Operation Bagration
This offensive covered the operations of 2nd Belorussian Front from 6 August to 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 defence along the Narew, which they held until the East Prussian Operation of January 1945.
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Aftermath
Compared to other battles, this was by far the greatest Soviet victory in numerical terms. The Red Army inflicted nearly four times as many losses on the Germans as they sustained, and liberated a vast amount of Soviet territory (whose population had suffered greatly under the brutal German occupation; the advancing Soviets found cities destroyed, villages depopulated, and much of the population killed or deported by the occupiers) in a span of 2 months. 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 three hours to pass.[8] In a symbolic gesture the streets were washed down afterwards.
The German army never recovered from the matériel and manpower losses sustained during this time, having lost about a quarter of its Eastern Front manpower, similar to the percentage lost at Stalingrad (about 20 full divisions). These losses included many experienced troops, NCOs and officers, which at this stage of the war the Wehrmacht could not replace. The operation was notable for the number of German generals also lost: 9 were killed, including 2 corps commanders; 22 captured, including 4 corps commanders; Major-General Hahn, commander of 197th Infantry Division disappeared on 24 June, while Lieutenant-Generals Zutavern and Philipp of 18th Panzergrenadier and 134th Infantry Divisions committed suicide.
Overall the near-total annihilation of Army Group Centre cost the Germans 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. According to Steven Zaloga, German losses are estimated at 300,000 dead, 250,000 wounded, and about 120,000 captured (overall casualties at 670,000); Soviet losses were also substantial, with 60,000 killed, 110,000 wounded, and about 8,000 missing, with 2,957 tanks, 2,447 artillery pieces, and 822 aircraft also lost.[9]
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 final destruction of much of Army Group Centre around Minsk coincided with the destruction of many of the German army's strongest units in France in the Falaise pocket. On both eastern and western fronts, the subsequent Allied exploitation was slowed and halted by supply problems rather than German resistance. 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.
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External links
- Operation Bagration: Soviet Offensive of 1944
- Map showing the location of different armies and the pockets where the German 4th Army and 9th Army were destroyed
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References
- Adair, Paul (1994-09-22). Hitler's Greatest Defeat: The collapse of Army Group Centre, June 1944. Weidenfeld Military. ISBN 1854092324.
- Beevor, Antony and Vinogradova, Luba (eds), A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, Pimlico, 2006, ISBN 978-1845950156
- Buchner, Alex, Ostfront 1944: The German defensive battles on the Russian Front 1944, Schiffer Military History, West Chester, PA, 1991, (White Russia:Army Group Center) ISBN 0-88740-282-8
- Dunn, W. Soviet Blitzkrieg: The Battle for White Russia, 1944, Lynne Riener, 2000, ISBN 978-1555878801
- Glantz, D.M. Beylorussia 1944—The Soviet General Staff Study
- Glantz, D.M., Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War, Frank Cass, London, 1989, ISBN 0-7146-3347-X
- Hastings, Max, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945, Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 0-333-90836-8
- Hinze, R. Ostfrontdrama 1944: Rückzugskämpfe der Heeresgruppe Mitte
- Merridale, C. Ivan's War: Inside the Red Army, 1939–45, Faber, 2006, ISBN 978-0571218097
- Mitcham, S. German Defeat in the East, 1944-5, Stackpole, 2007.
- Niepold, G., translated by Simpkin, R., Battle for White Russia: The destruction of Army Group Centre June 1944, Brassey's, London, 1987, ISBN 0-08-033606-X
- Zaloga, S. Bagration 1944: The Destruction of Army Group Centre, Osprey Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978-1855324787
- Ziemke, Earl F., Battle For Berlin: End Of The Third Reich, NY:Ballantine Books, London: Macdonald & Co, 1969.
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Footnotes
- ^ Alternative spellings for Belorussian Offensive are Byelorussian Offensive and Belarusian Offensive
- ^ Not to be confused with the 1943 Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation (3 October 1943 - 31 December 1943)
- ^ Zaloga, Bagration 1944: The destruction of Army Group Centre, 7.
- ^ a b Ziemke, p.11
- ^ Glantz, Soviet Military Deception, xxxvii-xxxviii
- ^ Glantz, Soviet Military Deception, pp.360-379
- ^ 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.
- ^ Merridale, p.241
- ^ Zaloga, p.71
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