In January 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive with the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, as a result of which the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted. In April 1944, the forces of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts liberated the Right-Bank Ukraine and Odessa. In May 1944, the 4th Ukrainian Front captured the Crimea. On May 9, Sevastopol was liberated. In some areas, our troops reached the pre-war Soviet border.
The Germans assumed that the summer campaign would begin with increased fighting in the south. However, in the spring, the General Staff began developing a plan for the liberation of Belarus. Operation Bagration began on June 23, 1944. As a result, the German Army Group Center was defeated, Minsk was liberated, and the liberation of the Baltic States and Poland began.
Operation Bagration was carried out as a commitment to the Allies to divert German forces when a second front was opened.
On June 6, Allied forces crossed the English Channel and began hostilities in France. The successes of the Soviet army in the 1944 summer campaign contributed to the victorious Allied offensive in Europe. The Germans were driven out of Normandy and began to retreat to Germany.
At the same time, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation was carried out to liberate Lviv. As a result, the German group "Northern Ukraine" was defeated.
The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts carried out the Jassy-Kishinev operation, defeated the troops of the South Ukraine group and liberated Chisinau. This victory gave impetus to the beginning of the liberation uprising in Bucharest and Romania's withdrawal from the war. The occupation was lifted by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in September 1944.
By the fall of 1944, the territory of the Soviet Union was cleared of the Nazis. The liberation of Europe enslaved by the Nazis began. The absolute majority of the population of the countries where Soviet troops entered were opponents of the occupation German regime.
The Red Army was perceived in Europe as a liberating army. However, from all countries only in Yugoslavia our army received real support - from the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito. Belgrade was liberated together with them.
As a result of successful operations on the Karelian Isthmus, Soviet troops defeated 30 Finnish divisions. Blocked on the territory of Latvia, they surrendered in May 1944. Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga were liberated. Finland surrendered on September 19, 1944.
On July 20, 1944, the troops of the Red Army began the liberation of Poland. The right to create governing bodies on Polish territory was recognized by the Polish Committee for National Liberation (PKNL) under the leadership of the Communists.
However, the Polish emigration in London began to claim power in the future state and demand a revision of the borders of Poland and the USSR, which had developed in 1939. On August 1, forces subordinate to the London government raised an anti-Hitler uprising in Warsaw.
Stalin repeatedly warned the rebels about the impossibility of providing support. The Soviet units were exhausted by the prolonged offensive, broke away from the rear and were at a considerable distance from Warsaw. As a result, the uprising was suppressed and the city was destroyed.
German troops fiercely resisted in the battles for Hungary. Supported by the Hungarian army, they repulsed two attempts to capture Budapest.
Bloody battles took place in the area of \u200b\u200babout. Balaton. The resistance of the fascists was broken only by the beginning of April.
On August 29, 1944, the anti-Hitler Slovak national uprising broke out, but it was suppressed by the Germans, since our troops were unable to cross the Carpathians in time and provide assistance.
On May 5, 1945, an uprising against the Nazis began in Prague. The rebels immediately requested help from the Soviet command, and on May 9, 1945, Soviet tank formations entered Prague.
The war plan for 1944, worked out by the allied command, provided for the successive capture of the island of New Guinea in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the most important Japanese strongholds in the central part of the Pacific Ocean: the Marshall, Caroline and Mariana Islands, in order to begin the liberation from the fall of 1944 Philippines.
To accomplish these tasks, the American command created an overwhelming superiority in aviation and navy over enemy forces and at the beginning of 1944 completely seized the island of New Britain, and in March - the Admiralty Islands, which made it possible to intensify operations in New Guinea.
In April, American forces landed three infantry divisions in the Hollandia region (on the northern coast of New Guinea), cutting off the Japanese garrison's retreat to the east. By June, American forces were in control of the entire northern coast of the island. The remnants of the defeated Japanese troops fled into the jungle.
Offensive operations by the American armed forces were also deployed in the central part of the Pacific Ocean.
In February 1944, American forces captured the Marshall Islands. In the same month, air strikes were launched against Japanese bases in the Truk Islands. Caught by surprise and lacking reliable air cover, the Japanese forces suffered significant losses in aircraft, warships and vehicles.
Fearing repeated raids, the Japanese command relocated the main forces of the United Fleet from the Truk Islands to the bases of the Celebes Sea and the ports of the metropolis, and aviation to the Mariana Islands. Therefore, the Japanese garrisons in the Caroline Islands were not only deprived of support from the sea and air, but also the possibility of retreat.
Given the current situation, the American command decided, without completing operations to capture the Caroline Islands, to strike at the Mariana Islands. With their fall, the entire territory of Japan fell into the zone of operations of heavy American B-29 bombers. The military of the United States of America could then control the islands of the Central Pacific Ocean and the sea routes leading from the United States to the Philippines.
The Japanese garrison in the Mariana Islands consisted of two divisions and two separate brigades. The garrison was supported by 1200 aircraft from the air. A special squadron was stationed in the coastal waters.
For the capture of the islands, the American command allocated five divisions and a marine brigade, more than 600 different warships, including 14 battleships, 29 aircraft carriers, on which more than 1000 aircraft were based. In addition, another 879 aircraft from land bases supported the landing. The balance of forces was in favor of the Americans in terms of ground forces by 2 times, in aviation - by almost 1.5 times and in warships - overwhelming.
On June 15, 1944, under cover of naval artillery fire and air strikes, American troops began landing on the island of Saipan. The Japanese garrison made desperate but unsuccessful attempts to throw American troops into the sea.
Failed to derail the operation and the Japanese navy... In deployed 19-20 June 1944 sea \u200b\u200bbattles west of the Mariana Islands, 3 Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk and 640 Japanese aircraft were shot down. Many Japanese ships were damaged. The Japanese armed forces were forced to retreat.
