The ever mounting intensity of the bomber offensives forced Germany to divert ever more men and war materiel to defending industry from attack. With total air dominance and an army honed to a razor’s edge in four years of brutal conflict, Zhukov had all the tools necessary to showcase the mature form of deep battle’s operational art. The general offensive would follow on three axes: Vitebsk-Orsha (“Luna”), Mogilev (“Venus”), and Bobruysk (“Mercury”). In the early morning hours of 1 October 1944, four airborne divisions (Soviet 1st and 5th, American 17th and 101st) were dropped behind the German lines, tasked with seizing key crossings of the Dnepr and Pripyat Rivers. Over a million men, millions of tons of supplies, and thousands of combat vehicles had been moved to the front in complete camouflage discipline. The offensive, “straight to the jugular” as Reichsmaschall Göring had called it, had not come in summer, and now the diligence of Comintern maskirovka kept them blind to the threat until it was too late. And Army Group Center began to lose some of its mobile reserves to staunch the bleeding in the south.
But twenty division equivalents, some three hundred thousand men, were shifting from the OKH to Army Group South instead, protecting the vital Rumanian oil fields from the expected offensive. Even if he’d been given every soldier the Reich could muster, he’d still have been outnumbered. Volksmarshal von Manstein would command Army Group Center during her swan song. Twelve thousand tanks and assault guns, sixty thousand guns, mortars and rocket launchers, and ten thousand aircraft were arrayed under the theater command of General Zhukov. The guns erupted in thunderous violence, ushering the start of the largest offensive operation in human history, involving nearly three million men in five Fronts. In company with our brave Allies and comrades in other Theaters, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi-Fascist tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
The hopes of all the peoples of the world march with you.
The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Communist International! You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, towards which we have striven these many years. Ranks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. (t.) means the ship was a total loss (included in ships & tonnage lost). 14 ships sunk (23,309 tons) and 1 ship damaged (6,671 tons).
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