In 1944 the Red Army soldiers reached the Soviet Union borders, banishing from the country the occupiers who had been preparing death or slavery for the Soviet people
By Arseny Zamostyanov, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Historian magazine
Eighty years ago, on 6 November 1944, in his speech dedicated to an anniversary of the Revolution Stalin declared confidently: “Our land has been cleared of Nazi invaders.” And then he listed the ten main military operations in the course of which the Red Army soldiers reached the Soviet Union borders in 1944, banishing from the country the occupiers who had been preparing death or slavery for the Soviet people. Symbolically, in that very speech Stalin first announced the need to raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.
Of course, the Supreme Commander himself did not call the ten Red Army offensives “Stalin’s blows”. This name appeared in the press a little later and printed in history textbooks. After Stalin’s death and the dismantling of his cult of personality, the term the “Ten Blows” began to be used.
The Science of winning
What unites these operations? The readiness of the Red Army to attack, abandoning the tactics of waiting. The decisive role in the development of the “ten blows” belonged to the Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky and Army General Alexei Antonov, who headed the Operations Directorate of the General Staff. In cooperation with members of the Headquarters (Stavka) of the Supreme High Command and with the commanders of the fronts, they developed the directions of blows that led to the defeat of the occupiers on Soviet soil.
In the first two years of the war the Red Army managed to stop the Blitzkrieg and impose a protracted war on the Nazis. But the strategic initiative remained in the hands of the Wehrmacht. That time became a kind of “university” for the Soviet generals and Stalin alike. The army and its command learned how to fight against the most advanced and experienced military machine in the world.
During the development of offensives in 1944 Stalin already trusted military professionals and at the same time pursued a “political line”, which is always important in a major war. Sometimes obvious and secret actions of the Soviet Union’s allies in the Anti-Hitler coalition depended on the directions of attacking blows.
The course of the war changed – every soldier in the trench felt it. “After the defeat of Hitler’s troops on the Kursk Bulge the strategic initiative was fully in the hands of the Red Army Supreme Command, and already it was us who decided where, when and with what forces to conduct offensive operations,” Marshal of Aviation Alexander Golovanov recalled.
In order to launch offensive operations the General Staff needed to feel reliable support from the home front. The industry, which had lost many large centres of production due to the occupation, worked with incredible overstrain, but managed to gain an advantage over the Nazis in many ways, though industrialized countries such as Austria, France and Czechoslovakia worked for the Third Reich. The Red Army was still inferior to the Germans in terms of the number of heavy tanks and self–propelled guns such as Panthers and Ferdinands. But in 1944 the IS-2 heavy tank went into service, and the T-34 remained the best in the category of light tanks. Its upgraded model, the T–34-85, was used in the “ten blows” as well. The losses of armoured vehicles in the Red Army and the Pantsirwaffe became almost equal. And in air the Soviet aces became masters of the situation. In particular, thanks to the novelties of 1944 – the La-7 and Yak-3 fighters. The Soviet economy managed to outperform the German one in terms of production and transportation of fuel to the front, though rich Romanian oil fields worked for Germany.
This was the foundation of the victories of 1944, when the Germans were no longer successful in their offensives.
From the Volkhov to the Bug: the first and the second blows
The first blow in this glorious series was the Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive. It began on 14 January 1944. In a few weeks the Red Army broke through the defences that the Germans had been building for two years and defeated the German Army Group North. By the end of February our troops had advanced by 270–280 kilometres, completely liberating Leningrad from both the siege and the threat of attack. Fireworks resounded in the great city. By 1 March both the Leningrad Region and Novgorod had been cleared of the invaders. There the liberating soldiers saw fragments of the Monument to the Millennium of Russia. The Germans had wanted to destroy both it and the ancient Novgorod Kremlin– Fortunately, all this was restored bit by bit. The liberation of Novgorod clearly showed that thenceforth the Red Army was ready to impose its will on the enemy along the entire front line.
The enemy received the second blow far from the Neva and the Volkhov – on the banks of the Yuzhny Bug. The Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive proved to be a surprise for the German command: our troops conducted diversionary manoeuvres masterly. As a result, in late March 1944 units of the Second Ukrainian Front reached the pre-war USSR border. On 26 March the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Romanian border. In Moscow those events were met with jubilation and a twenty-four-volley salute, which since 1943 had traditionally been arranged on the occasion of the liberation of each major city from the Germans.
From the Crimea to Karelia: the third and the fourth blows
The third blow combined two major offensives – the Odessa and Crimean ones.
