4. Russian counter offensives 1944

Question 1

On eastern front, what did final two years of war see?

Answer 1

advance of Soviet Army (Red Army) westwards, clearing the Nazi forces from ‘Motherland’ before driving into heart of Reich itself

Question 2

Overy explains such success was due to Soviet Army’s?

Answer 2

sharp increase in battlefront weapons and “great improvements in the way those weapons were organised and exploited” (military reform)

Question 3

what was the operation called?

Answer 3

Operation Bagration

Question 4

what was the operation aim/tactic?

Answer 4

launched massive rapid and strong assault on Hitler’s forces, Army Group Centre, by General Zhukov on 22 June 1944 with aim to move across Belorussia towards Poland -> push Germans out of Soviet Union.

Question 5

what did the attack consist of?

Answer 5

over one million men, 6 000 tanks and 2 000 aircraft. German lose
300 000 men.

Question 6

when did Soviet forces start campaign?

Answer 6

early July to drive Germans out of Baltic states = threaten German food supplies

Question 7

what happened June?

Answer 7

Russians launched attack in German forces in Belorussia, where 285 000 Germans killed or taken prisoner

Question 8

what comes under Soviet control?

Answer 8

Baltic states

Question 9

by early October, the Russians were?

Answer 9

in East Prussia

Question 10

What was happening to Hitler’s empire by end of 1944?

Answer 10

Hitler’s empire in central and Eastern Europe was greatly decreased

Question 11

what did Russian forces do by beginning of August?

Answer 11

Russian forces moved across Poland, stopping just short of Warsaw while the Polish Resistance rose up against Germans

Question 12

While Polish Resistance rose up against the Germans in Warsaw, Polish hoped to?

Answer 12

to gain a stronger negotiation position with the Red Army

Question 13

how long did warsaw rising last?

Answer 13

2 months

Question 14

result of warsaw rising?

Answer 14

55 000 Polish deaths and 350 000 Poles sent to Germany as slave labour

Question 15

what was too much for Polish forces?

Answer 15

German air power and artillery/tanks

Question 16

why did Stalin order forces to stop at River Vistula (near Warsaw)?

Answer 16

to allow the Germans to destroy the Polish forces loyal to the non-Communist Polish government in exile, where the red Army could then move in and destroy German forces

Question 17

at same time waiting for Germans to destroy Warsaw, Soviet forces gained?

Answer 17

control of Romania and Bulgaria

Question 18

what did Russia control by April 1945?

Answer 18

all of Eastern Europe and was poised for final onslaught

Question 19

what does J Jordan state about Operation Bagration?

Answer 19

“…Operation Bagration was Hitler’s worst military setback of the war….dramatically turned the tide of war against the Third Reich.”

Question 20

what does ML Altogovzen (Soviet writer) state about the Polish army involvement in Warsaw rising?

Answer 20

“encouraged the inhabitants of Warsaw to launch an ill-prepared uprising” where it resulted in thousands of death and destruction of Warsaw

Question 21

what did ‘Defense and Foreign Affairs Daily (US) 2003’ state about significance of this event?

Answer 21

“Whatever hopes for survival which the Third Reich leaders harboured, evaporated…”