On June 23, 1944, the Red Army launched Operation Bagration

On June 23, 1944, the Red Army launched the Belorussian strategic offensive operation 'Bagration'.

❗️The main goal was eliminating the 'Belorussian balcony'—a 250,000 sq km salient, opening the way for Soviet troops into Poland and Germany, and exposing the flanks of German Army Groups 'North' and 'Northern Ukraine'.

The operation was coordinated by Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky. It involved four fronts—the 1st Baltic, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Belorussian Fronts—comprising:

🔸178 rifle divisions;

🔸12 tank and mechanized corps;

🔸21 brigades;

🔸five air armies provided air cover.

The Red Army liberated Belarus, much of Lithuania, and eastern regions of Poland. 'Bagration' became a crushing revenge for the failures of 1941. German generals stated that the Wehrmacht suffered a catastrophic disaster.