Trench WarfareTrench warfare is a type of fighting where both sides build deep trenches as a defense against the enemy. These trenches can stretch for many miles and make it nearly impossible for one side to advance.During World War I, the western front in France was fought using trench warfare. By the end of 1914, both sides had built a series of trenches that went from the North Sea and through Belgium and France.

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As a result, neither side gained much ground for three and a half years from October 1914 to March of 1918. Soldiers fighting from a trench by PiotrusHow were the trenches built?The trenches were dug by soldiers. Sometimes the soldiers just dug the trenches straight into the ground.

This method was called entrenching. It was fast, but left the soldiers open to enemy fire while they were digging.

Sometimes they would build the trenches by extending a trench on one end. This method was called sapping.

It was safer, but took longer. The most secret way to build a trench was to make a tunnel and then remove the roof when the tunnel was complete. Tunneling was the safest method, but also the most difficult.No Man's LandThe land between the two enemy trench lines was called 'No Man's Land.' This land was sometimes covered with barbed wire and land mines.

The enemy trenches were generally around 50 to 250 yards apart. The trenches weren't dug in one long straight line, but were built as more of a system of trenches. They were dug in a zigzag pattern and there were many levels of trenches along the lines with paths dug so soldiers could travel between the levels.Life in the TrenchesSoldiers generally rotated through three stages of the front.

They would spend some time in the front line trenches, some time in the support trenches, and some time resting. They almost always had some sort of job to do whether it was repairing the trenches, guard duty, moving supplies, undergoing inspections, or cleaning their weapons.

German trenches like this were generallybetter built than those of the AlliesPhoto by Oscar TellgmannConditions in the TrenchesThe trenches were not nice, clean places. They were actually quite disgusting. There were all sorts of pests living in the trenches including rats, lice, and frogs. The rats were everywhere and got into the soldiers' food and ate just about everything, including sleeping soldiers.

The lice were also a major problem. They made the soldiers' itch horribly and caused a disease called Trench Fever.The weather also contributed to rough conditions in the trenches. Rain caused the trenches to flood and get muddy.

Mud could clog up weapons and make it hard to move in battle. Also, the constant moisture could cause an infection called Trench Foot that, if untreated, could become so bad that a soldier's feet would have to be amputated.

Cold weather was dangerous, too. Soldiers often lost fingers or toes to frostbite and some died from exposure in the cold.Interesting Facts about Trench Warfare. It is estimated that if all the trenches built along the western front were laid end-to-end they would total over 25,000 miles long. The trenches needed constant repair or they would from the weather and from enemy bombs. The British said it took 450 men 6 hours to build about 250 meters of a trench system.

Most of the raids took place at night when soldiers could sneak across the 'No Mans Land' in the dark. Each morning the soldiers would all 'stand to.' This meant that they would stand up and prepare for an attack as most attacks took place first thing in the morning. The typical soldier in the trenches was armed with a rifle, bayonet, and a hand grenade.

. /Germany's had previously proved tough to counter as the Soviet defeat in had shown. But by June 1944, despite shortening its front line, it had been exposed following the defeats of in the battles that followed the, the, the and the in the late summer, autumn, and winter of 1943–44. In the north, was also pushed back, leaving Army Group Center's lines protruding towards the east and at risk of losing contact with neighbouring army groups.The German High Command expected the next Soviet offensive to fall against (Field Marshal ), while it lacked intelligence capabilities to divine the Soviet intentions. The Wehrmacht had redeployed one-third of Army Group Centre's artillery, half of its, and 88 per cent of tanks to the south. The entire operational reserve on the Eastern front (18 Panzer and mechanised divisions, stripped from Army Groups North and Centre) was deployed to Model's sector. Army Group Centre only had a total of 580 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns.

They were opposed by over 4,000 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns. German lines were thinly held; for example, the 9th Army sector had 143 soldiers per km of the front.Operation Bagration, in combination with the neighbouring, launched a few weeks later in, allowed the Soviet Union to recapture Belorussia and Ukraine within its 1941 borders, advance into German, but more importantly, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation allowed the Red Army to reach the outskirts of after gaining control of Poland east of the Vistula river.

