Liberation of Belarus 1944 Operation Bagration. Operation "Bagration" and its military-political significance

19.11.202027.05.2017

What is Operation Bagration? How was it carried out? We will consider these and other questions in the article. It is known that 2014 marked the 70th anniversary of this operation. The Red Army during it was able not only to liberate the Belarusians from the occupation, but also, by destabilizing the enemy, accelerated the collapse of fascism.

This happened thanks to the extraordinary courage, determination and self-sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Soviet partisans and soldiers of Belarus, many of whom died in the name of victory over the invaders.

Operation

The offensive Belarusian operation "Bagration" is a large-scale campaign of the Great Patriotic War, carried out in 1944, from June 23 to August 29. It was named after the Russian commander of Georgian origin P. I. Bagration, who gained fame during the Patriotic War of 1812.

Campaign value

The liberation of Belarus was not easy for Soviet soldiers. During the aforementioned extensive offensive, the Belarusian lands, part of the Baltic states and eastern Poland were saved, the German group of detachments "Center" was almost completely defeated. The Wehrmacht suffered impressive losses, partly due to the fact that A. Hitler forbade retreat. Subsequently, Germany was no longer able to restore the troops.

Campaign Background

The liberation of Belarus was carried out in several stages. It is known that by June 1944, in the east, the front line approached the line Vitebsk - Orsha - Mogilev - Zhlobin, establishing an impressive ledge - a wedge directed deep into the USSR, called the "Belarusian Balcony".

In Ukraine, the Red Army was able to achieve a series of tangible successes (many Wehrmacht soldiers died in the chain of "cauldrons", almost all the lands of the Republic were liberated). If they wanted to break through in the winter of 1943-1944 in the direction of Minsk, the successes, on the contrary, were very modest.

Along with this, by the end of the spring of 1944, the invasion in the south stalled, and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to change the course of efforts.

Side forces

The liberation of Belarus was swift and inevitable. Information about the forces of opponents in different sources varies. According to the publication “Operations of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Second World War”, 1 million 200 thousand soldiers took part in the campaign from the USSR (not including rear units). On the part of the Germans - as part of the "Center" group of detachments - 850-900 thousand souls (plus about 400 thousand rear soldiers). In addition, in the second phase, the battles involved left wing group of detachments "Northern Ukraine" and the right - group of troops "North".

It is known that four regiments of the Wehrmacht resisted four Soviet fronts.

Campaign preparation

Before the liberation of Belarus, the Red Army men were intensively preparing for the operation. At first, the Soviet leadership thought that the Bagration campaign would be identical to the Battle of Kursk - something like the Rumyantsev or Kutuzov, with a huge expenditure of ammunition in the subsequent modest movement of 150-200 km.

Since operations of this type - without a breakthrough into the operational depth, with stubborn, long-term battles in the tactical area of \u200b\u200bprotection to exhaustion - required an enormous amount of ammunition and a small amount of fuel for mechanical parts and low capacities for the revival of railway lines, the actual evolution of the campaign turned out to be unexpected for the Soviet leadership.

In April 1944, the General Staff began to develop an operational scheme for the Belarusian operation. The command intended to crush the flanks of the German group "Center", surround its base forces east of Minsk and completely liberate Belarus. The plan was extremely large-scale and ambitious, since during the war the simultaneous defeat of an entire group of troops was planned extremely rarely.

Significant personnel changes have been made. Direct preparations for the Belarusian operation began at the end of May. On May 31, private directives from the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, containing specific plans, were delivered to the front commanders.

The Red Army men organized a thorough reconnaissance of the positions and forces of the enemy. Information was obtained in various directions. For example, the reconnaissance teams of the 1st Front of Belarus were able to capture about 80 "languages". Undercover, active acoustic reconnaissance was also carried out, enemy positions were studied by artillery observers, and so on.

The headquarters sought to achieve the utmost surprise. The commanders of the armies personally gave all orders to the commanders of the units. It was forbidden to talk on the phone about preparations for the offensive, even in coded form. The fronts preparing for the operation began to observe radio silence. The troops were concentrated and regrouped mainly at night. It was necessary to monitor compliance with camouflage measures, so officers of the General Staff were specially assigned to patrol the area.

Before the offensive, commanders of all levels, up to companies, carried out reconnaissance. They assigned tasks to subordinates on the spot. To improve interaction, Air Force officers and artillery spotters were sent to the tank units.

It follows that the campaign was prepared very carefully, while the enemy remained in the dark about the coming assault.

Wehrmacht

So, you already know that the Red Army prepared thoroughly for the liberation of Belarus from the Nazi invaders. The leadership of the Red Army was perfectly aware of the enemy grouping in the area of the future attack. The General Staff of the ground detachments of the Third Reich and the commanders of the "Center" group of troops were in the dark about the plans and forces of the Red Army.

The Supreme High Command and Hitler thought that a major offensive must still be expected in Ukraine. They expected that the Soviet garrisons would strike from the area south of Kovel towards Baltic Sea, cutting off the groups of troops "Center" and "North".

The General Staff of the Third Reich assumed that the Red Army wanted to mislead the German military leaders about the course of the most important strike and withdraw reserves from the region between Kovel and the Carpathians. The situation in Belarus was so calm that Field Marshal Bush went on vacation three days before the start of the campaign.

The course of hostilities

So, the Great Patriotic War was going on. The liberation of Belarus played a decisive role in this tense confrontation. The preliminary phase of the campaign symbolically began on the third anniversary of the German attack on the Soviet Union - June 22, 1944. The Berezina River turned out to be the most significant battlefield, as it was during the Patriotic War of 1812.

For the liberation of Belarus, the generals used all their skills. The Soviet troops of the 2nd, 1st, 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts, with the support of partisans, broke through the defense of the German group of forces "Center" in many sectors. The Red Army surrounded and destroyed impressive enemy groups in the areas of Vitebsk, Vilnius, Bobruisk, Brest and east of Minsk. They also liberated the territory of Belarus and its capital Minsk (July 3), a significant part of Lithuania and Vilnius (July 13), the eastern regions of Poland. Soviet soldiers were able to reach the boundaries of the Vistula and Narew rivers and to the Rubicons of East Prussia. It is noteworthy that the Soviet troops were commanded by General of the Army I.Kh. Bagramyan, Colonel General I.D. Chernyakhovsky, General G.F. Zakharov, General K.K. .Model.

The operation to liberate Belarus was carried out in two steps. The first step was taken from June 23 to July 4 and included the following offensive front-line operations:

Mogilev operation;
Vitebsk-Orsha;
Minsk;
Polotsk;
Bobruisk.

Osovets operation;
Kaunas;
Vilnius;
Bialystok;
Siauliai;
Lublin-Brestskaya.

Partisan actions

So, you already know that the liberation of Belarus in the Second World War played a significant role. Before the offensive, a partisan action of unprecedented proportions took place. In Belarus at that time there were many active partisan formations. The Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement recorded that 194,708 supporters joined the troops of the Red Army during the summer of 1944.

Soviet commanders successfully linked military operations with the actions of partisan groups. Taking part in the Bagration campaign, at first the partisans disabled the enemy's communications, and later they prevented the retreat of the defeated Wehrmacht troops.

They began to destroy the German rear on the night of 19/20 June. Russian partisans in the central region of the eastern front carried out 10,500 explosions. As a result, they were able to delay the transfer of enemy operational reserves for a couple of days.

The partisans planned to produce 40 thousand various explosions, that is, they managed to fulfill only a fourth of their intentions. And yet, they were able to briefly paralyze the rear of the "Center" group of troops.

At the end of June 1944, on the night before the general attack of the Russians in the zone of the "Center" group of troops, the partisans made a powerful raid on all important roads. As a result, they completely deprived the enemy troops of control. During this one night, the partisans managed to install 10.5 thousand mines and charges, of which only 3.5 thousand were discovered and neutralized. Due to the activities of partisan detachments, communication along many routes was carried out during the day and only under the cover of an armed convoy.

Railways and bridges became the basic objects of application of partisan forces. In addition to them, communication lines were also actively disabled. This activity greatly facilitated the offensive of the Red Army at the front.

