the threat to the port of Murmansk and the northern sea routes of the USSR was eliminated. Soviet troops occupied Pechenga on October 15, cleared the entire area of nickel mines on October 23, and on October 25 entered the borders of allied Norway to liberate it from German troops.
Thus, 1944 ended with a complete and steady advantage of the Red Army over the Wehrmacht. In 1944, the entire territory of the USSR was cleared of Nazi invaders and military operations were transferred to the territory of Germany and its allies. The successes of the Soviet Army in 1944 predetermined the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
During the fighting in 1944, the Soviet Armed Forces destroyed and captured 138 divisions; 58 German divisions, which suffered losses of up to 50% or more, were disbanded and reduced to battle groups. In the battles for Belarus alone, 540 thousand were captured by the Red Army. German soldiers and officers. On July 17, 1944, up to 60 thousand of this composition, led by 19 generals, were marched through the streets of Moscow.
PLAN-OUTLINE
conducting classes on public and state training
with officers of the military unit
TOPIC: “The most important operations of the Red Army in 1944: results and lessons.”
TIME: 2 hours, 2 hours.
VENUE: club, VR class.
DATE:
STUDY QUESTIONS:
- The most important operations of the Soviet troops in 1944:
a) Fierce fighting in Ukraine;
b) Battle of Leningrad;
c) Operation on the Karelian Isthmus;
d) Liberation of the Belarusian land;
e) The defeat of Nazi troops in the Baltic states.
LITERATURE: Book “The Great Patriotic War”, M., Military Publishing House. 1989.
PROGRESS OF THE CLASS:
As a result of a deep and comprehensive analysis of the situation on the fronts of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, State Committee The Defense and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to launch an offensive from Leningrad to the Black Sea in the winter campaign of 1944. At the same time, the main offensive operations were planned to be carried out in the southwestern direction in order to clear Right Bank Ukraine and Crimea of the enemy. It was decided to completely liberate Leningrad from the siege. In the northwestern direction, Soviet troops were supposed to reach the borders of the Baltic republics.
The Soviet Armed Forces were ready to carry out these major tasks. By the beginning of 1944, the active army had more than 6.3 million people, 83.6 thousand guns and mortars, 5,258 tanks and self-propelled guns, 10,200 aircraft. The Soviet Army firmly held the strategic initiative. As during the entire war, our troops had moral and political superiority over the enemy, the indestructible unity of the front and rear, and the support of all peace-loving peoples.
The winter campaign of 1944 began with offensive actions by Soviet troops in Right Bank Ukraine.
Fierce fighting continued until mid-February. Soviet soldiers conducted offensive attacks here fighting, as throughout Right Bank Ukraine, in extremely difficult conditions. The roads became muddy, and vehicles carrying cargo often got stuck. The troops used horse, oxen and even cow teams to transport goods. Soldiers often carried shells and mines on their hands. Local residents rescued from fascist captivity actively helped our soldiers.
The Korsun-Shevchenko operation ended in a heavy defeat for the Nazis. 55 thousand soldiers and officers were killed, 18 thousand surrendered. Our troops captured a large amount of enemy equipment and weapons.
The gigantic battle in Ukraine continued. Soviet troops carried out a series of successive operations and inflicted heavy defeats on the enemy. In February, troops of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts struck in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and cleared the enemy from the left bank of the river to the very mouth, liberating the city of Krivoy Rog on the right bank of the Dnieper. By mid-April, front troops reached the foothills of the Carpathians.
The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front advanced successfully. March 26 soviet soldiers reached the Prut River on a broad front, the border of the Soviet Union with Romania. This good news spread throughout the country. The liberated section of the border along the Prut was taken under guard by the 24th Border Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel S.E. Kapustin. It is very symbolic that the regiment’s border guards took their first battle here at the very beginning of the war.
The advance of the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, advancing in the direction of Nikolaev and Odessa, was successful. At the end of March, Soviet troops liberated Nikolaev.
Having landed in the Nikolaev port, the paratroopers repelled the enemy’s fierce attacks for two days, pinning down his large forces. 55 soldiers fell in battles with the Nazis, the rest fought until our troops arrived.