The campaign enabled the next operation, the, to come within sight of the German capital. The Soviets were initially surprised at the success of the Belorussian operation which had nearly reached Warsaw. The Soviet advance encouraged the against the German occupation forces.The battle has been described as the triumph of the Soviet theory of the ' because of the complete coordination of all the strategic front movements and signals traffic to fool the enemy about the target of the offensive. The military tactical operations of the Red Army successfully avoided the mobile reserves of the Wehrmacht and continually 'wrong-footed' the German forces. Despite the massive forces involved, Soviet commanders left their adversaries completely confused about the main axis of attack until it was too late.

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Soviet Plan Strategic aims and deception. Further information:The Russian word is roughly equivalent to the English word, but it has broader application in military use. During World War II the term was used by Soviet commanders to describe measures to create with the goal of inflicting surprise on the Wehrmacht forces.The expected the Soviets to launch a major offensive in the summer of 1944.

The (Soviet High Command) considered a number of options. The timetable of operations between June and August had been decided on by 28 April 1944. The Stavka rejected an offensive in either the L'vov sector or the Yassy-Kishinev sectors owing to the presence of powerful enemy mobile forces equal in strength to the Soviet strategic fronts. Instead they suggested four options: an offensive into Romania and through the, an offensive into the western aimed at the, an attack into the Baltic, and an offensive in the. The first two options were rejected as being too ambitious and open to flank attack.

The third option was rejected on the grounds the enemy was too well prepared. The only safe option was an offensive into Belorussia which would enable subsequent offensives from Ukraine into Poland and Romania.

This section needs additional citations for. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: – ( June 2018) Operation Bagration was launched on a staggered schedule, with partisan attacks in the rear beginning on 19–20 June. On the night of 21–22 June, the Red Army launched probing attacks on German frontline positions, combined with bombing raids on Wehrmacht's lines of communication. The main offensive began in the early morning of 23 June, with an artillery bombardment of unprecedented scale against the defensive works. The initial assault achieved breakthroughs almost everywhere.The first phase of Soviet deep operations, the 'deep battle', envisaged breaking through the tactical zones and forward German defences. Once these tactical offensives had been successful, fresh operational reserves exploited the breakthrough and the operational depths of the enemy front using powerful mechanized and armoured formations to encircle enemy concentrations on an Army Group Scale.Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive. Main article:Army Group Centre's northern flank was defended by the under the command of; the lines ran through marshy terrain in the north, through a round the city of, to a sector north of the main – road, held by the.

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It was opposed by the of, and 's, which were given the task of breaking through the defences to the north and south of and cutting off the salient.In the north, the 1st Baltic Front pushed the German over the Dvina, while encircling the LIII Corps in the city of by 24 June, opening a gash in the frontline of 25 miles wide. The Soviet command inserted its mobile forces to begin exploitation in the operational depth. To the south, the 3rd Belorussian Front attacked the, pushing it so far to the south that it came under the command of the 4th Army.The LIII Corps had received permission to retreat on 24 June with three divisions, while leaving one division behind in the fester Platz Vitebsk.

However, by the time the order arrived, the city was already encircled. General, the commander of the Vitebsk 'strongpoint', decided to disobey the order and have all units of his corps break out at the same time. Abandoning its heavy equipment, the corps began a breakout attempt in the morning of 26 June but quickly ran into Soviet roadblocks outside the city. Vitebsk was taken by 29 June, the entire LIII Corps of 28,000 men eliminated from the German order of battle.The 3rd Belorussian Front simultaneously opened operations against the 4th Army's holding and the main - highway. Despite a tenacious German defense, Orsha was liberated by 26 June, and the 3rd Belorussian Front's mechanized forces were able to penetrate far into the German rear, reaching the River by 28 June. Map of the, 23–28 JuneThe centre of the was holding the tip of the Byelorussian bulge, with the bulk of its forces on a shallow bridgehead east of the.

