World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

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

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

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

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

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

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