The strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II were major military events carried out between 1941 and 1945 on the Eastern Front or in 1945 in the Far East during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Such operations typically involved at least one Front – the largest military formation of the
Soviet Armed Forces
The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and t ...
encirclement
Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The situation is highly dangerous for the encircled force. At the strategic level, it cannot receive supplies or reinforcemen ...
, or a
siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...
– always conducted by at least two Services of the
armed forces
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
(the
ground forces
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
naval forces
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...
. In most cases the
Stavka
The ''Stavka'' (Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка) is a name of the high command of the armed forces formerly in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine.
In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrative staff ...
divided the strategic operations into
operational
An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...
phases which were large operations in their own right. In very few cases the phases were tactical, such as those requiring
amphibious landing
Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducte ...
s.
Introduction
In Soviet historiography, the
Great Patriotic War
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), an ...
is divided into periods:
# First (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
# Second (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
# Third (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)
The war with Japan, the Campaign in the Far East including the
Manchurian strategic offensive operation
The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...
, (9 August 1945 – 2 September 1945) is seen as a separate theater of operations from the Great Patriotic War.
During the course of the Second World War the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
carried out a number of different
military operation
A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations ...
s. The scope of these operations, usually known by the major cities around which they took place, was usually termed "operational-strategic" or "strategic", depending on the scale. An "operational-strategic" operation was usually undertaken by at least a group of
Armies
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
or a single Front. A "strategic" operation usually demanded cooperation of several Fronts to achieve its objectives. In both cases the operations could last from a week to several months. strategic operations were combined into seasonal
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
s, because weather and ground conditions affected planning.
First period (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
Summer–Autumn campaign of 1941 (22 June – 4 December)
* Axis
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...
*
Baltic operation (1941)
The Baltic operation, also known as the defensive operation in Lithuania and Latvia, encompassed the operations of the Red Army from 22 June to 9 July 1941 conducted over the territories of the occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in respons ...
22 June – 9 July 1941
:
Baltic Border defensive Battles
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
22–24 June 1941
::
Battle of Raseiniai
The Battle of Raseiniai (23–27 June 1941) was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group an ...
Defense of Brest Fortress
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
Battle of Brody (1941)
The Battle of Brody (other names in use include Battle of Dubna, Battle of Dubno, Battle of Rovne, Battle of Rovne-Brody) was a tank battle fought between the 1st Panzer Group's III Army Corps and XLVIII Army Corps (Motorized) and five mech ...
Kestenga defensive
Operation Arctic Fox (German: ''Unternehmen Polarfuchs''; fi, operaatio Napakettu; Russian: ''Кандалакшская операция'') was the codename given to a World War II campaign by German and Finnish forces against Soviet Northe ...
Tallinn defensive
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...
First Sinyavino offensive
The Sinyavino offensives were a serie of Soviet offensives in 1941–1943 during World War II around the Sinyavino Heights, east of Leningrad, to lift the Siege of Leningrad. The area was only fully liberated during the Leningrad–Novgorod offen ...
Siege of Mogilev
The siege of Mogilev was a three-week encirclement of Mogilev undertaken by German troops, part of the Battle of Smolensk. After the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, German troops broke through Soviet l ...
Battle of the Sea of Azov
The Battle of the Sea of Azov, also known as the Chernigovka pocket was an Axis military campaign fought between 26 September 1941 and 11 October 1941 on the northern shores of the Sea of Azov on the Eastern Front of World War II during Opera ...
First Battle of Kharkov
The First Battle of Kharkov, so named by Wilhelm Keitel, was the 1941 battle for the city of Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, during the final phase of Operation Barbarossa between the German 6th Army of Army Group South and the Soviet Southwestern F ...
* Axis
Crimean Campaign
The Crimea campaign was an eight-month-long campaign by Axis forces to conquer the Crimea Peninsula, and was the scene of some of the bloodiest battles on the Eastern Front during World War II. The German, Romanian, and defending Soviet t ...
