DK - World War II Map by Map

182 TURNING THE TIDE 1943–1944

Operation Bagration was named after Pyotr Ivanovich, Prince Bagration (1765–1812), a Russian general who had distinguished himself in the Napoleonic Wars by his use of innovative military tactics. The new campaign in his name was to be equally daring:

it was intended to wipe out the German Army Group Center and clear German troops out of the western USSR.

In a series of brilliant but brutal assaults, striking where the

Germans least expected, the Red Army swept all before it and advanced hundreds of miles in a couple of months. Soviet troops poured into the German-occupied areas of Belorussia, heading

north into Latvia and Lithuania, and west into Poland. A later operation in the south overran Romania and took Bulgaria out

of the war. By the end of Bagration, Soviet troops were on the

Vistula River in central Poland, facing Warsaw on the opposite

bank; they were close to the shores of the Baltic Sea in the north;

and they stood on the borders with Slovakia and Hungary in

the south-west. Most threateningly for Germany, the Red Army

was close to the eastern border of German East Prussia and the Third Reich itself.

The Soviet campaign was one of the largest Allied operations

of the entire war, engaging more than 2.3 million Soviet troops and resulting in the destruction of the German Army Group Center. Losses on both sides were immense, with 180,000 Soviets killed or missing, and the Germans losing around 400,000 men, including nine generals killed and 22 captured. Up to 260,000 German troops were taken prisoner. Coming after German losses at Stalingrad

(see pp.148–153) and then Kursk (see pp.178–179), Operation Bagration was another huge defeat for the German forces.

OPERATION BAGRATIONOperation Bagration was the code name of the massive Soviet assault against German-occupied Belorussia that took place from June 22 to August 14, 1944. The assault, launched exactly three years after Germany invaded the USSR, involved millions of Soviet troops and was instrumental in bringing the war in Europe to an end.

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Katyusha

rocket launcher

Hundreds of batteries of Soviet Katyusha

rocket launchers were

deployed in Bagration. The rockets, which were cheap to manufacture and could be launched from trucks, pulverized German defenses and terrorized their troops.

PUSHING THE GERMANS OUTThree years after the German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941, the USSR launched its own offensive to take back all German-occupied Soviet soil and advance toward the borders of Germany itself. The Soviets made further gains to the south in Romania. KEY

German army groupsSoviet fronts

(army groups)

APR 1944

JUN

AUG

OCT

TIMELINE^123456

Soviet gains

by Jul 10

Soviet gains

by Aug 31

Axis front line, Jun 22Soviet-held territory,

Jun 22

SOVIET

MASKIROVKA

Maskirovka,

meaning “camouflage” or

“deception” in Russian, was a technique

that the Soviets used with great success in Operation Bagration. They consistently misled the Germans about where they would attack

along the broad front, positioning dummy armies, camouflaging trenches (see above),

and sending false communications to suggest that the attack would come in Ukraine; in reality, Soviet troops were moving secretly and gradually by night to Belorussia. The Germans were deceived into moving their troops to the wrong locations on the Eastern Front.

“The German troops now resemble a wounded beast which is compelled to crawl back to the frontiers of its lair

...

”

JOSEPH STALIN, MAY 1, 1944

German ArmyGroup North

Soviet Karelian Front

SovietLeningrad Front

Soviet 3rd Baltic Front

Soviet 2ndBaltic Front

Soviet 1st Baltic Front

Soviet 3rdBelorussian Front

Soviet 2ndBelorussianFront

Soviet 1stBelorussian Front

Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front

Soviet 4th Ukrainian Front

Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front

Soviet 3rdUkrainian Front

German ArmyGroup Centre

German Army Group

North Ukraine

German Army Group

South Ukraine

Black Sea

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US_182-183_Operation_Bagration.indd 182 24/05/19 1:16 PM