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Belgrade offensive

The Belgrade offensive or the Belgrade strategic offensive operation (Serbo-Croatian: Beogradska operacija / Београдска операција; Russian: Белградская стратегическая наступательная операция, Belgradskaya strategicheskaya nastupatel'naya operatsiya) (15 September 1944 – 24 November 1944)[9] was a military operation during World War II in Yugoslavia in which Belgrade was liberated from the German Wehrmacht through the joint efforts of the Soviet Red Army, Yugoslav Partisans, and the Bulgarian Army.[10] Soviet forces and local militias launched separate but loosely cooperative operations that undermined German control of Belgrade and ultimately forced a retreat.[11] Martial planning was coordinated evenly among command leaders, and the operation was largely enabled through tactical cooperation between Josip Broz Tito and Joseph Stalin that began in September 1944.[12][13] These martial provisions allowed Bulgarian forces to engage in operations throughout Yugoslav territory, which furthered tactical success while increasing diplomatic friction.[14]

The primary objectives of the Belgrade offensive centered on lifting the German occupation of Serbia, seizing Belgrade as a strategic holdout in the Balkans, and severing German communication lines between Greece and Hungary.[15] The spearhead of the offensive was executed by the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front in coordination with the Yugoslav 1st Army Corps. Simultaneous operations in the south involved the Bulgarian 2nd Army and Yugoslav XIII Army Corps, and the incursion of the 2nd Ukrainian Front northwards from the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border placed additional pressure on German command.[16] There were additional skirmishes between Bulgarian forces and German anti-partisan regiments in Macedonia that represented the campaign's southernmost combat operations.[17][18]

3rd Ukrainian Front

4th Guards Mechanised Corps

57th Army

Nikolai Shkodunovich

17th Air Army

Andrey Nikiforovich Vitruk

Aftermath[edit]

Upon completion of the Belgrade operation by the 57th Army with the Yugoslav 51st division in November, the bridgehead in Baranja, on the left bank of Danube was taken, causing an acute crisis for the German defense. The bridgehead served as a platform for the massive concentration of the 3rd Ukrainian Front troops for the Budapest offensive. The Red Army 68th Rifle Corps participated in the battles on the Kraljevo bridgehead and the Syrmian Front until mid-December, and were then transferred to Baranja. The Red Army Air Force Group "Vitruk" provided air support on the Yugoslav Front until the end of December.


The Yugoslav 1st Army Corps continued to push German forces westwards for some 100 km through Srem, where the Germans managed to stabilize a front in mid-December.


Having lost Belgrade and the Great Morava Valley, German Army Group E was forced to fight for a passage through the mountains of Sandžak and Bosnia, and its first echelons did not reach Drava until mid-February 1945.


In Soviet propaganda, this offensive (together with the Budapest Offensive and the East Carpathian Offensive) was listed as one of Stalin's ten blows.

World War II in Yugoslavia

Seven anti-Partisan offensives

Lothar Rendulic

Resistance during World War II

Niš operation

Kosovo Operation (1944)

; Hamović, Rade (1964). BEOGRADSKA OPERACIJA. Beograd: Vojni istoriski institut Jugoslovenske narodne armije.

Biryuzov, Sergeĭ Semenovich

Dudarenko, M.L., Perechnev, Yu.G., Yeliseev, V.T., et.el., Reference guide "Liberation of cities": reference for liberation of cities during the period of the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945, Moscow, 1985

1986 Art of War symposium, From the Vistula to the Oder: Soviet Offensive Operations – October 1944 – March 1945, A transcript of Proceedings, Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, 19–23 May 1986

Glantz, David

Glantz, David M. & House, Jonathan (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas,  0-7006-0899-0.

ISBN

(1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. Greenhill Books. ISBN 9781853672804.

Krivosheyev, Grigoriy Fedotovich

(2002) [1949]. Eastern Approaches. Penguin Group. ISBN 9780140132717.

Maclean, Fitzroy

Seaton, Albert, The fall of Fortress Europe 1943–1945, B.T.Batsford Ltd., London, 1981  0-7134-1968-7

ISBN

Schmider, Klaus (2002). . Hamburg, Berlin, Bonn: Verlag E.S. Mittler & Sohn GmbH. ISBN 3-8132-0794-3.

PARTISANENKRIEG IN JUGOSLAWIEN 1941–1944

(2002). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941 – 1945. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0857-6.

Tomasevich, Jozo

Dupuy, Ernest R., and , The encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 B.C. to the present (revised edition), Jane's Publishing Company, London, 1980

Dupuy, Trevor N.

Mitrovski, Boro, Venceslav Glišić and Tomo Ristovski, The Bulgarian Army in Yugoslavia 1941–1945, Belgrade, Medunarodna Politika, 1971

Wilmot, Chester, The Struggle for Europe, Collins, 1952

Grechko, A.A., (ed.), Liberation Mission of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Second World War, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975

Majstorović, Vojin (2016). . Slavic Review. 75 (2): 396–421. doi:10.5612/slavicreview.75.2.396.

"The Red Army in Yugoslavia, 1944–1945"

Radanović, Milan (2014). [Liberation. Belgrade, 1944] (PDF) (in Serbian). Belgrade: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. ISBN 978-86-88745-10-9.

Oslobođenje. Beograd, 1944