greatest tank battles battle of the baltics

The Riga offensive ( Russian: Рижская наступательная операция) (14 September–24 October 1944) was carried out by the 3rd and 2nd Baltic Fronts and cleared the eastern coast of the Gulf of Riga.In common with other Soviet strategic offensives, the Baltic offensive covers a number of operational level operations and individual Front offensive operations: After a brief period of respite, STAVKA issued orders for the Baltic strategic offensive, which lasted from 14 September to 24 November. A follow-up attack, code-named Operation Cäsar, and launched on 16 September, failed in the same manner. The main objective of the attack was to retake the key road junction of Šiauliai ( German: Schaulen), but the German tanks ran head-on into an in-depth defense by the 1st Baltic Front, and by 20 August the German advance had stalled with heavy losses. Acting in coordination with armored formations from Army Group North, they initially cut off the Soviet troops on the coast, and re-established a tenuous 30-kilometer-wide corridor connecting Army Groups Centre and North. A counterattack, code-named Operation Doppelkopf, was conducted on 16 August by XXXX and XXXIX Panzer Corps under the command of Third Panzer Army, Army Group Centre. The German reaction was rapid, and initially successful. By 31 July, the coast on the Gulf of Riga had been reached 6th Guards Army covered Riga and the extended flank of the penetration towards the north.

The Soviet 43rd, 51st, and 2nd Guards Armies attacked towards Riga on the Baltic coast with 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps in the van. This created the opportunity for the Red Army to attack towards the Baltic Sea, thereby severing the land connection between the German Army Groups in the east.īy 5 July, the Šiauliai offensive commenced, as a follow-up from Operation Bagration.

In June and July, Army Group Centre was thrown back from the Byelorussian SSR into Poland by Operation Bagration. In February 1944, it retreated from the approaches to Leningrad to the prepared section of the Panther Line at the border of Estonia. Background īy early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pushed back along its entire frontline in the east. The result of the series of battles was the isolation and encirclement of the Army Group North in the Courland Pocket and Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic States. The Baltic offensive, also known as the Baltic strategic offensive, was the campaign between the northern Fronts of the Red Army and the German Army Group North in the Baltic States during the autumn of 1944.

Greatest tank battles battle of the baltics