Berlin offensive operation. The last operation of the Red Army. The Crimean offensive operation of the Red Army began The offensive operation of the Red Army

After the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943, the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front passed into the hands of the Soviet troops. The Crimean offensive operation began on April 8, 1944.

The troops of the 4th Army were involved in the operation from the side of the Red Army. Ukrainian front under the command of General of the Army Fyodor Tolbukhin, the Separate Maritime Army under the command of General of the Army Andrey Eremenko, as well as the forces of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Admiral Philip Oktyabrsky and the Azov Flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral Sergei Gorshkov.

The actions of the Red Army forces were coordinated by the representatives of the Headquarters, Marshals Alexander Vasilevsky and Kliment Voroshilov. The total number of Soviet troops in this operation was about 470 thousand people. The operation involved about 6 thousand artillery barrels, about 550 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as over a thousand aircraft.

From the German side, the Crimea was trying to keep the troops of the 17th German army, which also included Romanian units. This army was cut off from its main forces and locked up in the Crimea. The German troops were led by General Jenecke, who was replaced by General Almendinger in early May 1944. The number of German troops was about 200 thousand people supported by 3.5 thousand artillery barrels, just over 200 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as about 150 aircraft.

The military leadership of the Wehrmacht considered it unreasonable to resist the blocked 17th Army, preferring to keep it by evacuating it from the peninsula. However, Hitler gave the order to defend the Crimea to the end, guided by the fact that its hasty abandonment by German troops would weaken the military-political alliance with Romania and Bulgaria.

Thanks to the achieved advantage in manpower and equipment, as well as the bridgeheads captured during the previous operations, the offensive of the Soviet troops in the Crimea was of a rapid nature. This was facilitated by the actions of partisan detachments, the total number of which reached 4 thousand people.

From 11 to 15 April, Dzhankoy and Kerch, Feodosia, Simferopol, Evpatoria, Sudak and Alushta were liberated, and on April 16, Soviet troops reached the German defensive lines in the Sevastopol region. The desperate resistance of the German units and the powerful defensive lines built by them did not allow our troops to take the city outright.

I had to build a plan for a general assault, after which, as a result of bloody battles, on May 9, 1944, Sevastopol was liberated from the Germans. On May 12, 1944, the remnants of the German troops surrendered.

During the Crimean offensive operation, German troops suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment, losing about 140 thousand soldiers and officers killed and captured. The main result of the Crimean strategic offensive operation was the liberation of the Crimea peninsula, the defeat of the 17th German army, the liberation of the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet - Sevastopol and, as a result, the restoration of control over the Black Sea.

In his May Day speech, Stalin defined a common goal: to clear the Soviet land of the enemy. Day after day, week after week, the goal is becoming clearer - Belarus. Moscow is increasingly inclined towards the need to strike on the Central Front. This time the German Army Group Center must receive a blow from which it cannot recover. The task will be fulfilled by the Western Front, which, in order to optimize the leadership, is divided into two fronts - the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian. The first was appointed to command General Petrov, who fought a lot in the south, the second - General I.D. Chernyakhovsky, who was proposed by A.M. Vasilevsky.

The General Staff's plan is striking in its scale - the largest operation in world history was painted on the maps. It was about the joint actions of six fronts, from Narva in the north to Chernivtsi in the south. The main part of the operation is an offensive in Belarus with the aim of destroying Army Group Center. The final revision of the offensive plans is completed in mid-May 1944. And on May 20, Stalin convened a conference of the highest military leaders in the Kremlin. Even insignificant details were discussed. At the end of a long day, Stalin was asked what the code name of the upcoming operation would be, and he suggested that it be named after the Georgian - the great patriot of Russia: "Bagration".

The time difference between the performances of the four fronts was small, but it existed. The first was the 1st Baltic Front, followed by the 3rd Belorussian and then the 2nd and 1st Belorussian fronts. At 4 o'clock in the morning on June 22, 1944, Marshal Vasilevsky reported to Stalin that the 1st Baltic Front I.Kh. Baghramyan and the 3rd Belorussian Front I.D. Chernyakhovsky ready for battle. Zhukov sent long-range bomber aviation to these fronts.