On April 10, Soviet troops liberated Odessa. Two days later, the Red Banner hoisted over Tiraspol, and then our troops crossed the Dniester on the move and created a bridgehead on its right bank.
The gigantic battle on Right Bank Ukraine ended in a major defeat for the Nazis. Soviet troops advanced 250-450 kilometers. The state border was restored along 400 kilometers, opening up opportunities in the near future to completely liberate all of Western Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and then help the peoples of Europe in getting rid of fascist slavery.
In accordance with the plan of the Soviet Supreme High Command, military operations began near Leningrad and Novgorod in January-February.
In two and a half years, the Nazis created powerful fortifications up to 250 kilometers deep near Leningrad, the so-called Northern Wall. Therefore, the offensive of the Soviet troops near Leningrad and Novgorod was prepared for a long time and carefully.
Under the attacks of Soviet troops, enemy fortifications collapsed, and our units successfully advanced to the west. Gatchina, Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Novgorod, Luga, Staraya Russa, Kholm, Dno, Porkhov and other cities were liberated.
The partisans, united in 13 brigades numbering 35 thousand people, provided significant assistance to the advancing Soviet troops. In accordance with the plans of the fronts, the people's avengers attacked enemy communications, blew up bridges, and disrupted communications.
On January 27, 1944, a ceremonial fireworks display sounded in Leningrad, which announced that the enemy blockade of the city had been finally eliminated. The battle for Leningrad continued for over two years. The offensive of Soviet troops near Leningrad and Novgorod ended by the beginning of spring.
By the summer of 1944, the prospect of the complete defeat of Nazi Germany by the forces of the Soviet Army alone became even more realistic. Such a course of events was not included in the calculations of the ruling circles of the USA and England. For two years, under various pretexts, they delayed the opening of a second front in Europe. But in the current situation, fearing a further increase in the influence of the USSR, the allies were forced to open a second front. On June 6, 1944, Anglo-American troops landed on the coast of France. But even after this, the Soviet-German front remained the main, decisive one, attracting two-thirds of the fascist forces and means.
The summer campaign of 1944 began with the offensive of Soviet troops on the Karelian Isthmus and South Karelia. Troops of the Leningrad Front in cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral V.F. Tributsa broke into powerful defensive structures and stormed the ancient Russian city of Vyborg. Then the northwestern part of the Karelian Isthmus and the main islands of the Vyborg Bay were cleared of the enemy.
The victory on the Karelian Isthmus and South Karelia predetermined Finland's exit from the war. On September 4, Finland announced the severance of relations with Germany.
The main events of the summer of 1944 unfolded in Belarus. For three years, the Belarusian people languished under the yoke of fascist occupation. But the Belarusian people did not bow their heads to the enemy. By the summer of 1944, over 140 thousand partisans were fighting in the occupied part of Belarus.
And now the hour has struck for the liberation of the Belarusian land. Coordination of the actions of the fronts was carried out, as in many other largest operations. The Soviet Motherland created all the conditions for a crushing blow to the enemy.
The plan of the Belarusian strategic operation provided for the simultaneous breakthrough of enemy defenses in six sectors, the encirclement and destruction of flank groupings of fascist troops in the areas of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, and the defeat of the Orsha and Mogilev groups.
On June 23, Soviet troops went on the offensive. During the first six days of the offensive, Soviet troops broke through the powerful enemy defenses and advanced up to 150 kilometers to the west.
By the end of June, more than 10 fascist divisions were surrounded and destroyed in the area of Bobruisk and Vitebsk. By the end of July 3, a ring had closed around the enemy group east of Minsk. Here, over 100 thousand Nazis ended up in the cauldron. Soon the surrounded troops were defeated.
By the end of July, Belarus was cleared of fascist occupiers. At the same time, the liberation of Lithuania and Latvia began.
By the end of August 1944, more than half of the Baltic republics had been cleared of the Nazis. But the Nazi troops stubbornly clung to the Baltic states. They held a significant group of troops here, which was defeated by the troops of the Leningrad, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts.
The defeat of the fascist German troops in Karelia and the Baltic states and the withdrawal of Finland from the war created favorable conditions for the expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from the Soviet Arctic in October 1944.
On July 29, 1944, during the Belarusian Strategic Offensive Operation, better known as Operation Bagration, the Red Army inflicted a crushing defeat on the German Army Group Center. There was less than a year left before the complete defeat of the Nazis.
