Kaunas Offensive Operation
Encyclopedia
The Kaunas Offensive was part of the third phase of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army
in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration.
, the liberation of Kaunas
, and reaching the boundaries of East Prussia
.
, under the command of Field-Marshal Walter Model
. Towards the end of July, German units concentrated in the direction of Kaunas, according to Soviet estimates, included elements of 10 infantry and 2 tank divisions, 2 infantry brigades and 30 separate regiments and battalions.
Stavka
assigned to the forces of the Front the mission of pressing home the attack on the Kaunas axis not later then 1-2 August, through assaults by the 39th Army together with the 5th Guards Tank Army from the north, and the 5th and 33rd Armies from the south to occupy Kaunas – the most important defensive position on the approaches to East Prussia. The plan called for the Red Army troops to advance to the borders of East Prussia by the 10 August and assume a defensive configuration in preparation for advancing into East Prussia.
was broken. In the 33rd Army sector, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps
was introduced into the breakthrough: their rapid advance to Vilkaviškis
threatened the German forces before Kaunas with encirclement and the Germans were forced to retreat.
Using the success of the Tank Corps, the troops of the 33rd Army entered and secured Vilkaviškis and the railway station of Mariampolė
on 31 July. Troops of the 5th Army broke into Kaunas and on the morning of 1 August took control of it. Towards the beginning of August the forces of the Front advanced up to 50 km and subsequently enlarged the breakthrough to 230 km, liberating more than 900 villages, townships, towns and small cities.
During August, Raus' Third Panzer Army was reinforced and mounted a counter-offensive on the Front's northern flank in Operation Doppelkopf
. German troops also delivered a series of strong counter-attacks south-west and west of Kaunas. Having countered these, the 3rd Belorussian Front's troops moved a further 30–50 km and advanced towards deliberately prepared German fortified positions on the line east of Raseiniai
and Kybartai
- Suwałki. From 29 August on the orders of Stavka, the Front went over to the defensive. As a result of the Kaunas operation the forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front reached the eastern borders of East Prussia
.
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration.
Role in the conflict
The Kaunas offensive was executed by the 3rd Belorussian Front on July 28 - August 28 1944, with the aim of destroying the German concentration on the western bank of the Neman riverNeman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
, the liberation of Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
, and reaching the boundaries of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
.
Planning
After completing the Vilnius Offensive Operation, the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (the 11th Guards, 5th, 31st, 33rd, 39th Armies, the 5th Guards Tank Army and 1st Air Army) were engaged in intense fighting with German forces on the approaches to the Neman river during the second half of July, and were preparing for the continuation of the offensive. They were resisted by formations and units of the Third Panzer and Fourth Armies of the German Army Group CentreArmy Group Centre
Army Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
, under the command of Field-Marshal Walter Model
Walter Model
Otto Moritz Walter Model was a German general and later field marshal during World War II. He is noted for his defensive battles in the latter half of the war, mostly on the Eastern Front but also in the west, and for his close association with Adolf Hitler and Nazism...
. Towards the end of July, German units concentrated in the direction of Kaunas, according to Soviet estimates, included elements of 10 infantry and 2 tank divisions, 2 infantry brigades and 30 separate regiments and battalions.
Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
assigned to the forces of the Front the mission of pressing home the attack on the Kaunas axis not later then 1-2 August, through assaults by the 39th Army together with the 5th Guards Tank Army from the north, and the 5th and 33rd Armies from the south to occupy Kaunas – the most important defensive position on the approaches to East Prussia. The plan called for the Red Army troops to advance to the borders of East Prussia by the 10 August and assume a defensive configuration in preparation for advancing into East Prussia.
German planning
As with the parallel defence against the Belostock Offensive to the south, Model concentrated on a holding / delaying action using the few units available to him. The German Order of Battle for mid-July showed units from a large number of divisions in the area, but many of these were fragments that had escaped from the encirclement of the bulk of Army Group Centre in the previous phases of Operation Bagration; see deployments below..Wehrmacht
- Third Panzer Army (Colonel-General Georg-Hans ReinhardtGeorg-Hans ReinhardtGeorg-Hans Reinhardt was a German general of World War II. He commanded Third Panzer Army from 1941 to 1944, and Army Group Centre in 1944 and 1945. His highest rank was Generaloberst . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords...
)- Korpsabteilung GKorpsabteilungA Korpsabteilung was a division size infantry formation established by the German Wehrmacht during World War II.-History:...
(remnants of 95th95th Infantry Division (Germany)The 95th Infantry Division was a German division in World War II. It was formed on 19 September 1939 in Wildflecken and Hammelburg.-Commanding officers:...
, 197th197th Infantry Division (Germany)The 197th Infantry Division was a German division in World War II. It was formed on 1 December 1939.-197...
and 256th256th Infantry Division (Germany)The 256. Infanterie-Division was a German Infantry division in World War II. They formed on August 1939 as part of the 4. Welle . The division was destroyed at Vitebsk in June 1944...
Infantry Divisions that had escaped the previous phase of Operation Bagration) - XXVI Corps (parts of 6th Panzer and other divisions) (General Gerhard MatzkyGerhard MatzkyGerhard Matzky was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful...