Vyazma defensive operation
Vyazma (russian: Вя́зьма) is a town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk, the administrative center of the oblast, and Mozhaysk. Thr ...
Kalinin Defensive Operation
Kalinin may refer to:
*Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946), Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet functionary
*Kalinin (surname)
Places
*Kalinin, former name of Noramarg, Armenia
*Kalinin, former name of Tashir, Armenia
*Kalinin, former name of Burunqovaq ...
Tikhvin defensive
Tikhvin (russian: Ти́хвин; Veps: ) is a town and the administrative center of Tikhvinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on both banks of the Tikhvinka River in the east of the oblast, east of St. Petersburg. Tikhvin i ...
Yelets offensive
Yelets, or Elets (russian: Еле́ц), is a city in Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, situated on the Bystraya Sosna River, which is a tributary of the Don. Population:
History
Yelets is the oldest center of the Central Black Earth Region. It was me ...
Rzhev–Vyazma strategic offensive
The Battles of Rzhev (russian: Ржевская битва, Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between January 8, 1942, and March 31, 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The battles took place ...
Toropets–Kholm offensive
The Toropets–Kholm offensive was a military operation conducted south of Lake Ilmen by the Red Army during World War II, from 9 January–6 February 1942. The operation contributed to the formation of the Kholm Pocket and the encirclement of ...
Crimean offensive
The Crimean offensive (8 April – 12 May 1944), known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea, was a series of offensives by the Red Army directed at the German-held Crimea. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army ...
27 January – 15 April 1942
* Bolkhov offensive 24 March – 3 April 1942
Summer–Autumn campaign of 1942 (1 May – 18 November)
Battle of the Kerch Peninsula
The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, which commenced with the Soviet Kerch-Feodosia Landing Operation (russian: Керченско-Феодосийская десантная операция, ''Kerchensko-Feodosiyskaya desantnaya operatsiya'') ...
Operation Fridericus II
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
22–25 June 1942
*Axis
Case Blue
Case Blue (German: ''Fall Blau'') was the German Armed Forces' plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The objective was to capture the oil fields of the Cauc ...
Battle of Rostov (1942)
The Battle of Rostov was an episode of the Fall Blau operation, which lasted five days and pitted the 56th Soviet Army, in retreat, against the 17th German Army and 1st Panzer Army which tried to surround it.
It was a definite success for the Ger ...
19–24 July 1942
* German
Operation Seydlitz
The Battles of Rzhev (russian: Ржевская битва, Rzhevskaya bitva) were a series of Red Army offensives against the Wehrmacht between January 8, 1942, and March 31, 1943, on the Eastern Front of World War II. The battles took place ...
Defensive battles at distant approaches
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
Defensive battles on near approaches and in Stalingrad
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
19 August – 18 November 1942
*
First Rzhev–Sychyovka offensive
The Battle of Rzhev in the summer of 1942 was part of a series of battles that lasted 15 months in the center of the Eastern Front.
It is known in Soviet history of World War II as the first Rzhev–Sychyovka offensive operation, which was de ...
Operation Braunschweig
Operation Braunschweig (''Brunswick''), named after Braunschweig, was the German summer offensive that began on 28 June 1942. The operation was initially named ''Fall Blau'' (Case Blue), which is the common name used for the whole offensive. The n ...
23 July 1942 –
* Axis
Operation Edelweiss
The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, Russia, opening the Caucasus region of t ...
Novorossiysk Defensive Operation
Novorossiysk ( rus, Новоросси́йск, p=nəvərɐˈsʲijsk; ady, ЦIэмэз, translit=Chəməz, p=t͡sʼɜmɜz) is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is one of the largest ports on the Black Sea. It is one of the few cities ho ...
Operation Blücher
Operation Blücher refers to several German army operations named after Prussian Field Marshal Blücher:
* Operation Blücher, a World War I alternative plan to Heilger Michael. It called for an attack on Allied forces near the Aisne River, sche ...