The day before
The military actions to liberate Ukraine by units of the Red Army in the fall of 1943 - winter of 1944 are quite widely known. To a lesser extent, operations on the territory of modern Belarus are known. And if the Red Army was successful in Southern Belarus (Gomel, Rechitsa and a number of others were liberated settlements), then the battles in the Orsha and Vitebsk directions took place with heavy losses and without significant advance of troops. Here the German defense had to be literally “gnawed through”.
However, by the spring of 1944, a front configuration that was extremely unfavorable for the German troops had developed, when units of Army Group Center found themselves surrounded from the north and south. Despite this, the German command expected that the most powerful Soviet strike would follow in Ukraine, where up to 80 percent of German tanks and a large amount of manpower were concentrated. Subsequent events showed that this was one of the miscalculations of the German command. It cannot be said that the offensive was for the German troops a complete surprise- it is impossible to hide the concentration of a large number of troops and equipment, but the strength and direction of the attacks turned out to be largely unexpected for the enemy.
Vitebsk Operation
During Operation Bagration, a special place is occupied by the Vitebsk offensive operation, which was carried out by the flank armies of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian fronts and is interesting as a successful example of interaction between two fronts.
The encirclement and destruction of a strong German group in the Vitebsk region was carried out without the involvement of large tank units - only by combined arms formations.
Despite the fact that the offensive took place in an area unfavorable for large-scale operations, replete with forests and swamps, the operation was carried out successfully and in an extremely short time. Apparently, the personal order of Adolf Hitler, who refused the offer to leave an extremely important, but at the same time inconvenient for defense, section of the front, also played a role.
Already on June 23, on the first day of the offensive, significant success was achieved by Soviet troops, and a day later fighting broke out in Vitebsk itself, which was liberated in the early morning of June 26. The second part of the operation was associated with the liquidation of several enemy groups that were surrounded.
By the evening of June 28, enemy resistance was broken. The main role was played by the speed of action and the overwhelming superiority of Soviet troops in aviation, since the enemy had virtually no counteraction in the air. During the occupation and battles, Vitebsk was practically turned into ruins, and out of 167 thousand inhabitants (according to the 1939 census), only 118 people remained in the city at the time of liberation.
Bobruisk offensive operation
A powerful blow was delivered by units of the Red Army in the Bobruisk direction. Here the German troops, relying on a number of intermediate lines, made an attempt to preserve and withdraw equipment and the most combat-ready units. However, the German troops retreating in dense columns were scattered and destroyed by artillery and tank strikes. Great value In the battles near Bobruisk, the almost complete air supremacy of Soviet aviation played a role.
Bombers and attack aircraft often operated without any fighter cover at all. So, in two hours on June 27, 1944, 159 tons of bombs fell on one of the German columns. Further examination of the area revealed that the enemy had left more than a thousand dead, 150 tanks, about 1,000 guns and more than 6,500 vehicles and tractors in place.
On June 29, Bobruisk was liberated by Soviet troops. Individual German units managed to break out of the ring to Osipovichi, where they were completely scattered.
Minsk "cauldron"
The third encirclement of a large German group was carried out by Soviet troops in the Minsk region. As in other sectors, the offensive of the Soviet troops developed rapidly. On July 2, Borisov was liberated - the occupation of this city lasted exactly three years and one day (from July 1, 1941 to July 2, 1944).
Units of the Red Army, bypassing Minsk, cut off the roads to Baranovichi and Molodechno. German troops east of Minsk and in the city itself were surrounded. In total, about 105 thousand people were surrounded. Soviet troops, based on the experience of previous campaigns, managed to very quickly create an external front of encirclement and cut the German group into several parts.
On July 3, Minsk was liberated. Nowadays, this date is celebrated as Independence Day of Belarus. Surrounded by German units in small groups of up to two thousand people, they made repeated attempts to break through bypassing Minsk from the north and south.
On the first day, German aviation tried to organize an air bridge, but rapid changes in the situation and the dominance of Soviet fighters in the air forced the German command to abandon this option.
Now the surrounded units were left to their own devices. To combat scattered groups in units of the 2nd Belorussian Front, special mobile detachments began to be formed (three per rifle regiment).
