Topic

Eastern Front Of World War II

Eastern Front Of World War II Events

1939 Aug 24 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Treaty of Non-Aggression between the Third German Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially ti...
1940 Aug 8 Hitler Orders 'Aufbau Ost', the Mobilization of Troops as Preparation for the Invasion of Russia
Aufbau Ost (German: Building in the East) was the German operational code name for the mobilisation of forces prior to the commencement of Operation Barbarossa and the subsequent invasion...
1940 Sep 15 Lossberg Study for the Invasion of the Soviet Union
Lossberg study is a German military plan prepared by Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard von Lossberg and developed under Alfred Jodl in OKW on September 15, 1940. Its northward direction of atta...
1941 Jun 22
to 1941 Jun 29
 Battle of Białystok–Minsk
The Battle of Białystok–Minsk was a German strategic operation conducted by the Army Group Centre during penetration of the Soviet border region during the opening stage of Operation Barb...
1941 Jun 22 Operation Barbarossa Begins
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million tr...
1941 Jun 23
to 1941 Jun 27
 Battle of Raseiniai
The Battle of Raseiniai (23–27 June 1941) was a tank battle fought between the elements of the 4th Panzer Army and two Soviet Mechanized Corps in Lithuania 75 km northwest of Kaunas in th...
1941 Jun 26
to 1941 Jun 30
 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 IIIrd, XL...
1941 Jul 6
to 1941 Aug 5
 Battle of Smolensk (1941)
The Battle of Smolensk was a successful encirclement operation by Army Group Centre's 2nd Panzer Army led by Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Army led by Hermann Hoth of parts of four So...
1941 Jul 15
to 1941 Aug 8
 Battle of Uman
The "Battle of Uman" (July 15 – August 8, 1941) was an English name given to the German encirclement of the 6th (General Lieutenant I.N. Muzyrchenko) and 12th (General Major P.G. Ponedeli...
1941 Aug 23
to 1941 Sep 26
 Battle of Kiev (1941)
The Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a very large encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during World War II. It is considered the larg...
1941 Sep 8 Siege of Leningrad Begins
By September 8, 1941 German forces had largely surrounded the city, cutting off all supply routes to Leningrad and its suburbs. Unable to press home their offensive, and facing defenses o...
1941 Oct 2 Battle of Moscow Begins
The Battle of Moscow (Russian: Битва под Москвой, Romanized: Bitva pod Moskvoy, German: Schlacht um Moskau) is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically signific...
1941 Oct 13 German Forces Arrive at the Mozhaisk Defense Line
By October 13, 1941, the Wehrmacht had arrived at the Mozhaisk defense line, a hastily constructed double set of fortifications protecting Moscow from the west and stretching from Kalinin...
1941 Oct 30 German Forces Begin Siege of Sevastopol
A rapid thrust was launched towards Sevastopol on 30 October 1941 which commenced the Defence of Sevastopol (Russian: оборона Севастополя), consisting of two infantry divisions and one mo...
1941 Nov 7 Stalin Orders Traditional Military Parade Amidst German Invasion to Strengthen Soviet Morale
November 7, 1941, saw the most unusual military parade in the nation's history. The Second World War was raging on. Right from Red Square in Moscow, accompanied by the poignant tune of “S...
1941 Nov 20 The Road of Life Begins Operation
The Road of Life (Russian: Доро́га жи́зни, doroga zhizni) was the ice road transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad ...
1941 Nov 21
to 1941 Nov 27
 Battle of Rostov (1941)
Rostov was assigned as the objective to the 11th Army now commanded by General von Schobert, however he died in a crash on the same day after landing his liaison Fieseler Storch aircraft ...
1941 Dec 5 Soviet Union Launches Counteroffensive Against Germany
Although the Wehrmacht's offensive had been stopped, German intelligence estimated that Soviet forces had no more reserves left and thus would be unable to stage a counteroffensive. This ...
1942 May 8
to 1942 May 18
 Battle of Kerch Peninsula
Battle of the Kerch Peninsula (German: Unternehmen Trappenjagd) was a World War II offensive by German and Romanian armies against the Soviet Crimean Front forces defending the Kerch Peni...
1942 May 12
to 1942 May 28
 The Second Battle of Kharkov
The Kharkov area was a pivotal area on the Eastern Front, sitting astride two important strategic axes towards Kursk and the Donbas. The Russian STAVKA had decided that to regain the stra...
1942 Jun 7 Germans Begin Assault on Secondary Defense Line at Sevastopol
After expelling the Soviets from the Crimea, the German attention turned once again to Sevastopol. To help with the siege von Manstein had at his disposal some of the largest guns ever bu...
1942 Jun 23
to 1942 Jul 6
 Battle of Voronezh (1942)
The Battle of Voronezh was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, 450km south of Moscow, from D...
1942 Jun 28 Germany Initiates Case Blue
Case Blue (German: Fall Blau) was the German codename used by the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) for its 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia that lasted between 28 June an...
1942 Jul 17 Battle of Stalingrad Begins
The Battle of Stalingrad was a battle of World War II between Nazi Germany and its allies and the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle too...
1942 Aug 19
to 1942 Oct 10
 Sinyavin Offensive/Operation Nordlicht
Operation Northern Light (German: Unternehmen Nordlicht) and the Sinyavin Offensive refers to two near simultaneous military operations by planned by respectively Germany and the Soviet U...
1942 Sep 25 German Paratroopers Land near Grozny to Join Forces with Chechen Rebels
Abwehr's Nordkaukasische Sonderkommando Schamil landed in several points in Chechnya, coordinating strikes with rebels. On 25 September 1942 German paratroopers landed in Dachu-Borzoi and...
1942 Nov 19
to 1942 Nov 23
 Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus (Russian: Операция «Уран», romanised: Operatsiya Uran) was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixt...
1942 Nov 25
to 1942 Dec 20
 Operation Mars
Operation Mars was the operation codename for the Rzhev offensive operation part of the Rzhev-Vyazma strategic offensive operation (08.01-20.04.42) launched by Soviet forces against Germa...
1942 Dec 12
to 1942 Dec 23
 Operation Winter Storm
Operation Winter Storm (German: Unternehmen Wintergewitter) was a German offensive in World War II undertaken between 12–23 December 1942, in which the German Fourth Panzer Army attempted...
1942 Dec 16 Soviet Union Launches Operation Little Saturn
The first stage — an attempt to cut off the German Army Group A in the Caucasus — had to be rapidly revised when General Erich von Manstein launched Operation Winter Storm on 12 December ...
1943 Jan 12
to 1943 Jan 30
 Operation Iskra
Operation Iskra (Russian: Операция Искра, Operatsia Iskra; English translation - Operation Spark) was a Soviet military operation conducted by the Red Army's Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts,...
1943 Feb 2 Surviving German Forces, now Starving, Sick, and Low on Ammunition, Surrender at Stalingrad
The Germans inside the pocket retreated from the suburbs of Stalingrad to the city itself. The loss of the two airfields, at Pitomnik on 16 January 1943 and Gumrak on either 25 January, o...
1943 Feb 19
to 1943 Mar 15
 Third Battle of Kharkov
The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of offensive operations on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by the German Army Group South against the Red Army, around the city of K...
1943 Jul 4 Battle of Kursk Begins
The Battle of Kursk refers to German and Soviet operations on the Eastern Front of World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest s...
1943 Aug 7 First Phase of the Battle of Smolensk (1943)
After a day of probing, the goal of which was to determine whether German troops would choose to withdraw or not from the first set of trenches, the offensive started on 7 August 1943 at ...
1943 Aug 21
to 1943 Sep 6
 Second Stage of the Battle of Smolensk (1943)
By mid-August, the situation on the Eastern Front had changed as the Red Army started a general offensive, beginning with the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation (Белгородско-Харьковская...
1943 Aug 24 Lower Dnieper Offensive Begins
The Lower Dnieper Offensive (also known as the "Battle of the Lower Dnieper") of took place in 1943 during the Second World War. It was one of the largest Second World War operations, inv...
1943 Sep 7
to 1943 Oct 2
 Third Stage of the Battle of Smolensk (1943)
In the week from 7 September to 14 September, Soviet troops were once again reinforced and were preparing for another offensive. The next objectives set by the Stavka were the major citie...
1943 Dec 23 Lower Dnieper Offensive Ends in Decisive Soviet Victory
The Battle of Dnieper was another defeat for the Wehrmacht that required it to restabilize the front further West. The Red Army, which Hitler hoped to contain at the Dnieper, forced the W...
1944 Jan 14
to 1944 Jan 30
 Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive
The Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive, also known as Operation January Thunder and Neva-2 was a campaign between the Soviet Leningrad Front and the German 18th Army fought for the western ap...
1944 Jan 24
to 1944 Feb 16
 Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive
The German forces in the salient, part of 8th Army, consisted of two Corps, the 11th and 42nd. These two Corps included the 57th, 88th, 72nd, parts of the 389th Infantry Divisions and the...
1944 Feb 1
to 1944 Mar 1
 Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive
The Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive was a campaign between the Soviet Leningrad Front and the German 18th Army fought for the eastern coast of Lake Peipus and the western banks of the Narva Rive...
1944 Feb 2
to 1944 Aug 10
 Battle of Narva (1944)
The Battle of Narva was a military campaign between the German army detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for the strategically important Narva Isthmus in 2 February – ...
1944 Mar 25
to 1944 Apr 15
 Battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket (Hube's Pocket)
The Battle of the Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket, also known as Hube's Pocket, was a Wehrmacht attempt on the Eastern Front of World War II to evade encirclement by the Red Army. During the Pro...
1944 Apr 8
to 1944 May 12
 Crimean Offensive (1944)
The Crimean Offensive (8 April 1944 - 12 May 1944) – known in German sources as the Battle of the Crimea[citation needed] – was a series of offensives by the Red Army in the effort to lib...
1944 Apr 8
to 1944 Jun 6
 First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive
The First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, was fought between 8 April and 6 June 1944 by the Soviets and Axis powers of World War II. The offensive was actually a coordinated invasion of Romania...
1944 Jun 9
to 1944 Aug 9
 Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive
At the Karelian Isthmus front there were on average 120 Red Army artillery pieces for every kilometer, with up to 220 artillery pieces per kilometer on the breakthrough sector at Battle o...
1944 Jun 22 Soviet Union Commences Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation (Codenamed Operation Bagration)
Operation Bagration (Russian: Oперация Багратион, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation during World War II, which cleared G...
1944 Jun 23
to 1944 Jun 28
 Babruysk Offensive
In the southern sector of operations, where the 1st Belorussian Front under Konstantin Rokossovsky faced Hans Jordan's Ninth Army, the main Soviet objective was Babruysk and the southern ...
1944 Jun 23
to 1944 Jun 28
 Mogilev Offensive
As with the other offensives in the first phase of Operation Bagration, the Mogilev Offensive opened with a intense artillery barrage against the German defensive lines on the morning of ...