During the Great Patriotic War , several large-scale military offensive campaigns of the Soviet troops were carried out. Operation Bagration (1944) became one of the key. The campaign was named in honor of the great commander of World War II in 1812. Let us consider further how the operation "Bagration" (1944) took place. The main lines of the offensive of the Soviet troops will be briefly described.
Preliminary stage
On the third anniversary of the German invasion of the USSR, the Bagration military campaign began. The operation of 1944 was carried out on the Berezina River. Soviet troops managed to break through the German defenses in many sectors. Partisans provided active support in this. The offensive operations of the forces of the 1st Baltic, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts went intensively. With the actions of these units, the Bagration military campaign began - the operation (1944; the leader and coordinator of the plan was G. K. Zhukov). The commanders were Rokossovsky, Chernyakhovsky, Zakharov, Baghramyan. In the area of Vilnius, Brest, Vitebsk, Bobruisk and east of Minsk, enemy groups were surrounded and liquidated. Several successful offensives were carried out. As a result of the battles, a significant part of Belarus was liberated, the capital of the country was Minsk, the territory of Lithuania, and the eastern regions of Poland. Soviet troops reached the borders of East Prussia.
The main front lines
The Bagration plan (operation of 1944) involved 2 stages. They included several offensive campaigns of the Soviet troops. The direction of the operation "Bagration" of 1944 at the first stage was as follows:
- Vitebsk.
- Orsha.
- Mogilev.
- Bobruisk.
- Polotsk.
- Minsk.
This stage was held from June 23 to July 4. From July 5 to August 29, the offensive was also conducted on several fronts. At the second stage, operations were planned:
- Vilnius.
- Siauliai.
- Bialystok.
- Lublin-Brest.
- Kaunas.
- Osovetskaya.
Vitebsk-Orsha offensive
On this site, the defense was occupied by the 3rd Panzer Army, commanded by Reinhardt. Directly at Vitebsk stood its 53rd army corps. He was commanded by a gene. Holvitzer. Under Orsha was the 17th corps of the 4th Field Army. In June 1944, Operation Bagration was carried out using intelligence. Thanks to her, the Soviet troops managed to break into the German defenses and take the first trenches. June 23, the Russian command dealt the main blow. The key role belonged to the 43rd and 39th armies. The first covered the western side of Vitebsk, the second - the southern. The 39th Army had almost no superior numbers, but the high concentration of forces in the sector made it possible to create a significant local advantage during the initial stage of the implementation of the Bagration plan. Operation (1944) in Vitebsk and Orsha was generally successful. Quickly enough managed to break through the western part of the defense and the southern front. The 6th building, located on the southern side of Vitebsk, was cut into several parts and lost control. Over the next days, the commanders of the divisions and the corps themselves were killed. The remaining units, having lost contact with each other, moved in small groups to the west.
City liberation
On June 24, units of the 1st Baltic Front reached the Dvina. Army Group North tried to counterattack. However, their breakthrough was unsuccessful. In Beshenkovichi they surrounded the corps group D. To the south of Vitebsk, Oslikovsky's horse-mechanized brigade was introduced. His group began to move quickly enough to the southwest.
In June 1944, the Bagration operation was carried out quite slowly on the Orsha site. This was due to the fact that one of the strongest German infantry divisions was located here - the 78th assault. She was much better equipped than the rest, had the support of 50 self-propelled guns. Here were parts of the 14th motorized division.
However, the Russian command continued to implement the Bagration plan. The 1944 operation involved the introduction of the 5th Guards Tank Army. Soviet soldiers cut the railway from Orsha to the west near Tolochin. The Germans were forced to either leave the city or die in a "cauldron".
On the morning of June 27, Orsha was cleared of invaders. 5th Guards tank army began to advance to Borisov. June 27 also Vitebsk was released in the morning. Here a German group defended itself, which was subjected to artillery and air strikes on the eve. The invaders made several attempts to break through the environment. 06/26 one of them was successful. However, after a few hours, about 5 thousand Germans were again surrounded.
Breakthrough results
Thanks to the offensive actions of the Soviet troops, the 53rd Corps of the Germans was almost completely destroyed. 200 people managed to break through to the fascist units. According to Haupt’s notes, almost all of them were injured. Soviet troops also managed to defeat parts of the 6th Corps and Group D. This was made possible thanks to the coordinated implementation of the first stage of the Bagration plan. The 1944 operation near Orsha and Vitebsk eliminated the Center’s northern flank. This was the first step towards further complete surroundings of the group.
Fights at Mogilev
This part of the front was considered auxiliary. On June 23, effective artillery training was carried out. The forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front began to force the river. I'll get it. The German defensive line passed along it. Operation Bagration in June 1944 took place with the active use of artillery. The enemy was almost completely suppressed by it. In the Mogilev direction, sappers quickly built 78 bridges for infantry and 4 heavy 60-tonne crossings for equipment.
After a few hours, the majority of German companies fell from 80-100 to 15-20 people. But parts of the 4th Army managed to retreat to the second frontier along the river. Bass is quite organized. Operation Bagration in June 1944 continued with the forcing of the Dnieper from the south and north of Mogilev. 06/27 the city was surrounded and taken the next day by attack. In Mogilev, about 2 thousand prisoners were captured. Among them was the commander of the 12th Bamler Infantry Division, as well as commandant von Ermansdorf. The latter was subsequently convicted of a large number of serious crimes and hanged. The German retreat was gradually becoming more disorganized. Until 29.06, 33 thousand German soldiers and 20 tanks were destroyed and captured.
