World War 2 Timelines 1939-1945 - Eastern Europe 1944

Troops of the 1st Byelorussian Front move though a German occupied wood near Bobruisk.

Eastern Europe!


05/01/1944	Koniev’s 2nd Ukrainian Front extends the Russian general offensive in temperatures of -20°C.
06/01/1944	The Red Army crosses the 1939 Polish frontier after a 170-mile advance in just two weeks.
08/01/1944	Kirovograd falls to Russians.
10/01/1944	The Russians capture Lyudvipol, 2-3 miles across the Polish border. The Russians propose new Polish border further west on the so-called ‘Curzon Line’. German forces in Dnieper bend are attacked by the Russians for the next five days, but and early thaw aids the German defense.
15/01/1944	The Russians launch another new offensive around Leningrad.
18/01/1944	German forces of Army Group Centre repel repeated Red Army attacks in the area of Vitebsk.
19/01/1944	Germans forces are surrounded in Novgorod, 100 miles to the South of Leningrad, but manage to break out.
20/01/1944	The Red Army recaptures Novgorod.
27/01/1944	Leningraders are told that the blockade has been lifted after 900 days. The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front launches an offensive against Luzk and Rovno. Hitler lectures all his eastern front army commanders on National Socialism as the Russians cut off 60,000 men in Korsun Pocket, 100 miles to the southeast of Kiev. Army Group North's commander, Von Küchler orders the eighteenth army to pull back to the river Luga.
28/01/1944	The Red Army succeeds in encircling several German divisions in the area of Cherkassy.
30/01/1944	The Russians attack towards Nikopol on the southern Dnieper.


01/02/1944	The Polish underground executes Major Fritz Kurschera, the chief of the Gestapo in Poland.
02/02/1944	The 1st Ukrainian Front captures Luzk and Rovno. Stalin agrees to USAAF using Russian bases.
04/02/1944	The Germans start their offensive to relieve the Korsun pocket.
08/02/1944	The Russians capture of Nikopol. The surrounded German forces in the Korsun pocket are invited to surrender by the Russians.
10/02/1944	The Russians begin to lay down a tremendous artillery barrage against the Korsun pocket, in an attempt to force its surrender.
11/02/1944	German relief forces are now just 10 mile from the Korsun pocket.
12/02/1944	The Red Army recaptures Luga.
15/02/1944	Hitler permits Field Marshal Models troops to withdraw to Panther Line and also allows the Korsun pocket defenders to break out towards the relieving forces.
17/02/1944	German troops encircled in the Cherkassy pocket achieve a breakout, but at a heavy cost in men and equipment. The Russians claim the annihilation of the trapped German divisions at Korsun. They also begin to storm Krivoi Rog.
18/02/1944	The Red Army recaptures Staraya Russa, as Army Group North falls back to the line Narva-Pleskau-Oposhka.
22/02/1944	Malinovsky completes the capture of the mining area around Krivoi Rog.


01/03/1944	Both German and Russian forces in the Baltic region go on the defensive.
03/03/1944	Under pressure from the Western Allies to withdraw all remaining Spanish troops from the Eastern front, the Franco government orders members of the so-called “Blue Legion,” attached to the German 121st Infantry Division, to return home and outlaws service by Spanish citizens with the Axis forces. Nevertheless, a handful of fanatically anti-Communist Spaniards defy orders and volunteer for service with the Waffen SS, some of them fighting suicidally to the end in the ruins of Berlin.
04/03/1944	Zhukov renews his attacks against the forces of Manstein's Army Group South in the Ukraine.
05/03/1944	Koniev's 2nd Ukrainian Front launches an attack towards Uman.
10/03/1944	Uman is taken as the Russians drive towards the Bug and Dnieper rivers.
11/03/1944	Zhukov is stopped on River Bug after a 60-mile advance.
13/03/1944	The Russians announce the capture of Kherson in the southern Ukraine.
15/03/1944	The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front breaks through German defenses and reaches the Bug river, the starting point in 1941 for Operation 'Barbarossa'.
19/03/1944	In order to ensure Hungary's continued support as an axis partner, Hitler orders its occupation. Eleven German divisions cross the border from Austria into Hungary, encountering minimal resistance.
20/03/1944	The Russians recapture Vinnitsa in the Ukraine, the site of Hitler's Headquarters during in 1943.
24/03/1944	A Russian tank army crosses the Dnieper near Czech border. Malinovsky makes crossings of the Bug near the Black Sea.
25/03/1944	Manstein persuades Hitler to allow the First Panzer Army to break out to the west of Lvov, not south.
26/03/1944	Koniev’s armies reach the River Pruth on a 50-miles front. The Russians recapture Kamenets-Podolsk. in the Ukraine.
28/03/1944	The Russians recapture Nikolaev on the Black Sea and enter Romanian territory.
30/03/1944	Kleist and Manstein are sacked by Hitler and replaced by Schorner and Model.