Operation results

The liberation of Belarus in 1944 turned history back. The success of the Bagration campaign surpassed all the aspirations of the Soviet leaders. Having attacked the enemy for two months, the Red Army completely cleared Belarus, recaptured part of the Baltic states, and liberated the eastern regions of Poland. In general, on a front 1100 km long, Soviet soldiers were able to advance to a depth of 600 km.

The operation also made the North group of troops stationed in the Baltics defenseless. After all, the Panther line, a carefully constructed border, was bypassed. In the future, this fact greatly facilitated the Baltic campaign.

And the Red Army captured two large bridgeheads south of Warsaw beyond the Vistula - Pulawski and Magnushevsky, as well as a bridgehead near Sandomierz (recaptured by the 1st Ukrainian Front during the Sandomierz-Lviv campaign). By these actions, they created a reserve for the upcoming Vistula-Oder operation. It is known that the offensive of the 1st Front of Belarus, which stopped only on the Oder, began in January 1945 from the Pulavsky and Magnushevsky bridgeheads.

The military believes that the liberation of Soviet Belarus contributed to the large-scale defeat of the German Armed Forces. Many are sure that the Battle of Belarus can be safely called "the largest defeat of the German Armed Forces in World War II."

On the scale of the German-Soviet front, the Bagration campaign was the greatest in a long history of offensives. It is a sensation in the Soviet theory of military prowess thanks to the superbly coordinated movement of all fronts and the operation carried out to deceive the enemy about the location of the fundamental assault that began in the summer of 1944. She destroyed the German reserves, seriously localizing the ability of the invaders to fend off both the Allied advance in Western Europe and other attacks on the Eastern Front.

So, for example, the German command transferred the division "Grossdeutschland" from the Dniester near Siauliai. As a result, she was unable to participate in the reflection of the Yasso-Chisinau campaign. The Hermann Goering division had to leave its positions in mid-July in Italy near Florence, and was thrown into the battles on the Vistula. When Goering units vainly attacked the Magnushevsky sector in mid-August, Florence was liberated.

Losses

The human losses of the Red Army are known quite accurately. In total, 178,507 soldiers died, went missing and were captured, 587,308 people were injured and fell ill. Even by the standards of World War II, these losses are considered high. In absolute numbers, they far outnumber the victims not only in successful, but also in many unsuccessful campaigns.

So, for comparison, the defeat near Kharkov in the early spring of 1943 cost the Red Army a little more than 45 thousand dead, and the Berlin operation - 81 thousand. Such an undermining is associated with the duration and scope of the campaign, which was carried out on intricate terrain against a competent and energetic enemy who occupied superbly prepared defensive lines.

Scientists are still discussing the human losses of the Wehrmacht today. Western professors believe that the Germans had 262,929 captured and missing, 109,776 wounded and 26,397 dead, for a total of 399,102 soldiers. These data were obtained from ten-day reports that were compiled by the fascist troops.

Why, then, in this case, the number of those killed is small? Yes, because many of the dead were recorded as missing, and sometimes this status was received by the personnel of the division in full force.

However, these figures are criticized. For example, D. Glantz, a US historian of the Eastern Front, found that the difference between the number of servicemen of the "Center" group of troops before and after the campaign is much larger. D. Glantz said that the information of the ten-day reports gives the situation a minimal assessment. When the investigator of the Russian Federation A.V. Isaev spoke on the Ekho Moskvy radio, he stated that the losses of the Nazis amounted to about 500 thousand souls. S. Zaloga claims that before the surrender of the 4th Army, 300-500 thousand Germans died.

It is also necessary to emphasize that in all cases the losses of the “Center” group of troops were calculated, without taking into account the victims of the groups of the “North” and “Northern Ukraine” regiments.

It is known that the Soviet Information Bureau published Soviet information, according to which German troops from June 23 to July 23, 1944 lost 631 aircraft, 2735 self-propelled guns and tanks, 57,152 vehicles, 158,480 people were captured, 381,000 soldiers were killed. Perhaps these data are rather overestimated, as is usually the case with claims for enemy losses. In any case, the question of the human losses of the Wehrmacht in the "Bagration" is not yet closed.

The Germans, captured near Minsk in the amount of 57,600 people, were marched through Moscow - a column of prisoners of war walked through the streets of the capital for about three hours. In this way, the significance of success was demonstrated to other powers. After the march, every street was cleared and washed.

Memory

The year of the liberation of Belarus is also honored today. In honor of this event, the following commemorative signs were created:

Memorial "Campaign" Bagration "near the village of Rakovichi (Svetlogorsk district).
Mound of Glory.
In 2010, on April 14, the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus issued and put into circulation a series of coins “Bagration Campaign”.

Awards

Subsequently, commemorative awards appeared in Belarus in the form of a medal "For the Liberation of Belarus". In 2004, a commemorative badge "60 years of the liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders" was introduced. Later, commemorative medals were issued for the 65th and 70th anniversaries of the liberation of Belarus.

There is no repeated awarding of the jubilee medal. If you have lost a medal or a certificate for it, a duplicate will not be issued to you. They can only allow the wearing of the bar of the installed version.

Division 3rd Belorussian Front crosses the Luchesa River.
June 1944

This year marks 70 years since the Red Army carried out one of the largest strategic operations of the Great Patriotic War - Operation Bagration. In the course of it, the Red Army not only liberated the people of Belarus from occupation, but also significantly undermined the forces of the enemy, brought the collapse of fascism closer - our Victory.

Unparalleled in terms of spatial scope, the Belarusian offensive operation is rightfully considered the greatest achievement of the national military art. As a result, the most powerful grouping of the Wehrmacht was defeated. This was made possible thanks to the unparalleled courage, heroism of determination and self-sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of people. Soviet soldiers and partisans of Belarus, many of whom died a heroic death on Belarusian soil in the name of Victory over the enemy.

Map of the Belarusian operation

After the offensive in the winter of 1943-1944. the front line formed in Belarus a huge ledge with an area of \u200b\u200babout 250 thousand square meters. km, facing east. It penetrated deeply into the location of the Soviet troops and was of great operational and strategic importance for both sides. The elimination of this ledge and the liberation of Belarus opened the Red Army the shortest route to Poland and Germany, endangered flank attacks by the enemy army groups "North" and "Northern Ukraine".

In the central direction, the Soviet troops were opposed by the Army Group Center (3rd Panzer, 4th, 9th and 2nd Armies) under the command of Field Marshal E. Bush. It was supported by aviation of the 6th and partly of the 1st and 4th air fleets. In total, the enemy grouping included 63 divisions and 3 infantry brigades, in which there were 800 thousand people, 7.6 thousand guns and mortars, 900 tanks and assault guns, and more than 1300 combat aircraft. The reserve of the Army Group "Center" had 11 divisions, most of which were involved in the fight against the partisans.

During the summer-autumn campaign of 1944, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command planned to conduct a strategic operation for the final liberation of Belarus, in which the troops of 4 fronts were to act in concert. The troops of the 1st Baltic (commander General of the Army I.Kh. Bagramyan), 3rd (commander Colonel General I.D. Chernyakhovsky), 2nd (commander Colonel General G.F. Zakharov) and 1st Belorussian Fronts (commander General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky), Long-Range Aviation, the Dnieper Military Flotilla, as well as a large number of formations and detachments of Belarusian partisans.

Commander of the 1st Baltic Front General of the Army
THEM. Baghramyan and Chief of Staff of the Front Lieutenant General
V.V. Kurasov during the Belarusian operation

The fronts included 20 combined arms, 2 tank and 5 air armies. In total, the group consisted of 178 rifle divisions, 12 tank and mechanized corps and 21 brigades. 5 air armies provided air support and cover for the troops of the fronts.

The idea of the operation was to break through the enemy defenses in 6 directions with deep strikes from 4 fronts, encircle and destroy enemy groups on the flanks of the Belarusian ledge - in the areas of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, after which, advancing in converging directions on Minsk, surround and liquidate east of the Belarusian capital the main forces of Army Group Center. In the future, increasing the force of the strike, reach the line Kaunas - Bialystok - Lublin.

When choosing the direction of the main attack, the idea of concentrating forces in the Minsk direction was clearly expressed. The simultaneous breakthrough of the front in 6 sectors led to the dissection of the enemy's forces, making it difficult for him to use reserves in repelling the offensive of our troops.

