Yelnya offensive

Yelnya offensive
Part of World War II, Battle of Smolensk
Mass grave of Red Army soldiers buried in Yelnya
Date August 30 – September 8, 1941 Location Yelnya, Soviet Union 54°34′N 33°10′E / 54.567°N 33.167°E / 54.567; 33.167 Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Fedor von Bock	Georgy Zhukov Konstantin Rakutin
Strength
	103,200[1]
Casualties and losses
23,000 (XX Army Corps for the period from August 8 to Sept 8)[2]	10,701 killed or missing 21,152 wounded 31,853 overall[1]

The Yelnya offensive (August 30 – September 8, 1941) was a military operation by the Soviet Army during the Battle of Smolensk during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which began the German-Soviet War. The offensive was an attack against the semi-circular Yelnya salient which the German 4th Army had extended 50 kilometres (31 mi) south-east of Smolensk, forming a staging area for an offensive towards Vyazma and eventually Moscow. Under heavy pressure on its flanks, the German army (Heer) evacuated the salient by 8 September 1941, leaving behind a devastated and depopulated region. As the first reverse that the Heer suffered during Barbarossa and the first recapture of the Soviet territory by the Red Army, the battle was covered by Nazi and Soviet propaganda and served as a morale boost to the Soviet population.