02/04/1944	The Russians announce their entry into Romania and threaten to shoot one third of all German POWs if the 18 divisions of the trapped 1st Panzer Army do not surrender. The Russian army crosses the river Prut, East of Cernovcy and liberates the little city Gerca.
04/04/1944	Army Group Centre, under General Busch launches a counterattack which succeeds in reaching German units surrounded at Kovel in the Pripet swamps since the 19th March.
08/04/1944	The Russians reach the Slovakian border. The also continue their advance into Romania. The final Russian offensive to destroy the German 17th Army in Crimea begins.
09/04/1944	The remains of the 1st Panzer Army regain the German lines after a 150-mile forced march. The Red Army breaks through the German lines at Kerch in the eastern Crimea.
10/04/1944	The Russians enter Odessa on Black Sea as German forces withdraw from the city to the west bank of the Dniester river.
11/04/1944	Russian troops capture Kerch in the Crimea. While units of the 4th Ukrainian Front liberate Dsjankoi.
12/04/1944	Hitler authorises a withdrawal of 230,000 German and Romanian troops to the fortress of Sevastopol. However, this is four days too late and the delay results in many unnecessary losses.
13/04/1944	Simferopol, Feodosiya and Eupatoria in the Crimea fall to Red Army.
15/04/1944	The Red Army recaptures Tarnopol in the southern Ukraine.
16/04/1944	Yalta in the Crimea is captured by the Russian.
18/04/1944	The Russians take Balaclava.


05/05/1944	The Russians launch their attack the fortress city of Sevastopol in the Crimea.
09/05/1944	The Russians capture Sevastopol as Hitler finally changes his mind and orders evacuation of the city.
12/05/1944	The remains of German Seventeenth Army in Crimea are destroyed, with the Russians taking 36,000 Axis troops prisoner.
31/05/1944	The Russians repel a heavy German counter attack North of Jassy, in the southern Ukraine. Stalin gives the go-ahead to Operation 'Bagration' (the Russian summer offensive) which is to destroy Army Group Centre in Byelorussia.


22/06/1944	The Russian summer offensive, operation 'Bagration' begins against Army Group Centre in Byelorussia with assaults by the Soviet 1st Baltic, 3rd Belorussian 2nd and 1st Belorussian Fronts against Army Group Centre on a 450 mile front between Polotsk and Bobruysk. Soviet forces amount to 124 divisions, 1,200,000 men, 5,200 tanks, 30,000 guns and 6,000 aircraft. Against this, the German can field just 63 divisions, including 900 tanks and 10,000 guns. The Luftwaffe launches a surprise night raid (60 aircraft) on the US 8th Air Force's shuttle base at Poltava in the Ukraine, destroying 44 B-17s and 500,000 gallons of fuel.
24/06/1944	The Russians report major advances against Army Group Centre. Hitler orders all but one of the five German divisions of the 53rd Korps that are encircled at Vitebsk to fight their way out.
26/06/1944	The Russians take Vitebsk.
27/06/1944	The Red Army recaptures Orsha on the Dnieper and destroys the trapped German 53rd Korps near Vitebsk. Further gains are reported by the Russians at Mogilev to the South of Vitebsk.
28/06/1944	The Russians take Mogilev and cross the Berezina river surrounding most of German Ninth Army.
29/06/1944	70,000 troops of Army Group Centre that are encircled near Bobruisk surrender to the Red Army. The Russians report that 16,000 Germans have been killed and 18,000 captured near Minsk.


