February 10th, 1944
Battleship comes out of retirement
Gotenhafen - Under good naval and air escort to counter possible interference from a Red Wolf, the
Tirpitz briefly exits the bay to conduct a training of fire of the 10.5 cm artillery, conducted for the starboard guns by the two telepointer, including the one taken from the
Hipper. The duration of the work was extended by one week, but this delay was considered insignificant compared to the military gain it brought.
After the battleship had returned to its berth, Kapitän z.See Karl Meyer could send the following telex to Admiral Dönitz: "
Ship ready for all missions". The
Tirpitz is fully operational, with the exception of a secondary artillery turret and the Caesar turret, whose refurbishment has been postponed indefinitely.
Šiauliai and Bagration
Calamitous conclusion
1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts - While the right wing of the 1st Baltic Front seem to be stabilized, Markian Popov continues to activate his left wing in order to assist his neighbor Meretskov, as far as he can.
The 15th Armored Corps thus attacks Šventupė from the north, threatening the 16. Armee's crossing of the Sventoji River, which is guarded by the 123. ID alone. Already very weakened, the latter experiences difficult times, especially since it is already under attack from the 63rd Army and the Oslikovsky Group from the south. However, Louis Tronnier - who had dug in during the night - can count on the first elements of the 16. Armee, coming from the east, on his partner of the XL. PzK, the 253. ID, and on the support of the last machines of the 226. StuG. All together to hold, and then throw the Reds back south from Ukmergė! Or at least to try, because in fact they just manage to hold.
Now with their backs to the river, Tronnier's Landsers cling painfully to the river - they have no other choice. On the other side, Fyodor Rudkin struggles to coordinate with Kuznetsov and Oslikovsky, who have other worries... And finally, because of the lack of infantry - the 7th Army faces on its side, in Anykščiai, the XXVIII. ArmeeKorps of Herbert Loch (who has decidedly too many opponents, with the 42nd Army in the vicinity of Rubikiai!) - the T-34 are content to crush the Fascist without being able to pass.
In fact, while elements of three Soviet Fronts, no less, converge on this sector, the situation becomes... confused, even. And even more than yesterday, for the 2nd Baltic Front of Comrade Kirill Meretskov - which had already let the enemy slip away at Utena yesterday. The lack of aerial reconnaissance due to the rain does not help him; he calms his frustration by being as hard on his subordinates as Stalin knew how to be on himself.
As a result, Berzarin's 7th Guards Army throws itself towards Šiaudiniai and Rubikiai with Lopatin's 34th Army on the left, along the main road to Kaunas. It then clashes with the II. ArmeeKorps (Paul Laux), but also and above all to monstrous traffic jams: the columns of infantry end up going up to the assault without tanks (stuck in the back) and
stuck in the rear) and without artillery (even further back). The Wehrmacht, although exhausted, succeed in holding the line against these blind assaults that resurrected those of the Winter War. Like in a nightmare, the worst experiences of Merestkov are repeated - and in both cases, under duress! The human waves launched by his subordinates break up or disperse in secondary battles.
In the center of the confusion, the two infantry divisions of the X. ArmeeKorps (Thomas-Emil von Wickede) manage to reach Dapkūniškiai, along with the SS
Kurland and the Nashorn of the 655. schw. PzJ. Abt. The Reds are still far away. Their mechanical forces (13th Armored Corps, 10th Mechanized Corps, 14th Armored Corps) struggle to get around Utena - they collide with the 34th Army, multiplying traffic jams! - while their infantry barely crosses the small town. The 55th Army even just reached it! The Axis still has some time - not much though, although the 2nd Army continues to cover the gap between Skiemonys and Avilčiai. And what awaits the 16. Armee to cross the Sventoji is not necessarily more encouraging...
In his mobile HQ, Christian Hansen takes a crucial decision on his own initiative. Gathering the motorized elements of the two SS formations and the 655. schw. PzJ. Abt, as well as the last Tiger of the 505. schw. Pz. Abt, he sends them to strike the flank of the 63rd Army, at Liaušiai, taking by surprise the very stretched Soviets who did not imagine their opponent capable of such an initiative!
Obstinacy punished
1st Belorussian Front - This offensive, which will hit the flank of Vasiliy Kuznetsov, very stretched from Vilnius (45 kilometers!) and barely covered by the 1st Cavalry Corps of the Guard, is a catastrophe for the 1st Belorussian Front. Georgui Zhukov has been struggling in vain for three days, and more or less alone, on a dying opponent. While he was thinking of closing the tombstone of the 16. Armee, the Marshal - who undoubtedly overestimated the strength of the German counter-attack - suddenly sees the possibility of a destruction of his armies, or even the loss of Vilnius, which would open the way to an encirclement of the 3rd Tank Army! He feels that such a big mistake on his part could cost him dearly.
