75 years ago, in July-August 1944, the Red Army delivered the sixth "Stalinist" blow to the Wehrmacht. During the Lvov-Sandomierz operation, Soviet troops completed the liberation of Western Ukraine, threw the enemy back across the San and Vistula rivers, and created a powerful foothold in the area of the city of Sandomierz. The German army group "Northern Ukraine" was almost completely defeated.
General situation
During the winter campaign of 1944, the Red Army liberated a significant part of Western Ukraine from the Nazis. In mid-April 1944, the 1st Ukrainian Front stopped at the line west of Lutsk - Brody - west of Ternopil - Kolomyia - Krasnoilsk. The heavy defeat of the German Army Group "Center" in the Belarusian Republic created favorable conditions for the offensive of the 1st UV under the command of I. S. Konev on Lvov.
For three years the population of the western regions of Ukraine-Little Russia was under the monstrous oppression of the occupation. The German invaders destroyed, burned and destroyed thousands of cities, villages and villages, shot, hanged, burned and tortured hundreds of thousands of people. In Lvov and Lviv region alone, the invaders killed about 700 thousand people. For the mass extermination of Soviet people, a whole system was created - an administrative and punitive apparatus, a network of prisons and camps. The Nazis considered themselves “the chosen ones”, and the Russian (Soviet) people - “subhuman”, therefore they “cleaned up” the territory for themselves. They revived direct slavery. Only from the Lviv region to the Third Reich, about 145 thousand people, mainly young people, were taken out for slave labor. And of all the so-called. "District of Galicia" (Lvov, Drohobych, Ternopil and Stanislav regions) were taken into slavery about 445 thousand people. In the future, the Nazis (when they won victories), according to the "Ost" plan, planned to expel most of the population of the western part of Little Russia beyond the Urals, dooming them to extinction from cold, hunger and epidemics. In Little Russia, the Germans planned to create their own colonies that would serve the remnants of the local population. Only the victories of the Red Army destroyed these cannibalistic plans.
It is interesting that the current colonial regime in Little Russia (Kiev is completely subordinate to the will of the masters of the West) is carrying out the same extermination program that the Nazis were implementing. Only now liberal-fascists, thieves-oligarchs (current slave owners) and Ukronazis are doing this on the basis of Western "humane", democratic concepts. However, the result is the same: accelerated extinction of Russian-Little Russians, their export and flight (caused by the methods of cultural, linguistic, socio-economic genocide) to European countries for slave labor, the status of second-class people; total destruction and plundering of the wealth of Little Russia; destruction and disappearance of thousands of villages, schools, hospitals, monuments, etc. The future is a complete loss of historical memory, language, culture, identity, assimilation of the remnants of Western Rus by the West.
An important role in the enslavement of Ukraine-Little Russia was played by Ukrainian nationalists (Nazis). Their leaders dreamed of creating an independent "Ukrainian state", but, in fact, played the role of servants of the Third Reich (then - England and the United States). Berlin used nationalists to undermine the unity of the Russian people, separating the Russian southwestern regions (Little Russians) from the rest of the people. Everything is within the framework of the ancient strategy of "divide and conquer". The division of the Russians led to a weakening of resistance. To play off Russians with Russians. Ukrainian Nazis created their own armed bandit formations, united in the "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) and "Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army" (UNRA). These renegades fought against the Red Army and the Red partisans, together with the Nazis carried out punitive raids and plundered the people.
However, despite the brutal repression and terror, the people resisted the occupiers. In western Ukraine, there were underground and partisan detachments and groups that fought against the invaders and their local minions. The major successes of the Red Army in 1943 and in the first half of 1944 led to the intensification of the activities of Soviet underground fighters and partisans. In addition, in the first half of 1944, when our troops began to liberate the Right-Bank Ukraine, many partisan formations and detachments moved to the western regions and continued their struggle against the enemy there. Some units crossed the Western Bug and established contact with the Polish resistance. During the preparation of the 1st UV for the offensive in May - June 1944, the Soviet and Polish partisans struck a number of attacks on the communications of the invaders. So, for almost a month, the sections of the Lvov-Warsaw railways were out of order. Rava-Russkaya - Yaroslav, defeated a number of large enemy garrisons. Attempts by the German army to destroy the partisans, conducting large-scale punitive operations using aircraft and armored vehicles, did not lead to success.
German defense
In front of the Red Aria in the Lvov direction, the German Army Group "Northern Ukraine" operated under the command of Field Marshal Walter Model. Army Group Northern Ukraine was created in April 1944 on the basis of Army Group South. In July, Model was sent to rescue a crumbling front in Belarus by being appointed commander of Army Group Center and Army Group Northern Ukraine led by Colonel-General Josef Garpe (Harpe), the former commander of the 4th Panzer Army.