To strengthen the grouping, in the spring and summer of 1944, the Stavka replenished the fronts with four combined arms, two tank armies, four breakthrough artillery divisions, two anti-aircraft artillery divisions, and four engineering and engineer brigades. In the 1.5 months preceding the operation, the numerical strength of the grouping of Soviet troops in Belarus increased by more than 4 times in tanks, almost 2 times in artillery, and by two-thirds in aircraft.

The enemy, not expecting large-scale actions in this direction, expected to repel a private offensive of the Soviet troops with the forces and means of Army Group Center, located in one echelon, mainly only in the tactical defense zone, which consisted of 2 defensive lanes with a depth of 8 to 12 km . At the same time, using the terrain favorable for defense, he created a multi-lane, deeply echeloned defense, consisting of several lines, with a total depth of up to 250 km. Defense lines were built along the western banks of the rivers. The cities of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Borisov, Minsk were turned into powerful defense centers.

By the beginning of the operation, the advancing troops included 1.2 million people, 34,000 guns and mortars, 4,070 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, and about 5,000 combat aircraft. Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in terms of manpower by 1.5 times, guns and mortars by 4.4 times, tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts by 4.5 times, and aircraft by 3.6 times.

In none of the previous offensive operations did the Red Army have such a quantity of artillery, tanks and combat aircraft, and such superiority in forces, as in the Belorussian one.

By the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the tasks for the fronts were determined as follows:

Troops of the 1st Baltic Front to break through the enemy defenses northwest of Vitebsk, capture the Beshenkovichi area, and part of the forces, in cooperation with the right-flank army of the 3rd Belorussian Front, encircle and destroy the enemy in the Vitebsk area. Subsequently, develop an offensive on Lepel;

The troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, in cooperation with the left wing of the 1st Baltic Front and the 2nd Belorussian Front, defeat the enemy's Vitebsk-Orsha grouping and reach the Berezina. To accomplish this task, the front had to strike in two directions (with the forces of 2 armies in each): on Senno, and along the Minsk highway on Borisov, and part of the forces on Orsha. The main forces of the front must develop an offensive towards the Berezina River;

The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, in cooperation with the left wing of the 3rd and the right wing of the 1st Belorussian Fronts, to defeat the Mogilev group, liberate Mogilev and reach the Berezina River;

Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front to defeat the Bobruisk grouping of the enemy. To this end, the front was to deliver two blows: one from the Rogachev area in the direction of Bobruisk, Osipovichi, the second - from the area of the lower reaches of the Berezina to Starye Dorogi, Slutsk. At the same time, the troops of the right wing of the front were to assist the 2nd Belorussian Front in defeating the enemy's Mogilev grouping;

The troops of the 3rd and 1st Belorussian Fronts, after the defeat of the enemy's flank groupings, were to develop an offensive in converging directions to Minsk and, in cooperation with the 2nd Belorussian Front and partisans, encircle its main forces east of Minsk.

The partisans were also given the task of disorganizing the work of the enemy's rear, disrupting the supply of reserves, capturing important lines, crossings and bridgeheads on the rivers, and holding them until the approach of the advancing troops. The first undermining of the rails should be carried out on the night of June 20.

Much attention was paid to the concentration of aviation efforts on directing the main attacks of the fronts and maintaining air supremacy. Only on the eve of the offensive, aviation made 2,700 sorties and carried out powerful aviation training in areas of front breakthrough.

The duration of artillery preparation was planned from 2 hours to 2 hours and 20 minutes. Support for the attack was planned by methods of barrage, sequential concentration of fire, as well as a combination of both methods. In the offensive zones of the 2nd armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, operating in the direction of the main attack, support for the attack of infantry and tanks was carried out for the first time using the double barrage method.

At the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front. The chief of staff, Colonel General M.S., is on the phone. Malinin, far left - Front Commander General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky. Bobruisk region. Summer 1944

The coordination of the actions of the troops of the fronts was entrusted to the representatives of the Headquarters - the chief of the General Staff of Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov. For the same purpose, General S.M., Chief of the Operations Directorate of the General Staff, was sent to the 2nd Belorussian Front. Shtemenko. The actions of the air armies were coordinated by Air Chief Marshal A.A. Novikov and Air Marshal F.Ya. Falaleev. Marshal of Artillery N.D. arrived from Moscow to help the artillery commanders and headquarters. Yakovlev and Colonel-General of Artillery M.N. Chistyakov.

The operation required 400,000 tons of ammunition, about 300,000 tons of fuel, over 500,000 tons of food and fodder, which were delivered on time.

According to the nature of the hostilities and the content of the tasks, the operation "Bagration" is divided into two stages: the first - from June 23 to July 4, 1944, during which 5 front-line operations were carried out: Vitebsk-Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Polotsk and Minsk, and the second - from July 5 to August 29, 1944, which included 5 more front-line operations: Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas, Bialystok and Lublin-Brest.

The 1st stage of the Bagration operation included breaking through the enemy defenses to the entire tactical depth, expanding the breakthrough towards the flanks and defeating the nearest operational reserves and capturing a number of cities, incl. the liberation of the capital of Belarus - Minsk; Stage 2 - development of success in depth, overcoming intermediate defensive lines, defeating the main operational reserves of the enemy, capturing important lines and bridgeheads on the river. Wisla. Specific tasks for the fronts were determined to a depth of 160 km.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Baltic, 3rd and 2nd Belorussian fronts began on June 23. A day later, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front joined the battle. The offensive was preceded by reconnaissance in force.

The actions of the troops during the operation "Bagration", as in no other operation of the Soviet troops before that, almost exactly corresponded to its plan and the tasks received. During 12 days of intense fighting in the first stage of the operation, the main forces of Army Group Center were defeated.

German captured soldiers of the Army Group Center are being escorted through Moscow.
July 17, 1944

The troops, advancing 225-280 km at an average daily pace of 20-25 km, liberated most of Belarus. In the areas of Vitebsk, Bobruisk and Minsk, a total of about 30 German divisions were surrounded and defeated. The enemy front in the central direction was crushed. The results achieved created the conditions for a subsequent offensive in the Siauliai, Vilnius, Grodno and Brest directions, as well as for the transition to active operations in other sectors of the Soviet-German front.

Fighter, liberate your Belarus. Poster by V. Koretsky. 1944

The goals set for the fronts were fully achieved. The success of the Belorussian operation was timely used by the Headquarters for decisive actions in other directions of the Soviet-German front. On July 13, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front went on the offensive. The general offensive front expanded from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. Soviet troops on July 17-18 crossed the state border of the Soviet Union with Poland. By August 29, they reached the line - Jelgava, Dobele, Augustow and the Narew and Vistula rivers.

Vistula river. Crossing tanks. 1944

Further development of the offensive with an acute shortage of ammunition and fatigue of the Soviet troops would not have been successful, and by order of the Stavka they went on the defensive.

2nd Belorussian Front: Front Commander General of the Army
G.F. Zakharov, member of the Military Council, Lieutenant General N.E. Subbotin and Colonel General K.A. Vershinin are discussing a plan to strike the enemy from the air. August 1944

As a result of the Belorussian operation, favorable conditions were created not only for inflicting new powerful strikes against enemy groupings operating on the Soviet-German front in the Baltic States, East Prussia and Poland, in the Warsaw-Berlin direction, but also for deploying offensive operations of the Anglo-American troops, landed in Normandy.

The Belarusian offensive operation of the group of fronts, which lasted 68 days, is one of the outstanding operations not only of the Great Patriotic War, but of the entire Second World War. Her distinguishing feature- huge spatial scope and impressive operational and strategic results.

Military Council of the 3rd Belorussian Front. From left to right: Chief of Staff of the Front, Colonel-General A.P. Pokrovsky, a member of the Military Council of the Front, Lieutenant General V.E. Makarov, commander of the front troops, General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky. September 1944

The troops of the Red Army, having launched an offensive on June 23 on a front of 700 km, by the end of August advanced 550-600 km to the west, expanding the front of hostilities to 1,100 km. The vast territory of Belarus and a significant part of eastern Poland were cleared of the German occupiers. Soviet troops reached the Vistula, on the outskirts of Warsaw and the border with East Prussia.

