Germany's Worst Defeat: Operation Bagration | Animated History

[Music] as the sun rises on the third anniversary of operation barbarossa men of the german ninth corps prepare for another quiet day on patrol with a vast minefield between them and the front lines and their soviet enemy focused entirely south of them these men have nothing to fear little do they know the buildup south was a distraction and a few landmines are no challenge for the red [Music] army hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian in today's video we will examine operation bagration the most devastating military defeat in all of german history over the course of this two-month-long operation the soviet union nearly annihilated the german army group center a loss from which germany never recovered before we begin i'd like to take a moment to discuss today's sponsor battle warship a free to play 3d mobile game with 25 million downloads worldwide command a naval base and assemble a vast fleet of over 100 different aircraft carriers outfitted with more than 200 different 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the battle of kursk the axis forces were forced into a defensive position the soviet counter-attack that followed kursk drove the vermont back over 800 kilometers or 500 miles before finally coming to a halt in february of 1944 of the three army groups holding the eastern front army group south was the most severely affected suffering a series of defeats that forced them much further back than the other army groups creating a salient in the access line for the first few months of 1944 german strategists assumed that the soviets would press this advantage in the south in order to capture the balkan oil fields and advance through southern poland into the heart of germany accordingly the southern sector was heavily reinforced with nearly the entire operational reserve of the eastern front being redeployed there by may contrary to german fears soviet commanders never intended to target that sector viewing a southern offensive as too vulnerable to flanking and counter-attacks they believed that the safest target would be biella russia defended by army group center taking biello russia would result in the collapse of the entire german front line allowing soviets to launch joint offensives in the north and south [Music] in order to give their plan codenamed operation bagration the best possible chance to succeed the soviets launched a massive campaign of deception in early 1944 referred to in russian strategy as a mosquito rovka campaign literally translated as camouflage mosquito rothko was designed to gain the element of surprise against enemy forces the campaign involved diverting significant forces as visibly as possible toward the southern sector preparing a large and noticeable buildup to encourage the germans to further reinforce the bulge at the same time they created the illusion that they were withdrawing forces from the bella russian front in part by driving vehicles and tanks away during the day only to bring those vehicles back camouflaged in the dark of night the soviet's efforts to convince the germans that they were planning an attack in the south were successful in part because they actually were an offensive through ukraine into the levolf semi-shoe area of southern poland was being planned at the exact same time as operation begration this element of truth helped sell the soviet deception when the offensive began in biella russia instead the germans with all their eggs stuffed into vaulter models basket would be caught completely off guard by the middle of june 1944 the soviets had amassed over 1.6 million personnel for bagration with over 32 000 artillery pieces 5 800 tanks and 7 800 aircraft this massive force was supported by soviet partisans in biella russia and members of the polish resistance who softened up the german defenses by sabotaging railroad lines throughout the region army group center by that time consisted of about half as many personnel and only a tenth of the number of tanks and aircraft their defenses however included trench lines extensive field fortifications and massive minefields across the entire front which they hoped would make up for their shortages and manpower in the early morning hours of june 22nd the third anniversary of hitler's invasion of the soviet union operation bagration began soviet infantry first advanced from the north in a pincer maneuver meant to encircle the city of vitisc aerial bombardment followed devastating german artillery positions in support of the infantry advance and soviet forces quickly began to close in to the north and south of the city at dawn the next day russian tanks rolled in led by a wave of t-34s specially modified with massive metal rollers for clearing mines after these giant rolling pins swept through german minefields infantry poured in behind them striking at regions which were otherwise weakly defended and punching through enemy lines this highly effective tactic was part of the soviet strategy of deep battle which centered around achieving strategic breakthroughs and pushing into enemy territory to undermine their ability to defend the rest of their lines developed in the 1920s and 1930s deep battle doctrine was first used to its fullest extent in operation bagration