The Mogilev Offensive opened with an intense artillery barrage against the German defensive lines on the morning of 23 June. The goal of the (Colonel-General ) was to pin the 4th Army near while the developing and encircled it.East of Mogilev, General 's attempted to hold its lines in the face of an assault by the during which the latter suffered heavy casualties. The 4th Army commander, Tippelskirch, requested that the army allowed to withdraw on 25 June.

When the permission was not forthcoming, he authorised his units to withdraw to the Dnieper; this was countermanded by the Army Group commander, Busch, who instructed Tippelskirch to order the units to return to their positions. This was however impossible as a cohesive frontline no longer existed.

With the front collapsing, Busch met with Hitler on 26 June and received the authorisation to pull the army back to the, 60 miles West of Mogilev. The 49th army forced the Dnieper crossings on the evening of 27 June and fought its way into the city during the night, while mobile units enveloped the garrison from the northwest. Troops of the 49th Army during the capture of Mogilev on 28 June 1944During the day both the German XII Corps and XXXIX Panzer Corps began falling back towards the Berezina crossings. Travel was nearly impossible by day, due to the omnipresence of the Soviet air force, while Soviet tanks columns and roadblocks provided constant obstacles. The main body of 4th Army arrived at the crossing on 30 June. It largely completing the crossing by 2 July, under heavy Soviet bombardment, but they were retreating into a trap. The Mogilev Offensive fulfilled all its immediate objectives; not only was the city itself taken, but the 4th Army was successfully prevented from disengaging in time to escape encirclement in the, which commenced immediately afterwards.

Bobruysk Offensive. Two destroyed tanks belonging to the, June 1944The Bobruysk Offensive, against the German on the southern flank of Army Group Centre, was opened by the 1st Belorussian Front of Konstantin Rokossovsky on 23 June but suffered heavy losses attempting to penetrate the German defenses. Rokossovsky ordered additional bombing and artillery preparation and launched further attacks the next day.The broke through in the north of the sector, trapping the German against the. The then broke through the to the south; by 27 June, the two German corps were encircled in a pocket east of under constant aerial bombardment.Some elements of the 9th Army managed to break out of Bobruysk on 28 June, but up to 70,000 soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. The 1st Belorussian Front's forces liberated Bobruysk on 29 June after intense street fighting.Second phase: Strategic offensive against Army Group Centre The second phase of the operation involved the entire operation's most significant single objective: the retaking of, capital of the.

It would also complete the large-scale encirclement and destruction, set up by the first phase, of much of Army Group Centre.Minsk Offensive. Civilians carry belongings out of burning houses, early July 1944From 28 June, the main exploitation units of the 3rd Belorussian Front (the and an attached cavalry-mechanised group) began to push on to secure crossings of the, followed by the. In the south, exploitation forces of the began to close the lower pincer of the trap developing around the German 4th Army.The Germans brought back the into Belorussia to cover the approaches to Minsk, while the units of Fourth Army began to withdraw over the Berezina crossings, where they were pounded by heavy air bombardment. After forcing crossings of the Berezina, Soviet forces closed in on Minsk. The was the first to break into the city in the early hours of 3 July; fighting erupted in the centre, which was finally cleared of German rearguards by the following day. The 5th Guards Tank Army and 65th Army closed the encirclement to the west of Minsk, trapping the entire German Fourth Army, and much of the remnants of the 9th Army.Over the next few days, the pocket east of Minsk was reduced: only a fraction of the 100,000 soldiers in it escaped. Minsk had been liberated, and Army Group Centre utterly destroyed, in possibly the greatest single defeat suffered by the Wehrmacht in the whole war.