2 September 1942
:
Tuapse Defensive Operation
Tuapse (russian: Туапсе́; ady, Тӏуапсэ ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the northeast shore of the Black Sea, south of Gelendzhik and north of Sochi. Population:
Tuapse is a sea port and the northern center ...
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus (russian: Опера́ция «Ура́н», Operatsiya "Uran") was the codename of the Soviet Red Army's 19–23 November 1942 strategic operation on the Eastern Front of World War II which led to the encirclement of Axis ...
Tatsinskaya Raid
The Raid on Tatsinskaya was a Soviet armoured raid deep into the German rear conducted by 24th Tank Corps under the command of Major General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov in late December 1942. It took place during Operation Little Saturn, on the ...
16–28 December 1942
:
Operation Winter Storm
Operation Winter Storm (german: Unternehmen Wintergewitter), a German offensive in December 1942 during World War II, involved the German 4th Panzer Army failing to break the Soviet encirclement of the German 6th Army during the Battle of St ...
12–23 December 1942
:
Middle Don offensive
Operation Little Saturn was a Red Army offensive on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II that led to battles in Don and Chir rivers region in German-occupied Soviet Union territory in 16–30 December 1942.
The succes ...
(
Operation Little Saturn
Operation Little Saturn was a Red Army offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II that led to battles in Don and Chir rivers region in German-occupied Soviet Union territory in 16–30 December 1942.
The success of Operation Uranus, launc ...
) 16–30 December 1942
:
Operation Koltso
Operation Koltso (Operation Ring) was the last part of the Battle of Stalingrad. It resulted in the capitulation of the remaining Axis forces encircled in the city.
Initial attack
The operation was launched on 10 January 1943 with a mass artiller ...
Operation Mars
Operation Mars (Russian: Операция «Марс»), also known as the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive Operation (Russian: Вторая Ржевско-Сычёвская наступательная операция), was the codename fo ...
North Caucasian strategic offensive
The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, Russia, opening the Caucasus region of ...
Battle of Rostov (1943) Three battles of the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II around the city of Rostov-on-Don on the Sea of Azov are known as the Battle of Rostov:
*In the Battle of Rostov (1941), the German 1st Panzer Army captured the city but ...
Kuban bridgehead
The Kuban Bridgehead (german: Kuban-Brückenkopf), also known as the "Goth's head position" (), was a German military position on the Taman Peninsula, Russia, between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Existing from January to October 1943, the ...
s
*
Operation Iskra
Operation Iskra (russian: операция Искра , translation = Operation Spark), a Soviet military operation in January 1943 during World War II, aimed to break the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shor ...
(Operation Spark, breaking of the Leningrad Blockade) 12–30 January 1943
:
Krasnoborsko-Smerdynskaya offensive
The Battle of Krasny Bor was part of the Soviet offensive Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda in the Eastern Front of World War II. It called for a pincer attack near Leningrad to build on the success of Operation Iskra and completely lift the siege ...
Operation Polar Star
Operation Polar Star (Russian: Операция Полярная звезда, ''Operatsia Polyarnaya Zvezda'') was an operation conducted by the Soviet Leningrad, Volkhov and Northwestern Fronts in February and March 1943. The operation wa ...
10 February – 1 April 1943
:
Battle of Krasny Bor
The Battle of Krasny Bor was part of the Soviet offensive Operation Polyarnaya Zvezda in the Eastern Front of World War II. It called for a pincer attack near Leningrad to build on the success of Operation Iskra and completely lift the sie ...
10–13 February 1943
:
Demyansk offensive
The Battle of Demyansk was part of the Soviet offensive Operation Polar Star against Axis forces which took place in Demyansk from 15 to 28 February 1943. The Northwestern Front and Mikhail Khozin Special Group engaged the 16th Army of Army Gr ...
Operation Büffel
Operation Büffel ("Buffalo") was a series of local retreats conducted by the German Army Group Centre on the Eastern Front during the period 1–22 March 1943. This movement eliminated the Rzhev Salient and shortened the front by , releasing t ...