By July 9, American forces had completely captured the island of Saipan, and by August 10, they had captured all the rest of the Mariana Islands. The strategic situation for Japan has deteriorated markedly. The United States of America and England, which reigned supreme at sea and in the air, now had every opportunity to deliver strikes on the islands of Taiwan, Ryukyu and Kyushu.
The American Chiefs of Staff "concluded that it was possible to strike directly at Taiwan or even Kyushu, postponing operations to liberate Palau and the Philippines until a later period." However, at the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944, it was decided to direct the main efforts towards the return of the former colonial possessions - Burma and the Philippines.
The capture of the Philippines began in October 1944 with the landing of American troops on Leyte Island, which covers the passages from the Pacific Ocean to the South China Sea. The resistance of the Japanese troops was weak. Having seized a rather extensive bridgehead, the Americans began building airfields, to which the 5th Air Force was soon relocated from Morotai Island.
The landing of large American forces on Leyte Island created the threat of the loss of the Philippines for the Japanese and the transfer of hostilities to the South China Sea. Therefore, the Japanese military command decided with the main forces of the fleet and aviation to strike a surprise blow at the American invading forces, defeat them and restore the situation in the Philippines.
For this purpose, three detachments of the naval forces - northern, central and southern - were formed, consisting of 9 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 19 cruisers and 33 destroyers. Over 700 aircraft from the Philippine Islands and aircraft carriers were involved in interacting with the fleet.
The strike was planned to be delivered suddenly at dawn on 25 October. However, the American command, having timely revealed the enemy's plan, prepared the 7th fleet to meet and defeat the enemy in the Surigao Strait, and the 3rd fleet in the San Bernardino Strait.
In the battles that unfolded on October 24, all three units of the Japanese naval forces were defeated. In naval battles, they lost 4 aircraft carriers, 3 ship of the line, 10 cruisers, 9 destroyers and a submarine. The losses of the American armed forces amounted to 2 escort aircraft carriers and 2 destroyers.
After repelling the strike of the Japanese fleet and creating military bases on the islands of Leyte and Mindoro, the American command began preparations for the landing of its troops in January 1945 on the island of Luzon.
By the beginning of 1945, the American-British armed forces captured almost all the islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of the Philippines and inflicted a decisive defeat on the Japanese fleet. The allied offensive was developing in Burma, which began in the summer of 1944.
By 1944, the situation had changed even more in favor of the Soviet Union. The final period of the war in Europe began. But the path to its end was difficult. The fascist army was still strong. Due to the absence of a second front, Germany continued to keep the main troops on the Soviet-German front. There were 236 of its divisions and 18 brigades, which included more than 5 million people, 54 thousand guns, 5400 tanks, 3 thousand aircraft. Germany still controlled the resources of almost all of Europe.
To strengthen the Eastern Front, the command of the German troops by the end of 1943 transferred 75 divisions from the west, a large number of military vehicles. However, the German industry was no longer able to meet the continuously increasing demand for military equipment.
From the fall of 1944 to military service more than 200 thousand people were mobilized into the German armed forces every month. But this replenishment did not compensate for the losses, which if the German troops.
In December 1943, Stalin in a "narrow circle of people" raised the question of new form military campaign in 1944: superiority over the enemy in terms of strategic initiative, an advantageous disposition of troops, and sufficient human and material and technical resources made it possible to carry out major operations not in one or two directions, but consistently along the entire front.
Offensive operations of 1944, dubbed "Ten Stalinist Strikes", began immediately after the end of the 1943 offensive, preventing the enemy from coming to his senses after the defeat in the battles near Kursk and on the Dnieper ... The task was to develop a sequence of strikes against the enemy that would be unexpected for him, would be continuous and would deprive him of the ability to maneuver his forces to repel the main strike.
Thus, the main task for 1944 was as follows: to finally defeat the main German groupings and to complete the expulsion of the invaders from Soviet soil.
Features of hostilities in 1944:
1) Almost the entire military campaign of 1944 was developed at the end of 1943. It was the Soviet troops who dictated the nature of actions at the front.
2) Offensive operations were carried out along the entire length of the front, but not simultaneously, but in the form of a series of successive operations in separate sectors of the front.
3) These strikes were delivered on opposite sectors of the front, which did not give the German troops the opportunity to transfer reserves.
4) The actions of the partisans were coordinated and carried out within the framework of a general strategic plan.
First hit, as a result of which the long-term defense of the Germans was hacked, was inflicted by our troops in January 1944 near Leningrad and Novgorod ... As a result of this blow, a half-million fascist army was defeated and thrown back into the Baltic states.
Second strike was inflicted in February - April 1944 in the Right-Bank Ukraine (Korsun-Shevchenko operation) ... There, a grouping of Germans (10 divisions) in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky area was destroyed. After that, in the midst of the spring thaw, a large-scale offensive was launched. This was so unexpected for the Germans that, fleeing, they abandoned equipment and weapons because of the impassability of the roads, and retreated beyond the river. Bug and Dniester. Right-bank Ukraine was liberated from the enemy. Soviet troops entered the territory of Moldova, and on March 26 they reached the border with Romania.
April - May 1944 our troops inflicted third crushing blow on the enemy in the region of Crimea and Odessa ... It took the Germans 250 days to capture the Crimea, and Soviet troops liberated it in 5 days (May 7-12, 1944).
No sooner had the Germans come to their senses from the blows in the south, as in June 1944 it was brought down on them fourth blow – in the region of Karelia. As a result, the Red Army defeated the Finnish troops, liberated Vyborg and Petrozavodsk, and liberated part of the Karelo-Finnish Republic.
Under the influence of the successes of the Red Army, our allies were no longer able to further delay opening of the second front... On June 6, 1944, the American-British command, with a delay of two years, began a large landing in northern France.
Fifth Impact was inflicted on the Germans in June - August 1944 during the largest offensive operation in Belarus "Bagration" .