) - IX CorpsIX Army Corps (Germany)- Commanders :* Artillery General Friedrich Dollmann, 1 October 1934 – 25 August 1939.* Infantry General Hermann Geyer, 25 August 1939 – 31 December 1941....
(remnants) (General Rolf WuthmannRolf WuthmannRolf Wuthmann was a highly decorated General der Artillerie in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership...
)
- Korpsabteilung G
- Northern wing of Fourth Army (General Kurt von TippelskirchKurt von TippelskirchKurt Oskar Heinrich Ludwig Wilhelm von Tippelskirch was a general in the German Army during World War II.-Personal life:Kurt von Tippelskirch was born on 9 October 1891 in Berlin...
to 18 July, then General Friedrich HoßbachFriedrich HoßbachFriedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Hoßbach was a German staff officer who in 1937 was the military adjutant to the Fuehrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
)- XXXIX Panzer Corps (reconstructed) (General Dietrich von SauckenDietrich von SauckenFriedrich Wilhelm Eduard Kasimir Dietrich von Saucken was a general in the German army, the Wehrmacht Heer, during World War II...
) - 7th Panzer Division
- XXXIX Panzer Corps (reconstructed) (General Dietrich von Saucken
Red Army
- 3rd Belorussian Front3rd Belorussian FrontThe 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
(General Ivan ChernyakhovskyIvan ChernyakhovskyIvan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky, also Cherniakhovsky, ; Oksanina, Uman, Russian Empire , - Mehlsack, today Pieniężno, Poland, 18 February 1945) was a Soviet General of the Army , twice Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, who died from wounds received outside...
)- 11th Guards Army (General Kuzma GalitskyKuzma GalitskyKuzma Nikitovich Galitsky was a Soviet army general who earned the title Hero of the Soviet Union.-Biography:Kuzma Galitsky was born on October 24, 1897 in the city of Taganrog into a worker's family. He studied at the Taganrog Boys Gymnasium, which he graduated from in 1912, and worked at the...
) - 5th Army
- 33rd Army33rd Army (Soviet Union)The Red Army's 33rd Army was a Soviet field army during the Second World War. It was disbanded by being redesignated HQ Smolensk Military District in 1945.-Initial Operations:...
(Lieutenant-General Vasily Kryuchenkin) - 39th Army39th Army (Soviet Union)The 39th Army was a Field Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army formed on 15 November 1941 in the Arkhangelsk Military District, in accordance with a directive issued by the Stavka on 2 November 1941...
(Lieutenant-General Ivan Ludnikov) - 31st Army
- 5th Guards Tank Army (General Pavel RotmistrovPavel RotmistrovChief Marshal of Armoured Troops Pavel Alexeyevich Rotmistrov was a commander of armoured troops in the Red Army during and following World War II.-Pre-War:...
) - 1st Air Army
- 11th Guards Army (General Kuzma Galitsky
The offensive
On 28 July the forces of the Front went over to the offensive, and by the end of 29 July they had advanced 5–17 km. By July 30 the German resistance on the approaches to the NemanNeman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
was broken. In the 33rd Army sector, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps
2nd Guards Tank Corps
The 2nd Tatsinskaya Guards Tank Corps was a Red Army armoured formation that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front. After the war it continued to serve with Soviet occupation forces in Central Europe. It was originally the 24th Tank Corps...
was introduced into the breakthrough: their rapid advance to Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis Until 1940 the city had a large Jewish Community which was annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators. The whole Jewish population was killed in a single day,, after the entry of the Germans into the city.-Names:...
threatened the German forces before Kaunas with encirclement and the Germans were forced to retreat.
Using the success of the Tank Corps, the troops of the 33rd Army entered and secured Vilkaviškis and the railway station of Mariampolė
Mariampole
Mariampole is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czerwonka, within Maków County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Czerwonka, east of Maków Mazowiecki, and north of Warsaw....
on 31 July. Troops of the 5th Army broke into Kaunas and on the morning of 1 August took control of it. Towards the beginning of August the forces of the Front advanced up to 50 km and subsequently enlarged the breakthrough to 230 km, liberating more than 900 villages, townships, towns and small cities.
During August, Raus' Third Panzer Army was reinforced and mounted a counter-offensive on the Front's northern flank in Operation Doppelkopf
Operation Doppelkopf
Operation Doppelkopf and the following Operation Cäsar were German counter-offensives on the Eastern Front late in 1944 in the aftermath of the major Soviet advance in Operation Bagration....
. German troops also delivered a series of strong counter-attacks south-west and west of Kaunas. Having countered these, the 3rd Belorussian Front's troops moved a further 30–50 km and advanced towards deliberately prepared German fortified positions on the line east of Raseiniai
Raseiniai
Raseiniai is a city in Lithuania. It is located on the south eastern foothills of the Samogitians highland, some north from the Kaunas–Klaipėda highway.- Grand Duchy of Lithuania :...
and Kybartai
Kybartai
Kybartai is a city in the Marijampolė County, Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis and is on the border of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia....
- Suwałki. From 29 August on the orders of Stavka, the Front went over to the defensive. As a result of the Kaunas operation the forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front reached the eastern borders of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
.