Orsha offensives (1943)

Series of battles fought in Belarus between the Red Army and the Wehrmacht in 1943

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Orsha offensives

Part of The Eastern Front of World War II
| Date| October 12, 1943 – November 19, 1943

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Location|

Orsha region, Belarus, Soviet Union

54°30′N 30°25′E﻿ / ﻿54.50°N 30.42°E﻿ / 54.50; 30.42
Result|  German defensive victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union|  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Vasily Sokolovsky|  Gotthard Heinrici
Strength
Western Front
310,900 men, with steady reinforcements|  4th Army
193,510 men; heavy fortifications
Casualties and losses
530,537|  35,056

* v
* t
* e

Eastern Front

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
* Bamberg
* 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
* Lenino
* 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

* Vistula–Oder
* Western Carpathian
* East Prussia
* Silesia
* Breslau
* Solstice
* East Pomerania
* Lake Balaton
* Moravia–Ostrava
* Vienna
* Bratislava–Brno
* Berlin
* Prague
* Prague uprising

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

[edit]

Panther-Wotan Line

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

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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

[edit]

1. ^ 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

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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.

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