On May 20, 1944, the General Staff completed the development of the plan for the Belarusian offensive operation. It entered the operational documents of the Headquarters under the code name "Bagration". Successful implementation of the concept of Operation Bagration made it possible to solve a number of other, equally important in strategic terms. tasks.
1) Completely clear the Moscow sector of enemy troops, since the leading edge of the ledge was located 80 kilometers from Smolensk;
2) Complete the liberation of the entire territory of Belarus;
3) To reach the coast of the Baltic Sea and to the borders of East Prussia, which made it possible to cut the enemy's front at the junctions of Army Groups Center and North and isolate these German groupings from each other;
4) To create favorable operational and tactical prerequisites for subsequent offensive actions in the Baltic States, in Western Ukraine, in the East Prussian and Warsaw directions.
Operation Bagration was carried out June 23 - August 29... To defeat the enemy, the Soviet Supreme Command allocated the following fronts: 1st Baltic (General of the Army I.Kh.Bagramyan), 1st (Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky), 2nd (Army General G.F. Zakharov), 3rd (General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky) Belorussian - only 17 armies, incl. 1 tank and 3 air, 4 tank and 2 Caucasian corps, cavalry mechanized group, Dnieper military flotilla ... The actions of the fronts were coordinated by Marshals of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, G.K. Zhukov.
By the end of June 22, 1944, a front with a length of more than 1,100 km in Belarus passed along the line of Lake Nescherdo, east of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Zhlobin, along the Pripyat River, forming a huge ledge. Here the troops of Army Group Center were defended, which had a well-developed network of railways and highways for wide maneuver along the inner lines, and blocked the way to Warsaw for Soviet troops. During the transition of Soviet troops to the offensive, it could deliver powerful flank strikes against the troops of the Baltic and Belorussian fronts
The German fascist troops occupied a previously prepared, deeply echeloned (2.50-270 km) defense, which relied on a developed system of field fortifications and natural boundaries. The defensive belts, as a rule, ran along the western banks of numerous rivers with wide swampy floodplains.
The plan of the Soviet command provided for a simultaneous breakthrough of the enemy's defense in 6 sectors in order to dismember his troops and break them up in parts. Particular importance was attached to the defeat of the most powerful flank groupings of the Nazis defending in the areas of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, which provided conditions for the rapid advance of large forces of the 3rd and 1st Belorussian fronts and the development of their success in converging directions to Minsk.
The survivors, at the same time, the enemy troops were to be thrown back to a depth of 200-250 km into an area near Minsk that was disadvantageous for defensive actions, cut off their escape routes, surround them and eliminate them. In the future, building up the blow and expanding the front of the offensive, the Soviet troops had to reach the western border of the USSR.
The operation consisted of 2 stages... On the first stage (June 23 - July 4), the Vitebsk-Orshansk, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Polotsk and Minsk operations were carried out. As a result of the first stage of the Byelorussian operation, the main forces of Army Group Center were defeated, a 400-kilometer gap was formed in the center of the Soviet-German front, and Soviet troops were able to advance to the West.
At the second stage (July 5 - August 29), the Vilnius, Bialystok, Lublin-Brest, Siauliai and Kaunas operations were carried out.
During the operation, the partisans cut off the enemy's retreat routes, seized and built new bridges and crossings for the Red Army, liberated a number of regional centers on their own, and participated in the liquidation of encircled enemy groupings. The Belarusian operation created conditions for the further offensive of the Red Army into German territory.
For participation in the Belarusian operation, more than 1,500 generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 662 formations and units received honorary names according to the names of the cities and areas they liberated. In honor of the operation, the Mound of Glory was poured on the 21st km of the Minsk-Moscow highway Soviet army - the liberator of Belarus. Liberation Day of Minsk on July 3 is celebrated as the Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus
As a result sixth strike (in July - August ) The Red Army threw the Germans back across the San and Vistula rivers with the liberation of Western Ukraine and consolidation on the bridgehead west of Sandomierz ( Lviv - Sandomierz operation ).
IN august 1944 (Yasso - Chisinau operation ) our troops inflicted seventh strike - in the region of Chisinau - Yassy, \u200b\u200bwhere 22 German divisions were surrounded and defeated, the Romanian army was forced to surrender. As a result of this operation, Moldova was completely liberated, Romania and Bulgaria were withdrawn from the war.
As a result eighth strike (in September - October 1944 ) near Tallinn and Riga German troops were defeated and driven out of the Baltic States, and Finland was also withdrawn from the war, which declared war on Germany.
Ninth Impact our troops inflicted in October 1944 between the Tisza and Danube in Hungary and Yugoslavia ... As a result of this blow, Hungary was withdrawn from the fascist bloc and a significant part of Yugoslavia was liberated. The troops crossed the Carpathian ridge and entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.
But the northern part of the Soviet-German front still remained. In the plans of the fascist German command, a significant place was occupied by the seizure of the northwestern regions of the Soviet Union, the seizure of the Soviet Arctic, the sea routes of the Arctic Ocean and the seizure of the Murmansk railway. This would allow fascist Germany to secure its northern flank, as well as isolate the USSR from the outside world and prevent shipping between our northern ports and the ports of England and the United States. The Nazis also believed that the capture of the Soviet North would best provide German communications for the export of strategic raw materials from the USSR and the supply of the troops of the 20th Mountain Army.
By the tenth blow in October 1944, the operation began troops of the Karelian Front and ships of the Northern Fleet to defeat the 20th mountain German army in northern Finland , as a result of which the Pechenga region was liberated and the threat to the port of Murmansk and the northern sea routes of the USSR was eliminated. On October 15, Soviet troops occupied Pechenga, on October 23, they cleared the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe nickel mines and on October 25 entered the borders of allied Norway to liberate it from German troops.