Army Group Northern Ukraine occupied a strip from Polesie to the Carpathians. It resisted with its main forces the 1st UV and part of the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front - in the Kovel direction. Hitler's headquarters believed that it was here that in the summer of 1944 the Russians would deliver the main blow to separate Army Groups Center and North from the southern flank of the German front. German troops defended the Lvov region and the important industrial and oil region Drohobych - Borislav. Also, Army Group Northern Ukraine covered important operational directions leading to Southern Poland, Czechoslovakia and Silesia - an important industrial region of Germany. Therefore, there were 9 mobile units of the Wehrmacht. Only after the defeat of the Wehrmacht troops in the Belarusian direction, the German command was forced to transfer troops to Belarus from Germany and other sectors of the front. Thus, 6 divisions, including 3 tank divisions, were withdrawn from Army Group Northern Ukraine by mid-July, which significantly weakened the Lvov direction.
Army Group Northern Ukraine consisted of the 4th Panzer Army of Garpe (then V. Nering), the 1st Panzer Army of Rous and the 1st Hungarian Army. Ground forces supported the 4th and 8th Air Corps of the 4th Air Fleet. By the beginning of the battle for Lviv, German troops consisted of 40 divisions (including 5 tank and 1 motorized) and 2 infantry brigades. The group consisted of about 600 thousand people, 900 tanks and self-propelled guns, 6300 guns and mortars of 75 mm and above, 700 aircraft. The strongest grouping covered Lvov in the Brody-Zborov sector. Already in the course of the battle, Army Group Northern Ukraine was reinforced by the 17th Army, 11 infantry, 2 tank divisions, the SS Galicia division, and several separate units. The strength of the army group increased to 900 thousand people.
The Germans prepared a defense in depth. We tried especially to the east of Lviv. The Nazis erected three defense zones 40-50 km deep. The first strip was 4-6 km wide and consisted of 3-4 continuous trenches. The second line of defense was located 8-10 km from the front edge of the defense, it was equipped with weaker than the first. The third strip has just begun to be built along the western banks of the Zapadnaya Dvina and Gnilaya Lipa rivers. The preparation of a strong defensive system was facilitated by the rugged terrain, forests, swamps, the large rivers Western Bug, Dniester, San and Vistula. In addition, Vladimir-Volynsk, Brody, Rava-Russkaya, Lvov, Stanislav and other large settlements were turned into "fortresses".
Given the lack of operational reserves, the German command was going to hold the tactical defense zone at any cost. Therefore, almost all of the infantry units were located in the first and second lines of defense, and mobile formations were only at a distance of 10-20 km from the forward edge, in order to support the infantry in the threatened sector as quickly as possible.
The plans of the Soviet command. Forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front
At the beginning of June 1944, the command of the 1st UV submitted to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (SVG) a plan for the defeat of Army Group Northern Ukraine and the completion of the liberation of Ukraine. The headquarters finally determined the nature of the operation and on June 24 gave the directive to the front commander Konev. The 1st UV was to defeat the enemy forces in the Lviv and Rava-Russian directions. The Soviet armies were to defeat the Lviv and Rava-Russian groups of the Wehrmacht and reach the line Hrubieszow - Tomaszow - Yavorov - Galich. Therefore, the Red Army inflicted two main blows: from the Lutsk region to Sokal and Ra-Ruska, and from the Ternopil region to Lvov. On July 10, the plan for the offensive operation was finally approved by the Headquarters.
In time, the Lvov operation coincided with the offensive of the troops of the 1st BF in the Lublin direction. As a result, the blow of the right wing of the 1st UF on Hrubieszów, Zamoć contributed to the success of the left flank of the 1st BF. In general, the offensive of Konev's troops was part of the powerful offensive of the Red Army in the central strategic direction.
For the successful solution of the assigned task, the troops of the 1st UV were reinforced with 9 rifle divisions and 10 air divisions, as well as artillery, engineering and other units. The front received an additional 1,100 tanks and over 2,700 guns and mortars. The front consisted of the 3rd, 1st and 5th Guards, 13th, 60th, 38th and 18th combined arms armies, 1st and 3rd Guards tank and 4th tank armies, 2 cavalry mechanized groups, 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. The ground forces were supported by the 2nd and 8th Air Armies. In total, the front consisted of 80 divisions (of which 6 were cavalry), 10 tank and mechanized corps, 4 separate tank and mechanized brigades. By the beginning of the operation, there were about 850 thousand people on the front (during the operation, the number of Soviet troops increased to 1.2 million people), 13, 9 thousand guns and mortars of 76 mm and higher caliber, 2200 tanks and self-propelled guns, more than 2800 aircraft …
Already during the operation on July 30, 1944, the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of I. E. Petrov was separated from the 1st UV. 4th UV received the task of advancing in the Carpathian direction. It included the 18th and 1st Guards armies.
