Baltic offensive

Baltic offensive (1944)
(Baltic strategic offensive)
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Soviet advances on the Eastern Front, 1 August 1943 – 31 December 1944
Date14 September – 24 November 1944
Location
Baltic States, East Prussia, Poland
Result

Soviet victory

  • Army Group North trapped in Courland
Belligerents
 Soviet Union  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Soviet Union Ivan Bagramyan
Soviet Union Leonid Govorov
Nazi Germany Walter Model
Nazi Germany Johannes Freißner
Strength
1,546,400 troops[1]
17,500 artillery pieces
3,080 tanks and assault guns
2,640 aircraft[2]
342,742 troops [3]
unknown artillery pieces
262 tanks; 299 assault guns
321 aircraft [4]
Casualties and losses
61,468 KIA or MIA
218,622 WIA or sick
522 tanks
779 aircraft[1]
30,834 KIA, WIA and MIA[5]
The medieval Old Town and Town Hall of German-occupied Tallinn, Estonia in ruins after Soviet aerial bombing attacks (1944).

The Baltic offensive, also known as the Baltic strategic offensive,[6] was the military campaign between the northern Fronts of the Red Army and the German Army Group North in the Baltic States during the autumn of 1944. The result of the series of battles was the isolation and encirclement of the Army Group North in the Courland Pocket and Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic States.[7] In Soviet propaganda, this offensive was listed as one of Stalin's ten blows.

  1. ^ a b Soviet casualties and combat losses in the twentieth century London: Greenhill Books 1997
  2. ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz; Schmider, Klaus; Schönherr, Klaus; Schreiber, Gerhard; Ungváry, Kristián; Wegner, Bernd The Eastern Front 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts, p. 636
  3. ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, p. 622
  4. ^ Frieser, Karl-Heinz, p. 636
  5. ^ Frieser, p. 641
  6. ^ Anderson, p. 203; Muriev, pp. 22–28; Stilwell, p. 343; Проэктор.
  7. ^ Д. Муриев, Описание подготовки и проведения балтийской операции 1944 года, Военно-исторический журнал, сентябрь 1984. Translation available, D. Muriyev, Preparations, Conduct of 1944 Baltic Operation Described, Military History Journal (USSR Report, Military affairs), 1984-9, pp. 22–28