Partisans took part in the liberation of all cities of the Crimea. On 10 April the troops of the Separate Coastal Army of General Andrei Yeremenko launched the offensive on the Kerch Peninsula. Hitler’s units that had transformed the captured cities and villages into fortresses were swept away. At the same time, units of the Fourth Ukrainian Front, commanded by Army General Fyodor Tolbukhin, broke through the enemy’s defences on the Isthmus of Perekop. The liberation of Sevastopol on 9 May 1944 – exactly one year before the Great Victory – was the unforgettable culmination of the Battle for the Crimea.
The fourth blow was the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive.
Then, having broken through the “impregnable” Mannerheim line, the Red Army soldiers liberated Vyborg and Petrozavodsk and in the summer of 1944 made Finland begin peace negotiations. Hitler lost an important ally who had hindered the Soviet fronts near Leningrad and in Karelia. The Baltic Fleet was given freedom of action in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and began to be based on the Beryozovy Islands.
The fifth blow: Operation Bagration
The fifth blow was the Red Army’s most significant victory. The operation, called “Bagration”, was launched on 23 June 1944. The following day, the reconnaissance by fire developed into a powerful blow. The offensive of the First Belorussian Front was especially difficult: Konstantin Rokossovsky’s troops had to operate in a wooded and swampy area, and to encircle the enemy group they had to bring tanks to the theatre of military operations… At the cost of incredible efforts Rokossovsky managed to advance mechanized units to Bobruisk and surround the Ninth German Army. Only a handful of Nazis succeeded in breaking out of the steel ring.
By the end of August, the ruined, devastated and blood-soaked Belarus wasliberated. The whole country helped rebuild the republic. We fought together, and then rebuilt the wounded cities together. The results of the operation exceeded the Soviet command’s expectations. Hitler’s Army Group Centre, which had been trampling the Belarusian land from the first days of the war and then fought in the Battle of Kursk, ceased to exist. Of the ninety-seven German divisions and the thirteen brigades that had participated in the battles in Belarus seventeen divisions and three brigades were completely destroyed. Fifty divisions suffered losses from sixty to seventy percent of their personnel. And those were mostly very experienced and combat–ready troops. Hitler’s Germany failed to survive such losses. It was those divisions that they critically lacked in 1945. (Read more about Operation Bagration on pages 24-29 of this issue. – Ed.).
The sixth blow: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive
The Red Army inflicted the sixth blow on the enemy in Western Ukraine -in the Carpathians.
In the area of the town of Brody the Soviet troops surrounded eight enemy divisions. The Nazis failed to get out of the pocket. In the Lvov direction the Germans had prepared a strong defensive system: three strips of fortifications up to fifty kilometres deep. It was not easy to break through those boundaries –the victory became possible only thanks to the coordinated actions of the tank and rifle units, along with combat aircraft. The Tenth Guards Tank Corps of General Yevtikhy Belov was the first to break into Lvov. Fierce combat in the city ended on 27 July.
Having defeated the German divisions near Lvov, the Red Army units crossed the Vistula and occupied a bridgehead west of the Polish city of Sandomierz, driving a wedge into the German positions. After the success of that offensive it became much harder for the Germans to manoeuvre their reserves: thenceforth the connection between the northern and southern parts of the Wehrmacht was through Czechoslovakia and Hungary.
The seventh blow: The Jasi-Chisinau and Bucharest-Arad Offensives
In August–October 1944 the Jasi-Chişinău and the Bucharest-Arad Offensives were conducted. Twenty-five of the forty-seven divisions and five brigades of the enemy that were available in the strategic direction ended up in the pocked. Most of them failed to break out of the encirclement.
The lightning offensive of the Red Army in Moldova and Romania became an important link in the chain of victories that led the Red Army to Berlin. The mission was completed surprisingly quickly: the main forces of Hitler’s “Southern Ukraine” army group were crushed, and for the liberating soldiers the way to the Balkans opened, where local partisans were already fighting the Nazis and where much depended on the Red Army.
One of the peaks of the military art was the encirclement of the strongest sixth German army in the area of the city of Husi.
In the Soviet Union people saluted the liberation of the southern republic of Moldova, which had been looted but not destroyed by the occupiers who had been operating there since August 1941. From now on Romanian oil began to supply the Red Army, which was preparing an offensive against Hungary and Germany. Even a pipeline was built quickly for this purpose, and the Germans could not stop that project.
From the Baltic to the Balkans: the eighth and ninth blows
The eighth striking blow against the enemy was the Baltic Strategic Offensive, which lasted for over two months – from 14 September till 24 November.
The liberators did not have a noticeable superiority in numbers, but the Nazis fought desperately for the Baltic coast. The German armies defending Riga received an order: “Hold on to the last soldier and not leave a single position without a fight and shoot on the spot every soldier found in the rear.”