Between 22 June and 4 July 1944, Army Group Centre lost 25 divisions and 300,000 men. In the few subsequent weeks, the Germans lost another 100,000 men. Polotsk Offensive. Soviet soldiers in Polotsk, 4 July 1944The Polotsk Offensive had the dual objective of taking itself, and of screening the northern flank of the main Minsk Offensive against a possible German counter-offensive from.The 1st Baltic Front successfully pursued the retreating remnants of the 3rd Panzer Army back towards Polotsk, which was reached by 1 July. German forces attempted to organise a defense using rear-area support units and several divisions hurriedly transferred from Army Group North.Units of the 1st Baltic Front's 4th Shock Army and 6th Guards Army fought their way into the city over the next few days, and successfully cleared it of German forces by 4 July.Third phase: strategic offensive operations in the north As German resistance had almost completely collapsed, Soviet forces were ordered to push on as far as possible beyond the original objective of Minsk, and new objectives were issued by the Stavka. This resulted in a third phase of offensive operations, which should be regarded as a further part of Operation Bagration.Field Marshal, who had taken over command of Army Group Centre on 28 June when was dismissed, hoped to reestablish a defensive line running through using what was left of the 3rd Panzer, 4th and 9th Armies along with new reinforcements. Šiauliai Offensive.

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Main article:The Lublin-Brest Offensive was carried out by Marshal Rokossovsky's 1st Belorussian Front between 18 July and 2 August, and developed the initial gains of Operation Bagration toward eastern Poland and the. The 47th and 8th Guards Armies reached the by 21 July, and the latter reached the eastern bank of the Vistula by 25 July. Was taken on 24 July; the was ordered to turn north, towards, to cut off the retreat of forces from Army Group Centre in the area.

Brest was taken on 28 July and the Front's left wing seized bridgeheads over the Vistula by 2 August. This effectively completed the operation, the remainder of the summer being given over to defensive efforts against a series of German counter-attacks on the bridgeheads.The Operation ended with the defeat of German and Soviet bridgeheads over the Vistula river west of Sandomierz. Kaunas Offensive.

Abandoned vehicles of the at a road near BobruiskThis was by far the greatest Soviet victory in numerical terms. The liberated a vast amount of Soviet and Polish territory whose population had suffered greatly under the.

The advancing Soviets found cities destroyed, villages depopulated, and much of the population killed or deported by the occupiers. In order to show the outside world the magnitude of the victory, some 57,000 German, taken from the encirclement east of Minsk, were paraded through Moscow: even marching quickly and twenty abreast, they took 90 minutes to pass.The German army never recovered from the and manpower losses sustained during this time, having lost about a quarter of its Eastern Front manpower, exceeding even the percentage of (about 17 full divisions).

These losses included many experienced soldiers, and commissioned officers, which at this stage of the war the could not replace. An indication of the completeness of the Soviet victory is that 31 of the 47 German divisional or corps commanders involved were killed or captured. Of the German generals lost, nine were killed, including two corps commanders; 22 captured, including four corps commanders;, commander of 197th Infantry Division disappeared on 24 June, while Lieutenant-Generals Zutavern and Philipp of the and committed suicide. German in Moscow, 15 July 1944.Overall, the near-total destruction of Army Group Centre was very costly for the Germans.

Exact German losses are unknown, but newer research indicates around 400,000 overall casualties. Soviet losses were also substantial, with 180,040 killed and missing, 590,848 wounded and sick, together with 2,957 tanks, 2,447 artillery pieces, and 822 aircraft also lost.The offensive cut off and from each other, and weakened them as resources were diverted to the central sector. This forced both Army Groups to withdraw from Soviet territory much more quickly when faced with the following Soviet offensives in their sectors.The end of Operation Bagration coincided with the destruction of many of the strongest units of the engaged against the on the in the in, during. After these stunning victories, on both eastern and western fronts, supply problems rather than German resistance slowed the subsequent rapid Allied advance, and it eventually ground to a temporary halt. However, the Germans were able to transfer armoured units from the, where they could afford to give ground, to resist the Soviet advance near.This was one of the largest Soviet operations of WWII with 2.3 million troops engaged, three Axis armies eliminated, and vast amounts of Soviet territory recaptured. References Notes.