June 1944

Eastern Front

The Karelian Front begins its offensive against the Finnish Karelian Army along the Svir River. The 7th and 32nd Armies, supported by heavy arty fire, shatter the surprised Finnish forces. The Finns immediately fall back, giving up the Svir line. Elements of he 32nd Army advance 10 miles while the 7th Army breaches the Svir near Lodenoye Pole.

After weeks of preparation the Red Army is poised to strike at Army Group Center. The Stavka has massed 2,500,000 men for the attack, 1,254,000 in the first echelon, supported by 5,300 aircraft, 5,200 tanks and Su's, 31,000 arty pieces, 2,300 Katyusha and over 70,000 motor transport vehicles.

Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front, on the northern wing of the offensive, comprises the 43rd, 6th Guards and 4th Shock Armies with 359,500 men, while the 3rd Belorussian Front to its south has the 11th Guards (formerly 16th Army), 39th, 5th, 31st and 5th Guards Tank Armies with 579,000 ment. In the center of the line is 2nd Belorussian Front with 319,000 ment between the 50th, 49th and 33rd Armies, while Rokossovsky's 1st Belorussian, with 1,071,000 men, hold the southern flank. For the first phase of the offensive the 1st Belorussian will use only its right wing (61st, 65th, 28th, 3rd and 48th Armies), the left wing not attacking until the beginning of July. Of the 1,200,000 men in the first echelon, more thant 595,000 are combat troops, more than Army Group Center can deploy in total.

The 1st Baltick and 3rd Belorussian Fronts are to crush the flanks of the 3rd Panzer Army and encircle it in Vitebsk before the 1st Baltic exploits the southern wing of Army Group North. The 3rd Belorussian will press rapidly southwest toward Minsk. To the south the 1st Belorussian Front is to encircle the 9th Army at Bobruisk before pushing north to link up with the 3rd at Minsk. The 1st and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, forming the outer pincers of the encirclement, will then push westward to the Russo-Polish border and force the Germans back into the Baltic states, East Prussian and Poland, While the pincers march, the 2nd Belorussian will pin the 4th Army frontally. In order to coordinated the two prongs of the attack, Marshal Zhukov controls the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts while Marshal Vasilevsky coordinates the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts.

Busch's Army Group Center has 580,000 men between the 3rd Panzer, 4th, 9th and 2nd Armies. Reinhardt's 3rd Panzer Army, on the northern flank, deploys IX Corps (2 infantry divisions), LIII Corps (2 infantry and 2 Luftwaffe field divisions) and VI Corps (3 infantry divisions) with an infantry and security division in reserve. This gives Reinhardt 160,000 ment. The 4th Army, under Gen Heinrici, deploys XXVII Corps (1 panzer grenadier and 2 infantry divisions) and XII Corps (1 panzer grenadier and 2 infantry divisions) with Feldherrnhalle Panzer Grenadier Division in reserve, a force of 165,000 men. ON the southern wing is Jordan's 9th Army with the XXXV Corps (5 infantry divisions), XLI Corps (3 infantry divisions) and LV Corps (2 infantry divisions) with the 20th Panzer Division is reserve, a force of 170,000 men. On the extreme right wing of Army Group Center, virtually separated from the rest by the Pripet Marshes, is Weiss's 2nd Army with the XXIII, XX and VIII Corps and 85,000 men. To support the front line forces the German armies have 9,500 arty pieces and 900 panzers, while the 6th Air Fleet deploys 775 aircraft. Operational availability of panzers and aircraft is around a third of totals. Army Group has a single panzer grenadier division in reserve (the 14th), the bulk of its armor having been moved south into the Ukraine.

Busch is expecting a Soviet attack and has placed his armies as close to readiness as he can. Reinhardt's 3rd Panzer Army is badly exposed to attack in the Vitebsk salient. Heinrici's 4th Army remains on the east bank of the Dniepr while Jordan's 9th Army holds the southern wing. Hitler has denied Busch operational freedom to maneuver.

Since the beginning of May the German armies in the east have been reinforced. Army Group North now has 376,000 ment, 138,000 of which are combat infantry, while Army Group Center has 580,000 (214,000 are combat infantry). To the south Army Groups North and South Ukraine total 475,000 and 420,000 men respectively. Only 175,000 and 140,000 are combat infantry.

Operation BAGRATION was one of the most ambitious operations planned by the Red Army so far, an offensive it would not have considered possible even a year earlier. Excellent progress had been made in the use of armored and air force during the difficult Ukrainian and Leningrad offensives, so much so that in this new attack the Ostheer would be overwhelmed absolutely. Operation BAGRATION heralded the final, bloody phase of the Great Patriotic War.

On the third anniversary of Operation BARBAROSSA, the Red Army was prepared to destroy Army Group Center. Mirroring the German advance toward Smolensk in 1941, the massive Soviet offensive would eclipse the German victories of the first days of the campaign. Never had the Stavka prepared such an ambitious plan so thoroughly and with such overwhelming force. However, the Soviet armies now not only enjoyed numerical superiority in troops, but in aircraft, tanks and artillery, and perhaps most crucially of all, in motor vehicles. This offensive was to determine for good the fate of the German armies that had once stood just a few miles from Moscow.