The 9th German Army took on an unbearable burden - it could not physically hold back the blow intended for the entire Army Group Center. In Minsk, the commander of an army group, Field Marshal von Busch, demanded freedom of maneuver and a guarantee of reinforcements from the chief of staff of the ground forces Zeitzler. But the German military leadership failed to determine the degree of urgency of the situation in Belarus and the connection of this offensive with the fate of the Reich as a whole. The 2nd Belorussian Front (G.F. Zakharov) rushed east of Mogilev, the site of the tsarist Headquarters in the First World War. Here the German 3rd Tank Army was waiting for the Soviet attacking columns. After three days of a fierce battle, the 49th Soviet Army crossed the Dnieper in its upper reaches and established a bridgehead north of Mogilev. The 92nd Bridge Building Battalion brought the bridge in trucks, and on the afternoon of 27 June, despite heavy German fire, two bridges were built across the river, allowing Soviet tanks to quickly expand the bridgehead on the west bank. This forced the commander of the German 4th Army, General Tippelskirch, to disregard Hitler's order to "stand to the last" and begin the evacuation of his army across the Dnieper. The capture of Mogilev was a very bloody operation, even by the standards of this most brutal of wars.

I. D. Chernyakhovsky (3rd Belorussian Front) followed in Napoleon's footsteps towards the Berezina. He had a fantastic assistant - P.A. Rotmistrova, unstoppable and legendary. The road to Minsk was and is one of the few good roads in Great Russia, and the tankers loved, like all Russians, fast driving. Three days after the start of the offensive, they were already deep in the rear of Army Group Center. This initiated the process of disintegration of the three German armies. The 3rd Panzer, 4th Army and 9th Army began to lose interconnection, and with the current balance of forces it was like death.

Several bridges across the Berezina were captured intact, so rapid and unexpected was the pace of the offensive. Trying to prevent this capture, the Wehrmacht's 20th Panzer Division was smashed to smithereens. Rokossovsky ordered his three armies (3rd, 48th, 65th) to block the withdrawal of 40 thousand Germans from Bobruisk. In the city, many German troops were engaged in fortification works, they built barricades, installed anti-aircraft guns. Several times the Germans tried to break through and General Gorbatov (3rd Army) had to cool hot heads. Rudenko's 400 bombers from the air force turned the relatively small Bobruisk into a variant of Stalingrad. During the assault on Bobruisk on June 27, the most successful were the actions not of straightforward supporters of the tank attack, but of those who crossed the Berezina and struck from an unexpected direction. Batov and Romanenko entered the burning city, the Germans surrendered in the neighboring forests, but everyone else was interested in the news of the capture of Osipovichi, a railway station on the way to Minsk. So, Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk were in the hands of the Soviet troops. The German defense line was swept away, the losses of the Germans in a week of fighting amounted to 130 thousand killed, 60 thousand were taken prisoner. Lost 900 tanks, thousands of other equipment. Of course, the Soviet losses were also great.

Model took command and became convinced that the Russian fronts were driven by a very broad concept, that even the capture of Minsk was not their ultimate goal. Now they are trying to trap the 4th German army. Their vanguard is already 80 kilometers from Minsk, and the 4th Army, fighting off the advancing enemy, is located about 120 kilometers from the capital of Belarus. On the day the Model was appointed, the Soviet Headquarters adopted updated directives for all four fronts. Baghramyan (1st Baltic) moves to Polotsk. Chernyakhovsky (3rd Belarusian) - to Berezina and together with Zakharov (2nd Belarusian) takes Minsk on July 7-8. Rokossovsky approaches Minsk from the south, but his main task is to cut off the path of retreat to the Germans to the southwest. Zakharov presses on the 4th German army frontally, and the neighbors cut off its flanks. Baghramyan insures Chernyakhovsky against a blow from the north.