and its effectiveness was undeniable with armored support the soviet assault pushed in further into enemy territory and vitipsk was completely encircled by june 25th the entire german 53rd corps was trapped in the city after high command had repeatedly denied their requests to evacuate two days later the city was taken and all 30 000 men in the 53rd corps were killed or taken prisoner meanwhile alongside the northern assault another pincer attack was launched on june 23rd in the south targeting the cities of bobrusk and mogolev the southernmost pincer in this maneuver targeting bobowisk was personally commanded by soviet general konstantine rokosovsky who had been largely responsible for planning the operation as a whole rokosovsky's force crashed into the german lines and advanced almost unopposed driving much further than anticipated this good fortune came after the nearby german 9th army attempted to redeploy its tanks to defend against his offensive but most of the vehicles broke down in the marshy terrain leaving the southern force with little opposition as for mogollov the primary purpose of the offensive was to occupy the german fourth army dominate the road network and take the city if possible in this the russian army was incredibly successful by june 28th magulef had fallen and a day later bobrusk was captured most of the 4th and 9th armies were killed were taken by the russians as prisoners of war in less than a week the german front line was shattered over 100 000 men had been lost and the soviet offensive showed no signs of slowing down as access commanders scrambled to scrape together improvised defenses the two pincer forces began to advance on the main objective of operation bagration the belarussian capital of minsk through a combination of exceptional planning and overwhelming force the red army managed to completely overwhelm the german defenses across a wide front the soviets pressed this advantage capturing all of their initial objectives and pushing toward minsk where one hundred thousand german soldiers were now at risk of encirclement by the end of june 1944 the axis front line in biella russia had been broken and two soviet armies were driving into their territory from the north and south the germans were taken completely by surprise and high command was scrambling to send reinforcements to stave off this overwhelming attack the commander of army group center field marshal ernst bush was hastily replaced with valtter modal in hopes that the more seasoned commander could salvage the defense model stepped into a desperate situation the ninth army was all but shattered by the soviet pincer in the south and the fourth army to the east of minsk had been circumvented and was now in serious danger of being encircled he ordered the fourth and ninth armies to rapidly withdraw toward minsk and began to redeploy bombers and armored divisions from army group north and south to support them but by this time the soviets controlled the sky and they inflicted heavy casualties on these incoming reinforcements as well as the retreating forces of army group center however the fifth panzer division did manage to make it through the aerial bombardment and arrived in minsk on june 27th where they were put to work guarding one of the key roads to the northeast of the city the fifth panzer's heavy tiger tanks were used to great effect in slowing down the soviet offense inflicting staggering losses on enemy armored units but while the german heavy tanks were more effective than the t-34s they faced they were not invincible and the faltering nazi war machine simply could not afford to replace the tanks they lost the soviets steadily wore down the mighty tigers and within two days the 159 heavy tanks of the 5th panzer division had been reduced to just 18 no longer able to hold back the enemy advance on july 3 the two prongs of the soviet advance met outside of minsk completing the encirclement of the city the remnants of the ninth army were trapped within along with several units that had been desperately redeployed to assist them while the fourth army was still a few miles to the east now with nowhere to run the soviet second guard's tank core pierced the defenses of minsk early on the morning of the third and had successfully cleared the city of enemy troops by the next [Music] day what was left of the fourth and ninth armies were now surrounded outside the city and over the next few days the noose was slowly tightened around them several breakouts were attempted but all of these efforts ended in failure culminating in a disastrous attempt on july 8th that led to the capture of lieutenant general vincent's mullah the acting commander of the fourth army mullah ordered a full surrender of his remaining forces and around sixty thousand of the one hundred thousand men who would be caught in the encirclement were taken prisoner the rest had already been killed by this point army group center was all but destroyed since the beginning of operation bhagration 25 divisions and around 300 000 men had been killed or captured along with huge amounts of materiel that the germans could no longer afford to replace before we continue i'd like to let you guys know i recently relaunched my website armchair history tv there we release exclusive history videos like alternate