By 10 October the Red Army units after persistent fighting cut off the German troops of Army Group North from other the units, occupying the corridor between East Prussia and Courland. The Germans in Lithuania were trapped.
The Eastern Carpathian and the Belgrade Offensives are commonly referred to as the ninth blow.
In the Balkans the Red Army operated in conjunction with the partisan People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and Bulgarian troops. The decisive contribution to the liberation of Yugoslavia was made by the units of the Third Ukrainian Front, commanded by Fyodor Tolbukhin, who by that time had deservedly received the marshal’s baton. On 14 November the assault on Belgrade, a city that the occupiers had tried to turn into a fortress, began. The Nazis had to be driven out of their shelters with guns designed for direct fire, grenades, and machine gun fire. The city residents told the soldiers where the German firing points were situated. The Germans built “impregnable” concrete pillboxes in Belgrade and prepared dozens of houses and entire blocks for defence. But the Red Army soldiers already had a wealth of experience in urban combat and were ready to overcome such obstacles.
After a week of hard combat the capital of Yugoslavia was cleared of the Germans and their allies, who lost 25,000 dead and prisoners. The first monument to the Red Army soldiers who fell in combat while liberating Belgrade was unveiled in the Serbian capital a month after the liberation. After such a blow the Germans could no longer dream of controlling the Balkans. They lost communication with their units in Greece as well.
The last blow
The tenth blow was delivered in October. It was the Petsamo-Kirkenes Offensive.
Having broken through the deeply echeloned German defences in the swampy and rocky region, the troops of the Karelian Front of General Kirill Meretskov succeeded in liberating the Arctic from the invaders and by the end of October had entered Norwegian territory. The Northern Fleet acted heroically in that offensive, supporting the army with fire and landing troops. For three years the Germans had been building a “granite” Lapland rampart in this region. The main blow was delivered by units of the fourteenth army of Lieutenant General Vladimir Shcherbakov from the area of Lake Chapr (Chap) in the direction of Luostari and Petsamo (Pechenga). Pechenga was liberated at the cost of Herculean efforts. “At 24.00 sharp, cursing the Nazis and the foul weather, the soldiers rushed forward, and this time the fascists could not withstand it,” Meretskov recalled.
the Soviet Army
The paratroopers and scouts showed great heroism during the liberation of the harbour of Liinakhamari as well. On 12 October Soviet troops reached the approaches to Petsamo. There the German garrison was surrounded. Having suffered striking blows, the Germans began a hasty retreat to N–way – to Kirkenes, the largest German stronghold on the Barents Sea. The Red Army pursued them. Meretskov received Stalin’s permission to continue the operation in Norway.
While retreating from Kirkenes, the Nazis tried to leave only ruins to the liberators. The harbour and most of the substantial city buildings were blown up. But the Nazis lost control of the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the danger of a new crushing blow hung over the German Baltic ports.
Time of Liberation
The year of liberation showed the maturity of Soviet military strategic thought. The General Staff had learned to forestall actions of the enemy, to concentrate forces in time and covertly. Dozens of times German divisions were encircled. The fronts and the armies showed the ability to act quickly and in concert.
The offensive from the Barents Sea up to the Black Sea made a strong impression on both the adversaries and the allies.
In the ten offensives of the Red Army in 1944 136 Nazi divisions were annihilated, and seventy of them were encircled and destroyed. Romania, Finland and Bulgaria joined the anti-Hitler coalition. Now nothing could block the way for the Soviet soldiers to liberate Europe, the road to Berlin.
It was almost the end of 1944. “The three–year fascist yoke has been overthrown,” these words were repeated by many in those days. The terrible term “occupation” became a thing of the past, leaving scorched ruins on the site of hundreds of villages, destroyed cities and liberated concentration camps.
In June the troops of General Andrei Radzievsky fought their way to the German “death factory” in Majdanek near Lublin, Poland. Before that, there had been little reliable information about Hitler’s death camps. There had been rumours about atrocities in concentration camps, which had often seemed unbelievable. But reality surpassed the most terrible rumours. The investigation of Nazi war crimes was initiated straight away.
Despite the cloudy days of late autumn and the December darkness, the spring of Victory flared up in the souls of the Soviet people. After so many unbearably black days of war, that year brought Liberation to the country. Battles were already unfolding in Europe, with the liberating army fighting in the Balkans, Poland and Hungary, breaking through to the den of Nazism – Berlin. In the coming year there were still over four months of hard combat ahead. New losses continued till the last hours of the war.
But it breathed easier both in the army and in the home front: the German jackboots were no longer trampling on our Motherland.
