Harrision, Richard W. Operation Bagration

23 June-29 August 1944. The Rout of the German Forces in Belorussia

This study examines the Red Army's strategic operation in Belarus: the linchpin of the ten major Soviet offensives launched that year to liberate the country from the invaders. In the course of this operation, the German position along the western strategic direction was destroyed and the conditions for an advance into Poland and Germany were created. The success of this operation also paved the way for the Red Army's subsequent advance into the Baltic States and South-Eastern Europe. Like most of the General Staff's works, the Belarus study divides the operation into two parts: preparation and execution. The first part deals with the massive efforts of the 1st Baltic and 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts to gather men and material to break through the German defensive lines in the swampy and wooded terrain of Belorussia. This section contains valuable information on the overall balance of forces, equipment and troop density along the breakthrough sectors, as well as Soviet plans for supplying the offensive and detailed information on the use of the various branches of the armed forces. The second part deals with the actual execution of the various front operations that made up the overall operation. This section covers the initial breakthrough battles and the encirclement of the garrisons of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, followed by the capture of Minsk and the encirclement of considerable German forces east of the city. The narrative then continues with the follow-up operations to cut off German forces in the Baltic states and capture the crossings over the Vistula in eastern Poland. Compiled and written by professional staff officers, this study provides a detailed insight into the execution of one of the largest operations of the Second World War. Together with other studies in this series, this work provides further insight into the Red Army's warfare at the operational-strategic level.