Orsha offensives (1943)
310,900 men, with steady reinforcements
193,510 men; heavy fortifications
- v
- t
- e
- Naval warfare
- Baltic Sea
- Black Sea
- Arctic Ocean
- 1941
- Barbarossa
- Brest
- Białystok–Minsk
- 1st Baltic
- Brody
- Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
- 1st Smolensk
- Uman
- Odessa
- 1st Kiev
- Tallinn
- Leningrad
- Sea of Azov
- 1st Kharkov
- 1st Crimea
- Sevastopol
- Rostov
- Gorky
- Moscow
- Finland
- Kerch
- Chechnya
- Air war 1941
- 1942
- Lyuban
- Barvenkovo–Lozovaya
- Rzhev
- Toropets–Kholm
- Demyansk
- Kholm
- 2nd Kharkov
- Case Blue
- Caucasus
- Rzhev–Sychyovka
- Sinyavino
- Stalingrad
- Velikiye Luki
- Mars
- Little Saturn
- 1943
- Iskra
- Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh
- Voronezh–Kharkov
- Polar Star
- 3rd Kharkov
- Gorky Blitz
- Kursk
- 1st Donbas
- Belgorod-Kharkov
- 2nd Donbas
- 2nd Smolensk
- Dnieper
- Nevel
- 2nd Kiev
- 1944
- Dnieper–Carpathian
- Leningrad–Novgorod
- Narva
- 2nd Crimea
- 1st Jassy–Kishinev
- Karelia
- Bagration
- Lvov–Sandomierz
- Doppelkopf
- 2nd Jassy–Kishinev
- Dukla Pass
- 2nd Baltic
- Belgrade
- Debrecen
- Petsamo–Kirkenes
- Courland
- Gumbinnen
- Budapest
- 1945
The Orsha offensives were a series of battles fought in Belarus between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht during the autumn of 1943, and into the following winter. Orsha was a main road junction with the north–south route from Leningrad to Kiev and the east–west route from Minsk to Moscow. After the failure of Operation Typhoon in the winter of 1941, Army Group Centre had spent the most part on the defensive in the central sector of the front. The time afforded to them in 1942, a distinct period of inactivity in this area, allowed the Wehrmacht to build formidable defensive positions.
Prelude
After their defeat in the Battle of Smolensk, the Wehrmacht retreated on a broad front to the Panther-Stellung line. The German 4th Army (Heinrici)—part of Army Group Centre—took defensive positions near Orsha. To the north, the 3rd Panzer Army (Reinhardt) took up defensive lines around Vitebsk, and to the south the 9th Army (Model) held the area east of Bobrujsk. The Soviet Stavka saw the liberation of Ukraine as their primary goal, so the Lower Dnieper Offensive had priority in equipment and reinforcements.
The battles
The 4th Army was in retreat to the Panther-Wotan line, pursued by the Soviets. Troops from the Soviet Western Front then launched a heavy attack on both sides of the Minsk-Moscow highway. One thrust was directed at Orsha, a main road junction, and another at Bogushevsk.[1]
References
- ^ Glantz D.M. (1995) The failures of historiography: Forgotten battles of the German‐Soviet war (1941–1945), Journal of Slavic Military Studies 8(4): 768–808
Literature
Frieser K-H., Schmider K. & Schönherr K. (2007) Das deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Vol. 8, Die Ostfront 1943/44, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart: 1350 pp.