Šiauliai offensive

Šiauliai offensive
	Part of Belorussian SSR, Lithuania, and Latvia56°N 24°E / 56°N 24°E
Result	Soviet victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet UnionCommanders and leaders Georg-Hans Reinhardt
(Third Panzer Army)
Paul Laux (Sixteenth Army)

Hovhannes Bagramyan
(1st Baltic Front)

The Šiauliai offensive (

Second World War. It was part of the third phase of the Belorussian strategic offensive operation (also known as Operation Bagration), and drove German troops from much of Lithuania, with the main tactical objective of the city of Šiauliai (Russian: Шяуля́й, German

: Schaulen).

Deployments

Wehrmacht

Elements of Army Group Centre (Field-Marshal Walter Model)
- Northern wing of 3rd Panzer Army (Colonel-General Georg-Hans Reinhardt)
  - XXVI Corps (General Gerhard Matzky)
Elements of Army Group North (Colonel-General Johannes Frießner)
- Southern wing of 16th Army (General Paul Laux)

Red Army

Hovhannes Bagramyan
)
- 2nd Guards Army (General-Lieutenant Porfiry Chanchibadze
  )
- 6th Guards Army (General-Lieutenant Ivan Chistyakov
  )
- 39th Army (General-Lieutenant Ivan Lyudnikov)
- 43rd Army (General-Lieutenant Afanasy Beloborodov)
- 51st Army (General-Lieutenant Yakov Kreizer
  )

The offensive

Initial phase

In July 1944, The Soviet

Naroch Lake from 4 July, having the mission of beginning an advance in the direction of Švenčionys, Kaunas and by part of the forces towards Panevėžys and Šiauliai. Also included in the composition of the Front for this operation was the 39th Army, which had to be concentrated on the left wing of the Front by 10 July. The Front was also reinforced by the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies from the Stavka Reserve, though these could only arrive in the front sector by the second half of July. The offensive began on 5 July with an assault by the forces of two rifle corps of the 6th Guards and three rifle corps of 43rd Armies, with support from a reduced 1st Tank Corps

.

Facing them were German troops of two corps, which were positioned on adjacent wings of Army Groups North and Centre.

Hovhannes Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front in late July 1944. Strachwitz's Panzerverband was broken up in late July. From the morning of 10 July the 39th Army was introduced into the battle, conducting an assault towards Kaunas. By 12 July the frontage of the offensive of three armies increased to 200 km, the opposing troops of Army Group North

. By early August, the Soviet forces were in position to cut off Army Group North from Army Group Centre.

Transfer of main attack from Kaunas to Šiauliai

As a result of the offensive's development, Stavka shifted the direction of the main attack of the 1st Baltic Front from Kaunas to Šiauliai. 39th Army, together with the sector of its offensive was transferred to the

3rd Guards Mechanized Corps

.

For the development of the offensive on the Šiauliai axis, the 2nd Guards and 51st Armies were introduced into the battle on 14 July By 22 July their troops had captured

Panevežys - an important communications center of Army Group North. On 27 July the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps, in cooperation with the combined arms units of 51st Army, captured Šiauliai, which had been held by a scratch force led by Hellmuth Mäder. The troops of the right wing of the Front in interaction with the forces of the 2nd Baltic Front took Daugavpils

.

Pressing home the attack, the forces of the Front on 30 July overran strong points and road junctions Biržai and Bauska, and by 31 July had reached Jelgava. The Front's mobile detachments entered Tukums and reached the coast of the Gulf of Riga, cutting the land communications of Army Group North.

German counter-attacks

At the end of July and beginning of August Bagramyan's forces repulsed German counter-attacks in the region of

StuGs

of the Hermann von Salza and the last of Jähde's Tigers were formed into another Kampfgruppe to attack from the inside.

On 19 August, the counter-attack, which had been dubbed

3rd Air Army. By 20 August the German forces, by counterattacks in the regions west of Tukums and Sloka and with support from the Kriegsmarine, were able to push the Soviet troops away from the coastline in the southern sector and to restore the sea communications of their formations around Riga

. Strachwitz and the SS Division Nordland met on the 21st, and contact was restored between the army groups.

Aftermath

By that point, Army Group North was extremely vulnerable to being cut off. The 1st Baltic Front resumed its offensive that autumn, finally destroying much of

Memel offensive operation

.

References

Hinze, R. Ostfrontdrama 1944, Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart, 1998
Fight for the Soviet Baltic in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, Riga, 1967