Minsk offensive

Minsk offensive
Part of Operation Bagration
Map of the Minsk offensive
Date 29 June — 4 July 1944 Location Belorussian SSR Result Soviet Victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Walter Model (Army Group Centre) Kurt von Tippelskirch Dietrich von Saucken Vincenz Müller (elements of Fourth Army)	Ivan Chernyakhovsky (3rd Belorussian Front) Konstantin Rokossovsky (1st Belorussian Front) Georgiy Zakharov (2nd Belorussian Front) Hovhannes Bagramyan (1st Baltic Front)
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
100,000 troops caught in encirclement (40,000 killed or missing, rest either wounded or captured)	Unknown

The Minsk offensive (Russian: Минская наступательная операция) was part of the second phase of the Belorussian strategic offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bagration.

The Red Army encircled the German Fourth Army in the city of Minsk. Hitler ordered the Fourth Army to hold fast, declaring the city to be a fortified place (fester Platz) and defended even if encircled. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army attacked from the north-east, while the 2nd Guards Tank Corps moved in from the east, and the 65th Army advanced from the south. About 100,000 Axis soldiers from the Fourth and Ninth Armies were encircled, of whom some 40,000 were killed and most of the rest captured. The result was a complete victory for the Red Army, the liberation of Minsk, and the rapid destruction of much of the German Army Group Centre.