Bobruysk Offensive

Part of Operation Bagration

Date	23–28 June 1944
Location	Belorussian SSR
Result	Soviet Victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Hans Jordan
(Ninth Army)

Konstantin Rokossovsky
(1st Belorussian Front)

Strength

90,000

Casualties and losses

50,000 killed, 20,000 POW (Soviet est)

The Bobruysk Offensive (Russian: Бобруйская наступательная операция) was part of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration. In less than a week in late June 1944, the Soviet 3rd Army broke through in the north of the sector, trapping the German XXXV Corps against the Berezina. The 65th Army then broke through the XXXXI Panzer Corps to the south; by 27 June, the two German corps were encircled in a pocket east of Bobruysk under constant aerial bombardment.

Up to 70,000 Axis soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. Bobruysk was liberated on 29 June after intense street fighting.

The operational goals of the Bobruysk Offensive within the context of Operation Bagration were twofold:

Ninth Army headquarters had argued particularly strongly that a major attack against Army Group Centre was imminent, and General Jordan had bitterly complained about the high command's refusal to sanction tactical withdrawals, but the Army Group commander, Field Marshal Busch, had brushed these concerns aside. Patrols of the 134th Infantry Division had revealed a buildup in the sector of the 35th and 41st Guards Rifle Corps opposite; each of the three regiments of the German divisions was faced with a full-strength Soviet rifle division of 7,200 men.

The Ninth Army was, in general, made up of lower quality divisions than Fourth Army to its north; this may have reflected a belief on the part of the OKH that the terrain in Ninth Army's sector was more easily defensible.

The city of Bobruysk had been designated a Fester Platz, or fortified area to be held at all costs, under the command of Major-General Adolf Hamann.

The above units were under the overall command of Army Group Centre (Field-Marshal Ernst Busch).

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