On the morning of July 2, heavily weakened by battles and roads, Marshal Rotmistrov drove along the Minsk highway directly to the capital of Belarus. Having traveled more than forty kilometers, his tankers ended up in the northeastern suburbs of the city at night. Panov's 1st Guards Corps approaches from the southwest. On July 3rd, troops enter the ghost town of Minsk. Ruins are everywhere. And around Minsk the 4th German Army is convulsing - 105 thousand soldiers and officers, divided into two parts. History is rarely so accurate - precisely in those forests to the east of Minsk, where in the terrible late June days of 1941, in a terrible shock, the soldiers of the Western Military District felt themselves surrounded, from where yesterday's Stalinist favorite, General Pavlov, was summoned to be shot, were now waiting for a terrible ships huge masses of soldiers of the aggressor. Exactly three years later in the same place. Some of them tried to get through to their own - and more than 40 thousand died in senseless forest battles. German aircraft tried to airborne supplies, only lengthening the agony. The commander of the German 12th corps could not resist, he announced a general surrender. The capture of the remnants of the four German corps continued until July 11, 1944. Army Group Center, which in gleeful recklessness passed without looking back, these lands three years ago in full confidence about a two-month war, now there are only eight badly battered divisions, unable to cover the four hundred-kilometer breadth of the Soviet armies' breakthrough. Belarus, the most faithful and sacrificial sister, was liberated. Bagramyan freed Polotsk, and Rokossovsky went to Brest.

Never before had the Wehrmacht suffered such a crushing defeat. Lost in open battle 28 divisions and 350 thousand soldiers. On July 17, an unusual thing happened. A huge column - 57 thousand German prisoners of war - mostly taken prisoner during Operation Bagration passed through the stern streets of the Soviet capital. At the head of the column were 19 generals, each with an "iron cross". At the head of the column with the "knight's cross" was General Golvitser, the corps commander taken prisoner in Vitebsk. They reached Moscow. The silent crowd looked at those who wanted to become the masters of Russia. It was a great moment. The outcome of the war was already irreversible. Quoting German newspapers, the battle of "apocalyptic" proportions ended. The fate of Germany was finally decided in rebellious Belarus. Brest - a symbol of defeat in the previous war with the Germans - was taken on July 28, 1944. Soviet troops in July 1944 reached the Soviet-Polish border over a wide area.

A large-scale offensive was carried out along the entire front in the winter of 1945 Soviet Union... The troops delivered powerful blows in all directions. The command was carried out by Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Chernyakhovsky, as well as Ivan Baghramyan and Vladimir Tributs. Their armies were faced with the most important tactical and strategic task.

On January 13, the famous East Prussian operation of 1945 began. The goal was simple - to suppress and destroy the remaining German groupings in and northern Poland in order to open the way to Berlin. In general, the task was extremely important not only in light of the elimination of the remnants of resistance. Today it is generally accepted that the Germans had already been practically defeated by that time. This is not true.

Important prerequisites for the operation

Firstly, East Prussia was a powerful defensive line, which could quite successfully fight off for many months, giving the Germans time to lick their wounds. Secondly, high-ranking German officers could use any respite to physically eliminate Hitler and begin negotiations with our "allies" (there is a lot of evidence of such plans). None of these scenarios could be allowed. The enemy had to be dealt with quickly and decisively.

Features of the region

The very eastern tip of Prussia was a very dangerous region with a developed network of highways and many airfields, which made it possible to transfer a huge number of troops and heavy weapons through it in the shortest possible time. This area seems to be created by nature itself for a long defense. There are many lakes, rivers and marshes here, which greatly impede offensive operations and force the enemy to walk along targeted and fortified "corridors".