Bobruisk
Operation Bagration (1944) involved the formation of a southern "claw" of a large-scale environment. This action was carried out by the most powerful and numerous Belarusian front commanded by Rokossovsky. Initially, the right flank participated in the offensive. Resistance was provided to him by the 9th field army gene. Jordan. The task of eliminating the enemy was solved by creating a local "boiler" near Bobruisk.
The offensive began in the south of 06.24. Operation Bagration of 1944 involved the use of aviation here. However, weather conditions significantly complicated its actions. In addition, the terrain itself was not very favorable for the offensive. Soviet troops had to overcome a fairly large swampy swamp. However, this path was deliberately chosen, since on this side the German defense was weak. On June 27, interception of roads from Bobruisk to the north and west took place. Key German forces were surrounded. The diameter of the ring was approximately 25 km. The operation to free Bobruisk ended successfully. During the offensive, two corps were destroyed - the 35th Army and 41st Tank. The defeat of the 9th Army allowed opening the road to Minsk from the northeast and southeast.
Fights at Polotsk
This direction caused serious concern among the Russian command. Baghramyan set about fixing the problem. In fact, there was no break between the Vitebsk-Orshansk and Polotsk operations. The 3rd tank army, the forces of the "North" (16th field army) acted as the main enemy. In reserve, the Germans remained 2 infantry divisions. The Polotsk operation did not end in such a rout as near Vitebsk. However, it allowed to deprive the enemy of a strong point, a railway junction. As a result, the threat to the 1st Baltic Front was removed, and Army Group North was bypassed from the south, which suggested an attack on the flank.
4th Army Retreat
After the defeat of the southern and northern flanks near Bobruisk and Vitebsk, the Germans were squeezed in a rectangle. Its eastern wall was formed by the Drut River, the western - by the Berezina. From the north and south were Soviet troops. To the west was Minsk. It was in this direction that the main blows of the Soviet forces were aimed. From the flanks, the 4th Army actually had no cover. Gene. von Tippelskirch ordered a retreat through the Berezina. To do this, I had to use the dirt road from Mogilev. On a single bridge, German forces tried to cross to the west bank, experiencing constant fire from bombers and attack aircraft. The military police should have been in charge of regulating the crossing, but it has withdrew from this task. In addition, partisans were active in this sector. They carried out constant attacks on the positions of the Germans. The situation for the enemy was further aggravated by the fact that groups of broken units at other sections, including from Vitebsk, joined the crossing units. In this regard, the retreat of the 4th Army was slow and was accompanied by heavy losses.
The battle from the south side of Minsk
In the offensive, mobile groups — tank, mechanized, and horse-mechanized formations — were in the lead. Part of Pliev quickly enough began to advance to Slutsk. His group left the city on the evening of June 29. Due to the fact that the Germans suffered heavy losses before the 1st Belorussian Front, they showed little resistance. Slutsk itself defended the compounds of the 35th and 102nd divisions. They put up organized resistance. Then Pliev launched an attack from three flanks simultaneously. This attack was successful, and by 11 a.m. on June 30, the city was cleared of Germans. By July 2, horse-mechanized units of Pliev occupied Nesvizh, cutting off the grouping to the southeast. The breakthrough was carried out quickly enough. Resistance was provided by small unorganized groups of Germans.
Battle of Minsk
The Germans' mobile reserves began to arrive at the front. They were withdrawn mainly from parts operating in Ukraine. The 5th Panzer Division arrived first. She posed a rather serious threat, taking into account the fact that over the past few months she almost did not participate in battles. The division was well-equipped, re-equipped and reinforced with the 505th heavy battalion. However, the enemy's weak point here was infantry. It consisted of either guards or those that suffered significant losses of divisions. A serious battle took place from the north-west side of Minsk. Enemy tankers announced the elimination of 295 Soviet vehicles. However, it is certain that they themselves suffered serious losses. The 5th division was reduced to 18 tanks, all the “tigers” of the 505th battalion were lost. Thus, the connection lost the ability to influence the course of the battle. 2nd Guards July 1 corps approached the outskirts of Minsk. Having made a detour, he burst into the city from the northwest side. At the same time, a detachment of Rokossovsky approached from the south, the 5th Panzer Army from the north and detachments of combined arms forces from the east. The defense of Minsk did not last long. The city was badly destroyed by the Germans in 1941. Retreating, the enemy additionally blew up structures.
4th Army Collapse
The German group was surrounded, but still made attempts to break through to the west. The Nazis even fought with knives. The command of the 4th Army fled to the west, as a result of which the actual control was carried out instead of von Tippelskirch by the chief of the 12th Army Corps Mueller. On July 8-9, the German resistance in the Minsk "boiler" was finally broken. Stripping lasted until the 12th: regular units together with partisans neutralized small enemy groups in the forests. After that, military operations in the east of Minsk ended.
Second phase
After the completion of the first stage, Operation Bagration (1944), in short, assumed maximum consolidation of the achieved success. At the same time, the German army tried to restore the front. At the second stage, the Soviet units had to fight with the reserves of the Germans. In the leadership of the Third Reich army, personnel changes took place. After the expulsion of the Germans from Polotsk, a new task was set before Baghramyan. The 1st Baltic Front was to carry out an offensive to the north-west, towards Daugavpils, and to the west - to the Sventsians and Kaunas. The plan was to break through to the Baltic and block the communication of the North Army formations from the rest of the Wehrmacht. After flanking rearrangements, fierce battles began. The German troops, meanwhile, continued their counterattacks. 08.20 began the offensive on Tukums from the east and west. For a short period, the Germans managed to restore communication between the parts of the "Center" and "North". However, the attacks of the 3rd Panzer Army at Šiauliai were unsuccessful. At the end of August, a break came in the battles. The 1st Baltic Front completed its part of the Bagration offensive.