Thus, 1944 ended with a complete and unswerving advantage of the Red Army over the Wehrmacht. In 1944, the entire territory of the USSR was cleared of the German fascist invaders, and military operations were transferred to the territory of Germany and its allies. The successes of the Soviet Army in 1944 predetermined the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
During the hostilities of 1944, the Soviet Armed Forces destroyed and captured 138 divisions; 58 german divisionsthat suffered losses of up to 50% or more, were disbanded and reduced to battle groups... In the battles for Belarus alone, 540 thousand German soldiers and officers were taken prisoner by the troops of the Red Army. On July 17, 1944, up to 60 thousand of this composition, led by 19 generals, were escorted through the streets of Moscow.
Combat operations at sea in 1944
Germany is weakening, the enemy is getting stronger
The superiority of the enemy at sea and in the air became more and more evident. The Italian navy, with the exception of a few ships, went over to the enemy's side; the Japanese suffered such losses at sea that they had no choice but to go over to the defense of the immediate approaches to Japan.
The situation was completely different with regard to weapons and human reserves for such powers as the United States. For example, the report of the US Secretary of the Navy Forrestal said that as of June 30, 1944, the United States had at its disposal 1,108 warships, 34,000 naval aircraft and 900 naval bases and strong points. The number of American personnel navy by the indicated time was equal to 3.6 million people. During the first half of 1944, 1 battleship, 79 aircraft carriers, 13 cruisers, 514 destroyers, 71 submarines and 34,814 landing craft of all types and sizes were commissioned.
The shortage of fuel in Germany had reached such limits that now fuel had to be economized at the expense of any expediency. In May 1944, the fuel situation became truly catastrophic. British and American aviation, using new bombs, mines and onboard weapons, completely paralyzed shipping on the Danube, and enemy attacks on the oil regions of Romania and Austria and on oil refineries almost completely suspended the production of fuel needed for German surface and submarine ships, not to mention about aviation, tanks and vehicles. It should be noted in passing that even fighter aviation units often had to wage a hard struggle to supply them with sufficient fuel! General-Field Marshal Keitel was able, however, to gradually accumulate a two-month emergency reserve of fuel, but at the end of May 1944, this last reserve had to be affected. In this situation, Fleet Admiral Marshall was appointed "Fuehrer's Extraordinary Plenipotentiary" and was given the task of restoring navigation on the Danube, increasing the production of liquid fuel and getting the Danube states to launch their ships along the waterways, regardless of any risk. Flotillas of minesweepers and boat minesweepers were thrown onto the Danube, thanks to which the losses from mines were reduced to tolerable sizes. The number of fighter, anti-aircraft and balloon units and formations was significantly increased.
A number of measures to protect the banks of the Danube from the constantly increasing raids by Serbian partisans were carried out by the German ground forces... Carrying out a new task for him, Fleet Admiral Marshall achieved considerable success. He managed to convince the governments of many Danubian countries that when ships move along the river, they will be exposed to much less danger than when they are concentrated in ports and become objects of massive air strikes, as already happened once in Pressburg. Beginning in mid-August 1944, oil transportation up the Danube, this one-of-a-kind powerful cargo artery, was restored. At the same time, the supply of fuel to Army Group South was also improved. The enemy made more and more attempts to mine the Danube and make it inaccessible to ships, but all obstacles were quickly removed. The most important communication linking Germany with southeastern Europe continued to exist until Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia pulled out of the war.
Hunted, but not lost their fighting spirit!
Throughout 1944, the German submarine fleet continued to suffer significant losses, achieving only very limited success. The tonnage of enemy ships sunk during this time amounted to only 800 thousand. brt... The amount of tonnage sank by Italian and Japanese submarines was so small that it hardly deserves any mention.
At the same time, the enemy continued to vigorously strengthen the anti-submarine defense of its ports and communications. The British Admiralty now had at its disposal over 880 large anti-submarine ships and about 2,200 small craft operating in coastal waters. The number of American ships engaged in anti-submarine defense was about the same. In addition, the Western Allies used tens of thousands of aircraft against the German submarine fleet.
Of course, in such conditions it was almost impossible to expect any high combat performance from the crews of German submarines. Among the few who achieved some success was, for example, the crew of the submarine Lieutenant-Commander Brandi, operating in the most difficult theater of operations - in the Mediterranean Sea.
Brandi reported on the sinking of enemy ships with a total carrying capacity of 115 thousand. brt... and a significant number of escort ships. He was awarded the highest German military order. Captain 3rd Rank W. Hartmann also managed to achieve such successes during this difficult period of the war that were much higher than the average.
The transition of the Russian troops to the offensive had a significant impact on the actions of the Soviet fleet, the activity of which immediately increased. However, despite all efforts, the Russians failed to lift the blockade of the Gulf of Finland. In June, 12 Soviet torpedo boats and a large number of other small warships were sunk here, after which the Russians again became more restrained. But the lull did not last long. In early October 1944, when the Russians advanced to Klaipeda and landed troops on the islands of Saaremaa and Hiuma, several clashes took place between the formations of light ships of the German and Soviet fleets. On the German side, submarines also took part in these battles, but, despite all the courage of their crews, they could not change anything in the general course of events. Finland's withdrawal from the war (October 4, 1944) and the advance of Russian troops to the borders of Germany deprived the German light ships of the strong points on which they were based.
The actions of the Russian fleet in the Arctic Ocean have also noticeably intensified. Here the Russians made a number of attempts to land troops. In particular, on October 14, 1944, an attempt was repelled to land troops on the Rybachye Peninsula, at the entrance to the Pechenga Bay; On October 27 the Germans had to evacuate Petsamo, followed by the port of Kirkenes. Russian fighters and torpedo boats, as a rule, in cooperation with each other began to make frequent raids on German convoys; however, they achieved only limited success, while suffering significant losses. So, on March 18, 44 Russian aircraft were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery of German ships and fighter planes, on June 18 - 37 aircraft, and on June 28 during a raid on Kirkenes - 77 aircraft. Unfortunately, now attacks by German submarines and aircraft on Russian transport ships are no longer as effective as they once were. As a result, most of the enemy ships were able to deliver their cargo to its destination. British ships alone delivered to the Soviet Union in 1944 up to 2 million. t various military materials.