Battalion commander of the 297th rifle regiment 184th Division of the 5th Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front Captain G.N. Gubkin (right) with officers on reconnaissance. On August 17, 1944, his battalion was the first in the Red Army to break through to the border of East Prussia

During the operation, the largest German group suffered a crushing defeat. Of the 179 divisions and 5 brigades of the Wehrmacht, then operating on the Soviet-German front, 17 divisions and 3 brigades were completely destroyed in Belarus, and 50 divisions, having lost more than 50% of their personnel, lost their combat capability. German troops lost about 500 thousand soldiers and officers.

Operation "Bagration" showed vivid examples of the high skill of Soviet generals and military leaders. She made a significant contribution to the development of the strategy, operational art and tactics; enriched the art of war with the experience of encircling and destroying large enemy groupings in a short time and in a variety of situational conditions. The task of breaking through the powerful defense of the enemy, as well as the rapid development of success in the operational depth through the skillful use of large tank formations and formations, was successfully solved.

In the struggle for the liberation of Belarus, Soviet soldiers showed mass heroism and high combat skills. 1500 of its participants became Heroes of the Soviet Union, hundreds of thousands were awarded orders and medals of the USSR. Among the Heroes of the Soviet Union and those awarded were soldiers of all nationalities of the USSR.

Partisan formations played an exceptionally important role in the liberation of Belarus.

Parade of partisan brigades after liberation
the capital of Belarus - Minsk

Solving tasks in close cooperation with the troops of the Red Army, they destroyed over 15 thousand and captured more than 17 thousand enemy soldiers and officers. The motherland highly appreciated the feat of the partisans and underground fighters. Many of them were awarded orders and medals, and 87 who especially distinguished themselves became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

But the victory came at a high price. At the same time, the high intensity of hostilities, the advance transition of the enemy to the defensive, the difficult conditions of the wooded and swampy terrain, the need to overcome large water barriers and other natural obstacles led to heavy losses in people. During the offensive, the troops of the four fronts lost 765,815 people killed, wounded, missing and sick, which is almost 50% of their total strength at the start of the operation. And irretrievable losses amounted to 178,507 people. Our troops also had heavy losses in armament.

The world community appreciated the events on the central sector of the Soviet-German front. Political and military figures of the West, diplomats and journalists noted their significant influence on the further course of the Second World War. “The swiftness of the offensive of your armies is amazing,” wrote President of the United States of America F. Roosevelt on July 21, 1944 to I.V. Stalin. In a telegram to the head of the Soviet government dated July 24, British Prime Minister W. Churchill called the events in Belarus "victories of great importance." One of the Turkish newspapers on July 9 stated: "If the advance of the Russians continues to develop at the same pace, the Russian troops will enter Berlin faster than the allied troops will finish operations in Normandy."

Professor of the University of Edinburgh, a well-known English specialist in military-strategic problems, J. Erickson, in his book “The Road to Berlin” emphasized: “The defeat of the Army Group Center by the Soviet troops was their biggest success achieved ... as a result of one operation. For the German army... it was a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, bigger than Stalingrad."

Operation Bagration was the first major offensive operation The Red Army, carried out at a time when the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain began hostilities in Western Europe. However, 70% of the ground forces of the Wehrmacht continued to fight on the Soviet-German front. The catastrophe in Belarus forced the German command to transfer large strategic reserves here from the west, which, of course, created favorable conditions for the offensive operations of the allies after the landing of their troops in Normandy and the conduct of a coalition war in Europe.

The successful offensive of the 1st Baltic, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Belorussian fronts in the western direction in the summer of 1944 radically changed the situation on the entire Soviet-German front, led to a sharp weakening of the combat potential of the Wehrmacht. By liquidating the Belarusian ledge, they eliminated the threat of flank attacks from the north for the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which were advancing in the Lvov and Rava-Russian directions. The capture and retention of bridgeheads by the Soviet troops on the Vistula in the areas of Pulawy and Magnuszew opened up prospects for conducting new operations to defeat the enemy in order to full release Poland and the attack on the capital of Germany.

Memorial complex "Mound of Glory".

Sculptors A. Bembel and A. Artimovich, architects O. Stakhovich and L. Mitskevich, engineer B. Laptsevich. The total height of the memorial is 70.6 m. An earthen hill 35 m high is crowned by a sculptural composition of four bayonets lined with titanium, each 35.6 m high. The bayonets symbolize the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts that liberated Belarus. Their base is surrounded by a ring with bas-relief images of Soviet soldiers and partisans. On the inside of the ring, made in the mosaic technique, the text is beaten off: "Glory to the Soviet Army, the Liberator Army!"

Sergey Lipatov,
Research Fellow at the Research
institute military history military academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces
Russian Federation

For three years, Belarus was under the yoke of the enemy. The occupants plundered the territory of the republic: cities were devastated, more than a million buildings in the countryside were burned, and 7 thousand schools were turned into ruins. The Nazis killed more than two million prisoners of war and civilians. In fact, there was no family in the Byelorussian SSR that did not suffer from the Nazis. White Russia was one of the most affected territories of the Union. But people did not lose heart and resisted. Knowing that in the East the Red Army repulsed the enemy's onslaught on Moscow, Stalingrad and the Caucasus, defeated the Nazis on the Kursk Bulge, and liberated the regions of Ukraine, the Belarusian partisans were preparing for decisive action. By the summer of 1944, approximately 140 thousand partisans were operating on the territory of Belarus. The general leadership of the partisans was carried out by the underground organizations of the Communist Party of the BSSR, headed by Panteleimon Kondratievich Ponomarenko, who at the same time was the head of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement of the USSR. It should be noted that contemporaries noted his amazing honesty, responsibility and deep analytical abilities. Stalin highly appreciated Ponomarenko, some researchers believe that the leader wanted to make him his successor.

A few days before the start of the operation to liberate Belarus, partisan detachments delivered a series of sensitive blows against the Germans. The partisans destroyed their transport infrastructure, communication lines, actually paralyzed the rear of the enemy at the most crucial moment. During the operation, the partisans attacked individual enemy units and attacked the rear structures of the Germans.

Operation preparation

The operational plan of the Belarusian operation began to be developed back in April. The general plan of the General Staff was to crush the flanks of the German Army Group Center, encircle its main forces east of the capital of the BSSR and completely liberate Belarus. It was a very ambitious and large-scale plan, the simultaneous crushing of an entire enemy army group was planned very rarely during World War II. It was one of the largest operations in the entire war of mankind.

By the summer of 1944, the Red Army had achieved impressive success in Ukraine - the Wehrmacht suffered heavy losses, the Soviet forces carried out a number of successful offensive operations, liberating most of the territory of the republic. But things were worse in the Belarusian direction: the front line approached the line Vitebsk - Orsha - Mogilev - Zhlobin, forming a huge ledge that was turned deep into the USSR, the so-called. "Belarusian balcony".

In July 1944, the German industry reached the highest point of its development in this war - in the first half of the year, the Reich factories produced more than 16 thousand aircraft, 8.3 thousand tanks, assault guns. Berlin carried out several mobilizations, and its strength armed forces consisted of 324 divisions and 5 brigades. Army Group Center, which defended Belarus, had 850-900 thousand people, up to 10 thousand guns and mortars, 900 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1350 aircraft. In addition, at the second stage of the battle, Army Group Center was supported by formations of the right flank of Army Group North and the left flank of Army Group Northern Ukraine, as well as reserves from the Western Front and various sectors of the Eastern Front. The Army Group "Center" included 4 armies: the 2nd field army, it held the Pinsk and Pripyat region (commander Walter Weiss); The 9th field army, it defended the area on both sides of the Berezina southeast of Bobruisk (Hans Jordan, after June 27 - Nikolaus von Forman); The 4th Field Army (Kurt von Tippelskirch, after June 30, the army was commanded by Vinzenz Müller) and the 3rd Panzer Army (Georg Reinhardt), which occupied the interfluve of the Berezina and the Dnieper, as well as a bridgehead from Bykhov to the area northeast of Orsha. In addition, formations of the 3rd Panzer Army occupied the Vitebsk region. The commander of Army Group Center was Field Marshal Ernst Busch (on June 28, Bush was replaced by Walter Model). His chief of staff was Hans Krebs.