Zhukov reacts very violently. First, with a heavy heart, he orders the 63rd Army of Kuznetsov to release its prey - the XL. PanzerKorps - to go and confront the enemy, with the help of the 6th Mechanized Corps (V.V. Koshelev), of the Oslikovsky Group, which will have to cross the river again. Then, he sends all the air forces at his disposal to attack the enemy already in Šešuoliai and which would threaten the Ukmergė-Vilnius road - despite the weather and the observations of Comrade Naumenko, whose 2nd Air Army will have some accidental losses today... Finally, he orders Kurassov's 20th Army to rush immediately from Salakas to Alanta to ensure the left flank of the 2nd Baltic Front.
It is far (60 kilometers)? Do the tanks need fuel? The men are sleeping on their feet?
Afterwards! In fact, it is not a question of the Marshal striking effectively but of disrupting the enemy's action.
Meanwhile, Rybalko is still looking for the crossing points for his 3rd Tank Army.
He approaches the outskirts of Kaunas through Prienai, facing some fascist tanks - the 22. Panzer (or rather what is left of it), which could not hold out. However, we will have to ask it to put the pedal to the metal - especially in the north, in Jonava - to regroup before striking again. What a waste of time!
Thus, the XL. PanzerKorps narrowly escapes complete destruction and the 16. Armee of Christian Hansen a fatal encirclement. In Šventupė, before nightfall, the X. ArmeeKorps begins to cross, reinforcing a far more than decimated 123.ID.
The raging strikes of the 14th Air Force, ordered under the favour of a clearing in the late afternoon did not change anything. The enemy escaped. And both Bagration and Šiauliai are visibly over.
Deception
Šiauliai, the balance sheet - "As the 16. Armee began to pass the Sventoji by the light of the fires, Zhukov already knew that Šiauliai could not give anything positive here - his attempt to relaunch the operation by adding the 1st Belorussian Corps, once Bagration had simply failed. His first setback for a long time, certainly not too calamitous but nevertheless very annoying.
Was he the only one responsible? Engaged in the haste with troops having only a superiority, on poor terrain and in equally bad weather, Šiauliai could only lead to mediocre results, reflecting the lack of confidence of its leaders. In truth, the offensive had been launched mainly to satisfy Stalin, who was convinced that he could complete the triumph of Bagration to destroy an enemy that he imagined to be in disarray, while at the same time getting his hands on the whole of the Baltic countries.
Certainly, Zhukov had undoubtedly been wrong to believe too much in his good star by trying to obtain at all costs and under his sole authority a new decisive success - to the point of neglecting the basic principles of coordination and command. It was however his role as a representative of the Stavka! Alas for him, this time he was only an unofficial representative... But this negligence was a very common sin in the Red Army, for which only the soldier of the rank had to pay the price. That is why the marshal, convinced of the superiority of his expertise was superior to the fears of his partners, had made decisions that were unfortunately wrong.
In short, between hubris and fear of his leader, Zhukov was now behaving like a commander of the Front - a good one, no doubt, but nothing more. Precisely the role that the Little Father of the Peoples expected of him. He would not fail to remind him of this in the weeks to come, while the "war of the marshals" was in full swing and after a final blunder that could have been very costly.
All political and personal considerations aside, can we say that Šiauliai was ill-conceived, or too ambitious? Perhaps... or perhaps its few good results on the ground (280 kilometers of progress in 12 days, all the same!) were simply overshadowed by the immense successes of the operations that had preceded it and, even more, those that were to follow.
In fact, the fate of its executors - by no means sacred - undoubtedly sheds light on the reality of the faults of each one. Georgi Zhukov would have the fate that we know. Markian Popov would remain in place until the end of the war. As for Kirill Meretskov, without question the general whose performance was in question, history would not hold it against him - and neither would Stalin for that matter. In reality, Šiauliai was ineffective because it was launched in an improvised manner on the basis of an already obsolete plan, before being summed up in fine in a series of often brilliant actions, but always without a future, including the beautiful and undeniable performance of the 1st Belorussian Front. It cost the Soviet Union 175 000 men (dead, wounded and prisoners) and 500 tanks - an unpleasant loss, but not irrecoverable.
