On the 22nd of June 1944, Operation Bagration began. Three years after Operation Barbarossa, Russia was taking the fight to the Germans. The operation was named after Pyotr Bagration, a general of the Russian Imperial Army and a war hero.
The operation resulted in heavy German losses, with the Army Group Centre’s Fourth Army, Third Panzer Army, and Ninth Army decimated. It is considered one of the worst defeats experienced by the German armed forces during the Second World War.
Deployments during Operation Bagration [via ] Panther on the Eastern Front. 21 June 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-694-0303-20A / Meyer; Wiltberger / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] German soldiers during a counter-attack in the Baltic States. 1 August 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1992-0617-506 / Scheerer (e) / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] The officers (SS First lieutenant Erwin Meier-Dress) of the SS Division “Totenkopf” on a background of destroyed tanks T-34. 1 August 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J27465 / Grönert / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] German sapper(note the Iron Cross, First Class) planting an explosives in the railroad before the retreat. Grodno, 16-17 July 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-695-0404-04 / CC-BY-SA ] Panther of SS-Division „Totenkopf“ in Siedlce. 25-29. July 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-695-0419-03A / Voigt / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] Panzer IV of the 5th Panzer Division. Early July 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-155-2112A-38A / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] Sd.Kfz. 10 with Nebelwerfer 42 during the retreat from Orsha. Early July 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-155-2109A-06A / Noack / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] Raupenschlepper Ost hauls an artillery gun across a river. 1944 [via ] Panther tank in action. Somewhere on Soviet territory, 1944 [via ] A railway transport of German Panthers to East Front. 1944 [via ] German armour preparing for counterattack against advancing Red Army. Near Nurzec, 1944 [via ] The commander of the Army Group “Center”- Field Marshal W. Model (next to the driver). 9 October 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1992-0617-506 / Scheerer (e) / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] German military vehicles crossing a bridge in Grodno. 10-15 July 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-695-0409A-29A / Leher / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] Soviet infantry advance alongside T-34 tanks. Summer 1944 [via ] A column of Soviet T-34 [via ] Red Army after the liberation of Pinsk. 1944 [via ]
Rivers were not always unbreachable for tanks. Operation Bagration, 1944 [via ] Soviet infantry on a SU-76. Minsk, 3 July 1944 [via ] Even youth had to fight for their country [via ] Red Army soldiers on the move during Operation Bagration, 1944 [via ] Red Army advancing to the west. 1944 [via ] Russian soldiers advance with fixed bayonets, Operation Bagration. 22 June 1944 [via ] Battle of Vilnius. Soviet Red Army and Polish Soldiers of the Home Army patrolling along the Large Street. The orthodox church of Vilnius is visible in the background. 16 July 1944 [via ] Soldiers of the 1st Baltic Front in action. Jelgava, 16 August 1944 [via ] Chief marshal of the armored troops Pavel Alexeyevich Rotmistrov. Borisov, 1 July 1944 [via ] Generalleutnant Alfons Hitter, standing, is publicly interrogated by General Ivan Chernyakhovsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Vasilevsky after the battle of Vitebsk [via ] SU-122 and its crew [via ] The battery of Soviet heavy 203mm howitzers M1931. 3rd Belorussian front. Summer 1944 [via ] 152mm Howitzer battery fires during Operation Bagration, 1944 [via ] Katyusha during rocket barrage, Operation Bagration. 22 June 1944 [via ]
German soldiers surrender to the advancing Red Army. 1944 [via ] oviet soldiers with captured Kfz85. Vilnius, 1944 [via ] German StuG destroyed while driving across the bridge over Basya river. Attacked by Il-2. Mogilev, 22-28 June, 1944 [via ] Abandoned vehicles of the german 9th army at a road near Titowka/Bobruisk, Belarus [via ] Annihilated German convoy [via ] German convoy under attack Il-2 near Vitebsk. Because of absence of the Luftwaffe, such convoys were helpless [via ] Destroyed German armour litter the fields all over the way [via ] 5th Guards advance during Operation Bagration. 1944 [via ] Panther Ausf. G destroyed during Operation Bagration. 1944 [via ] Destroyed German armour somewhere in Belarus. 1944 [via ] Soviet infantry supported by tanks T-34 is fighting for one of the settlements in the direction of Lviv [via ] Two destroyed Panzer IV tanks belonging to the 20th Panzer Division. June 1944 [via ] Soviet tanks T34-85 entering Minsk in early july 1944 [via ] Soviet soldiers in Polotsk, Berlarus. Propaganda poster celebrating the reconquest of the city and urging the liberation of the Baltic from Nazi German occupation. 4 July 1944 [via ] Civilians carry belongings out of burning houses. Minsk, July 1944 [via ] Belarussian Youth marching in Minsk, 1944 [By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1991-0206-506 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 ] German POWs after liberation of Minsk, Operation Bagration. 1944 [via ] erman prisoners of war in Moscow. 15 July 1944 [By RIA Novosti archive ] 57,000 German POWs march in Moscow after Operation Bagration. 17 July 1944 [via ] Soviet soldiers and the ovens in the concentration camp. Majdanek, 1944 [By Deutsche Fotothek, CC BY-SA 3.0 de ]
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