If the command of the Red Army was well aware of the German grouping in the area of the future offensive, then the command of Army Group Center and the headquarters of the Reich ground forces had a completely wrong idea about Moscow's plans for the summer campaign of 1944. Adolf Hitler and the High Command of the Wehrmacht believed that a major Soviet offensive should still be expected in Ukraine, north or south of the Carpathians (most likely north). It was believed that from the area south of Kovel, Soviet troops would strike towards the Baltic Sea, trying to cut off Army Groups Center and North from Germany. Large forces were allocated to parry a possible threat. So, in the army group "Northern Ukraine" there were seven tank, two tank-grenadier divisions, as well as four battalions of heavy tanks "Tiger". And the Army Group "Center" had one tank, two tank-grenadier divisions and one battalion of heavy tanks. In addition, they feared an attack on Romania - on the oil fields of Ploiesti. In April, the command of Army Group Center submitted to the top leadership a proposal to reduce the front line and withdraw troops to better positions beyond the Berezina. But this plan was rejected, Army Group Center was ordered to defend in the same positions. Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev and Bobruisk were declared "fortresses" and fortified with the expectation of all-round defense, a possible struggle in the environment. For engineering work, forced labor of local residents was widely used. Aviation, radio intelligence and German agents were unable to reveal the preparations by the Soviet command for a major operation in Belarus. Army Groups Center and North were predicted to have a "calm summer"; the situation inspired so little concern that Field Marshal Bush went on vacation three days before the start of the Red Army operation. But, it should be noted that the front in Belarus stood still for a long time, and the Nazis managed to create a developed defense system. It included "fortress" cities, numerous field fortifications, bunkers, dugouts, interchangeable positions for artillery and machine guns. The Germans assigned a large role to natural obstacles - wooded and swampy terrain, many rivers and streams.

Red Army. Stalin made the final decision to conduct the summer campaign, including the Belarusian operation, at the end of April. Deputy Chief of the General Staff A. I. Antonov was instructed to organize work in the General Staff on planning operations. The plan to liberate Belarus received a code name - Operation Bagration. On May 20, 1944, the General Staff completed the development of an offensive operation plan. A. M. Vasilevsky, A. I. Antonov and G. K. Zhukov were called to the Headquarters. On May 22, the commanders of the fronts, I. Kh. Bagramyan, I. D. Chernyakhovsky, and K. K. Rokossovsky, were received at Headquarters to hear their views on the operation. The coordination of the troops of the fronts was entrusted to Vasilevsky and Zhukov, they left for the troops in early June.

The rate provided for the application of three powerful blows. The 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian fronts advanced in the general direction towards Vilnius. The troops of the two fronts were supposed to defeat the enemy's Vitebsk grouping, develop an offensive to the west and cover the left-flank grouping of the Borisov-Minsk group of German forces. The 1st Belorussian Front was supposed to defeat the Bobruisk group of Germans. Then develop the offensive in the direction of Slutsk-Baranovichi and cover the Minsk group of German troops from the south and south-west. The 2nd Belorussian Front, in cooperation with the left-flank grouping of the 3rd Belorussian Front and the right flank of the 1st Belorussian Front, was to move in the general direction towards Minsk.

From the Soviet side, about 1 million 200 thousand people participated in the operation as part of four fronts: the 1st Baltic Front (General of the Army Ivan Khristoforovich Bagramyan); 3rd Belorussian Front (Colonel General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky); 2nd Belorussian Front (Colonel General Georgy Fedorovich Zakharov); 1st Belorussian Front (General of the Army Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky). The coordinator of the actions of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian fronts was Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, and the coordinator of the actions of the 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts was the chief of the General Staff Alexander Mikhailovich Vasilevsky. The Dnieper military flotilla also took part in the operation.

Preparation of the Belarusian operation (from left to right) Varennikov I. S., Zhukov G. K., Kazakov V. I., Rokossovsky K. K. 1st Belorussian Front. 1944

Operation "Bagration" was supposed to solve several important tasks:

Completely clear the Moscow direction from German troops, since the leading edge of the "Belarusian ledge" was 80 kilometers from Smolensk. The configuration of the front line in the BSSR was a huge arc extended to the east with an area of almost 250 thousand square kilometers. The arc stretched from Vitebsk in the north and Pinsk in the south to the Smolensk and Gomel regions, hanging over the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The German high command attached great importance to this territory - it protected the distant approaches to Poland and East Prussia. In addition, Hitler still cherished plans for a victorious war if a “miracle” was created, or if major geopolitical changes took place. From the bridgehead in Belarus, it was possible to strike at Moscow again.

Complete the liberation of the entire Belarusian territory, parts of Lithuania and Poland.

Reach the Baltic coast and the borders of East Prussia, which made it possible to cut the German front at the junctions of Army Groups "Center" and "North" and isolate these German groups from each other.

To create profitable operational and tactical prerequisites for subsequent offensive operations in the Baltic states, in Western Ukraine, in the Warsaw and East Prussian directions.

Main milestones of the operation

The operation was carried out in two stages. At the first stage (June 23-July 4, 1944) the Vitebsk-Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Polotsk and Minsk front offensive operations were carried out. At the second stage of Operation Bagration (July 5–August 29, 1944), Vilnius, Shauliai, Bialystok, Lublin-Brest, Kaunas and Osovets front-line offensive operations were carried out.

The first stage of the operation

The offensive began on the morning of June 23, 1944. Near Vitebsk, the Red Army successfully broke through the German defenses and already on June 25 surrounded five enemy divisions to the west of the city. The liquidation of the Vitebsk "cauldron" was completed by the morning of June 27, on the same day Orsha was released. With the destruction of the Vitebsk German grouping, a key position on the left flank of the defense of Army Group Center was captured. The northern flank of the Army Group "Center" was actually destroyed, more than 40 thousand Germans died and 17 thousand people were captured. In the Orsha direction, after breaking through the German defenses, the Soviet command brought the 5th Guards Tank Army into battle. Having successfully crossed the Berezina, Rotmistrov's tankers cleared Borisov of the Nazis. The withdrawal of troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front to the Borisov region led to significant operational success: the 3rd Panzer Army of Army Group Center was cut off from the 4th Field Army. The formations of the 2nd Belorussian Front advancing in the Mogilev direction broke through the powerful and deeply echeloned defense of the Germans, which the enemy had prepared along the Pronya, Basya and Dnieper rivers. On June 28 they liberated Mogilev. The withdrawal of the 4th German Army lost organization, the enemy lost up to 33 thousand killed and captured.

The Bobruisk offensive operation was supposed to create a southern "pincer" of the huge encirclement conceived by the Soviet Headquarters. This operation was entirely carried out by the most powerful of the fronts - the 1st Belorussian under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky. The 9th Army of the Wehrmacht resisted the offensive of the Red Army. We had to advance through very difficult terrain - swamps. The blow was struck on June 24: from the southeast to the northwest, gradually turning to the north, the 65th army of Batov (reinforced by the 1st Don tank corps) moved, from the east to the west the 3rd army of Gorbatov advanced with the 9th tank body. For a quick breakthrough in the Slutsk direction, the 28th Army of Luchinsky and the 4th Guards Cavalry Corps of Pliev were used. The armies of Batov and Luchinsky quickly broke through the defenses of the stunned enemy (the Russians made their way through the swamp, which was considered impassable). But the 3rd army of Gorbatov had to literally bite into the orders of the Germans. The commander of the 9th Army, Hans Jordan, threw his main reserve against her - the 20th Panzer Division. But soon he had to redirect his reserve to the southern flank of the defense. The 20th Panzer Division was unable to close the gap. On June 27, the main forces of the 9th Field Army fell into the "boiler". General Jordan was replaced by von Forman, but this could not save the situation. Attempts to deblockade from the outside and from the inside failed. Panic reigned in encircled Bobruisk, and on the 27th its assault began. By the morning of June 29, Bobruisk was completely liberated. The Germans lost 74 thousand people killed and captured. As a result of the defeat of the 9th Army, both flanks of Army Group Center were open, and the road to Minsk was free from the northeast and southeast.

