Operation Bagration
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{{Infobox Military Conflict
|conflict=Operation Bagration
|image=Image:Eastern Front 1943-08 to 1944-12.png
|caption=The Eastern Front at the time of Operation Bagration. (click to enlarge)
|partof=World War II
|place=Belarus, USSR
|date=June 22, 1944 - August 19, 1944
|result=Soviet victory
|combatant1=Axis
|combatant2=Soviet Union
|commander1=Ernst Busch
|commander2=Konstantin Rokossovski
Georgy Zhukov
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
|strength1=800,000
|strength2=1,700,000
|casualties1=(Soviet est.) 400,000 killed, 158,000 POWs, 590,000 wounded (German est.) 260,000 killed, 250,000 wounded 116,000 POWs
|casualties2=178,507 KIA/MIA, 587,308 WIA/sick, Total Casualties: 765,815
|}}
Template:Campaignbox Axis-Soviet War
During World War II, Operation Bagration was the general attack by Soviet forces to clear the Nazis from Belarus which resulted in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat for the Wehrmacht during the war.
Contents |
Background
Army Group Centre had previously proved a tough nut to crack as Zhukov's defeat in Operation Mars had shown. But by June 1944, despite shortening its front line it had been exposed following the crushing of Army Group South in the battles that followed on from Kursk, the Liberation of Kiev and the Liberation of the Crimea in the late summer and then autumn and winter of 1943 - 44 - the so-called third period of the Great Patriotic War.
Bagration, in combination with the neighbouring Lvov-Sandomierz Operation launched a few weeks later in Ukraine, allowed the Soviet Union to recapture practically all the territories within its 1941 borders, advance into the territory of Germany in East Prussia, and reach the outskirts of Warsaw after gaining control of the part of Poland located east of the Vistula river.
The battle has been described as the triumph of the Soviet theory of "the operational art" - because of the complete co-ordination of all front movements and signals traffic to fool the enemy about the fundamental nature of the offensive attack. Despite the huge level of forces involved, Soviet front commanders left their opposite numbers in complete confusion about the main axis of attack until it was too late for the Germans to recover the situation.
The battle
The attack began on the morning of June 22, 1944, three years to the day after the German attack on the Soviet Union. However, OKW had expected an attack on Army Group South, which had already been severely weakened and driven from most of Ukraine, and therefore received armaments diverted from Army Group Centre just prior to the attack.
Image:BagrationMap2.jpg Operation Bagration pitted over 2.3 million Soviet soldiers in 200 divisions and large formations with almost 6,000 tanks and massed artillery against the 34 German divisions of Army Group Centre. The defeat of this force resulted in the death or capture of nearly 350,000 German troops.
The neighbouring Lvov-Sandomierz Operation was launched on July 17, 1944, and quickly routed the German forces in Ukraine. The rapid progress of that offensive brought the Soviet forces to the gates of Warsaw in the final days of July. Operation Bagration also cut off and isolated the German units of Army Group North fighting in Courland. The disruption caused by these operations in turn helped the Soviet Union to advance into the Balkans in August 1944.
The operation halted only when Soviet supply lines were in danger of over-extension, so complete had their successes been. However, controversy still rages about the decison of the Soviet forces to offer only limited - and late - assistance to the Polish Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising which began just as Soviet forces reached the eastern outskirts of that city.
Contributing to the German defeat was the transfer of units in response to the invasion of Normandy two weeks earlier. Four Soviet “Fronts” (army groups) totaling over 120 divisions therefore smashed into a thinly-held German line. The Soviets were able to achieve a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over their enemy. At the points of attack, the numerical and qualitative advantages of the Soviets were overwhelming. The Germans crumbled.
The capital of Belarus, Minsk, was taken on July 3, trapping fifty thousand Germans. Ten days later the Red Army reached the prewar Polish border. Overall the annihilation of Army Group Centre cost the Germans 2,000 tanks and 57,000 other vehicles. German losses are estimated at 300,000 dead, 250,000 wounded, and about 120,000 captured; overall casualties at 670,000. Soviet losses were 60,000 killed, 110,000 wounded, and about 8,000 missing, with 2,957 tanks, 2,447 artillery pieces, and 822 aircraft also lost.
Aftermath
Considering comparisons to other battles, this was by far the greatest victory in terms of numbers for the Soviets, having inflicted nearly 4 times as many losses for the Germans and capturing a vast amount of Soviet land back in a span of 2 months. It was one of the few major Axis-Soviet battles in which the Germans lost more troops than the Soviets.
The German army never recovered from the matériel and manpower losses sustained during this time having lost about a fourth of its Eastern Front manpower, similar to the percentage lost at Stalingrad.
This operation was named after General Petr Bagration, who died at the Battle of Borodino.
References
- Hastings, Max, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945, Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 0333908368
- Adair, P. Hitler's Greatest Defeat
- Zaloga, S. Operation Bagration
- Niepold, G. Battle for White Russia
- Glantz, D. Beylorussia 1944 - The Soviet General Staff Study
Template:World War IIde:Operation Bagration es:Operación Bagration id:Operasi Bagration it:Operazione Bagration ja:バグラチオン作戦 ru:Багратион (операция) sv:Operation Bagration