The Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation Bagration was a massive Soviet attack which cleared German forces from the Belorussian and eastern Poland between June 22 and August 19 1944, consisting of four Soviet army groups totaling over 120 divisions that smashed into a thinly-held German line. More than 2,3 million Soviet troopers went into action against the German Army Group Centre, which boasted a strength of fewer than 800,000 men. The Germans had transferred some units to France to counter the
invasion of Normandy two weeks before. At the points of attack, the numerical advantages of the Soviets were overwhelming: the Red Army achieved a ratio of ten to one in tanks and seven to one in aircraft over the Wehrmacht. Bagration was by any measure one of the largest single operations of World War II. According to official Soviet sources Soviet casualties in Operation Bagration were 770,888 including 180,040 killed and missing. According to German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 399,102 overall casualties, including 158,480 captured. The offensive at
Estonia claimed another 480,000 Soviet troopers.
On June 30 1944, the IV.SS-Panzerkorps consisting of both the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf and the 5.SS-Panzer-Division Wiking was placed under the control of former Wiking commander SS-Obergruppenführer
Herbert Gille. The corps was one of the few functioning formations on the central section of the Eastern Front. It was placed into the line around Warszawa. As the Red Army approached, the Polish Home Army launched Operation Tempest. During the
Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet Army halted at the Vistula River, unwilling to come to the aid of the Polish resistance. An attempt by the communist controlled 1st Polish Army to relieve the city was unsupported by the Red Army and was thrown back in September with heavy losses. The IV.SS-Panzerkorps itself was not involved in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. After holding the line near Warszawa, the corps was pushed back to the area near Modlin, where it saw heavy fighting until Dec. 1944. Top image: Soviet heavy assault gun SU-152 crossing a river in Lithuania on Aug. 12 1944 during Bagration. Credit: Olga Shirnina. IMS Scandinavia. PD. Second image: during the opening days of Bagration, the French LVF had cut the Moscow-Minsk road in front of Barysaw in Belarus were they fought a successful small-scale delaying action. The French volunteers of the LVF were otherwise known for their indiscipline and low morale and used only in anti-partisan warfare behind the front-line of Army Group Centre, but here amid the chaos at the front, they stood their ground and only retreated after running out of ammunition. The losses on the enemy side were heavy with at least 40 Soviet tanks destroyed. Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Third image: SS-Stubaf. Hubert-Erwin Meierdress of the Totenkopf filmed in defensive position during the fierce battles east of Warszawa in Aug. 1944. Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Bottom image: caught on camera in the thick of battle is Wiking Panzergrenadieres in a Sd.Kfz. 251 half-tracks storming an unidentified village between Białystok and Brześć Litewski in July 1944. At this time the Wiking was engaged in counter-attacks against Soviet armored and cavalry forces following their crushing defeat of Army Group Center in Belarus during the Red Army's Bagration summer offensive. Photo by SS-Uscharf. Ernst Baumann, staff member of Germania. U.S. NARA.
The Soviets relied on sheer weight of numbers during Operation Bagration, particularly artillery, to steamroller the Wehrmacht out of the way. Tactically the German army and Waffen-SS were more adept, but Hitler´s refusal to withdraw enabled the slower Soviet forces to conduct successful encircling operations. The German army – now coping with a full-fledged two-front war – never recovered from the materiel and manpower losses sustained during the Bagration. No doubt that Bagration sealed Nazi Germany's fate. Thanks for a interesting website. Extremely good for any research on the Waffen-SS and their battles. I enjoy the accuracy of information. David Dunn.
ReplyDeleteAgainst all odds, they fought to save both Germany and Europe from the Soviet horde. Though Germany will not get any credit from the French or British, if these men hadn't fought as hard and valiantly as they had, Stalin would have reached Paris. It is the German soldiers that preserved the freedom of half of Europe from Stalin's tyranny. Of course, history is written by the victors and the Americans take credit for everything.
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