The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive (13 July-29 August 1944) was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from the western Ukraine and eastern Poland. The offensive occurred at the same time as Operation Bagration, a concerted effort to drive the Germans from occupied Eastern Europe, and the Soviet offensive was a success.
History[]
As the Red Army approached Vilna, preparations were completed for the Lwow-Sandomiercz operation, to be undertaken by Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front. A mighty force of around 1,000,000 soldiers, 1,600 tanks, 14,000 guns and mortars, and 2,800 combat aircraft was now ready to attack the German Army Group North Ukraine. In early summer the army group's strength on the ground had nearly matched that fielded by Konev, but it had been much weakened as units had been withdrawn to stem the Soviet floodtide in the Byelorussian SSR.
Konev attacked on 13 July. After two days of fierce fighting, the center of the German line was breached near Koltov, enabling infantry and two Soviet tank armies to pour through on 16 and 17 July. The German XIII Armeekorps and part of the 1st Panzer Army were encircled and then overwhelmed within a week, while the Red Army tanks advanced westward, bypassing Lwow to the north. By 30 July, Konev had crossed the Vistula, having advanced 130 miles in 17 days, and gained a lodgment on the western bank in Samdomiercz, later expanded into the Baranow bridgehead.
At the end of July, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Vistula and by 2 August they were pushing into the outskirts of Warsaw. The capture of the Polish capital had not played a major role in the Stavka's planning for the summer of 1944. Furthermore, the situation on the ground was complicated by a rising within the city by Polish Home Army, an armed demonstration of Polish nationalism unwelcome to Stalin. The advance to Warsaw was halted, leaving the German garrison in the city to put down the uprising ruthlessly. As the major fighting initiated by Bagration came to an end, the Ostheer set about reinforcing the line along the Vistula while the Red Army turned to the task of rebuilding and reequipping its exhausted formations. Offensive operations in Poland were not to resume until January 1945.