Third Battle of Kharkov
The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of battles on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by Army Group South of Nazi Germany against the Soviet Red Army, around the city of Kharkov between 19 February and 15 March 1943. Known ...
Summer–Autumn campaign of 1943 (1 July – 31 December)
*German
Operation Citadel
Operation Citadel (german: Unternehmen Zitadelle) was a German offensive operation in July 1943 against Soviet forces in the Kursk salient, proposed by Generalfeldmarschall Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein during the Second World War on ...
Donbas strategic offensive (July 1943)
The Donbas strategic offensive was a military campaign fought in the Donets Basin from 17 July to 2 August 1943, between the German and Soviet armed forces on the Eastern Front of World War II. The Germans contained the Soviet offensive in its ...
Fifth Sinyavino offensive
The Mga offensive or Third Battle of Lake Ladoga (german: Dritte Ladoga-Schlacht) or fifth Sinyavino offensive was an unsuccessful offensive operation by Soviet troops between 22 July and 25 September 1943 to break the siege of Leningrad.
Pr ...
Operation Suvorov
The second Smolensk operation (7 August – 2 October 1943) was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943. Staged almost simultaneously with the Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 Aug ...
Donbas strategic offensive (August 1943)
The Donbas strategic offensive was the second of two strategic operations of the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front of World War II,, with the goal of liberating the Donetsk Basin, or Donbas, from the forces of Nazi Germany.
Situation Prio ...
Taman offensive (1943)
Taman may refer to: Places
*Taman Peninsula, a peninsula in southern Russia
**Taman Bay, an inlet of the Strait of Kerch off the peninsula
**Taman, Russia, a rural locality located on the peninsula
**Port of Taman, a seaport on the Peninsula
*T ...
10 September – 9 October 1943
* 2nd Mga offensive 15–18 September 1943
*
Operation Concert
Operation Concert was a Soviet military operation during World War II, conducted as part of the rail war sabotage campaign. It was one of the largest operations of World War II in its effects on the incapacitation of railroad communications in the ...
(partisan offensive in support of
Operation Suvorov
The second Smolensk operation (7 August – 2 October 1943) was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943. Staged almost simultaneously with the Lower Dnieper Offensive (13 Aug ...
) 19 September 1943
*
Lower Dnieper offensive
The Battle of the Dnieper was a military campaign that took place in 1943 in Ukraine on the Eastern Front of World War II. One of the largest operations of the war, it involved almost 4,000,000 troops at a time stretched on a front.
Over four ...
Zaporizhia offensive
Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populati ...
Nikopol offensive Nikopol (derived from Greek ''Nicopolis'' (Νικόπολις), "City of Victory") may refer to:
Places and regions
* Nikopol, Ukraine
** Nikopol Raion, Ukraine
** FC Elektrometalurh-NZF Nikopol, a Ukrainian football club
** FC Nikopol, a Ukrainia ...
Kiev strategic offensive (October 1943)
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Kyi ...
1st Bukrin offensive
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
Nevel offensive
The Battle of Nevel was a successful military operation conducted by the Red Army in the Pskov Oblast of western Russia and in northern Belarus during World War II, from October 6 to roughly December 16, 1943 although fighting persisted in the a ...
Battle of Lenino
The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place on 12 and 13 October 1943, north of the village of Lenino in the Mogilev region of Byelorussia. The battle itself was a part of a larger Soviet Spas-Demensk offensi ...
Kiev strategic offensive operation (November 1943)
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
K ...
Odessa offensive
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
Vitebsk offensive
Vitebsk or Viciebsk (russian: Витебск, ; be, Ві́цебск, ; , ''Vitebsk'', lt, Vitebskas, pl, Witebsk), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest ...
Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha offensive Krasnoye may refer to:
* Krasnoye, Krasnensky District, Belgorod Oblast, rural locality and the administrative center of Krasnensky District of Belgorod Oblast, Russia
* Krasnoye, Krasninsky District, Smolensk Oblast
Krasnoye (russian: Крас� ...