Perhaps the offensive operations of the Red Army outside the Soviet Union were not yet so difficult. Ever since the time of the Teutonic Order, this territory was full of many of which were very powerful. Immediately after 1943, when the course of the 1941-1945 war was broken near Kursk, the Germans for the first time felt the possibility of their defeat. The entire working population and a huge number of prisoners were thrown off to work to strengthen these lines. In short, the Nazis prepared themselves wonderfully well.

Failure is a harbinger of victory

In general, the winter offensive was not the first, just as the East Prussian operation itself was not the first. 1945 only continued what was started by the troops in October 1944, when soviet soldiers were able to advance deep into the fortified areas for about a hundred kilometers. Due to the strongest resistance of the Germans, it was not possible to go further.

However, it is difficult to consider it a failure. First, a reliable foothold was created. Secondly, the armies and commanders gained invaluable experience and were able to sense some of the enemy's weaknesses. In addition, the very fact of the beginning of the seizure of German lands had an extremely depressing effect on the Nazis (although not always).

Wehrmacht forces

The defense was held by Army Group Center, commanded by Georg Reinhardt. In service were: the entire third tank army of Erhard Routh, the formations of Friedrich Hossbach, as well as Walter Weiss.

Our troops were opposed at once by 41 divisions, as well as a large number of detachments recruited from the most defensive members of the local Volkssturm. In total, the Germans had no less than 580 thousand regular soldiers, as well as about 200 thousand Volkssturmists. The Nazis pulled up 700 tanks and self-propelled guns, more than 500 combat aircraft and about 8.5 thousand and large-caliber mortars to the defensive lines.

Of course history Patriotic War 1941-1945 she also knew more combat-ready German formations, but the area was extremely convenient for defense, and therefore there were quite enough such forces.

The German command decided that the region should be held, regardless of the number of losses. This was quite justified, since Prussia was an ideal springboard for the further offensive of the Soviet troops. On the contrary, if the Germans were able to recapture the previously occupied areas, this would allow them to attempt a counteroffensive. In any case, the resources of this area would have made it possible to prolong Germany's agony.

What forces did the Soviet command have, which was planning the East Prussian operation in 1945?

USSR forces

However, military historians of all countries believe that the Nazis, battered in battles, had no chance. Soviet commanders fully took into account the failures of the first assault, in which the forces of the Third Belorussian Front alone took part. In this case, it was decided to use the forces of an entire tank army, five tank corps, two air armies, which, in addition, were strengthened by the 2nd Belorussian Front.

In addition, the offensive was to be supported by the aviation of the First Baltic Front. In total, more than one and a half million people were involved in the operation, more than 20 thousand guns and large-caliber mortars, about four thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as at least three thousand aircraft. If we recall the events of the Great Patriotic War, then the assault on East Prussia will be among the most significant.

Thus, our troops (excluding the militia) outnumbered the Germans in strength three times in people, in artillery 2.5 times, in tanks and aircraft almost 4.5 times. In the breakout areas, the advantage was even more overwhelming. In addition, Soviet soldiers were fired upon, powerful IS-2 tanks, ISU-152/122/100 self-propelled guns appeared in the troops, so there was no doubt about victory. However, as in high losses, since the natives of Prussia were specially sent to the ranks of the Wehrmacht, who fought desperately to the last.

The main course of the operation

So how did the 1945 East Prussian operation begin? On January 13, an offensive was launched, which was supported by tank and air strikes. Other troops supported the attack. It should be noted that the beginning was not the most inspiring, there was no quick success.

Firstly, it was not possible to keep D-Day a secret. The Germans managed to take preemptive measures, pulling the maximum possible number of troops to the proposed breakthrough site. Secondly, the weather failed, which was not conducive to the use of aviation and artillery. Rokossovsky later recalled that the weather resembled a solid piece of damp fog, strewn with thick snow. The air sorties were only point-to-point: they failed to provide full support for the advancing troops. Even the bombers sat idle all day, since it was simply impossible to see the enemy's positions.

Such events of the Great Patriotic War were not uncommon. They often broke elaborate headquarters directives and promised additional losses.