01/07/1944	The Fifth Guards Tank Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front takes Borisov, less that 50 miles North East of Minsk.
02/07/1944	The Russians cut the railways to the West of Minsk.
03/07/1944	Minsk, the capital of Byelorussia is captured by the Russians, trapping 100,000 Germans in a pocket to the East.
04/07/1944	The Soviet 1st Baltic Front begins an offensive toward Riga, capturing Polotsk and threatening to isolate Army Group North during its fighting retreat from Estonia.
06/07/1944	The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front recaptures Kovel to the southeast of Brest-Litovsk.
08/07/1944	The Russians capture Baranovichi, 80 miles South West of Minsk. Lieutenant General Müller, the commander of German 12th Corps surrenders with 57,000 men. Street fighting is reported as the Russians enter Vilna. Army Group Centre's losses have now reached 300,000 men (28 divisions) in less than three weeks.
09/07/1944	A major Russian offensive begins towards Rezekne, to the East of Riga in order to cut off Army Group North in Baltic States. The 2nd Belorussian Front attacks northwest from Vitebsk, the 3rd Belorussian Front attacks West from Psovsk and the Leningrad Front attacks southwest toward Narva.
11/07/1944	The Red Army captures the remnants (35,000) of the encircled 4th Army.
13/07/1944	The Russians announce the capture of Vilna and continue their advance into eastern Galicia.
14/07/1944	A new Russian offensive begins in the northern Ukraine opens with massive support from the Red Air Force and gains up to 10 miles and recaptures Pinsk.
15/07/1944	Two Soviet armies from Crimea join the Baltic front so that it can continue its offensive. Russian tank penetrations are only 25 miles from Lvov.
16/07/1944	The Brody pocket begins to form in the northern Ukraine, trapping 40,000 German troops.
17/07/1944	The Germans say they will hold Baltic States ‘at all costs’, as the Russian advance approaches the Latvian border.
18/07/1944	The First Belorussian front attacks, with six armies and 1,600 aircraft from Kovel across the Bug towards Lublin.
19/07/1944	The Russians claim to have crossed into Latvia.
20/07/1944	An assassination attempt is made on Hitler at his headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia.
21/07/1944	Some of the German defenders of the Brody Pocket reach German lines.
22/07/1944	The Russian advance into Baltic States continues with the capture of Panevezys in Lithuania. The Brody Pocket is eliminated by the Russian, who take 17,000 prisoners.
23/07/1944	The Russians take Pskov, 150 miles to the South West of Leningrad on Estonian border. Heavy street fighting is reported from Lublin in Poland.
24/07/1944	The River San is crossed by the Soviets to the northwest of Lvov. The Germans start evacuating Lvov.
25/07/1944	Narva is evacuated by the Germans, who take up position along the Tannenberg position to the West. Soviet forces cut the road between Dvinsk and Riga in Latvia. The Second Tank Army reaches the Vistula, 40 miles West of Lublin. Lvov is surrounded and Soviet forces converge on Brest-Litovsk.
26/07/1944	Narva is finally captured by the Red Army. The Russians reach the Estonian border.
27/07/1944	The Russians take Lvov, Dunaburg and Bialystok and secure a major bridgehead over the Magnuszew River. Further gains are also made in Baltic States.
28/07/1944	Brest-Litovsk, on the Polish frontier is taken by the Russian. More crossings over the Vistula are also made.
29/07/1944	The Red Army reaches to the Baltic coast to the West of Riga, thereby cutting Army Group North off in Estonia and Eastern Latvia.


01/08/1944	The Russians take Kaunas and cut all roads from Germany to Baltic States. Bor-Komorowski leads the Warsaw Uprising by the 38,000 strong Polish underground Army. They receive no support from Soviet forces who are already on the eastern bank of the Vistula opposite the city.
02/08/1944	The First Polish Army gains a Vistula bridgehead, 40 miles to the south of Warsaw.
03/08/1944	Soviet spearheads in the area to the east of Warsaw, are destroyed by German counter attacks.
04/08/1944	The 19th Panzer Division crosses Poniatowski Bridge in Warsaw, as the fighting ceases in the suburb of Praga. The Red Army forces a bridgehead across the Vistula at Baranov.
05/08/1944	The Polish Home Army goes onto the defensive in Warsaw, as 60 per cent of city now in its control. The 4th Ukrainian Front is inserted in the Russian line in southern Poland and northern Hungary.
06/08/1944	The Russians seize the Polish oil centre of Drohobyez.
07/08/1944	The Russians advance into the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, near the Slovak, Hungarian, Russian borders.
11/08/1944	The Russians renew their offensive towards the Estonian border at Pskov, breaking through the Mavlenburg Line. The Germans assault the old town area of Warsaw from three sides.
14/08/1944	The Russians begin an offensive from their Vistula bridgeheads, 100 miles to the South of Warsaw.
17/08/1944	The Russians reach the East Prussian/Lithuanian border.
18/08/1944	The Red Army recaptures Sandomir in Galicia.
20/08/1944	The Russians launch an offensive in to Romania with 900,000 men (96 divisions), 1,400 tanks and 1,700 aircraft. Advances up to 12 miles are reported as the Russian plan to surround 23 German divisions (360,000 men) takes shape.
21/08/1944	The German Sixth Army is separated from the Romanian 3rd Army on Black Sea coast. Colonel General Friessner orders all German units to withdraw as the Romanians fail to fight and change sides. The Germans, with naval support, open a coastal corridor 10 to 12 miles wide to Army Group North, but Hitler refuses to order the evacuation of Baltic States.
22/08/1944	The Red Army captures Jassy on the Prut river in the southern Ukraine.
23/08/1944	King Michael I of Romania dismisses Marshall Antonescu, his head of state and brings his country over to the Soviet side.
24/08/1944	Russian 3rd Baltic Front reaches Tartu in Estonia. Romania declares war on Germany.
27/08/1944	Russians take Galati in eastern Romania.
29/08/1944	The Russians capture the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti and enter Hungarian occupied Transylvania. An uprising begins in Slovakia against the pro-German government of Dr. Tiso.
31/08/1944	The Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front captures Bucharest, the capital of Romania and begins to round up members of the 'Fascist' Antonescu government.