The command of the 1st UV decided to deliver two main attacks. On the Rava-Russian direction, the strike was struck by the forces of the front's right flank - the 3rd Guards and 13th Armies, the 1st Guards Tank Army of Katukov and the mechanized cavalry group of Baranov (1st Guards Cavalry and 25th Tank Corps). It was planned to break through the enemy defense in a 12-kilometer sector on the adjacent flanks of the 3rd Guards and 13th armies of Gordov and Pukhov. In the Lviv direction, the blow was struck by the troops of the 60th and 38th armies of Kurochkin and Moskalenko, the 3rd Guards Tank Army Rybalko, the 4th Tank Army Lelyushenko, the mechanized cavalry group of Sokolov (6th Guards Cavalry and 31st Tank Corps). The blow was delivered in a sector of 14 km on the adjacent flanks of the 60th and 38th armies. Two powerful blows were supposed to hack into the enemy's defenses and lead to the encirclement and elimination of the German group in the Brod area. To provide the left flank of the central grouping of the 1st UV, which was advancing on Lvov, Grechko's 1st Guards Army attacked the enemy in the Stanislav and Drohobych directions.
Thus, the breakthrough of the enemy defense was to be carried out by powerful groupings of troops. Up to 70% of all infantry and artillery, more than 90% of tanks and self-propelled guns were concentrated in the sectors of the offensive. The density of artillery fire ranged from 150 to 250 barrels per kilometer. The main aviation forces were concentrated in the areas of the breakthrough. At the beginning of the operation, the ground forces were supported by Krasovsky's 2nd Air Army. Two ground attack groups were supported by two air groups - the northern (4 air corps) and the central (5 air corps). On July 16, the control of the 8th Air Army arrived at the front, and the air corps of the northern group was transferred to it. Also, long-range aviation took part in the operation, striking in the depths of the enemy defense, and air defense fighter aviation, which covered the rear facilities of the front and communications.
Breakthrough enemy defenses
Rava-Russian direction. By the beginning of the offensive of the armies of the 1st UV, reconnaissance discovered that in some areas the Germans were retreating into the depths of the defense. The command of the German 4th Panzer Army, having detected signs of a close offensive, trying to avoid high losses of manpower and equipment during the Soviet artillery barrage, decided to withdraw its forces to the second line of defense. However, the Germans did not have time to carry out the withdrawal of the main forces. On the morning of July 13, 1944, the advance detachments of the 3rd Guards and 13th armies went on the offensive. The first echelons of divisions entered the battle behind them. In the second half of the day, the resistance of the Nazis increased significantly. Especially fierce battles were fought in the Gorokhov area, where the Germans created a strong defense center. German troops repeatedly counterattacked. Only by a roundabout maneuver from the south and north, our troops took Gorokhov and continued to move west. By the end of the day, the Soviet armies had advanced 8-15 kilometers.
On July 14, 1944, the main forces of the armies of Gordov and Pukhov entered the battle, which were supposed to break through the second line of defense of the enemy. The Germans counterattacked with the forces of the 16th and 17th tank divisions, they were supported by bomber aviation, which operated in groups of 20-30 aircraft. As a result, our troops were unable to break through the German defenses on the move. On the morning of July 15, after artillery and air training, the Soviet armies continued their offensive. In the course of a fierce battle, by the end of the day, Soviet troops broke through the enemy's tactical defense zone and advanced 15-20 km. Our aviation played an important role in breaking through the German defense. The Nazis used up their tactical reserves, mobile units suffered serious losses.
The front command decides to introduce mobile formations into the breakthrough. On the morning of July 16, in the 13th Army's sector, Baranov's KMG was brought into battle, she was supposed to attack the enemy rear and cut off the escape routes of the Brodsk enemy grouping to the west. However, due to the errors of the command, it was not possible to enter the KMG into the breakthrough in the morning, it overtook the infantry only in the evening. On July 17-18, Baranov's group defeated the 20th motorized division, crossed the Western Bug, occupied Kamenka-Strumilovskaya and Derevlyany, cutting off the escape routes to the west of the Brodsk group of the Wehrmacht.
Also on July 17, the 1st Guards Tank Army of Katukov was introduced into the breakthrough. She advanced in the direction of Sokal - Rava-Russkaya, to cross the Western Bug, to seize a bridgehead on the Sokal - Krustynopol section. On the same day, the 44th Guards Tank Brigade crossed the Western Bug and captured the bridgehead. On July 18, the main forces of Katukov crossed the river. Also, the tank guards crossed the border of the USSR and began to liberate the territory of Poland. Meanwhile, the right flank of the 3rd Guards Army was fighting for Vladimir-Volynsky, and the left flank reached the Western Bug in the Sokal area. Pukhov's 13th Army crossed the Western Bug.