Support for the actions of mobile units was carried out from the air, when aviation corrected the actions of ground units and carried out assault strikes. About 30 active support was provided to the regular troops in the destruction of scattered groups. partisan detachments. In total, during the Minsk operation, German troops lost about 72 thousand killed and missing and 35 thousand people. prisoners. The success of operations in the eastern and central parts of Belarus made it possible to begin the liberation of the western regions of the republic, the Baltic states and Poland without pause.
In January 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive with the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, as a result of which the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted. In April 1944, the forces of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts liberated Right Bank Ukraine and Odessa. In May 1944, the 4th Ukrainian Front captured Crimea. On May 9, Sevastopol was liberated. In some areas, our troops reached the pre-war Soviet border.
The Germans assumed that the summer campaign would begin with increased fighting in the south. However, already in the spring the General Staff began developing a plan for the liberation of Belarus. Operation Bagration began on June 23, 1944. As a result, the German Army Group Center was defeated, Minsk was liberated, and the liberation of the Baltic states and Poland began.
Operation Bagration was carried out as a commitment to the Allies to divert German forces during the opening of a second front.
On June 6, Allied troops crossed the English Channel and began fighting in France. The successes of the Soviet army in the summer campaign of 1944 contributed to the victorious Allied offensive in Europe. The Germans were driven out of Normandy and began to retreat to Germany.
At the same time, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation was carried out to liberate Lvov. As a result, the German group “Northern Ukraine” was defeated.
The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts carried out the Iasi-Chisinau operation, defeated the troops of the Southern Ukraine group and liberated Chisinau. This victory gave impetus to the start of the liberation uprising in Bucharest and Romania's exit from the war. The occupation was lifted by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in September 1944.
By the fall of 1944, the territory of the Soviet Union was cleared of fascists. The liberation of Europe enslaved by the Nazis began. The vast majority of the population of the countries where Soviet troops entered were opponents of the occupying German regime.
The Red Army was perceived in Europe as a liberating army. However, of all the countries, only in Yugoslavia did our army receive real support - from the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito. Belgrade was liberated together with them.
As a result successful actions On the Karelian Isthmus, Soviet troops defeated 30 Finnish divisions. Blocked on the territory of Latvia, they surrendered in May 1944. Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga were liberated. Finland surrendered on September 19, 1944.
On July 20, 1944, Red Army troops began the liberation of Poland. The right to create governing bodies on Polish territory was recognized by the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PCNL) under the leadership of the communists.
However, Polish emigration in London began to lay claim to power in the future state and demand a revision of the borders of Poland and the USSR established in 1939. On August 1, forces subordinate to the London government raised an anti-Hitler uprising in Warsaw.
Stalin repeatedly warned the rebels about the impossibility of providing support. The Soviet units were exhausted by the long offensive, became separated from the rear and were located at a considerable distance from Warsaw. As a result, the uprising was suppressed and the city was destroyed.
German troops put up fierce resistance in the battles for Hungary. Supported by the Hungarian army, they repulsed two attempts to capture Budapest.
Bloody battles took place in the area of. Balaton. The fascist resistance was broken only by the beginning of April.
On August 29, 1944, the anti-Hitler Slovak national uprising broke out, but it was suppressed by the Germans, since our troops were unable to cross the Carpathians in time and provide assistance.
On May 5, 1945, an uprising against the Nazis began in Prague. The rebels immediately requested help from the Soviet command, and on May 9, 1945, Soviet tank formations entered Prague.
The winter offensive of the Soviet troops led to the fact that on the territory of Belarus the front line formed a protrusion with an area of almost 250 thousand square kilometers, the top of which was facing east. It was in this strategically important area, called the “Belarusian balcony,” that a powerful Wehrmacht group held its position.
The salient was of great importance for both warring parties: Army Group Center, and later parts of Army Groups North and Northern Ukraine, defended the approaches to East Prussia and Poland, and also controlled the situation in the Baltic states and Western Ukraine; For the Red Army, the elimination of the salient opened the way to Poland and further to Germany, and made it possible to launch flank attacks on two groups of enemy armies at once.
