Riga offensive (1944)

Riga Offensive Operation
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Date September 14, 1944 – Ocotber 24, 1944 Location Latvia Result Soviet Victory
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Ferdinand Schoerner (Army Group North)	Hovhannes Bagramyan Andrei Yeremenko Ivan Maslennikov

The Riga Offensive Operation (Template:Lang-ru) was a Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front in World War II; it was a part of the larger Baltic Strategic Offensive. It took place late in 1944, and drove German forces from much of Latvia.

Prelude

Soviet forces had advanced towards the Baltic Coast at the end of their highly successful summer 1944 offensive, Operation Bagration, and at one point had broken through to the Gulf of Riga. During August, German forces had mounted a counter-attack, Operation Doppelkopf, but by the next month Soviet forces were ready to resume their attack in the Baltic Strategic Offensive. One of the sub-operations of this plan, the Tallinn Offensive Operation, had seen Soviet forces take the Estonian capital, while the German Army Group North's commander, Ferdinand Schoerner, had pulled his troops out of most of Estonia in Operation Aster. The Riga Offensive would see Soviet forces apply further pressure on Army Group North, which still held much of Latvia.

Deployments

Red Army

Elements of:

• 1st Baltic Front (General Hovhannes Bagramyan)
• 2nd Baltic Front (General Andrei Yeremenko)
• 3rd Baltic Front (General Ivan Maslennikov)

Wehrmacht

• Army Group North (General Ferdinand Schoerner)
  • Sixteenth Army (General Carl Hilpert)
  • Eighteenth Army (General Ehrenfried Boege)

The offensive

The Soviet forces launched a ferocious attack on the Riga axis on September 14, 1944. Within 4 days, ten of the eighteen German divisions opposing them had been reduced to Kampfgruppe level. . By September 15, the 3rd Baltic Front had ruptured the German lines in the east, while from the south the 43rd Army was threatening the approaches to Riga itself, where the German X Corps had been shattered. Schoerner began to move his divisions into the Courland peninsula, intending to shorten the frontage and pull back from Riga itself.

In the meantime, Stavka had been preparing a new axis of attack under the cover of a further push towards Riga, the new plan being put forward in a directive of September 24.. On September 27, the Sixteenth Army began to report Soviet traffic away from its front, to the south-west. In fact, several major Soviet force concentrations (notably the 4th Shock and 51st Armies) were being shifted southwards in preparation for a major thrust westwards towards Memel by the 1st Baltic Front. German intelligence detected the movement of several of the armies involved, but were unable to detect their destination..

The resulting offensive, the Memel Offensive Operation, was launched on October 5; Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front shattered the Third Panzer Army, finally severing the land connection between the German Army Group Centre and Army Group North. Schoerner's forces around Riga and in Courland were now cut off.

On October 9, Schoerner signalled that he would attack towards Memel and try and re-establish the land connection if Riga could be evacuated. Soviet forces were again moving forwards outside Riga, and brought the city within the range of artillery fire on October 10. Leaving a screening force of the 227th Infantry Division and the guns of the 6th Motorized Anti-Aircraft Division, the Eighteenth Army retreated through Riga into Courland, destroying bridges on its route. Riga was taken by forces of the 3rd Baltic Front on October 13. Over the next few days Soviet units were reported in action to the west of Riga, stating that German forces had been cleared from the eastern bank of the Lielupe River by October 17.

Aftermath

Army Group North had been driven into the Courland Pocket, where it remained isolated until the end of the war in Europe.

References

• Glantz, D. Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War, Frank Cass, London, 1989, ISBN 0-7146-3347-X
• Mitcham, S. German Defeat in the East 1944 - 45, Stackpole, 2007, ISBN 0811733718