Reaction innovations pocket rocket1/18/2024 The Wehrmacht had redeployed one-third of Army Group Centre's artillery, half of its tank destroyers, and 88 per cent of tanks to the south. The German High Command expected the next Soviet offensive to fall against Army Group North Ukraine (Field Marshal Walter Model), while it lacked intelligence capabilities to divine the Soviet intentions. In the north, Army Group North was also pushed back, leaving Army Group Center's lines protruding towards the east and at risk of losing contact with neighbouring army groups. But by June 1944, despite shortening its front line, it had been exposed following the defeats of Army Group South in the battles that followed the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Kiev, the Dnieper–Carpathian offensive and the Crimean offensive in the late summer, autumn, and winter of 1943–44. Germany's Army Group Centre had previously proven tough to counter as the Soviet defeat in Operation Mars had shown. 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 into the enemy's strategic depths. 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 and Lublin–Brest Offensive. The Red Army successfully used the Soviet deep battle and maskirovka (deception) strategies for the first time to a full extent, albeit with continuing heavy losses. With the end of effective German resistance in Byelorussia, the Soviet offensive continued on to Lithuania, Poland and Romania over the course of July and August. 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. By 28 June, the German 4th Army had been destroyed, along with most of the Third Panzer and Ninth Armies. On 22 June 1944, the Red Army attacked Army Group Centre in Byelorussia, with the objective of encircling and destroying its main component armies. It was the biggest defeat in German military history, with around 450,000 German casualties, while 300,000 other German soldiers were cut off in the Courland Pocket. The Soviet Union destroyed 28 of 34 divisions of Army Group Centre and completely shattered the German front line. Operation Bagration ( Russian: Операция Багратион, romanized: Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation ( Russian: Белорусская наступательная операция «Багратион», romanized: 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, just over two weeks after the start of Operation Overlord in the west, causing Nazi Germany to have to fight on two major fronts at the same time. ~45,000 guns, rocket launchers and mortars 486,493 combat personnel, ~849,000 total ģ,841 tanks and 1,977 assault guns ģ2,718 guns, rocket launchers and mortars
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