Battle of Vilnius (1944)
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| Battle of Vilnius (1944) | |||||||
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| Part of World War II | |||||||
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| Combatants | |||||||
| Red Army, Polish Home Army | Wehrmacht | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Rainer Stahel | |||||||
| Eastern Front |
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| Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Belorussia – Lvov-Sandomierz – Balkans – Hungary – Vistula-Oder – Königsberg – Berlin – Prague |
| Leningrad and Baltics 1941 - 1944 |
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| Toropets-Kholm – Demyansk Pocket – Spark – Polar Star – Krasny Bor – Lenino– Leningrad Approaches – Narva – Vilnius – Baltic |
The Battle of Vilnius occurred as part of Operation Bagration, the great summer offensive by the Red Army against the Wehrmacht, in June, and July, 1944. It lasted from the 7th to the 13th of July, 1944, and ended with a Soviet victory. Some three thousand German soldiers managed to breakout, including the commander, Rainer Stahel, of the encircled garrison of Vilnius.
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[edit] Prelude
From 23 June 1944, the Red Army conducted a major offensive operation under the code-name Operation Bagration, liberating Belorussia, and driving towards the Polish border and the Baltic Sea coast. At the beginning of July the frontline had been torn open at the seam of German Army Group Center and Army Group North, roughly on a line from Vitebsk to Vilnius. While a large part of the Soviet forces was employed to reduce the German pocket at Minsk, the Soviet high command decided to exploit the situation along the breach to the north, by turning mobile formations towards the major traffic centre of Vilnius, in eastern Lithuania. For the German high command, it became imperative to hold Vilnius, because without it it would become almost impossible to re-establish a sustainable connection between the two German army groups, and to hold the Red Army off outside East Prussia and away from the Baltic Sea shores.
[edit] The Battle
During the battle, the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, which was placed under the command of 3rd Belorussian Front, engaged the German garrison of the Fortress of Vilnius, under the command of Luftwaffe Major-General Rainer Stahel, and elements of 3rd Panzer Army under the command of Colonel-General Reinhardt.
[edit] Contribution by the Polish Home Army
The battle was also marked by an uprising under the code-name Operation Ostra Brama by the Polish Home Army in expectation of the arrival of the Red Army, as part of Operation Tempest.
[edit] Outcome
While the German aim to hold Vilnius was not achieved, the tenacious defense made a contribution in stopping the Red Army's drive west for a few precious days, and most importantly tieing down the 5th Guards Tank Army, which had been instrumental in the initial successes of the Red Army during Operation Bagration, thus giving the German army groups a chance to re-establish something resembling a continuous line further to the west. Hitler recognised this achievement of Stahel by awarding him the 76th set of Oak Leaves to the Knights Cross awarded during the war. Nevertheless, this achievement fell far short of what the German command had hoped for, and the continuous frontline that was established only held for a few weeks. Without the traffic network based on Vilnius, the German position in the southern Baltics was untenable.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Literature
Glantz, D. (ed.) 'Belorussia 1944 - the Soviet General Staff Study'