On the other side, the HG Nord - and notably the 16. Armee of Christian Hansen - had felt the the wind of the ball. Without the help of the terrain, the weather, and the undeniable ability of tactical improvisation of the Ostheer, the Wehrmacht would have had to face a new disaster. It lost in the affair what remained of the Baltic States - which was not important, after the fall of Minsk - but above all 100,000 men and 140 tanks. It could have been much more, no doubt, but it was already too much."
(Robert Stan Pratsky and Waitman Wade Beorn,
Descending into Darkness: the Fighting for Belarus and Ukraine - Harvard University Press, 2014 - From the chapter
Šiauliai and the Baltics - Bagration's unloved sister).
Tankist (Evgeny Bessonov)
Confusion
"Unfortunately, the break lasted only a short time - we were already being loaded with infantrymen, and ammunition (half of our capacity, at best): we had to go back to the west. My roughly intact platoon went ahead. All this in an atmosphere of confused eagerness, which I must confess I did not like. Fyodor joined the road, we passed in second position. In the third row behind us, curious chance, the girl group, with in particular the N° 300 of Polina, so precious to our pointer. Look to the front, comrades, in spite of the tiredness!"
Desperate Baltics
Greater Reich - Noting the regrettable "disappearance" of the Latvian government-in-exile, the Reich, anxious to secure the loyalty of the last remaining Baltic collaborators, arrests Kazys Škirpa, head of a Lithuanian government that had never been allowed to reside in his country (except for a very brief visit to Kaunas last October). It is true that the latter had shortly before committed the clumsiness of sending a memorandum calling for the replacement of the Occupation authorities by his own services, at the very moment the local militias were showing a shaky loyalty to the Wehrmacht*.
Lvov-Kovel Offensive
The spear of Wotan
Rovne region (northern Ukraine) - Unlike the Baltic States, and unfortunately for the Axis, a changeable but relatively favorable weather for air operations is maintained over western Ukraine. And the strikes of the VVS continue to accompany those of the Red Army in general.
The left wing of the 6. Armee is still trying to hold along the Malyns'k marshes, at least until the withdrawal of the 3. PanzerArmee from the Olevsk salient. Withdrawal in progress and which is carried out without too much difficulty. This is a movement planned for a long time, even hoped for by both sides. It did not escape the Soviets, who were content to escort the Fascists along their new Klessiv-Yasnohirka line - only the XXIV. PanzerKorps (Martin Wandel), which did not have any armor, moves up from the left flank towards Pripyat and Vierasnica, to cover the swamps. Rodion Malinovsky curiously sticks to probing and other inexpensive annoyances...
Is it because the wooded and snowy ground, ravaged by the fights of Kutusov, does not lend itself to cavalcades? Not only. In fact, Malinovsky and his 3rd Belarusian Front are instructed to be moderate in order to spare, not the opponent, but their own troops in anticipation of Vistula-Warsaw. It is useless to prey on the world for a useless salient being evacuated.
Certainly - but before this retreat that suits everyone ends tomorrow (or rather after tomorrow: there is the Sluch to cross!) Maximilian De Angelis still has to be able to cover it. And that, Ivan Konev does not intend to let it happen without reacting! The marshal would not be against a partial encirclement of the 3. PanzerArmee... He hopes at least to inflict some losses to this future adversary, and wishes in any case to seize the confluence between Sluch and Horyn to protect his flank before continuing towards Kovel.
Crossing a Berezne ravaged by artillery, the 65th Army of Ivan Boldin faces at the level of Orlivka, the barrage formed by the XVII. ArmeeKorps (Wilhelm Schneckenburger), which has to hold "only" 5 kilometers of practicable ground. Faced with this reinforced obstacle but without depth, Boldin reacts with his proverbial subtlety: a massive artillery barrage followed by an assault of determined infantry**. Good old-fashioned method, costly for both sides. In the evening, Schneckenburger has to withdraw five kilometers to Bohushi. That's not much, but his troops had suffered severe losses in the face of enemy waves - so he was already preparing a line of retreat to Tynne.
On his right, things do not completely settle down. The arrival of the 78. Sturm-Division (Hans Traut) saves the situation after the rout of the 4. LFD... but Germans and Russians are now racing towards a bottleneck: the only road crossing the marshes towards the Sarny. The woods of Malyns'k, which open on the plain, are the scene of the most ferocious fights between the frontovikis of the 7th Mechanized Corps and the Landsers of the 79.ID (Richard von Schwerin). The Russians attack everywhere, well covered by the air force, and seeks to incinerate its opponent on the spot. For the moment, the line holds - Ivan Tutarinov, as a good Cossack from Astrakhan, is wary of hostile terrain and tries to pass in force along the road, which allows the defenders to concentrate their forces.