"General Fog"

The artillerymen also had no fun: the visibility was so bad that it was impossible to adjust the fire, and therefore they had to shoot exclusively with direct fire at 150-200 meters. The fog was so thick that even the sounds of explosions were lost in this "mess", and the targets being hit were not visible at all.

Of course, all this negatively affected the pace of the offensive. The German infantry on the second and third lines of defense did not suffer serious losses and continued to fiercely snap fire. In many places, fierce hand-to-hand battles began, and in some cases the enemy launched a counteroffensive. Many settlements changed hands ten times a day. The weather was extremely bad for several days, during which the Soviet infantrymen continued to methodically break down the German defenses.

In general, Soviet offensive operations during this period were already characterized by careful artillery preparation and extensive use of aviation and armored vehicles. The events of those days were in no way inferior in intensity to the battles of 1942-1943, when the brunt of the battles was borne by simple infantry.

The Soviet Army operated successfully: on January 18, Chernyakhovsky's troops were able to break through the defenses and create a corridor 65 kilometers wide, deepening 40 kilometers into enemy positions at once. By this time, the weather had stabilized, and therefore heavy armored vehicles poured into the resulting breakthrough, supported from the air by attack aircraft and fighters. This is how the large-scale offensive of the (Soviet) troops began.

Securing Success

Tilsit was taken on January 19. For this it was necessary to cross the Neman. Until January 22, the Instersburg group was completely blocked. Despite this, the Germans fiercely resisted, the battles were protracted. Only on the outskirts of Gumbinnen, our soldiers repelled ten massive enemy counterattacks at once. Ours survived, and the city fell. Already on January 22, they managed to take Insterburg.

The next two days brought new successes: they managed to break through the defensive fortifications of the Heilsberg region. By January 26, our troops approached the northern tip of Königsberg. But the assault on Koenigsberg then failed, because a strong garrison of Germans and five of their relatively fresh divisions settled in the city.

The first stage of the hardest offensive was successfully completed. However, the success was partial, because our troops did not succeed in taking in the ring and destroying two tank corps: the enemy armored vehicles retreated to the previously prepared defensive lines.

Civilians

At first, our soldiers did not meet civilians here at all. The Germans fled hastily, as those who remained were declared traitors and often shot their own. The evacuation was so poorly organized that virtually all property remained in abandoned houses. Our veterans recall that East Prussia in 1945 was more like an extinct desert: they had a chance to rest in fully furnished houses, where dishes and food were still on the tables, but the Germans themselves were no longer there.

Ultimately, the tales of "wild and bloodthirsty barbarians from the East" played a bad joke with Goebbels: the civilian population left their homes in such panic that they completely loaded all the railway and road communications, as a result of which the German troops were constrained and could not quickly change their positions.

Development of the offensive

The troops commanded by Marshal Rokossovsky were preparing to reach the Vistula. At the same time, an order came from Headquarters to change the vector of attack and transfer the main efforts to the fastest finishing of the enemy's East Prussian grouping. The troops had to turn north. But even without support, the remaining groups of troops successfully cleared out enemy cities.

So, the cavalrymen of Oslikovsky managed to break through to Allenstein and completely defeated the enemy garrison. The city fell on January 22, and all fortified areas in its suburbs were destroyed. Immediately after this, large German groups were threatened with encirclement, and therefore began to hastily retreat. At the same time, their retreat proceeded at a snail's pace, since all roads were blocked by refugees. Because of this, the Germans suffered heavy losses and were massively captured. By January 26, Soviet armored vehicles completely blocked Elbing.

At this time, Fedyuninsky's troops broke through to Elbing itself, and also reached the approaches to Marienburg, for the subsequent decisive thrust, capturing a large bridgehead on the right bank of the Vistula. On January 26, after a powerful artillery strike, Marienburg fell.

Flank detachments of the troops also successfully coped with the tasks assigned to them. The area of \u200b\u200bthe Masurian swamps was quickly overcome, it was possible to cross the Vistula on the move, after which the 70th Army broke into Bydgoszcz on January 23, blocking Torun along the way.

