Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive Operation

Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive

Date	June 23, 1944 – June 28, 1944
Location	Belorussian SSR
Result	Soviet victory

Belligerents

Nazi Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Georg-Hans Reinhardt
(Third Panzer Army)

Kurt von Tippelskirch
(Fourth Army)

Hovhannes Bagramyan
(1st Baltic Front)

Ivan Chernyakhovsky
(3rd Belorussian Front)

Strength

14 infantry divisions
2 tank divisions
(exact number of troops unknown)

Casualties and losses

41,700 killed
126 tanks and assault guns destroyed
1.840 armord vehicles
17.800 taken prisoner

11.014 killed
318 tanks destroyed
113 aircraft shot down

The Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive (Russian: Витебско-Оршанская наступательная операция) was part of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration. During the offensive, Soviet troops captured Vitebsk and Orsha. A Soviet breakthrough during the offensive helped achieve the encirclement of German troops in the subsequent Minsk Offensive.

The immediate goals of the Soviet offensive were:

Soviet intelligence had revealed the depth of the German defences on the Moscow - Minsk highway near Orsha. As a result, the attack of Galitsky's 11th Guards Army in this sector was to be preceded by specialised engineer units; mine rolling PT-34 tanks of the 116th Separate Engineering Tank Regiment were committed along with assault engineer companies and assault gun regiments in several waves against the fortified and heavily mined positions of the 78th Sturm Division.

The cities of Vitebsk and Orsha had been declared Fester Platz - fortified towns to be held at all costs - under the command of Gollwitzer (Vitebsk) and General Traut of the XXVII Corps' 78th Sturm Division (Orsha).

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

Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky was appointed to coordinate the operations of the two Fronts involved.

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