Lviv direction. Breaking through the defense in the Lvov direction, where the Nazis had the most powerful defense, turned out to be a more difficult task. The attacks of the forward battalions on 13 July were unsuccessful. On the morning of July 14, the aviation could not operate due to weather conditions, so artillery and aviation training began only in the afternoon. Then the armies of Kurochkin and Moskalenko went on the attack. By the end of the day, despite the active support of the assault and bomber aviation, they were able to penetrate the enemy's defenses only by 3 - 8 km. On July 15, in the zone of the 60th Army, the 69th Mechanized Brigade from the 3rd Guards Tank Army was brought into battle. With the support of tanks, units of the 60th Army advanced 8 - 16 km.
On July 15, the German command organized strong counterattacks by two tank and one infantry divisions from the Plugov-Zborov area on the flank of the Soviet strike group. The Germans were able not only to stop the offensive of Moskalenko's 38th Army, but to push our troops back. Due to the mistakes of our command, the German flank counterattack was unexpected for the Soviet troops. The troops of the 38th Army were unable to meet the enemy in an organized manner. To rectify the situation in the Moskalenko army zone, the front command had to bring into battle the forces of the 4th Panzer Army and additional artillery and anti-tank units here. Aviation also played an important role in repelling the enemy counterstrike. In just 5 hours, attack aircraft and bombers of the 2nd Air Army made 2,000 sorties. Soviet air strikes significantly weakened the German armored formations.
Thus, the fierce resistance of the Germans, their strong flank counterattack, did not allow the Red Army to break through the enemy's defenses in the Lvov direction by the end of July 15. The front command, fearing that a further delay would allow the Germans to raise their reserves, decides to engage additional air forces in the 60th Army sector of the 3rd Guards Tank Army of Rybalko. Also on the left flank of the 38th Army was concentrated the shock group of the 1st Guards Army - the 107th Rifle and 4th Guards Tank Corps, in order to strike at Berezhany and thereby alleviate the position of Moskalenko's army.
On the night of July 16, the forward forces of Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army, together with Tertyshny's 15th Rifle Corps, completed a breakthrough of the enemy's tactical defense and reached the area north of Zolochev. In the morning, the main forces of the tank army began to enter the breakthrough. Breakthrough corridor - the so-called. "Koltovsky corridor" was so narrow (length 16 - 18 km, width - 4 - 6 km) that it was fired upon by enemy artillery from the flanks. The 6th Guards Tank Corps, which was in the second echelon of the army, had to turn around to repel enemy flank counterattacks from the Koltov and Plugov areas. By the end of July 17, Soviet tank crews reached the Pelteva River and began to cross to the other side near the town of Krasnoe. On the same day, the 6th Guards Tank Corps, with the support of riflemen, took Zolochev. The offensive of Rybalko's army was actively supported by aviation - an assault air corps and two bomber corps.
With the introduction of a tank army into battle, the position of the 60th army was eased. However, the Germans were still holding on to the flanks of the breakthrough. Positions in the Koltov area allowed the Nazis to threaten the flank and rear of the 3rd Guards Tank Army. On July 18, repulsing the enemy's counterattacks, the tankers forced the Peltev and continued bypassing the enemy's Brodsky grouping from the south-west. By the end of the day, the tankers went to the Krasnoye area, and part of the forces to the Derevlyana area, where they joined up with the KMG Baranov. Thus, the enemy's Brodsky grouping found itself in a ring of encirclement.
Following Rybalko's army along the same route on the morning of July 17, Lelyushenko's 4th tank army began to enter the breakthrough. Lelyushenko's army was supposed to develop an offensive on the left flank of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, and without getting involved in a frontal battle for Lvov, bypass it from the south and southwest. On July 17-18, due to the enemy's strong flank counterattacks, it was not possible to enter the entire tank army into the breakthrough. Part of Lelyushenko's army, together with units of the 60th Army, repulsed enemy attacks south of Zolochev. By the end of July 18, the 10th Guards Tank Corps entered the Olshanitsy area, creating a deep coverage of the enemy grouping from the south.
Thus, on July 13 - 18, the shock groups of the 1st UV broke through the strong defense of the German army at a front of 200 km, advanced 50 - 80 km in depth and surrounded 8 enemy divisions in the Brod area. The introduction of three tank armies and KMG into the gap created conditions not only for the destruction of the Brodsk "cauldron", but also for the development of an offensive operation with the aim of dismembering and defeating the entire army group "Northern Ukraine". It is worth noting that the mistakes of the Soviet command and the fierce, skillful resistance of the German troops, relying on well-equipped defenses and inflicting strong counterattacks on the Red Army, slowed down the movement of our troops. It was only thanks to the introduction of tank armies into the battle and air superiority, where Soviet aviation actively supported the ground forces, that a turning point in the battle took place.