But this performance costs them dearly, because of the lack of anti-tank weapons in sufficient numbers.
On the other hand, on the side of the 37th Army, the situation seems to be unblocked. Finally emerging from Lisopil', Ivan Vasilev's 19th Armored Corps reaches Pidluzhne and follows the Horyn River in search of a crossing point. It finds one in the small village of Korchyn - a mediocre bridge, barely 50 meters long, defended by a Pak 40 and a handful of territorial troops reinforced by collaborators rounded up during the requisitions. Obviously, the Soviets sweep aside this weak opposition and begin to cross the Horyn. By tomorrow, he could be in Tsuman', thus closing the northern road and the crossing points on the Putylivka, and already threatening to turn Rovne!
Faced with this disaster, De Angelis can only order a general retreat in the sector north of Rovne. The 9. ID (Siegmund von Schleinitz) and the 210. StuG (Major Herbert Sichelschmidt), now trapped north of a furious 37th Army, withdraw to Oleksandrivka, aiming for Komarivka because of an already contested Malyns'k. As for the 294. ID (Johannes Block), the only one in the running on this side of the Horyn, it has already undertaken to retreat towards the south and Rovne, before the Reds take the bridges to Pukhova.
The 3rd Ukrainian Front is moving fast! And while Block tries to pass in disaster, the 20th Armored Corps successfully confronts in the sector of Zaborol' the 168. ID (Werner Schmidt-Hammer), who courageously tries to keep the road open for his comrades, with the help of the 249. StuG. But it's no use - we are not in Lithuania! And Schmidt-Hammer's Landsers, stunned by 122 mm shells, crushed by the tracks of the IS-1, drunk with blows by the Sturmoviks of the 3rd Air Force - some of them with a propeller and a tricolor rudder - let go to flee towards Shpaniv, thus Rovne. The desperate defense of the Fw 190s of Walter Nowotny's I/JG.54, which claim 18 victories for 4 losses, is useless. Apart from a few pockets of stubborn resistance - which will be reduced - Pavel Poluboiarov is now free to move. In the evening, he is already in Khotin, north of Rovne, and his right wing intercepts the vanguard of Johannes Block, who stubbornly tries to pass.
In these conditions, and while Ivan Konev has just introduced the 2nd Tank Army of Sergei Bogdanov, on the tracks of the 20th Armored Corps - which is not in accordance with the doctrine, but Konev knows how to recognize an opportunity when he sees one - it remains, here too, only to order the retreat. What De Angelis does, covered by his chief - after the evacuation of Olevsk, Schröner is not far behind, especially in view of his ongoing discussions with Rastenburg... Faced with a 5th Shock Army that is already entering Rovne, it is the whole XXIX. ArmeeKorps (Erich Brandenberger), reinforced by the 152. PzJ Abt and the 654. schw. PzJ Abt, which retreats towards the west. But how far to the west? The next real line is the Styr, which runs through Lutsk. It is 60 kilometers away. At the same time, Vlassov's 1st Shock Army passes Zdolbuniv to bypass Rovne from the south ...
The 6. Armee, never recovered from Zitadelle and Kutusov, asphyxiated by a succession of exhausting efforts, is irremediably defeated.
Armee de l'Air Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, Lvov-Kovel Offensive, February 1944
Proletarians aviators of all countries, unite!
"The French got used to their new existence. The missions become more and more frequent, more delicate, more perilous too. On February 10th, three patrols commanded by Tulasne arrived above Lutsk when a dozen Fw 190s burst out of the clouds. First big battle. Tuslane announces it: "
Hello, the Francs-Comtois, attention, 444**, Fw above you!"
And the patrol leaders simply respond: "
Seen."
The fight immediately takes on an unprecedented ferocity. It seems that the Germans want to make the French pay dearly, these defeated of 40, for daring to fight again, and moreover under Soviet uniform. From the nervous dance of the aircraft, one can guess the rage of the pilots. It must be said that almost all the fights that the volunteers of the
Franche-Comté/Vistule were marked by this implacability. The Germans hurt us, very badly, but they also paid dearly. For one French pilot, three German pilots were killed.
In the big winter sky, the tournament to the death took on the appearance of a carousel. Patrols began to turn tail and run. This is the classic battle formation. Woe betide the one who doesn't turn fast enough, who takes off from the circle, who lets himself be deported: a gust will punish his clumsiness.
The circumference widens, narrows, suddenly breaks up, resumes, breaks up again.