At the end of March on the battleship "Tirpitz", stationed in the Kaa Fjord, all the damage caused to it by the baby boats were finally repaired. However, British aircraft discovered the battleship and inflicted heavy new damage on it; the upper superstructures and fire control devices were especially badly damaged. The Germans again began to repair the ship, but at the moment when all work on the battleship came to an end, the members of the Norwegian resistance movement reported this to the British. In mid-July and late August, Allied aircraft attacked the battleship four more times, but to no avail. Then the British made an attempt to disable the Tirpitz by means of a powerful strike by heavy bombers from the Arkhangelsk region. The attempt was successful as well as possible: the ship received such serious damage that in the future it had to be relocated to the Tromsø area and used there as a floating battery. On September 24, 1944, after the battleship had already been towed to the indicated location, a new attack by heavy bombers fell upon it, this time taking off from the airfields of England. On November 12, Lancaster-class four-engine bombers delivered their final blow to Tirpitz. The battleship was hit by 4, and according to other sources - 6 super-heavy bombs (58 c each). A powerful modern ship capsized and sank, taking with it about a thousand of the crew.
On the Black Sea, the struggle for the Kerch Strait ended in complete Russian success. Crimea had to be gradually evacuated. The German troops thrown back to the southern coast were surrounded in a number of places, and the command was forced to send warships in order to save the surrounded troops and transport them to Sevastopol. The evacuation of Sevastopol itself began in the second week of April; the troops were taken to Constanta and Sulina. During the transfer of troops by sea, German ships and ships along the entire route (220 miles) were subjected to powerful blows soviet aviation... At the end of the evacuation, the places where troops were loaded onto ships were already under constant influence of Russian artillery, and Soviet surface ships and submarines made raids on the port day and night. Under these conditions, German, Italian and Romanian formations of light warships have fulfilled their duty in an exemplary manner. A tribute should be paid to those naval sailors who helped to evacuate troops and equipment, using merchant ships as transports. On May 13, 1944, the Russians captured Sevastopol, the capture of which at one time cost the Germans so much blood! After that, the German ships operating on the Black Sea were able to achieve some more minor successes; however, soon the Black Sea finally ceased to be a theater of war. After the disaster on August 15, Romania declared war on Germany; On September 8, Bulgaria followed. In this regard, the crews of the German ships remaining in the Black Sea were forced to sink their ships.
After the landing of large landings of the Western allies in Salerno and Taranto, it took about 5 months before they were about to strike again. On January 22, a significant number of troops were parachuted from the small Italian villages of Anzio and Nettunia, located on the coast south of Rome. German submarines, together with the "man-torpedoes" used here for the first time, tried to counteract the landing force, but their weak forces could not decisively influence the course of events.
In the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, German aircraft destroyed the English light cruiser Spartan at that time, and one of the German submarines sank the English light cruiser Penelope.
On the night of June 20, 1944, the Germans evacuated the island of Elba, during the defense of which the coastal battery Piombino offered the most stubborn resistance to the Western Allies.
On August 15, 1944, Anglo-American troops began landing on the southern coast of France, in the Saint-Raphael area, between Toulon and Cannes. The coastal batteries, stationed in Toulon itself and to the east of it, managed to inflict some damage on one battleship, one cruiser and several small enemy ships, but ultimately the batteries were unable to withstand the overwhelming forces of the Anglo-Americans. The Toulon naval base remained a hotbed of German resistance until August 25, 1944, when it had to be abandoned. Military operations off the coast of southern France and in the Gulf of Genoa continued, however, until the end of October. In the last battles in this area, submarines, as well as small vessels, "man-torpedoes", exploding boats and self-propelled barges, took part from the German-Italian side.
The small war on the Adriatic Sea, and especially off the coast of Dalmatia, as well as on the Aegean Sea and in the eastern part of the Gulf of Genoa, continued until the very end of 1944. Using their own light ships and ships captured from the Italians, the Germans made every effort to organize the defense of the coast of Northern Italy and coastal waters. In the course of these actions, 10 destroyers and destroyers confiscated from the Italians, as well as a significant number of small ships, were killed; losses were caused mainly by air strikes. In mid-November, in the area south of the port of Pula, the German hospital ship Tübingen was sunk by British pilots; fortunately, his entire team, with the exception of a few people, was saved. The fighting in the Aegean Sea gradually died down during the summer and autumn of 1944. Here the Germans were forced to start fighting the Greek partisans operating at sea. It ended with the complete defeat of the partisans, and they lost up to 230, mainly motor-sailing, ships. In October 1944, German troops withdrew from southern Greece; but some of the Greek islands still had German units. These islands were completely evacuated only in November 1944.
Landing of the Western Allies in Normandy
The British possessed such air superiority over the English Channel and southern England that any coastal shipping in the area was now simply unthinkable. British torpedo boats and high-speed gunboats did not leave a single German convoy unattacked. As a result, the Germans had to wage endless defensive battles, in which the flotilla of minesweepers of Captain 3rd Rank Breithaupt, as well as the unit of Captain 2nd Rank von Blank, which was part of the water area protection forces, distinguished themselves.
On the night of April 26, 1944, two German destroyers met west of Saint Malo with British cruisers and destroyers; during the ensuing battle, the German flagship destroyer was sunk. Three days later, another battle took place, which brought completely different results: in the battle between two German destroyers and British destroyers, one British destroyer was destroyed; the Germans picked up and captured 87 people from the crew of the lost ship.
Shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944, the commander of the coastal battery "Markuf" gave a signal of "great alarm" - this began the long-awaited landing operation of the Western Allies.