history hubs video on what if spain joined the axis in world war ii that you can't find anywhere else new content comes out every single week from all different creators we also recently launched our mobile app on ios and android so check that out too and if you want a special discount after your 30 day free trial use code armchair history for 50 off after reclaiming minsk the soviets pressed their momentum pushing further west into poland while also sending forces north toward the baltic sea the north offensive sought to drive a wedge between the remnants of army group center and north in hopes of cutting off and destroying the latter once this gap was formed in early july the soviet first baltic front rapidly advanced into the breach in an effort to trap army group north between them and the sea [Music] their main target was the lithuanian city of chole which the soviets seized on july 27th with little opposition from the small german garrison after capturing the city the forces of the baltic front carried on reaching the gulf of riga on july 31st and severing land communications between army group center and north at the same time offensives targeting vilnius and biaostock succeeded in driving the germans from most of lithuania and northern poland meanwhile a separate attack was launched through ukraine in the south which would see these soviets breaking through in the balkans and prompt the defection of romania and bulgaria to the common turn operation bagration continued for several more weeks with the germans being forced back further and further all across the front by mid-august the soviets had claimed over 550 kilometers or 340 miles of territory and were now within sight of warsaw the germans made a desperate last-ditch effort to hold the line at the vestula river but they were soundly defeated by the 47th and 8th guard's armies in the lublin breast offensive which ended on august 2nd with the capture of several key bridge heads over the vestula in the weeks following the capture of minsk one hundred thousand more germans were killed or captured and the entirety of army group north had become effectively trapped in the baltic states where they would hold out in isolation for the rest of the war the site of soviet forces approaching on the horizon brought hope to the people of warsaw who had suffered greatly under german occupation prompting the polish resistance to launch an uprising in the city on august 1st between 20 and 50 000 poles rose up against the occupying garrison and fierce fighting broke out in the streets that initially fought the german army to a standstill but despite heavy losses they had suffered at the hands of the soviets the nazi war machine was not defeated yet fresh troops and armored units withdrawn from the fighting in italy arrived to reinforce the front against the soviet advance in mid-august and some of these forces were diverted to put down the revolt in warsaw even in the face of overwhelming odds the people of warsaw kept fighting until october resulting in the destruction of much of the city the soviets faced with these fresh german reinforcements logistical issues from the rapid advance and the onset of bad weather finally brought their offensive to a halt on august 19th when the dust settled even the leaders of the soviet union were surprised at the extent of the success of operation by gration the entirety of soviet yellow russia had been liberated and over a quarter of germany's forces on the eastern front had been annihilated in an effort to prove the extent of their victory to the world 57 000 prisoners taken from the encirclement at minsk were humiliatingly paraded through the streets of moscow in late july in a ceremony eerily reminiscent of an ancient roman triumph while estimates of the exact casualties from operation by gration very recent research suggests around 400 000 men lost on the german side mostly captured in the soviet's many successful encirclements the red army suffered substantial losses of its own however with around 180 000 men killed and over 500 000 reported as wounded or sick by the end of operation bagration the situation on the eastern front had gone from bad to utterly desperate for nazi germany their remaining forces in the north and south were cut off from one another and their faltering war machine was unable to replace the losses suffered by army group center although the fighting in the east was far from over the axis forces would spend the rest of the war on the back foot as soviet forces pushed ever closer to berlin thanks again to battle warship for sponsoring this video don't forget to start your career on the high seas in style with our affiliate link in the description below

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 1,635,838

Rating: 4.9158616 out of 5

Keywords: Operation Bagration, Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation, Ernst Busch, Walter Model, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Georgy Zhukov, Belorussian Front, Army Group Center, The Eastern Front, Second World War, Ostfront, Battle of Minsk, Battle for Belarus, 1944

Id: AwYhpYPftlg

Length: 19min 31sec (1171 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/theblitz6794]

I never realized how close they were to holding the Minsk corridor. Makes you wonder