Operation Doppelkopf
Operation Doppelkopf | |||||||
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Part of Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
Eastern Front, June–August 1944. The attack at the connection between Army Groups Centre (Third Panzer Army) and North (Sixteenth Army) west of Riga is marked. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Germany | Soviet Union | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Georg-Hans Reinhardt (Army Group Centre) Erhard Raus (Third Panzer Army) |
Hovhannes Bagramyan )(1st Baltic Front |
Operation Doppelkopf (German: Unternehmen Doppelkopf) and the following Operation Cäsar were German counter-offensives on the Eastern Front in the late summer of 1944 in the aftermath of the major Soviet advance in Operation Bagration with the aim of restoring a coherent front between Army Group North and Army Group Centre. The operation's codename was a reference to the German card game Doppelkopf.
Strategic situation
By the end of July 1944, Soviet mechanised forces had reached the
The Oberkommando des Heeres made immediate plans for an offensive to restore the connection between the two Army Groups.
Planning
A number of armoured formations were assembled under Army Group Centre in
Deployments
Wehrmacht
- Army Group Centre (Colonel-General Georg-Hans Reinhardt) (from 16 August)
- Third Panzer Army (General Erhard Raus) (from 16 August)
- XL Panzer Corps (General Otto von Knobelsdorff)
- XXXIX Panzer Corps (General Dietrich von Saucken)
- Third Panzer Army (General Erhard Raus) (from 16 August)
Red Army
- Elements of 3rd Belorussian Front (General Ivan Chernyakhovsky)
- Elements of Hovhannes Bagramyan)
The offensive
The operation commenced with an attack by the 7th Panzer Division on 15 August towards Kelmė. The main offensive began the following day, but there was strong resistance against the XXXX Panzer Corps from ten Soviet infantry divisions supported by three artillery divisions and anti-tank units.[2]
Von Saucken's XXXIX Panzer Corps opened operations on 18 August. Its left flank, an ad hoc formation under
By 27 August, the corridor between Third Panzer Army and Sixteenth Army had been enlarged to 18 miles in width, though the latter had come under renewed pressure from a fresh Soviet offensive against Riga.[5] The operation had also failed in its more ambitious objectives of retaking Šiauliai or of cutting off the 6th Guards Army threatening Riga.
Operation Cäsar
A second German 'spoiling' attack, was planned to destroy Bagramyan's forces in the salient below Riga and push the front out to a straight line between the Segewold position and Šiauliai.
Aftermath
The Red Army attacked again on 5 October, in the
See also
- Baltic Offensive, the Soviet strategic offensive against Army Group North
- Battle of Tannenberg Line, the parallel defensive battles of Army Group North
Footnotes
- ^ Ziemke 2002, p. 403.
- ^ a b Mitcham 2007, p. 140.
- ^ Ziemke 2002, p. 343.
- ^ Mitcham 2007, p. 141.
- ^ Mitcham 2007, p. 143.
- ^ a b c Ziemke 2002, p. 406.
- ^ Ziemke 2002, p. 405.
- ^ Ziemke 2002, p. 407.
- ^ a b Ziemke 2002, p. 408.
References
- ISBN 978-0-8117-3371-7.
- ISBN 0-306-81409-9
- Ziemke, Earl F. (2002). Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. Washington D.C.: Center of Military History, US Army. ISBN 978-1-78039-287-5.
Further reading
- The memoirs of Erhard Raus cover the operations of Third Panzer Army during this period in some detail.
- Another former general and author, Gerd Niepold, wrote a book-length study, Panzeroperationen Doppelkopf und Casar (Mittler, 1987, ISBN 978-3-8132-0259-5).