Staraya Russa-Novorzhev Offensive
Staraya (russian: Старая) is a rural locality (a village) in Krasnoplamenskoye Rural Settlement, Alexandrovsky District, Vladimir Oblast, Russia. The population was 11 as of 2010.(ru) : 18 February – 1 March 1944
*German: Battle of Narva 2 February – 10 August 1944
:
Battle for Narva Bridgehead
The Battle of Narva Bridgehead ( et, Narva lahingud, german: Schlacht um den Brückenkopf von Narva, russian: Битва за плацдарм Нарва; 2 February – 26 July 1944) was the campaign that stalled the Soviet Estonian operati ...
2 February – 26 July 1944
*
Narva offensive (15–28 February 1944) Narva Offensive may refer to any of the following military operations of the Eastern Front of World War II:
* Narva Offensive (15–28 February 1944)
* Narva Offensive (1–4 March 1944)
* Narva Offensive (18–24 March 1944)
* Narva Offensive ...
Narva offensive (1–4 March 1944)
The Narva offensive (1–4 March 1944) (Estonian: ''Putki lahing'') was an operation conducted by the Soviet Leningrad Front. It was aimed at the conquest of the Narva Isthmus from the German army detachment "Narwa". At the time of the operati ...
*
Narva offensive (18–24 March 1944) Narva Offensive may refer to any of the following military operations of the Eastern Front of World War II:
* Narva Offensive (15–28 February 1944)
* Narva Offensive (1–4 March 1944)
The Narva offensive (1–4 March 1944) (Estonian: ''Putk ...
First Jassy–Kishinev offensive
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
8 April – 6 June 1944
:
First Battle of Târgu Frumos
The First Battle of Târgu Frumos was fought during World War II between Axis powers commanded by Otto Wöhler and Soviet forces led by Ivan Konev. Historian David Glantz has described it as part of a failed Soviet invasion of Romania, while Ru ...
Second Battle of Târgu Frumos
The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos was a military engagement primarily between the Wehrmacht and Red Army forces in May 1944, near Iași, Romania. The battle was the main engagement of the Târgu Frumos Operation, and is often referred simp ...
: 2–8 May 1944
Summer–Autumn campaign of 1944 (1 June – 31 December)
Vyborg offensive
Vyborg (; rus, Вы́борг, links=1, r=Výborg, p=ˈvɨbərk; fi, Viipuri ; sv, Viborg ; german: Wiborg ) is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, town in, and the administrative center of, Vyborgsky District, Leningrad Obl ...
Battle of Tali-Ihantala
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
Battle of Ilomantsi
The Battle of Ilomantsi was a part of the Svir–Petrozavodsk Offensive of the Continuation War (1941–1944). It was fought from 26 July to 13 August 1944, between Finland and the Soviet Union in an area roughly 40 kilometers wide and 30 ki ...
Šiauliai offensive
The Šiauliai offensive (russian: Шяуляйская наступательная) was an operation of the Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front, commanded by General Hovhannes Bagramyan, conducted from July 5 to August 29, 1944, during the Se ...
5–31 July 1944
:
Belostock offensive
The Belostok offensive (russian: Белостокская наступательная операция) was part of the third and final phase of the Belorussian strategic offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944, commonly known as Operation Bag ...
5–27 July 1944
:
Lublin–Brest offensive
The Lublin–Brest Offensive (russian: Люблин‐Брестская наступательная операция, 18 July – 2 August 1944) was a part of the Operation Bagration strategic offensive by the Soviet Red Army to clear the Nazi ...
18 July – 2 August 1944
::
Battle of Radzymin (1944)
The Battle of Radzymin was one of a series of engagements between the 1st Byelorussian Front of the Red Army and the Army Group Centre of the German Army. The battle was part of the Lublin-Brest Offensive between 1 and 4 August 1944 at the con ...