05/09/1944	A German-Hungarian counterattack in the area of Klausenburg in Romania fails.
06/09/1944	The Russians occupy Turnu-Severin on the Danube in Romania and advance to the Yugoslav border. They also reach the eastern Carpathians.
07/09/1944	Romania declares war on Hungary.
12/09/1944	A German-Hungarian counter-offensive grinds toward Arad and Temesvar in Hungary.
13/09/1944	The Russians reach the Polish-Czechoslovak border. The Romanians sign an Armistice with the Russians.
14/09/1944	Russian troops reach the Vistula river in the Praga suburb of Warsaw, as planes drop supplies to the Polish Home Army which is trapped inside the city. Three Russian Baltic fronts launch an offensive with 900,000 men, 3,000 tanks and 2,600 aircraft against Army Group North which is forced to fall back to defensive positions around Riga.
15/09/1944	The Red Army achieves a breakthrough at Narva.
22/09/1944	The Russians occupy Tallinn and Reval in Estonia.
23/09/1944	Russian and Romanian troops enter Hungary at Arad.
24/09/1944	The Russian offensive in Baltic States ceases.
27/09/1944	2,000 Poles of the Home Army surrender in Mokotow district of Warsaw.
28/09/1944	The Red Army begin an offensive towards the Yugoslav border from Romania.


01/10/1944	A secret Hungarian delegation arrives in Moscow to sign an armistice with the Russians.
02/10/1944	Warsaw falls to the Germans after 63-day siege, with the Polish Home Army surrendering only after all its food and ammunition had run out. The Germans recognise their valor and treat the survivors not as partisans, but as regular POWs.
05/10/1944	The First Baltic Front begins an offensive South of Riga to cut off Army Group North in Lithuania.
06/10/1944	A Russian offensive by 64 divisions, 750 tanks and 1,100 aircraft commences near Arad in Hungary, with the aim of destroying Army Group South.
10/10/1944	The Russians reach the Baltic at Memel and cut off Army Group North (26 divisions) in the Kurland for the rest of the war. The rebellion against the Tiso government in Slovakia is put down by the German Army.
11/10/1944	The Red Army captures Klausenburg in Romania as Hungary and the Soviet Union begin negotiations for a ceasefire.
12/10/1944	The Germans manage to hold line of the Niemen to cover East Prussia.
13/10/1944	Russian troops capture Riga, the capital of Latvia as Army Group North withdraws in to the Kurland pocket.
15/10/1944	The Hungarian chief of state, Admiral Horthy, shortly after announcing Hungary's withdrawal from the war against the Russia, is taken prisoner by a commando unit led by SS major Otto Skorzeny. A new government under Ferenc Szalasi vows to continue the alliance with Germany.
16/10/1944	The Red Army enters German territory near Goldap in East Prussia. Thousands of German civilians flee the area in panic.
17/10/1944	German forces successfully repulse heavy Soviet attacks near Debrecen.
18/10/1944	German forces thrusts into Slovakia.
19/10/1944	Hitler orders the total destruction of Warsaw. The German 4th Army withdraws from the Tilsit area.
22/10/1944	The Red Army continues its drive west and captures several towns near the Russian-German border.
23/10/1944	The 3rd Panzer Korps begin a six day counter attack around Debrecen.
25/10/1944	The Red Army completes its capture of Transylvania in northwestern Romania.
28/10/1944	The Red Army's advance into the Goldap area of East Prussia is brought to a standstill by the tenacious resistance of 4th Army.
30/10/1944	The Debrecen counter attacks end with the Germans claiming that they have inflicted 25,000 casualties and destroyed 600 tanks. However, this doesn't hinder the Red Army and they begin a major offensive in to Hungary.


02/11/1944	The Red Army enters the southeastern suburbs of Budapest.
05/11/1944	The German 4th Army recapture the town of Goldap in East Prussia.
26/11/1944	The Russians advance in Slovakia.
27/11/1944	The Red Army breaks through the German-Hungarian defensive lines and captures Mohacs.
29/11/1944	Russian troops cross Danube into southwest Hungary, making large gains.


05/12/1944	Malinovsky attacks with two armies from North East of Budapest and makes a 60-mile advance in eight days.
08/12/1944	The Red Army begins an offensive aimed at encircling Budapest.
09/12/1944	The Russians reach the Danube north of Budapest.
23/12/1944	The Russian breakthrough to the South West of Budapest is now 60-mile wide.
27/12/1944	The Russians capture Gran, this cutting all communications with Budapest and trapping five German and Hungarian divisions.