- Polotsk Offensive
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Polotsk Offensive
caption=
partof=Operation Bagration
place=Belorussian SSR
date=June 29 ,1944 –July 4 ,1944
result=Soviet Victory
combatant1=
combatant2=flagicon|USSRSoviet Union
commander1=)
commander2=flagicon|USSRHovhannes Bagramyan (1st Baltic Front )
strength1=?
strength2=?
casualties1=37,000 dead, 7,000 POW (Soviet est)Glantz, p.117]
casualties2=?|The Polotsk Offensive ( _ru. Полоцкая наступательная операция) was part of the second phase of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the
Red Army in summer1944 , commonly known asOperation Bagration .Planning
Operational goals
The operational goals were twofold:
*To capture the city ofPolotsk .
*To protect the northern flank of forces engaged in the parallelMinsk Offensive Operation , preventing a possible counter-attack from the German forces ofArmy Group North .Deployments
"Wehrmacht"
*Remnants of
Third Panzer Army (Colonel-GeneralGeorg-Hans Reinhardt )
**IX Corps (GeneralRolf Wuthmann )
**Remnants of VI Corps
**Reserve: 201st Security Division, 221st Security Division
*Elements of Sixteenth Army ofArmy Group North The above units were under the overall command of
Army Group Centre (Field-MarshalWalter Model ).Red Army
*
1st Baltic Front (GeneralHovhannes Bagramyan )
**4th Shock Army
**6th Guards Army
**43rd Army
**3rd Air ArmyThe offensive
The
1st Baltic Front continued to extend its offensive westwards fromJune 30 , pushing the shattered remnants ofThird Panzer Army 's IX Corps back towardsPolotsk . Two of the 6th Guards Army's rifle corps, the 103rd and 23rd Guards, had advanced some 18 km by the end of the day against some German counter-attacks, while the4th Shock Army had reached theSosnitsa River.Glantz, p.112] . The Front's tank corps, in the meantime, successfully cut theMolodechno -Polotsk rail line, despite advancing a smaller distance than planned due to being held up at theUlla crossings. Glantz, p.113]With the IX Corps having suffered heavy losses, the LIII Corps effectively wiped out in the encirclement of Vitebsk a few days earlier and the VI Corps largely destroyed south and east of
Vitebsk , Colonel-General Reinhardt committed his rear-area security divisions into the lines. In response to a request from Field-Marshal Model, the 290th and 81st Infantry Divisions were hurriedly shifted fromArmy Group North to shore up the collapsing defences on the approaches to Polotsk. In the south of the sector, the remnants of IX Corps (the 252nd Infantry Division and "Korpsabteilung D") and of the former VI Corps (mainly from the 95th Infantry Division), continued to offer weak resistance, but the Soviet advance, and German retreat, was rapid. A survivor from the 252nd Infantry Division described the experience as "a virtual race westwards, trying to outpace the Soviet units advancing as fast as their logistics would allow them. The Division travelled nearly 500 kilometres".Account of Armin Scheiderbauer in Rogers and Williams, p.71]Bagramyan's planning envisaged the launch of a final offensive against Polotsk, an important communications and transport centre, on
July 1 , taking the city by evening. Glantz, p.114] The attack was launched that morning by the 4th Shock Army's 100th and 83rd Rifle Corps in co-ordination with elements of the 6th Guards Army. German resistance was strong, and Soviet units were only able to penetrate the town's defences by the next day. OnJuly 2 , Soviet forces were involved in fierce fighting to capture the main railway bridge over theDvina , which formed the main link between the German forces in the north and south of the city; the bridge was eventually taken by the 156th Guards Rifle Regiment. There were intense street battles until the evening ofJuly 4 , after which the surviving German forces withdrew.References
*Glantz, D.M. "Belorussia 1944 - The Soviet General Staff Study"
*Rogers, D. and Williams, S. "On the Bloody Road to Berlin: Frontline Accounts from North-West Europe and the Eastern Front 1944-45", Helion, 2005, ISBN 978-1874622086Footnotes
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