The command of the group of the Naval Forces "West", as well as the various command structures of the German aviation, did not expect that the invasion of the Anglo-Americans would begin precisely these days, since the weather was clearly not favorable for the landing. In this regard, only units and subunits on duty were at the front lines of the Germans. The commander-in-chief of the German forces of the West, Field Marshal von Rundstedt, himself also considered it unlikely that the enemy would begin the landing that night. All these miscalculations are explained by the fact that when compiling a weather forecast, the Germans could not foresee the impending short-term improvement: the number of meteorological points located to the west of the English Channel was clearly insufficient for the Germans.
The first bridgeheads were captured by the enemy with the help of parachute and landing troops. At the same time, numerous Anglo-American landing craft rushed to the stretch of coastline between the Cotentin Peninsula and the Seine Bay.
During the three years of war that preceded the invasion, 4,600 special landing craft were built in England. Before and during the landing, 317 enemy minesweepers swept through almost all the German minefields. Under the cover of light ships and with the support of powerful fleet formations, which included 6 battleships, 23 cruisers and 104 destroyers, enemy landing craft imperceptibly approached the coast of Normandy, having previously destroyed the weak forces of the German outpost. The total number of ships participating in the operation reached a very impressive figure - 6500 units. On the day of the landing, the Western Allies flew up to 6,700 aircraft, which were opposed by only 319 German aircraft. On some days, the number of enemy sorties reached 10-12 thousand. Beginning on June 9, the Anglo-Americans began to build artificial ports on the seized stretch of coast, using 60 specially equipped merchant steamers, 146 giant 6000-ton floating caissons and up to 100 floating breakwaters and docks. All this was lowered to the bottom not far from the coast and turned into an artificial barrier 8 km. The largest of these ports, built at Arromanches, 34 days after the start of the invasion, already provided a daily discharge of 6,000 t various cargoes. By the end of July, on the coast of Normandy, the enemy had deployed 1.6 million people, 1.7 million. t military cargo and about 340 thousand vehicles.
During the landing, enemy heavy and medium naval artillery cut off the German troops defending on the coast with their fire. At the same time, powerful waves of bomber aviation delayed the approach of reinforcements and partially destroyed them. Installed in the area between the mouths of the Orne and Vir rivers, two 150-mm and one 125-mm field artillery batteries, as well as a 150-mm coastal defense battery, offered the enemy very stubborn resistance. The report of the Supreme High Command also noted the successful actions of the coastal batteries "Marcouf", "La Pernelle" and "Long". Only on June 18 did the Americans manage to reach the western coast of the Cotentin Peninsula in the Barneville area. This created a serious threat to the port of Cherbourg. The coastal defense batteries "Hamburg" and "York" located in the area of \u200b\u200bthis port defended themselves to the last round, until their resistance was finally broken many times superior forces enemy. On June 30, after the destruction of the Cherbourg port facilities and after the Germans ran out of ammunition, German troops in the area surrendered. However, the commandant of the naval base, with the men he had, still continued to defend himself. The fight ended only when the overlap of the command post in which they sat down collapsed on the head of the port defenders.
For the defense of the French coast, the command of the group of naval forces "West" by the beginning of June 1944 had several destroyers and torpedo boats, 30 torpedo boats and 36 submarines, not counting patrol ships and a flotilla of minesweepers. By interacting with aviation and coastal defense batteries, these ships managed by the end of June to destroy 20 light ships (from destroyers to torpedo boats inclusive), as well as 20 enemy transport and landing ships with a total displacement of about 90 thousand. t... Since they themselves suffered heavy losses, all their combat capabilities were practically exhausted.
Against the enemy landing fleet, the Germans also used some new types of weapons, such as "man-torpedoes", light submarines and exploding boats; however, despite all the efforts of their crews, these funds could not change anything in the current situation.
The fiercest battles took place for the possession of the port of Saint-Malo, located west of the Cotentin peninsula. After the defenders of the port ran out of ammunition, the enemy captured the harbor by attack from land. However, the German coastal defense battery located on the Ile de Sesembre island for a long time did not allow any enemy ship to enter the port. Only after using up all the shells, the battery was forced to stop resistance.
On September 19, 1944, after three weeks of fighting, during which the German naval anti-aircraft artillery brigade distinguished itself, the Brest naval base was surrendered to the enemy in the form of a pile of smoking ruins. The last defenders of the base, entrenched on the Le Crozon Peninsula, continued to offer stubborn resistance for another three days. Then, when the ammunition came to an end, a group of Germans led by the commandant of the fortress, General Ramke, was forced to surrender.
The militarily important French ports of Le Havre and Boulogne were occupied by the enemy after heavy fighting on 13 and 25 September, respectively. Calais fell on October 3, 1944. Since all these ports were rendered unsuitable by the Germans for unloading ships, the supply of the landing troops went almost entirely through the artificial harbors created in the Seine Bay. To supply their troops with fuel, the Americans laid gas pipelines from England across the English Channel with a daily throughput of up to 450 t each. From the English coast, 4 gas lines went to Cherbourg and 16 gas lines to Boulogne. This innovation has fully justified itself. From Cherbourg and Boulogne, gas lines ran overland towards the western borders of Germany. Three gas lines were subsequently transferred even across the Rhine, and one was brought to the outskirts of Bremen.
A number of points on the French coast remained in German hands until the very end of 1944. The enemy decided to starve the garrisons surrounded here. These points included Dunkirk, from where the entire civilian population was promptly evacuated, the Channel Islands, as well as a number of harbors and ports along the coast of the Bay of Biscay: Lorian, Saint-Nazaire, Rochefort, La Rochelle, Lapalis and the mouth of the Gironde. During the retreat of German troops from France, all the units of the ground army and aviation that were cut off were pulled into the fortified bases of the German navy listed above. As a result, a total of about 120 thousand German soldiers and officers from all three branches of the armed forces were concentrated here, not counting several thousand civilian Germans who previously served the German occupation forces, and now also found themselves surrounded. Among them were many women from auxiliary detachments, workers and employees of ports and shipyards, workers of the Todt organization, etc. The leadership of all types of armed forces concentrated in a particular naval base was usually headed by an admiral or general, who was directly subordinate to the command of a group of naval forces. "West". This chain of command was perfectly clear to everyone and did not cause any friction.
