Operation Bagration

Operation Bagration

22 Jun 1944 - 29 Aug 1944

ww2dbaseIn Apr 1944, Soviet leaders selected a plan to attack the German Group Center holding a bulge in Byelorussia and Ukraine. Knowing that to defeat such a concentration of German forces, the magnitude of Soviet preparations would alarm the German forces, therefore a deceptive operation was also planned to throw off the Germans. On 17 Apr the first deceptive tactic was employed to prepare for Bagration, which was to switch the entire Soviet front to a defensive mode by ceasing major offensives and to construct (sometimes false) defensive structures. Later, when the Soviet forces in the area could mean nothing but an assault, Soviet forces started to spread false intelligence that the offensive was to be made against Army Group South in Ukraine, reinforcing something that the German originally expected. When the operation launched, 1st and 3rd Ukrainian Armies in Ukraine were deployed to further support that misconception.

ww2dbaseThe Germans fell for the deceptions. In fact, the Germans interpreted the deceptive events in such depth that they actually made further maneuvers to make Army Group Center weaker; for instance, most armor in the German reserves were transferred to northern Ukraine, leaving Army Group Center in the north without proper reinforcements. Other factors such as the reaction to the western Allies' Normandy invasion also weakened the available forces on the Soviet front for the Germans.

ww2dbaseThe actual Bagration offensive began in the morning of 22 Jun 1944 with 1,700,000 Soviet troops and 6,000 armor rushing against 34 surprised German divisions, nearly achieving a 10-to-1 numerical advantage with armor and 7-to-1 with aircraft. The German lines fell apart quickly, and Minsk fell under Soviet control on 3 Jul, capturing 50,000 prisoners of war. Ten days later, Soviet troops reached the Polish border. By the end of Jul 1944, the entire Army Group Center ceased to exist, losing 300,000 men to death and 120,000 to capture. Over 2,000 tanks were lost as well. On the Soviet side, 60,000 were killed and nearly 3,000 tanks were lost. This was one of the very few major battles on the Soviet fronts where the Soviets suffered fewer casualties than the Germans. With Army Group Center completely wiped out, the German forces not only suffered a major defeat, but without Byelorussia the supply lines to Army Group North were also lost.

ww2dbaseOn 17 Jul, an offensive was launched against the German forces in Ukraine to leverage the victory in Byelorussia. This successful sister campaign to Bagration paved a way for Soviet troops to enter German-controlled Balkans. With the Soviet forces established in Ukraine, Romanians overthrew the dictator Ion Antonescu and switched sides to fight on the side of the Soviets. Across Romania's southern border, Bulgaria surrendered to Russia on 9 Sep, similarly declaring war on Germany upon its surrender.

ww2dbaseAfter WW2, Operation Bagration's deceptive operations became a model taught to Soviet Army cadets.

ww2dbaseSources: Global Security, Wikipedia.

Last Major Update: Oct 2005

Photographs

Soviet generals Aleksandr Vasilevsky and Ivan Chernyakhovsky accepting surrender from German generals Alfons Hitter and Friedrich Gollwitzer, Vitebsk, Byelorussia, 28 Jun 1944, photo 1 of 2