On June 29, the 1st Baltic Front attacked Polotsk. The 6th Guards Army of Chistyakov and the 43rd Army of Beloborodov bypassed the city from the south (the guards of the 6th Army also bypassed Polotsk from the west), the 4th shock army of Malyshev - from the north. Butkov's 1st Panzer Corps liberated the city of Ushachi south of Polotsk and advanced far to the west. Then, with a sudden attack, the tankers seized a bridgehead on the western bank of the Dvina. But it didn’t work out to take the Germans into the “ring” - Karl Hilpert, who commanded the garrison of the city, arbitrarily left the “fortress”, without waiting for the withdrawal routes to be cut by the Russian troops. Polotsk was occupied on July 4th. As a result of the Polotsk operation, the German command lost a strong stronghold and a railway junction. In addition, the flank threat to the 1st Baltic Front was eliminated, the positions of the German Army Group North were outflanked from the south and were under the threat of a flank strike.

The German command, trying to rectify the situation, replaced the commander of Army Group Center Bush with Field Marshal Walter Model. He was considered a master defensive operations. Reserve units were sent to Belarus, including the 4th, 5th and 12th tank divisions.

The 4th German Army, in the face of the threat of imminent encirclement, retreated across the Berezina River. The situation was extremely difficult: the flanks were open, the retreating columns were subjected to constant Soviet air strikes and partisan attacks. The pressure from the 2nd Belorussian Front, which was located directly in front of the 4th Army, was not strong, since the plans Soviet command did not include the expulsion of German troops from the future "boiler".

The 3rd Belorussian Front advanced in two main directions: to the southwest (toward Minsk) and west (to Vileyka). The 1st Belorussian Front advanced on Slutsk, Nesvizh and Minsk. German resistance was weak, the main forces were defeated. On June 30, Slutsk was taken, and on July 2, Nesvizh, the escape routes to the southwest were cut off for the Germans. By July 2, tank units of the 1st Belorussian Front approached Minsk. The advancing units of the 3rd Belorussian Front had to endure a fierce battle with the 5th German Panzer Division (reinforced by a battalion of heavy tanks), which arrived in the Borisov region on June 26-28. This division was full-blooded, did not participate in hostilities for several months. In the course of several bloody battles, the last one took place on July 1-2 north-west of Minsk, the tank division lost almost all its tanks and was driven back. On July 3, Burdeyny's 2nd Panzer Corps broke into Minsk from the northwest. At the same time, advanced units of Rokossovsky approached the city from the south. The German garrison was not numerous and did not last long, Minsk was liberated by lunchtime. As a result, units of the 4th Army and units of other armies that joined it fell into the encirclement. The Red Army actually avenged the "cauldrons" of 1941. The encircled were unable to organize a long-term resistance - the area of the encirclement was shot through with artillery fire, it was constantly bombed, the ammunition ran out, there was no outside help. The Germans fought until July 8-9, made several desperate attempts to break through, but were defeated everywhere. July 8 and. about. commander of the army, the commander of the XII Army Corps Vinzenz Müller signed the surrender. Even before July 12, there was a “cleansing operation”, the Germans lost 72 thousand killed and more than 35 thousand were captured.

The poverty of the road network in Belarus and the marshy and wooded terrain led to the fact that many kilometers of columns of German troops crowded together on only two major highways - Zhlobin and Rogachev, where they were subjected to massive attacks by the Soviet 16th Air Army. Some German units were practically destroyed on the Zhlobin highway.

Photo of destroyed German equipment from the area of the bridge across the Berezina.

The second stage of the operation

The Germans tried to stabilize the situation. The head of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, Kurt Zeitzler, proposed to transfer Army Group North to the south in order to build a new front with the help of its troops. But this plan was rejected by Hitler for political reasons (relations with the Finns). In addition, the naval command opposed - the withdrawal from the Baltic worsened communications with the same Finland and Sweden, led to the loss of a number of naval bases and strongholds in the Baltic. As a result, Zeitzler resigned and was replaced by Heinz Guderian. Model, for its part, tried to erect a new defensive line that ran from Vilnius through Lida and Baranovichi in order to close a hole in the front about 400 km wide. But for this he had only one whole army - the 2nd and the remnants of other armies. Therefore, the German command had to transfer significant forces to Belarus from other sectors of the Soviet-German front and from the West. Until July 16, 46 divisions were sent to Belarus, but these troops were not brought into battle immediately, in parts, often "from wheels", and therefore they could not quickly turn the tide.

From July 5 to July 20, 1944, the Vilnius operation was carried out by the forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front under the command of Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky. The Germans did not have a continuous front of defense in the Vilnius direction. On July 7, units of the 5th Guards Tank Army of Rotmistrov and the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps of Obukhov reached the city and began to encircle it. An attempt to take the city on the move failed. On the night of July 8, new German forces were brought up to Vilnius. On July 8-9, the city was completely surrounded and its assault was launched. German attempts to unblock the city from the western direction were repulsed. The last centers of resistance were crushed in Vilnius on 13 July. Up to 8 thousand Germans were destroyed, 5 thousand people were taken prisoner. On July 15, units of the front occupied several bridgeheads on the western bank of the Neman. Until the 20th, there were battles for bridgeheads.

On July 28, the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front went on a new offensive - they were aimed at Kaunas and Suwalki. On July 30, the German defense along the Neman was broken through; on August 1, the Germans left Kaunas so as not to be surrounded. Then the Germans received reinforcements and went on a counteroffensive - the battles went on with varying success until the end of August. The front did not reach several kilometers to the border of East Prussia.

Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front received the task of reaching the sea to cut off the North group. In the Dvina direction, the Germans were initially able to hold back the offensive, since the front was regrouping forces and waiting for reserves. Dvinsk was cleared in cooperation with the troops of the 2nd Baltic Front advancing to the right only on July 27th. On the same day they took Siauliai. By July 30, the front managed to separate the two enemy army groups from each other - the advanced units of the Red Army cut the last railway between East Prussia and the Baltic in the Tukums region. On July 31 Jelgava was captured. The 1st Baltic Front went to the sea. The Germans began to try to reconnect with Army Group North. The fighting went on with varying success, and at the end of August there was a break in the battles.

The 2nd Belorussian Front advanced to the west - to Novogrudok, and then Grodno and Bialystok. The 49th army of Grishin and the 50th army of Boldin participated in the destruction of the Minsk "boiler", therefore, on July 5, only one army, the 33rd, went on the offensive. The 33rd Army advanced without encountering much resistance, covering 120-125 km in five days. On July 8, Novogrudok was liberated, on the 9th the army reached the Neman River. On July 10, the 50th Army joined the offensive and the troops crossed the Neman. On July 16, Grodno was liberated, the Germans were already putting up fierce resistance, a series of counterattacks was repulsed. The German command tried to stop the Soviet troops, but they did not have enough strength for this. July 27 Bialystok was recaptured. Soviet soldiers reached the pre-war border of the Soviet Union. The front was unable to carry out significant encirclements, since it did not have large mobile formations (tank, mechanized, cavalry corps) in its composition. On August 14, Osovets and the bridgehead beyond the Narew were occupied.

The 1st Belorussian Front advanced in the direction of Baranovichi-Brest. Almost immediately, the advancing units collided with German reserves: the 4th Panzer Division, the 1st Hungarian Cavalry Division, the 28th Light Infantry Division, and other formations went. July 5-6 was a fierce battle. Gradually, the German forces were crushed, they were inferior in number. In addition, the Soviet front was supported by powerful Air Force formations that inflicted strong blows by the Germans. On July 6, Kovel was liberated. On July 8, after a fierce battle, Baranovichi was taken. On July 14 they took Pinsk, on the 20th Kobrin. On July 20, units of Rokossovsky crossed the Bug on the move. The Germans did not have time to create a line of defense along it. On July 25, a “cauldron” was created near Brest, but on the 28th, the remnants of the encircled German group broke out of it (the Germans lost 7 thousand people killed). It should be noted that the battles were fierce, there were few prisoners, but a lot of Germans were killed.

On July 22, units of the 2nd Panzer Army (which was attached to the front during the second phase of the operation) reached Lublin. On July 23, the assault on the city began, but due to the lack of infantry, it dragged on, the city was finally taken by the morning of the 25th. In late July - early August, Rokossovsky's front captured two large bridgeheads beyond the Vistula.

Operation results

As a result of the two-month offensive of the Red Army, White Russia was completely cleared of the Nazis, part of the Baltic states and the eastern regions of Poland were liberated. In general, on a front of 1100 kilometers, the advance of troops to a depth of up to 600 kilometers was achieved.