The pressure of the British fleet in the Bay of Biscay became even stronger in the summer of 1944 than before. In the middle and at the end of August, fierce battles of destroyers and torpedo boats took place here. In one of them, which took place on August 15, 2 British destroyers were sunk and 1 of our own was lost. On August 24, 1944, British pilots sank 2 of the last German destroyers still in the West at the mouth of the Gironde.
Meanwhile, off the coast of Belgium and Holland, the struggle continued with unrelenting tension on the communications along which the enemy was supplying his troops in France. During the period from mid-August to the end of November 1944, the security forces of this water area, subordinate to Rear Admiral Lukht, destroyed about 20 torpedo boats and 23 enemy aircraft.
German torpedo boats, meanwhile, continued to attack British convoys and defend their own. Selfless German sailors reached the enemy on their "man-torpedoes", exploding boats, or simply in light diving suits. Even when the entire coast of France was already in the hands of the enemy, such single fighters, and in particular divers, continued to fight stubbornly, trying at least in some way to prevent the enemy's advance to the east.
All of them did not lay down their arms until the bitter days of unconditional surrender. Their exploits could not, of course, prevent the defeat of the German armed forces, but they found well-deserved recognition from both friends and enemies.
From the book Caucasian trap. Tskhinvali-Tbilisi-Moscow authorChapter 24 Fighting in Abkhazia and the Black Sea By August 8, Abkhazia had an agreement with the Republic of South Ossetia on mutual assistance in the event of an attack on one of the unrecognized republics and immediately after the start of Georgia's aggression in Ossetia, announced mobilization. According to media reports, by the beginning of the conflict
From the book The Great River War. 1918 - 1920 author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichSection II. Fighting on Kama in 1919
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author Westphal SiegfriedCombat operations at sea in 1939 General situation The situation prevailing for the German navy at the beginning of the war did not give any grounds for bright hopes. In terms of total displacement, the German fleet was inferior to the British by about 7 times, the French -
From the book The Protracted Blitzkrieg. Why Germany lost the war author Westphal SiegfriedCombat operations at sea in 1943 General situation At the end of December 1942, German ships failed in an attempt to attack a convoy heading to one of the northern Russian ports. This led to the fact that Hitler ordered the scrapping of all large ships.
From the book The Protracted Blitzkrieg. Why Germany lost the war author Westphal SiegfriedCombat operations at sea in 1945 The last battles off the coast of Europe If already in 1944 the few surviving forces of the German fleet were unable to cope with all the tasks of the war at sea, then in the new, 1945, their role was mainly reduced to cover
From the book Russian-Turkish wars 1676-1918 - X. War of 1877-1878 author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 8 Combat operations on the Black Sea From the very beginning of the war, the Turkish fleet took active actions in the region of the Caucasian coast. The Russian command foresaw this, so in the valley of the Rion River and in the Batumi direction, almost half of the
author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 3. Combat operations at sea in 1741-1743. In the first years after the death of Peter the Great, the development of the fleet proceeded by inertia, then the fleet began to decline. During the reign of Anna Ioannovna, certain measures were taken to increase the combat power of the Baltic Fleet. In the 30s
From the book Nordic wars Of Russia author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 8. Combat operations at sea in 1790 At the end of April 1790, when the Russian Kronstadt squadron was still preparing for a campaign, the Swedish fleet left Karlskrona and on May 2 appeared at Nargen. Chichagov's squadron, awaiting the enemy, stood on the Revel roadstead, in the direction from
From the book Northern Wars of Russia author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 2. Combat operations on land in 1808 The Swedes themselves gave a formal reason for starting the war. On February 1 (13), 1808, the Swedish king Gustav IV informed the Russian ambassador in Stockholm that reconciliation between Sweden and Russia was impossible as long as Russia held the Eastern
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author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 7 COMBAT ACTIONS ON THE SEA ACTIONS OF THE AZOV FLOTILY As already mentioned, the construction of ships on the Dnieper was suspended at the end of the reign of Anna Ioannovna. At the beginning of 1769, work began again in all the old shipyards - in Tavrov, Novopavlovsk, Ikortsa and Khopr.
From the book The Millennium Battle for Constantinople author Shirokorad Alexander BorisovichChapter 7 COMBAT OPERATIONS ON THE BLACK SEA From the very beginning of the war, the Turkish fleet undertook active operations off the Caucasian coast. The Russian command foresaw this, and in the Primorsky region - the Rion valley, and in the Batumi direction almost half was concentrated
Shirokorad Alexander Borisovich
Chapter 21 Military operations at sea from April 1 to May 2, 1904 On the morning of April 2, the governor Alekseev arrived in Port Arthur from Mukden and raised his flag on the Sevastopol. This circumstance remained almost unnoticed. “This is just for show! This one will not go into battle! " - from
In the central sector of the Soviet-German front, in the strip between the Nevel and the Pripyat River, by the beginning of 1944 three of our fronts were operating: the 1st Baltic, Western and Belorussian. 1st Baltic Front - Commander General of the Army I. Kh.Bagramyan, member of the Military Council Lieutenant General D.S. Leonov, Chief of Staff Lieutenant General V.V. Kurasov - in the 4th Shock, 11th Guards, 39, 43, 51 and the 3rd air armies operated in the Vitebsk direction. Western frontcommanded by General of the Army V. D. Sokolovsky, member of the Military Council, Lieutenant General L. Z. Mekhlis, Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General A. P. Pokrovsky, was deployed in the Orsha direction. It consisted of the 5th, 10th, 31st, 33rd, 49th and the 1st Air Army. The Belorussian Front, which included the 3rd, 48th, 50th, 61st, 63rd, 65th and 16th Air Armies, operated in the Bobruisk direction. The front was commanded by General of the Army K. K. Rokossovsky, a member of the Military Council was Lieutenant General K. F. Telegin, and the chief of staff was Colonel General M. S. Malinii.
