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Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War

  • Battle of UmanIn just over three weeks in 1941, German forces destroyed two entire Soviet armies near Uman.
  • Budapest offensiveSoviet armies closed a ring around Budapest in late December 1944. Roughly 79,000 troops were trapped.
  • Operation KutuzovOperation Kutuzov borrowed the name of the general who drove Napoleon out of Russia.
  • Leningrad–Novgorod offensiveOn January 14, 1944, 220,000 shells opened the Soviet push to end the Leningrad siege.
  • Vyborg–Petrozavodsk offensiveMoscow wanted Finland's army destroyed and Finland out of the war. Neither goal was fully met in the 1944 offensive.
  • East Prussian offensiveSome German units kept fighting in East Prussia until the whole country surrendered. That was May 9, 1945.
  • First Jassy–Kishinev offensiveHistorian David Glantz argues Soviet historians erased a failed 1944 offensive for nearly sixty years.
  • East Pomeranian offensiveSoviet forces paused before Berlin in 1945 to clear Pomerania first. Generals still debate that delay.
  • Silesian offensivesThe Soviet push on Berlin was delayed about two months in 1945 to protect its flanks.
  • Smolensk operationOn the first day of the Smolensk operation, Soviet troops gained just 4 kilometers.
  • Battle of Smolensk (1941)Germany largely won the Battle of Smolensk in 1941 but lost time it needed to reach Moscow.
  • Crimean offensiveA large bomb fell into a Romanian destroyer's fuel tanks and never went off.
  • Battle of Narva (1944)At Narva in 1944, a narrow strip of swamp and forest held back a huge Soviet force for seven and a half months.
  • Battle of Białystok–MinskAfter the Western Front collapsed in 1941, the NKVD executed its commander, General Pavlov.
  • Battle of the DnieperIn 1943, Red Army soldiers crossed the Dnieper River on fishing boats and rafts made from barrels and trees.
  • First Battle of KharkovThe First Battle of Kharkov was settled within a single week, from the 20th to the 24th of October 1941. Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the famous Soviet writer, later described what the city had become: "I saw Kharkiv. As if it were Rome…
  • Operation UranusA Soviet general once wrote to Stalin asking him to cancel Operation Uranus. Stalin refused.
  • Vienna offensiveThe Vienna offensive of 1945 reached a city that had already endured continuous bombardment for a full year. Many of its buildings and facilities were damaged or destroyed before a single Soviet soldier arrived. The assault was carried out…
  • Battle of StalingradHitler promoted Paulus to field marshal at Stalingrad, since no German field marshal had ever surrendered.
  • Case BlueSoviet forces had Germany's 1942 summer plans in hand, but Stalin thought they were a trick.
  • Operation MarsWas Operation Mars a real Soviet offensive or a costly diversion to protect Stalingrad? Historians still disagree.
  • Siege of Sevastopol (1941–1942)By July 1942, only eleven buildings were undamaged in Sevastopol. The siege lasted 250 days.
  • Battle of KurskBefore the Battle of Kursk, one Soviet front dug 4,200 kilometres of trenches. Stalin knew the attack was coming.
  • Battle of Kiev (1941)The 1941 Battle of Kiev played only a small role for the city itself. It trapped 452,700 Soviet soldiers.
  • Battle of KönigsbergKönigsberg, a fortress city built to resist huge siege guns, fell in four days in April 1945.
  • Prague offensiveSoviet tanks drove some 80 kilometers overnight and entered Prague at daybreak on May 9, 1945.
  • Operation BagrationOperation Bagration began exactly three years after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
  • Siege of LeningradBesieged Leningrad played a symphony on the day Hitler had picked for a victory banquet. It was aimed at enemy lines.
  • Battle of the Kerch PeninsulaSoviet troops landing at Kerch in December 1941 had fishing trawlers and whaleboats, not landing craft.
  • Belgrade offensiveIn 1944, a Soviet brigade drove 120 kilometers in 24 hours toward Belgrade. It left German front-line units far behind.
  • Crimean campaignThe German siege of Sevastopol in Crimea lasted 250 days before the city surrendered.
  • Dnieper–Carpathian offensiveSpring mud helped the Red Army win a huge battle in Ukraine. Most German tanks could not move in it, but the T-34 could.
  • Second Battle of KharkovA Soviet offensive at Kharkov in May 1942 ended with more than 250,000 troops trapped.
  • Second Jassy–Kishinev offensiveIn August 1944, a Soviet attack collapsed the German-Romanian front in Romania within two days.
  • Vistula–Oder offensiveWhy did the Red Army stop 43 miles from an essentially undefended Berlin in early 1945?
  • Siege of BudapestSome 28,000 troops tried to break out of besieged Budapest on the night of the 11th of February 1945.
  • Third Battle of KharkovA German counterstrike in February 1943 trapped Soviet spearheads that had just retaken Kharkov.
  • Winter campaign of 1941–1942Soviet troops retook Tikhvin, Klin and Rostov in 1941 but failed to trap German units. The Germans pulled back in order.

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