It was a major defeat for the Wehrmacht. There is even an opinion that it was the largest defeat of the German armed forces in World War II. Army Group Center was defeated, Army Group North was threatened with defeat. The powerful line of defense in Belarus, protected by natural barriers (swamps, rivers), has been broken. The German reserves were depleted, which had to be thrown into battle in order to close the "hole".

An excellent groundwork has been created for a future offensive into Poland and further into Germany. Thus, the 1st Belorussian Front captured two large bridgeheads beyond the Vistula south of the capital of Poland (Magnushevsky and Pulawsky). In addition, during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, the 1st Ukrainian Front occupied a bridgehead near Sandomierz.

Operation Bagration was a triumph of Soviet military art. The Red Army "answered" for the "boilers" of 1941.

The Soviet army lost up to 178.5 thousand dead, missing and captured, as well as 587.3 thousand wounded and sick. The total losses of the Germans are about 400 thousand people (according to other sources, more than 500 thousand).

A unit of the 3rd Belorussian Front is forcing the Luchesa River.
June 1944

Unparalleled in terms of spatial scope, the Belarusian offensive operation is rightfully considered the greatest achievement of the national military art. As a result, the most powerful grouping of the Wehrmacht was defeated. This became possible thanks to the unparalleled courage, heroism of determination and self-sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers and partisans of Belarus, many of whom died a heroic death on Belarusian soil in the name of Victory over the enemy.

Map of the Belarusian operation

During the summer-autumn campaign of 1944, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command planned to conduct a strategic operation for the final liberation of Belarus, in which the troops of 4 fronts were to act in concert. The troops of the 1st Baltic (commander general of the army), 3rd (commander colonel general), 2nd (commander colonel general G.F. Zakharov) and 1st Belorussian fronts (commander general of the army) were involved in the operation. , long-range aviation, the Dnieper military flotilla, as well as a large number of formations and detachments of Belarusian partisans.

Commander of the 1st Baltic Front General of the Army
THEM. Baghramyan and Chief of Staff of the Front Lieutenant General
V.V. Kurasov during the Belarusian operation

The fronts included 20 combined arms, 2 tank and 5 air armies. In total, the grouping consisted of 178 rifle divisions, 12 tank and mechanized corps and 21 brigades. 5 air armies provided air support and cover for the troops of the fronts.

In none of the previous offensive operations did the Red Army have such a quantity of artillery, tanks and combat aircraft, and such superiority in forces, as in the Belorussian one.

By the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the tasks for the fronts were determined as follows:

The coordination of the actions of the troops of the fronts was entrusted to the representatives of the Headquarters - the Chief of the General Staff Marshal of the Soviet Union and the Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union. For the same purpose, the head of the operational department of the General Staff, General, was sent to the 2nd Belorussian Front. The actions of the air armies were coordinated by Air Chief Marshal A.A. Novikov and Air Marshal F.Ya. Falaleev. Marshal of Artillery N.D. arrived from Moscow to help the artillery commanders and headquarters. Yakovlev and Colonel-General of Artillery M.N. Chistyakov.

The operation required 400,000 tons of ammunition, about 300,000 tons of fuel, over 500,000 tons of food and fodder, which were delivered on time.

German captured soldiers of the Army Group Center are being escorted through Moscow.
July 17, 1944

Fighter, liberate your Belarus. Poster by V. Koretsky. 1944

Vistula river. Crossing tanks. 1944

Further development of the offensive with an acute shortage of ammunition and fatigue of the Soviet troops would not have been successful, and by order of the Stavka they went on the defensive.

The Belarusian offensive operation of the group of fronts, which lasted 68 days, is one of the outstanding operations not only of the Great Patriotic War, but of the entire Second World War. Its distinguishing feature is its huge spatial scope and impressive operational and strategic results.

Battalion commander of the 297th Infantry Regiment of the 184th Division of the 5th Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front Captain G.N. Gubkin (right) with officers on reconnaissance. On August 17, 1944, his battalion was the first in the Red Army to break through to the border of East Prussia

Operation "Bagration" showed vivid examples of the high skill of Soviet generals and military leaders. She made a significant contribution to the development of strategy, operational art and tactics; enriched the art of war with the experience of encircling and destroying large enemy groupings in a short time and in a variety of situational conditions. The task of breaking through the powerful defense of the enemy, as well as the rapid development of success in the operational depth through the skillful use of large tank formations and formations, was successfully solved.

Partisan formations played an exceptionally important role in the liberation of Belarus.

Parade of partisan brigades after liberation
the capital of Belarus - Minsk

Operation Bagration was the first major offensive operation of the Red Army, carried out at a time when the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain began hostilities in Western Europe. However, 70% of the ground forces of the Wehrmacht continued to fight on the Soviet-German front. The catastrophe in Belarus forced the German command to transfer large strategic reserves here from the west, which, of course, created favorable conditions for the offensive operations of the allies after the landing of their troops in Normandy and the conduct of a coalition war in Europe.

The successful offensive of the 1st Baltic, 3rd, 2nd and 1st Belorussian fronts in the western direction in the summer of 1944 radically changed the situation on the entire Soviet-German front, led to a sharp weakening of the combat potential of the Wehrmacht. By liquidating the Belarusian ledge, they eliminated the threat of flank attacks from the north for the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which were advancing in the Lvov and Rava-Russian directions. The capture and retention of bridgeheads by the Soviet troops on the Vistula in the areas of Pulawy and Magnuszew opened up prospects for conducting new operations to defeat the enemy in order to completely liberate Poland and advance on the German capital.

Memorial complex "Mound of Glory".

Sergey Lipatov,
Research Fellow at the Research
Institute of Military History of the Military Academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces
Russian Federation .

In the summer of 1944, the Soviet army set about the final liberation of Belarus from the Germans. The main content of the plan of operation "Bagration" was an organized offensive on several fronts, which was supposed to throw the Wehrmacht forces outside the republic. The success allowed the USSR to proceed with the liberation of Poland and East Prussia.

the day before

The strategic plan "Bagration" was developed in accordance with the situation that prevailed at the beginning of 1944 in Belarus. The Red Army has already liberated part of the Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev and Polesye regions of the republic. However, its main territory was still occupied by German units. A ledge formed at the front, which was called the "Belarusian balcony" in the Wehrmacht. The headquarters of the Third Reich did everything possible to keep this important strategic area as long as possible.

For defense, a new network of lines about 250 kilometers long was created. They were trenches, barbed wire, and in some areas anti-tank ditches were quickly dug. The German command even managed to increase its own contingent in Belarus, despite the scarcity of human resources. According to Soviet intelligence data, there were just over a million Wehrmacht troops in the region. What could counter this operation "Bagration"? The plan was based on the attack of more than one and a half million Red Army soldiers.

Plan approval

Preparations for the operation to defeat the Germans in Belarus began at the direction of Stalin in April 1944. At the same time, the General Staff began to concentrate troops and materiel on the corresponding sector of the front. The original plan of "Bagration" was proposed by General Alexei Antonov. At the end of May, he prepared a draft of the operation.

At the same time, key commanders on the western front were called to Moscow. These were Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Chernyakhovsky and Ivan Bagramyan. They reported on the situation in their sectors of the front. Georgy Zhukov and (representatives of the Headquarters of the High Command) also took part in the discussion. The plan was revised and revised. After that, on May 30, it was approved

"Bagration" (the plan was named after the general of the year) was based on the following idea. The enemy defense was to be simultaneously broken through in six sectors of the front. After that, it was planned to encircle the German formations on the flanks (in the area of Bobruisk and Vitebsk), an offensive in the direction of Brest, Minsk and Kaunas. After the complete defeat of the army group, the 1st Belorussian Front was to go to Warsaw, the 1st Baltic Front to Koenigsberg, and the 3rd Belorussian Front to Allenstein.

Partisan actions

What ensured the success of Operation Bagration? The plan was based not only on the fulfillment of the orders of the Headquarters by the army, but also on its active interaction with the partisans. To ensure communication between them, special operational groups were created. On June 8, the partisans operating underground received an order to prepare for the destruction of the railways located in the occupied territory.