Operation Doppelkopf
Operation Doppelkopf (german: Unternehmen Doppelkopf) and the following Operation Cäsar were German counter-offensives on the Eastern Front in the late summer of 1944 in the aftermath of the major Soviet advance in Operation Bagration with the a ...
Battle of Tannenberg Line
The Battle of Tannenberg Line (german: Die Schlacht um die Tannenbergstellung; russian: Битва за линию «Танненберг») or the Battle of the Blue Hills ( et, Sinimägede lahing) was a military engagement between the Germ ...
East Carpathian strategic offensive
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...
Memel offensive
The Battle of Memel or the siege of Memel (german: Erste Kurlandschlacht) was a battle which took place on the Eastern Front during World War II. The battle began when the Red Army launched its ''Memel offensive operation'' (russian: Меме� ...
27 September – 24 November 1944
*
Courland Pocket
The Courland Pocket (Blockade of the Courland army group), (german: Kurland-Kessel)/german: Kurland-Brückenkopf (Courland Bridgehead), lv, Kurzemes katls (Courland Cauldron) or ''Kurzemes cietoksnis'' (Courland Fortress)., group=lower-alpha ...
Battle of Batina
The Battle of Batina or Batina Operation () was a battle fought on the Syrmian Front of the Second World War between the units of the Red Army and the Yugoslav Partisans against the Wehrmacht and their allies. The battle took place from 11 to ...
Operation Konrad
Operation Konrad was the German- Hungarian effort to relieve the encircled garrison of Budapest during the Battle of Budapest in January 1945. The operation was divided into three parts:
* Operation Konrad I - 1 January 1945 - Led by IV SS Panzer ...
Heiligenbeil Pocket
The Heiligenbeil Pocket or Heiligenbeil Cauldron (german: Kessel von Heiligenbeil) was the site of a major encirclement battle on the Eastern Front during the closing weeks of World War II, in which the Wehrmacht's 4th Army was almost entirely ...
Operation Solstice
Operation Solstice (german: Unternehmen Sonnenwende), also known as ''Unternehmen Husarenritt'' or the Stargard tank battle, was one of the last German armoured offensive operations on the Eastern Front in World War II.
It was originally pla ...
Operation Southwind
Operation Southwind (german: Unternehmen Südwind) was a German offensive operation on the Eastern Front in Hungary, from 17–24 February 1945. The Germans succeeded in eliminating the Soviet bridgehead on the west bank of the river Hron in pre ...
: 17–24 February 1945
* German Lake Balaton counteroffensive
Operation Frühlingserwachen
Operation Spring Awakening (german: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen) was the last major German offensive of World War II. The operation was referred to in Germany as the Plattensee offensive and in the Soviet Union as the Balaton defensive oper ...
Battle of the Transdanubian Hills
The Battle of the Transdanubian Hills (also known in Bulgaria as the Drava Operation ( bg, Дравска операция, ''Dravska operatsiya'')) was a defensive operation of the Bulgarian First Army during Bulgaria's participation in ...
Vienna offensive
The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945.
After several days of street-to-street f ...
Upper Silesian offensive
The Upper Silesian offensive was a strategically significant Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II in 1945. It was aimed at capturing the considerable industrial and natural resources located in Upper Silesia and involved forces ...
Defense of Schwedt Bridgehead
The defense of the Schwedt bridgehead was a Nazi Germany, German 3rd Panzer Army operation on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during the final months of World War II. German forces, commanded by Otto Skorzeny, were ordered to prep ...
Battle of Halbe
The Battle of Halbe (german: Kesselschlacht von Halbe, russian: Хальбский котёл, Halbe pocket) was a battle lasting from April 24 – May 1, 1945 in which the German Ninth Army—under the command of General Theodor Busse—was dest ...
Prague offensive
The Prague offensive (russian: Пражская стратегическая наступательная операция, Prazhskaya strategicheskaya nastupatel'naya operatsiya, lit=Prague strategic offensive) was the last major military ...
Bornholm
Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.
Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...
Winter Campaign of 1941–1942
Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...