These three fronts were opposed by Army Group Center (2nd, 4th, 9th and 3rd Panzer Army), which was supported by the 6th Air Fleet. This group consisted of 63 divisions, including 6 armored and 3 motorized, and 1 brigade.
The plan of the Headquarters for the winter campaign of 1944 provided, as already indicated, along with the conduct of large offensive operations in the Right-Bank Ukraine and near Leningrad, there are also active actions of the 1st Baltic, Western and Belorussian fronts in the central sector of the Soviet-German front. The purpose of their offensive was to defeat the Vitebsk, Orsha and Bobruisk enemy groupings and reach the line Polotsk - Lepel - Mogilev - Tstich river (Map 1). The troops of the Belorussian Front were subsequently to advance in the general direction of Minsk. The offensive of our troops in the central sector of the Soviet-German front could not but affect the development of events in the Right-Bank Ukraine, as well as in the region of Leningrad and Novgorod.
In accordance with the general idea of \u200b\u200bthe winter campaign, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command sent during this period the main forces and material resources to the Right-Bank Ukraine, as well as to Leningrad and Novgorod. The fronts operating in the central sector received much less of them. So, during January - March 1944, the troops of these fronts received 19 percent of the total number of marching reinforcements, 26 percent of guns and mortars, and only 4.2 percent of tanks and self-propelled artillery installations.
In the central sector of the Soviet-German front, the main events in the winter of 1944 unfolded in the Vitebsk and Bobruisk directions.
Vitebsk - a major junction of railways and highways - was the most important defensive evil on the northern wing of Army Group Center.
As early as the fall of 1943, our troops, having broken through the defenses in the Nevel area in a very narrow sector, penetrated deeply into the enemy's position west of Vitebsk. However, all attempts to expand this breakthrough towards the flanks were unsuccessful due to lack of forces. As a result, the troops of the 6th Guards and 3rd Shock Armies of the 2nd Baltic Front and the 4th Shock Army of the 1st Baltic Front, drawn through a narrow corridor into the enemy's location, found themselves in an extremely constrained operational position. In early January 1944, the 1st Baltic Front launched an offensive with the forces of the 4th Shock, 11th Guards, 43rd and 39th Armies in order to encircle and defeat large enemy forces hanging over the Nevel group of our troops, bypassing Vitebsk from the northwest and southeast and the capture of the city. Heavy fighting, which lasted until January 18, ended in a rout in the area north of Gorodok of a group of enemy troops, and two of its divisions were completely destroyed. Front troops captured Gorodok, cut railroad Polotsk - Vitebsk and occupied an enveloping position in relation to the enemy's Vitebsk grouping. But the objectives of the operation were not fully achieved. Then the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command also attracted the Western Front to the operation, transferring the 39th Army from the 1st Baltic Front to its structure. On February 3, our troops resumed their offensive. The 1st Baltic Front advanced northwest, and the Western Front southeast of Vitebsk. Fierce bonds were tied up again, which, however, did not lead to the fulfillment main task - mastering Vitebsk. Nevertheless, Soviet troops defeated the enemy's 3rd tank army, which concentrated all its 15 divisions, 3 tank battalions and 3 assault gun battalions in the Vitebsk region, swept Vitebsk even deeper from the northwest and southeast, and cut the highway to the south Vitebsk - Orsha.
On January 2, the Belorussian front received the task of launching an offensive with the forces of the left wing, crushing the enemy's Mozyr grouping, and then advancing on Bobruisk - Minsk 3. On January 8, the front launched the offensive with the forces of the 65th and 61st armies. In heavy battles, our troops broke through the defenses of the 2nd German army and on January 14 captured regional center Byelorussian SSR the city of Mozyrsm and the large railway junction Kalinkovichi. In the course of the subsequent offensive, the troops of the 2nd Army were driven back to the Ptichn River and to the Petrikov area. At the same time, the 61st Army, trying to maintain contact with the right-flank formations of the successfully advancing 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, began to stretch its left flank along the southern coast of the Pripyat towards Stolin. This also forced the enemy to stretch out the right flank of his 2nd Army along the northern bank of the Pripyat River to cover the southern wing of Army Group Center.
On February 21, the troops of the 3rd and 50th armies of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked the enemy in the Rogachev area. In three days of intense fighting, our troops broke through the heavily fortified defenses of the German 9th Army, crossed the Dnieper and on February 24 captured the city of Rogachev, an important enemy stronghold on the Bobruisk sector. As a result of this, the Mogilev-Zhlobin railroad was cut and Soviet troops captured on the right bank of the Dnieper, between Bykhov and Rogachev, a bridgehead about 60 kilometers wide and up to 25 kilometers deep.
Thus, the 1st Baltic, Western 4th and 1st Belorussian fronts did not fully fulfill the tasks assigned to them. This is explained primarily by the fact that the Headquarters, having set the fronts with tasks of considerable depth, did not provide them with the appropriate forces and means, in particular, tanks, ammunition and fuel. In general, the Soviet troops, advancing in the winter and spring of 1944 on the central sector of the front, played an important role in achieving success in the main direction - on the Right-Bank Ukraine. They fettered the "Center" army group, did not allow it to provide assistance to the "South" and "A" army groups that were suffering catastrophic defeats at that time. In the course of hostilities, our troops improved their operational position on April 15, all three fronts operating in the central sector of the Soviet-German front, went over to the defensive and began preparations for the summer offensive.