See all 4 photographs of Operation Bagration

Maps

Map depicting Operation Bagration, 22 Jun-19 Aug 1944

Operation Bagration Timeline

31 May 1944	Stalin approved the plan for Operation Bagration, aimed at the destruction of German Armeegruppe Mitte.
22 Jun 1944	Soviet forces launched Operation Bagration, a major offensive against German forces in Byelorussia, with 1.2 million men, 31,000 heavy guns, 5,200 tanks, and 6,000 aircraft. The plan was to smash through Warsaw, Poland and East Prussia, Germanny to the Baltic coast; in doing so, they would trap German and Finnish forces in the north and isolate the German, Romanian, and Bulgarian armies in the south.
24 Jun 1944	Hitler ordered all but one division of LIII Korps, encircled near Vitebsk, Byelorussia, to break out.
26 Jun 1944	Red Army captured Vitebsk, Byelorussia.
27 Jun 1944	Soviet units captured Orsha, Byelorussia on the Dneiper River, while near Vitebsk German LIII Korps was finally destroyed.
28 Jun 1944	German 9.Armee became surrounded after Soviet forces captured Mogilev, Byelorussia and crossed the Berezina River.
29 Jun 1944	The 70,000 remaining troops of German Armeegruppe Mitte, surrounded near Bobruisk, Byelorussia, surrendered.
1 Jul 1944	5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet 3rd Byelorussian Front captured Borisov, Byelorussia.
3 Jul 1944	Soviet forces recaptured Minsk, Byelorussia, trapping over 100,000 Germans in the pocket.
4 Jul 1944	The Soviet 1st Baltic Front captured Polotsk, Byelorussia on its way towards Riga, Latvia, moving to cut off German Armeegruppe Nord as it retreated from Estonia. The Soviet troops were now roughly on the 1939 German-Soviet border.
8 Jul 1944	As Baranovichi, Byelorussia fell to the Soviets, German XII Corps surrendered its last 57,000 men. The German Armeegruppe Mitte alone had lost nearly 30 divisions in less than a month.
9 Jul 1944	Aiming to cut off German Armeegruppe Nord, Soviet 2nd Byelorussian Front attacked from Vitebsk, Byelorussia, Soviet 3rd Byelorussian Front attacked from Psovsk, and the Soviet Leningrad Front attacked toward Narva, Estonia.
11 Jul 1944	The last 35,000 men of German 4.Armee surrendered to Soviet troops at Minsk, Byelorussia.
13 Jul 1944	Red Army units captured Vilna, Lithuania.
14 Jul 1944	Pinsk, Byelorussia was captured by the Soviet forces.
18 Jul 1944	Soviet First Byelorussian Front launched a heavy attack across the Bug River aimed at Lublin in Poland, the Third Baltic Front attacked toward Pskov in Russia, while the First Ukraine Front advanced toward Lvov in Ukraine.
21 Jul 1944	The Soviet Third Baltic Front captured Ostrov, Pskov Oblast, Russia.
22 Jul 1944	In Ukraine, the Brody Pocket was eliminated; Soviet forces captured 17,000 German prisoners of war. To the north, Soviet units captured Panevezys, Lithuania.
23 Jul 1944	Soviet troops captured Pskov, Byelorussia.
24 Jul 1944	As Soviet units crossed the River San north of Lublin, Poland, German troops began evacuating that city.
25 Jul 1944	Soviet units reached the Vistula River in Poland. To the north, the Germans evacuated Narva, Estonia, taking up defensive positions to the west.
26 Jul 1944	Soviet forces captured Narva as they crossed the Estonian border.
27 Jul 1944	Bialystok in Poland, Dunaburg (Daugavpils) in Latvia, and Lviv in Ukraine were captured by Soviet forces; meanwhile, a major bridgehead was also established across the Vistula River near Magnuszew, Poland.
28 Jul 1944	Brest-Litovsk, Poland (now in Belarus), site of a joint German-Soviet victory parade in 1939, was captured by Soviet forces after heavy fighting.
29 Jul 1944	German Armeegruppe Nord was cut off as the Red Army reached the Baltic coast west of Riga, Latvia.
30 Jul 1944	The Soviet First Baltic Front reached Tukums, Latvia.
1 Aug 1944	Soviet forces captured Lithuania, cutting all roads between Germany and the Baltic States.
2 Aug 1944	The Soviet-sponsored 1st Polish Army established a bridgehead over the Vistula River south of Warsaw, Poland.
3 Aug 1944	The first Soviet attacks east of Warsaw, Poland were repulsed by the Germans.
4 Aug 1944	Soviet forces gained another bridgehead over the Vistula River in Poland near Baranov.
6 Aug 1944	The refinery city of Drohobyez, Poland was captured by the Red Army.
14 Aug 1944	Soviet forces launched an assault from their Vistula bridgeheads in Poland.
17 Aug 1944	Soviet troops reached the East Prussian border.
18 Aug 1944	Soviet forces captured Sandomierz, Poland.
21 Aug 1944	With Kriegsmarine support, the Germans opened a coastal corridor to German Armeegruppe Nord, but Hitler refused to authorize their withdrawal.
25 Aug 1944	Soviet 3rd Baltic Front captured Tartu, Estonia.
14 Sep 1944	Soviet First Baltic Front, Second Baltic Front, and Third Baltic Front launched a massive assault against German Armeegruppe Nord, pushing it back to Riga, Latvia.
24 Sep 1944	The STAVKA ordered the Soviet First Baltic Front to halt on the advance to Riga, Latvia, leaving the job to the Second Baltic Front and Third Baltic Front, and instead march toward Memel (now Klaipeda, Lithuania).
5 Oct 1944	Soviet First Baltic Front resumed the offensive toward Memel (now Klaipeda, Lithuania) to cut off German Armeegruppe Nord.
10 Oct 1944	Soviet units reached the Baltic coast at Memel (now Klaipeda, Lithuania), cutting off the 26 divisions of German Armeegruppe Nord once and for all.

Did you enjoy this article or find this article helpful? If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you.

Share this article with your friends:

Facebook
Reddit
Twitter

Stay updated with WW2DB:

RSS Feeds

Visitor Submitted Comments

1. Anonymous says:
4 Nov 2014 05:17:26 PM

The casualties are utterly false. The russian lost roughly 100,000 men (wounded and killed). On the German side roughly 30,000 died. Even considering the many POWs on the German side, the Russians suffered more casualties. Only the Russian could compensate for the loss.

2. Harshad Dave says:
11 Sep 2015 10:53:06 PM

I think majority people in human society have tendency to compromise with social misgivings in peace time even at the cost of moral and remaining silent against unjust to them just for the sake of their short sited benefits. Ruling crook on such people takes full scale advantage to exploit them on the above tendency. War is an accumulated audit of human society where people of the nations compromised on their moral beyond a limit to the extent that prevailing socio economic formation might bear with. Even today, the same moral less selfishness is clearly visible in all the nations of the planet earth, when we see the problem of developing terrorism and selfish stand of different countries on terrorism. I do not find any difference in approach of all the countries of our world on terrorism and that of all countries exhibited their approach when Adolf Hitler (Nazi) was developing in Germany in past.

All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.

Posting Your Comments on this Topic

Your Name
Your Email
	Your email will not be published
Comment Type
Your Comments

Notes:

1. We hope that visitor conversations at WW2DB will be constructive and thought-provoking. Please refrain from using strong language. HTML tags are not allowed. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. WW2DB site administrators reserve the right to moderate, censor, and/or remove any comment. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB.

2. For inquiries about military records for members of the World War II armed forces, please see our FAQ.

Change View

Desktop View

Search WW2DB

World War II Database

Operation Bagration