The leadership of the Third Reich was confident that the Red Army was preparing two strong attacks in the summer of 1944, north of Leningrad and south of Pripyat, in southern regions Poland and the Balkans. There was no talk of a Soviet offensive in Belarus at Hitler's headquarters.
And at this time, the Soviet command already had an idea of what exactly the new offensive operation would be like: it was planned that the summer offensive in Belarus would be a repeat Battle of Kursk- without a deep breakthrough and stubborn battles that will exhaust the enemy’s forces. The General Staff began developing Operation Bagration in April 1944, and in May the Supreme Command Headquarters approved the plan for a strategic offensive operation, the goal of which was the final liberation of Belarus, and, as a result, the transfer of hostilities to the territory of Poland and East Prussia.
Soviet military leaders developed a large-scale and ambitious plan: the troops had to defeat an entire group of enemy armies in just one operation.
Troops of four fronts - 1st, 2nd, 3rd Belorussian under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky, G.F. Zakharov and I.D. Chernyakhovsky and 1st Baltic under the command of I.Kh. Bagramyan, according to the plan of the operation, were to deliver two deep converging strikes in the direction of Minsk, encircle and destroy the main forces of Army Group Center, and then, increasing the force of the strike, reach the Kaunas-Lublin line.
Almost the entire spring and early summer, the Supreme High Command Headquarters intensively replenished the fronts: four combined arms and two tank army, four breakthrough artillery divisions and four engineer brigades.
Absolutely all preparations were carried out in the strictest secrecy. At the same time, up to a hundred trains with ammunition, fuel, and food were sent to the front every day.
The camouflage of the troops was controlled from the air: pilots who flew daily over concentrations of Soviet troops dropped a pennant when they detected units and formations; when such a pennant was discovered, commanders had to immediately take measures to improve camouflage.
In June, the group of Soviet troops numbered more than 1.2 million people - the superiority over the enemy was one and a half times in manpower, four times in tanks, two times in artillery. A total of 27 armies were to take part in the operation.
Hitler's generals, who had no idea about the plans and scope of the upcoming operation, assumed that the forces of Army Group Center, numbering 800 thousand soldiers and officers, would be sufficient to repel any offensive by the Soviet troops.
On June 22, 1944, Soviet troops carried out artillery reconnaissance in force, and early the next morning the operation to liberate Belarus began.
What happened in the first days of the offensive is best described in a letter from a German officer “... this morning the Ivans broke through (...) we have an order to break away from the enemy, the situation is desperate (...) I don’t trust anyone anymore.”
There was not the slightest exaggeration in these lines.
At the first stage of the operation, the enemy’s defenses were broken through to the full depth, then the breakthroughs were expanded towards the flanks, and after that, Soviet troops began the systematic destruction of operational reserves Hitler's troops- any actions of units and formations of the Red Army absolutely corresponded to the plans of the operation.
The result of the first stage of the offensive was a “blitzkrieg” to the west: Soviet troops, having advanced to a depth of 300 kilometers, defeated the main forces of Army Group Center during the first two weeks of fighting.
Soon Minsk was liberated, the troops of the 1st Baltic Front, having cut off Army Group North from the rest of the enemy forces, began the liberation of the Baltic states; the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, having liberated Baranovichi, Pinsk, Brest and crossed the Bug, entered the territory of Poland; The troops of the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Front, pursuing the retreating enemy and liberating Vilnius and Kaunas, reached the borders of East Prussia.
On August 29, 1944, by order of the Supreme Command Headquarters, Soviet troops went on the defensive - Operation Bagration was completed.
The victory came at a huge price: during the offensive, the losses of troops on four fronts amounted to more than 760 thousand people, while irretrievable losses amounted to more than 170 thousand people.
The result of the operation was the creation of favorable conditions for launching new attacks on enemy groups operating in the Baltic states, East Prussia and Poland. In addition, the offensive of the Soviet troops created the conditions for the offensive of the allied forces that landed in Normandy.
Nazi Germany An irreparable blow was dealt: the irreparable losses of Hitler’s troops alone amounted to more than 380 thousand people.
During the operation, 112 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were captured - the Allies could not believe such data, so at the very height of the operation, the “Parade of the Vanquished” was held in Moscow.
There were 253 days left until the end of the war.
