The Baltic offensive, also known as the Baltic strategic offensive, was the campaign between the northern Fronts of the Red Army and the German Army Group North in the Baltic States during the autumn of 1944. The result of the series of battles was the isolation and encirclement of the Army Group North in the Courland Pocket and Soviet re-occupation of the Baltic States.
Background
By early 1944, the Wehrmacht was pushed back along its entire frontline in the east. In February 1944, it retreated from the approaches to Leningrad to the prepared section of the Panther Line at the border of Estonia. In June and July, Army Group Centre was thrown back from the Byelorussian SSR into Poland by Operation Bagration. This created the opportunity for the Red Army to attack towards the Baltic Sea, thereby severing the land connection between the German Army Groups in the east.
By 5 July, the Šiauliai offensive commenced, as a follow-up from Operation Bagration. The Soviet 43rd, 51st, and 2nd Guards Armies attacked towards Riga on the Baltic coast with 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps in the van. By 31 July, the coast on the Gulf of Riga had been reached; 6th Guards Army covered Riga and the extended flank of the penetration towards the north.
The German reaction was rapid, and initially successful. A counterattack, code-named Operation Doppelkopf, was conducted on 16 August by XXXX and XXXIX Panzer Corps under the command of Third Panzer Army, Army Group Centre. Acting in coordination with armored formations from Army Group North, they initially cut off the Soviet troops on the coast, and re-established a tenuous 30-kilometer-wide corridor connecting Army Groups Centre and North. The main objective of the attack was to retake the key road junction of Šiauliai (), but the German tanks ran head-on into an in-depth defense by the 1st Baltic Front, and by 20 August the German advance had stalled with heavy losses. A follow-up attack, code-named Operation Cäsar, and launched on 16 September, failed in the same manner. After a brief period of respite, STAVKA issued orders for the Baltic strategic offensive, which lasted from 14 September to 24 November.
Battles
In common with other Soviet strategic offensives, the Baltic offensive covers a number of operational level operations and individual Front offensive operations:
The Riga offensive () (14 September–24 October 1944) was carried out by the 3rd and 2nd Baltic Fronts and cleared the eastern coast of the Gulf of Riga. The Tallinn offensive () (17–26 September 1944) was carried out by the Leningrad Front to drive German forces from mainland Estonia. The Moonsund Landing Operation () (27 September–24 November 1944) was the amphibious landing on the Estonian islands of Hiiumaa, Saaremaa and Muhu, which block access to the Gulf of Riga. According to Soviet data Germany lost 7,000 dead soldiers and 700 captured. The Memel offensive () (5–22 October 1944) was an attack by the 1st Baltic Front aimed at severing the connection between the German Army Groups Centre and North.
From the German defensive perspective, the period included the following operations: Operation Cäsar, aimed at the restoration of contact between Army Groups Centre and North 16–21 September 1944; Operation Aster aimed at the evacuation of Army Group North from mainland Estonia 17–26 September 1944; The siege of Memel 5–27 October 1944; Formation of the Courland Pocket 15–22 October 1944.
Aftermath
Soviet victory
The Baltic offensive operation resulted in the expulsion of German forces from Estonia and Lithuania. The Soviet fronts involved in the battle lost a total of ca. 280,000 men to all causes (killed, missing, wounded, sick).
Communication lines between Army Group North and Army Group Centre were permanently severed, and the former was relegated to an occupied Baltic seashore area in Latvia. On 25 January, Adolf Hitler renamed Army Group North to Army Group Courland implicitly recognising that there was no possibility of restoring a new land corridor between Courland and East Prussia. The Red Army commenced the encirclement and reduction of the Courland cauldron which retained a possibility of being a major threat, but were able to focus on operations on its northern flank that were now aiming at East Prussia. Operations by the Red Army against the Courland Pocket continued until the surrender of the Army Group Courland on 9 May 1945, when close to 200,000 Germans were taken prisoner there.