Baltic Offensive

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Baltic Offensive (1944)
Part of Soviet-German War, World War II

Advance of the Red Army 1943 - 1944
Date September to November 1944
Location Baltic States, East Prussia, Poland
Result Soviet Victory
Combatants
Red Army Wehrmacht
Commanders
Soviet STAVKA German OKW
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties
260,000 all causes Unknown
Eastern Front
Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague
Leningrad and Baltics 1941 - 1944
Toropets-Kholm – Demyansk Pocket – Spark – Polar Star – Krasny Bor – Lenino– Leningrad Approaches – Narva – Vilnius – Baltic

Contents

[edit] Overview

The Baltic Offensive, also formally referred to as the Baltic Strategic Offensive Operation[1][2][3][4] as it was called by the Red Army who undertook it, denotes the battle between the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army in the Baltic region during late summer and autumn of 1944. The Red Army's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Baltic Fronts engaged German Army Group Centre and Army Group North. The result of the series of battles was a permanent loss of contact between Army Groups North and Centre, and the creation of the Courland Pocket in Latvia.

[edit] Setting the stage

During 1944, the Wehrmacht was pressed back along its entire frontline in the east. In February 1944 it had to retreat from the approaches to Leningrad to the prepared Panther Line in Estonia. In June and July, Army Group Centre was thrown back into Poland by Operation Bagration. This created the opportunity for the Red Army to attack towards the Baltic Sea, thereby splitting the land connection between the German Army Groups.

By 5 July 1944, the Šiauliai Operation commenced, as a follow-on from Operation Bagration. Soviet Forty-Third, Fifty-First, and Second Guards Armies attacked towards Riga on the Baltic coast with Third Guards Mechanized Corps in the van. By 31 July 1944 the coast on the Gulf of Riga had been reached. Sixth Guards Army covered Riga and the extended flank of the penetration towards the north. The German reaction was rapid, and initially successful. With some independent armoured formations it was possible to cut off the Soviet troops on the coast, and re-establish a tenous 30-km wide corridor connecting Army Groups Centre and North. A second attack, code-named Operation Doppelkopf, was attempted from 16 August 1944 by XXXX. and XXXIX. Panzerkorps under the command of 3. Panzerarmee. This attack was to re-take the key road-junction of Šiauliai/Schaulen. This attack ran head-on into an in-depth defensive by the 1st Baltic Front, and by 20 August 1944 the attack had stalled with heavy losses. A follow-on attack code-named Operation Cäsar failed in the same manner. After a brief period of respite, the STAVKA ordered to conduct the Baltic Offensive, which lasted from 14 September to 24 November 1944.

[edit] Multiple Battles

The Baltic Operation covers a number of battles. These include the later phases of the Battle of the Tannenbergstellung (1944), as well as the German Panzeroperationen Doppelkopf and Cäsar in September/October 1944, which were aiming at the restoration of contact between Army Groups Centre and North. A further notable operation was the amphibious attack on the Estonian islands of Dagö, Ösel, and Moon (German spelling), which block access to the Gulf of Riga.

[edit] Consequences

The Soviet fronts involved in the battle lost a total of ca. 260,000 men to all causes (killed, missing, wounded, sick). As a result of the battle the Germans were driven out of Estonia and Lithuania taken over by Soviet forces.

German Army Group North was permanently cut off from its land-based connections to the remainder of the Eastern Front, and occupied a bridge-head in Latvia. On the 25 January Hitler renamed Army Group North Army Group Courland implicitly recognising that there was no possibility of a new land corridor between Courland and East Prussia.[5]The Red Army was free to disregard the forces penned in the pocket as a major threat and to focus on operations on its northern flank that were now aiming at East Prussia. Nevertheless, offensive action by the Red Army against the Courland Pocket continued until the surrender of the Army Group on 9 May 1945, when close to 200,000 Germans went into Soviet captivity.

The German command released thousands of native conscripts from military service. However the Soviet command began conscripting Baltic natives as areas were brought under Soviet control [4]. While some ended up serving on both sides, many hid in the woods to avoid conscription.

[edit] See also

[edit] Formations and units involved

[edit] Soviet

  • 1st Baltic Front commanded by General Hovhannes (Ivan) Baghramian
    • Fifth Guards Tank Army commanded by General Volsky
    • Sixth Guards Army commanded by Lieutenant-General I.M. Chistyakov
    • Fourth Shock Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Malyshev
    • Forty-Third Army commanded by Lieutenant-General A.P. Beloborodov
    • Fifty-First Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Ia. G. Kreizer
    • Thirty-Third Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Tsvetaev
  • 2nd Baltic Front commanded by Army-General A.I. Yeremenko
    • Third Shock Army commanded by Lieutenant-General N.P. Simonyak
    • Twenty-Second Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Vostrukhov
  • 3rd Baltic Front commanded by Colonel-General I.I. Maslennikov
  • 3rd Belorussian Front (parts) commanded by Army General I.D.Chernyakovsky
    • Second Shock Army commanded first by Lieutenant-General P.G. Chanchibadze, then by Lieutenant-General I.I. Feduninsky
      • Third Guards Mechanized Corps commanded by Lieutenant-General V.T. Obukhov
    • Sixty-First Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Belov
    • Sixty-Seventh Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Sviridov
  • Leningrad Front commanded by Marshal L.A. Govorov (parts)
    • Eight Army commanded by Lieutenant-General Starikov

[edit] German

[edit] References

  • Duncan Anderson, Stephen Walsh, Lloyd Clark. The Eastern Front, Zenith Imprint (2001), ISBN 076030923X
  • D. Muriyev. Preparations, Conduct of 1944 Baltic Operation Described, Military History Journal (USSR Report, Military affairs), 1984-9
  • Alexander Stilwell, Max Hastings. The Second World War: A World in Flames, Osprey (2004}, ISBN 1841768308

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Duncan Anderson, Stephen Walsh, Lloyd Clark, "The Eastern Front", Zenith Imprint (2001), ISBN 076030923X, p. 203
  2. ^ Alexander Stilwell, Max Hastings, Sir (FRW), "The Second World War: A World in Flames", Osprey (2004}, ISBN 1841768308, p. 343
  3. ^ Д. M. Проэктор, "Агрессия и катастрофа. Высшее военное руководство фашистской Германии во второй мировой войне", Глава восьмая. "Катастрофа", М.: Наука, 1972.
  4. ^ a b Д. Муриев, Описание подготовки и проведения балтийской операции 1944 года, Военно-исторический журнал, сентябрь 1984. Translation available, D. Muriyev, Preparations, Conduct of 1944 Baltic Operation Described, Military History Journal (USSR Report, Military affairs), 1984-9, pp. 22-28
  5. ^ On the 25 January Hitler renamed three army groups: Army Group North became Army Group Courland; Army Group Centre became Army Group North and Army Group A became Army Group Centre
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