German throwing

As a result of all this, Army Group Center was completely cut off from supplies and lost contact with German territory. Hitler was furious and replaced the commander of the group. Lothar Rendulich was appointed to this position. Soon the same fate befell the commander of the fourth army Hossbach, who was changed to Müller.

In an effort to break the blockade and restore land supplies, the Germans launched a counteroffensive in the Heilsberg area, trying to get into Marienburg. In total, eight divisions took part in this operation at once, one of them being a tank division. On the night of January 27, they succeeded in significantly squeezing the forces of our 48th Army. A stubborn battle ensued, which lasted four days in a row. As a result, the enemy managed to break through 50 kilometers deep into our positions. But then Marshal Rokossovsky came: after a massive blow, the Germans wavered and rolled back to their former positions.

Finally, the Baltic Front completely took Klaipeda by January 28, finally freeing Lithuania from the fascist troops.

The main results of the offensive

By the end of January was fully occupied most of Zemland peninsula, as a result of which the future Kaliningrad was in a semi-circle. The scattered parts of the third and fourth armies were completely surrounded, which were doomed. They had to simultaneously fight on several fronts, with all their might defending the last strong points on the coast, through which the German command still somehow brought up supplies and carried out the evacuation.

The situation of the remaining forces was greatly complicated by the fact that all the groupings of the Wehrmacht armies were cut into three parts at once. The remnants of four divisions were on the Zemland peninsula, and a powerful garrison and an additional five divisions sat in Königsberg. At least five almost defeated divisions were on the Braunsberg-Hejlsberg line, and they were pinned to the sea and had no opportunity to attack. However, they had nothing to lose and they were not going to give up.

Long-term plans of the enemy

You should not consider them loyal fanatics of Hitler: they had a plan to defend Königsberg with the subsequent pulling up of all the surviving units to the city. If successful, they would be able to restore land communication on the Königsberg-Brandenburg line. In general, the battle was far from over, the tired Soviet armies needed a respite and resupply. The degree of their exhaustion in fierce battles is evidenced by at least the fact that the final assault on Konigsberg began only on April 8-9.

The main task was accomplished by our soldiers: they were able to defeat the powerful central grouping of the enemy. All powerful German defensive lines were broken and captured, Königsberg was in a deep siege without ammunition and food supplies, and all the remaining Nazi troops in the area were completely isolated from each other and severely exhausted in battles. Most of East Prussia with its most powerful defensive lines was captured. Along the way, the soldiers of the Soviet Army liberated the regions of Northern Poland.

Other operations to eliminate the remnants of the Nazis were entrusted to the armies of the Third Byelorussian and First Baltic Fronts. Note that the 2nd Belorussian Front was concentrated in the Pomeranian direction. The fact is that during the offensive between the troops of Zhukov and Rokossovsky, a wide gap formed into which they could strike from Eastern Pomerania. Therefore, all subsequent efforts were aimed at coordinating their joint strikes.

FIRST STALIN'S IMPACT. Leningrad-Novgorod operation (January 14 - March 1, 1944). The result of the operation was the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad and the liberation of the Leningrad region and Novgorod. Favorable conditions were created for the liberation of the Soviet Baltic and the defeat of the enemy in Karelia.

SECOND STALIN'S IMPACT. It included 9 offensive operations of the Red Army, the main of which was the Korsun - Shevchenko operation (January 24 - February 17, 1944). The operations resulted in the defeat of the German Army Groups South and A on the Southern Bug River. The whole Right-Bank Ukraine was liberated. The Red Army reached the line of Kovel, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Balti, entered the territory of Moldova, and reached the border with Romania. This created the conditions for a subsequent strike in Belarus and the defeat of the German-Romanian troops near Odessa and in the Crimea.

THIRD STALIN'S IMPACT. Odessa and Crimean operations (March 26 - May 14, 1944). As a result, Odessa, Crimea, Sevastopol were liberated.

FOURTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Vyborg - Petrozavodsk operation (June 10 - August 9, 1944). It was carried out taking into account the landing on June 6, 1944, of the Anglo-American landing across the English Channel in Northern France and the opening of the Second Front. As a result of the fourth blow, the Red Army broke through the "Mannerheim Line", defeated the Finnish army, liberated the cities of Vyborg, Petrozavodsk and most of the Karelo-Finnish SSR.

FIFTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Belarusian operation - "Bagration" (June 23 - August 29, 1944). Soviet troops defeated the central group of the Nazi army and destroyed 30 enemy divisions east of Minsk. As a result of the fifth blow of the Red Army, the Byelorussian SSR, most of the Lithuanian SSR and a significant part of Poland were liberated. Soviet troops crossed the Neman River, and reached the Vistula River and directly to the borders of Germany - East Prussia.

SIXTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Lvov - Sandomierz operation (July 13 - August 29, 1944). The Red Army defeated the German fascist troops near Lvov and threw them back across the San and Vistula rivers. As a result of the sixth strike, Western Ukraine was liberated, Soviet troops crossed the Vistula and formed a powerful bridgehead west of the city of Sandomierz.

SEVENTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Iasi-Kishinev (August 20 - 29, 1944) and Bucharest - Arad offensive operations (also known as the Romanian operation, August 30 - October 3, 1944). The basis of the strike was the Yassy-Kishinev offensive operation, as a result of which 22 German fascist divisions were defeated, the Moldavian SSR was liberated. As part of the Romanian offensive, support was provided to the anti-fascist uprising in Romania, Romania was withdrawn from the war, and then Bulgaria, the way was opened for Soviet troops to Hungary and the Balkans.

EIGHTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Baltic operation (September 14 - November 24, 1944). More than 30 enemy divisions were defeated. The operation resulted in the liberation of the Estonian SSR, the Lithuanian SSR, and most of the Latvian SSR. Finland was forced to sever relations with Germany and declare war on her. The Germans were isolated in East Prussia and the Courland Cauldron (Latvia).

NINTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Includes offensive operations of the Red Army from September 8 to December 1944, including the East Carpathian operation from September 8 to October 28, 1944. As a result of the operations, Transcarpathian Ukraine was liberated, assistance was provided to the Slovak national uprising on August 20 and part of Eastern Slovakia was liberated, most of Hungary was cleared, Serbia was liberated and Belgrade was taken on October 20. Our troops entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, and conditions were created for delivering strikes in the Budapest direction, in Austria and southern Germany.

TENTH STALIN'S IMPACT. Petsamo-Kirkenes operation (October 7 - 29, 1944). As a result of the operation, the Soviet Arctic was liberated, the threat to the port of Murmansk was eliminated, enemy troops in Northern Finland were defeated, the Pechenga region was liberated, and the city of Petsamo (Pechenga) was taken. The Red Army entered Northern Norway.

In the course of hostilities in 1944, the Red Army destroyed and captured 138 divisions; 58 German divisions, which suffered losses of up to 50% or more, were disbanded and brought together into battle groups. In the battles for Belarus alone, 540 thousand German soldiers and officers were taken prisoner by the troops of the Red Army. On July 17, 1944, up to 60 thousand of this composition, led by 19 generals, were escorted through the streets of Moscow. Romania, Finland and Bulgaria sided with the anti-Hitler coalition. The successes of 1944 foreshadowed the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

The results of the offensive operations of 1944 were summed up in Order No.220 of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on November 7, 1944:

“The three-year fascist yoke has been overthrown on the lands of our fraternal union republics temporarily occupied by the Germans. The Red Army returned freedom to tens of millions of Soviet people. The Soviet state border, treacherously violated by the Nazi hordes on June 22, 1941, was restored along the entire length from the Black to the Barents Sea. Thus, the past year was the year of the complete liberation of the Soviet land from the German fascist invaders. "