On the night of June 20, more than 40,000 rails were blown up. In addition, the partisans derailed the echelons of the Wehrmacht. The Center group, being under a coordinated strike by the Soviet army, was unable to pull up reserves to the front line in time due to the paralysis of its own communications.

Vitebsk-Orsha operation

On June 22, the active phase of Operation Bagration began. It was no coincidence that the plan included this date. The general offensive resumed exactly on the third anniversary of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussian Front were used to carry out the Vitebsk-Orsha operation. During it, the defense on the right flank of the Center group was brought down. The Red Army liberated several regional centers of the Vitebsk region, including Orsha. The Germans retreated everywhere.

On June 27, Vitebsk was cleared of the enemy. The day before, the German group operating in the city area was subjected to numerous intense artillery and air strikes. A significant part of the German military personnel was surrounded. Attempts by some divisions to break out of the encirclement ended in nothing.

On June 28, Lepel was released. As a result of the Vitebsk-Orsha operation, the Red Army managed to almost completely destroy the 53rd army corps of the enemy. The Wehrmacht lost 40 thousand people killed and 17 thousand prisoners.

Liberation of Mogilev

The military plan "Bagration" adopted by the Headquarters stated that the Mogilev operation was to be a decisive blow to the positions of the Wehrmacht. In this direction, the German forces were somewhat smaller than in other sectors of the front. Nevertheless, the Soviet offensive here was very important, as it cut off the enemy's retreat.

In the Mogilev direction, the German troops had a well-prepared defense system. Every small locality, located near the main roads, was turned into a reference. The eastern approaches to Mogilev were covered by several defensive lines. Hitler in his public speeches stated that this city must be kept at all costs. It was now allowed to leave him only with the personal consent of the Fuhrer.

On June 23, after artillery strikes, the forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front began to force a defensive line built by the Germans along its banks. Dozens of bridges were built across the river. The enemy almost did not resist, as he was paralyzed by artillery. Soon the upper section of the Dnieper near Mogilev was forced. The city was taken on June 28 after a rapid advance. In total, more than 30 thousand German soldiers were taken prisoner during the operation. The Wehrmacht forces at first retreated in an organized manner, but after the capture of Mogilev, this retreat turned into a stampede.

Bobruisk operation

Bobruisk operation was carried out in the southern direction. It was supposed to lead to the encirclement of the German units, for which the Stavka was preparing a large-scale cauldron. The plan of operation "Bagration" stated that this task was to be performed by the 1st Belorussian Front, commanded by Rokossovsky.

The offensive near Bobruisk began on June 24, that is, a little later than in other sectors of the front. There were many marshes in this region. The Germans did not expect the Red Army soldiers to overcome this swamp at all. However, the complex maneuver was nevertheless carried out. As a result, the 65th Army made a quick and stunning blow against the enemy who did not expect trouble. On June 27, Soviet troops established control over the roads to Bobruisk. The assault on the city began. Bobruisk was cleared of Wehrmacht forces by the evening of the 29th. During the operation, the 35th Army and 41st Tank Corps were destroyed. After the successes of the Soviet army on the flanks, the road to Minsk was opened for it.

Polotsk strike

After the success in Vitebsk, the 1st Baltic Front under the command of Ivan Bagramyan proceeded to the next stage of the offensive against the German positions. Now the Soviet army had to liberate Polotsk. This was decided at Headquarters, coordinating the operation "Bagration". The capture plan had to be carried out as quickly as possible, since a strong Army Group North was located in this sector.

The attack on Polotsk was carried out on June 29 by the forces of several strategic Soviet formations. The Red Army was assisted by partisans, who unexpectedly attacked small scattered German detachments from the rear. Attacks from both sides brought even greater confusion and chaos into the ranks of the enemy. The Polotsk garrison decided to retreat before the cauldron closed.

On July 4, the Soviet army liberated Polotsk, which was strategically important also because it was a railway junction. This defeat of the Wehrmacht led to personnel purges. Georg Lindemann, commander of Army Group North, lost his post. The German leadership, however, could do nothing more. Even earlier, on June 28, the same thing happened to Field Marshal Ernst Busch, who commanded Army Group Center.

Liberation of Minsk

The successes of the Soviet army allowed the Headquarters to promptly set new tasks for Operation Bagration. The plan was to create a boiler near Minsk. It was formed after the Germans lost control of Bobruisk and Vitebsk. The German 4th Army stood east of Minsk and was cut off from the rest of the world, firstly, by Soviet troops pressing from the north and south, and secondly, by natural obstacles in the form of rivers. The river flowed to the west. Berezina.

When General Kurt von Tippelskirch ordered an organized retreat, his army had to cross the river using a single bridge and dirt road. The Germans and their allies were attacked by partisans. In addition, the area of the crossing was fired upon by bombers. The Red Army crossed the Berezina on 30 June. Minsk was liberated on July 3, 1944. In the capital of Belarus, 105 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers were surrounded. More than 70 were killed, and another 35 were captured.

March to the Baltic

Meanwhile, the forces of the 1st Baltic Front continued their offensive to the northwest. The soldiers under the command of Bagramyan were to break through to the Baltic and cut off Army Group North from the rest of the German armed forces. The Bagration plan, in short, assumed that for the success of the operation, a significant reinforcement was needed on this segment of the front. Therefore, the 39th and 51st armies were transferred to the 1st Baltic Front.

When the reserves, finally, fully reached the advanced positions, the Germans managed to pull significant forces to Daugavpils. Now the Soviet army did not have such a pronounced numerical advantage as at the initial stage of Operation Bagration. The plan for a blitzkrieg had already been almost fulfilled by that time. The soldiers were left with the last push to finally liberate Soviet territory from the invaders. Despite local slippage in the offensive, Daugavpils and Siauliai were liberated on July 27. On the 30th, the military cut the last railway leading from the Baltic to East Prussia. The next day, Jelgava was recaptured from the enemy, thanks to which the Soviet army finally reached the sea coast.

Vilnius operation

After Chernyakhovsky liberated Minsk and defeated the 4th Wehrmacht Army, the Headquarters sent him a new directive. Now the forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front were to liberate Vilnius and force the Neman River. The execution of the order began on July 5, that is, a day after the end of the battle in Minsk.

In Vilnius there was a fortified garrison consisting of 15 thousand soldiers. Hitler, in order to keep the capital of Lithuania, began to resort to the usual propaganda moves, calling the city "the last fortress." Meanwhile, the 5th Army already broke through 20 kilometers on the first day of its offensive. The German defense was loose and loose due to the fact that all the divisions operating in the Baltic were badly battered in previous battles. However, on July 5, the Nazis still tried to launch a counterattack. This attempt came to nothing. The Soviet army was already on its way to the city.

On the 9th, she captured strategically important points - the station and the airfield. The infantry and tankers launched a decisive assault. The capital of Lithuania was liberated on 13 July. It is noteworthy that the soldiers of the 3rd Belorussian Front were assisted by Polish soldiers of the Home Army. Shortly before the fall of the city, she raised an uprising in it.

End of operation

At the final stage of the operation, the Soviet army completed the liberation of the western Belarusian regions, located near the border with Poland. July 27 Bialystok was recaptured. Thus, the soldiers finally reached the pre-war state borders. On August 14, the army liberated Osovets and occupied a bridgehead on the Narew River.

On July 26, Soviet units ended up in the suburbs of Brest. Two days later, there were no German occupiers left in the city. In August, an offensive began in eastern Poland. The Germans overturned it near Warsaw. On August 29, the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command was published, according to which the units of the Red Army were to go on the defensive. The offensive was suspended. The operation has ended.

After the "Bagration" plan was completed, the Second World War moved into its final stage. The Soviet army completely liberated Byelorussia and now could start a new organized offensive in Poland. Germany was approaching final defeat. So in Belarus ended Great War. The Bagration plan was implemented as soon as possible. Gradually, Belarus came to its senses, returning to peaceful life. This country suffered from the German occupation almost more than all the other Union republics.

Operation

Campaign value

Campaign Background

Side forces

Campaign preparation

Wehrmacht

The course of hostilities

Partisan actions

Operation results

Losses

Memory

Awards

the day before

Plan approval

Partisan actions

Vitebsk-Orsha operation

Liberation of Mogilev

Bobruisk operation

Polotsk strike

Liberation of Minsk

March to the Baltic

Vilnius operation

End of operation

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