The cannons bark. Mahé and Durand were the first to shoot their respective opponents. But Bizien and Dervil will never return to the field.
General Khondiakov is very touched by these losses. 9 dead in 4 days of fighting (because we also lost two Sturmovik and a Pe-2 at De Pange and Pouliquen!), it is heavy. He has
long conversations with the colonel Martial Valin. He begs this one to do all his possible efforts so that the squadron would last. Too much audacity is not a quality. At this rate, in a few weeks, the
Franche-Comté will have lived. In fact, in ten months, the squadron will lose more than a third of its men.
The way to be careful ! The very evening of General Khondiakov's visit, it was announced that the
Besançon was changing ground. It was leaving Korets for Babyn, further forward. This will be the first of dozens of changes of terrain that the fighter group will make on the Russian front. Our fate was linked to that of a Guards fighter regiment, the 66th. We were going forward."
(Captain François de Geoffre, op.cit.)
No miracle...
Ternopol region (southern Ukraine) - Obviously, Walter Weiß and his 8. Armee will not do better than De Angelis and the 6. Armee His neighbor's right side gives in? He folds his left, evacuating the Dubno region without saying so, to withdraw behind the Ikva, already threatened by the enemy. In doing so, he also undoubtedly saves the IX. AK (Heinrich Clößner) from a short-term collapse.
Now isolated in the region of Derman' Druha, the 385. ID (Eberhard von Schuckmann), with its
Rheingold rookies, withdraws in haste towards Nahirn and then Kryliv, trying to sneak between the 1st Shock Army (on his right) and the 26th Army (on his left). It succeeds, Lev Skvirsky being more preoccupied by the desire to rush towards Dubno than by hunting the Fascist in the plain. This performance costs however von Schuckmann a good part of his heavy equipment - and he is not out of the woods, because Skvirsky already reached Myrohoshcha Persha, pushing back the remnants of the KorpsAbteilung G (Hans Bergen), which desperately tries to reach the Ikva before him! From the rate they are going, it is likely that tomorrow the Red will reach it before the Fascist.
In Dubno, they are already fighting. All night long, the 384. ID keeps shifting northward h from Hryadky towards this locality - without succeeding: it is logically caught by the machines of the 8th Armored Corps, which enter the city before noon and which is now trying to crush the improvised defense that was facing it. Shelled to submission by Baskakov's tubes, the fall of the city seems inevitable. And for the 384. ID, now trapped between the T-34 in the north and the 3rd Army on its left, the days to come are going to be very difficult. Gradually pushed back to open ground, towards the Ikva, Semyduby then Kam'yanytsya, only a miracle can save it.
Speaking of miracles, on the opposite bank, the 8. Panzer (Gottfried Frölich) is now moving up towards Dubno, in order to defend urgently, not the crossing point - Walter Weiß does not have this naivety - but the western bank. He takes advantage of the fact that in Khotivka, the infantry is still holding the 5th Guards Army, while the 6th Panzer (numerically and qualitatively inferior, but what can you do) opposes the 3rd Armored Corps of Vasily Badanov, whose machines are gradually crossing. In doing so, the potential of the panzers is obviously worn out... But the leader of the 8. Armee only hopes for the moment to control the situation along the Ikva, not to stabilize it!
Eastern Front on February 10th, 1944 (Note: the almost-pocket of the 16. Armee is shown with the green line, evacuated in the night of the 10th-11th)
* Incarcerated in Bad Godesberg concentration camp, then in Jezeří Castle in Bohemia-Moravia, Škirpa survived the war and was able to emigrate to the United States, where he died in 1979. His body was later repatriated with great fanfare by a newly independent Lithuania, to be buried in the cemetery of Petrašiūnai, near Kaunas, where other influential men are buried... But the place is not so far from Ponary, the site of massacres that his pre-war anti-Semitic policies and writings had greatly stimulated. Even today, the subject of not always disinterested debates, the figure of Kazys Škirpa smells of sulfur from his grave. To the point of leading to the gradual renaming of the streets honoring his memory - even though the monument installed at his birthplace has not moved.
** On the other hand, in the Western armies, artillery and aviation could take their time to "soften up" the adversary, the attack occurring - and not always - only after a long preparation. This reserve, resulting from a concern for the lives of voters in uniform that the Soviet regime ignored, surprised many, at the same time, the veterans of the Ostheer confronted with the Americans in the Languedoc. A corporal of the 275. ID taken prisoner had to declare during his interrogation: "
You spare your infantry! If you used it like the Russians, you would already be in Paris!"
*** Radio code meaning "Enemy in sight".
