Aka The Baltic Offensive Sarah Huang Alejandra Riano Julia Seaver Stephanie Young amp Jiani Zheng Thesis After the devastating loss in Stalingrad along with previous conflicts over the Baltics involving the Soviets Nazi Germany provoked a Soviet offensive that continued to for ID: 715681
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Slide1
The Battle of the BalticsAkaThe Baltic Offensive
Sarah Huang, Alejandra Riano, Julia Seaver, Stephanie Young, & Jiani Zheng Slide2
Thesis
After the devastating loss in Stalingrad, along with previous conflicts over the Baltics involving the Soviets, Nazi Germany provoked a Soviet offensive that continued to force Hitler to fight a two-front war on the eastern and western fronts. This conflict crippled Germany by
wasting their resources, eventually leading to their defeat
when the USSR regained control of the Baltics. The loss
demoralized
the German troops, began the end to the 3rd reich, and led to the eventual Fall of Berlin.
USSR
USA
BRITAIN
ITALY
BALTICSSlide3Slide4
The Baltic Operation
Soviet Defense Plan
June/ July 1941
German Victory
Reactions from the Baltics:
Positive by everyone else but the Jewish
“It struck Lithuania like a clap of thunder: WAR. What joy, WAR. People met and congratulated each other with tears in their eyes. Everyone felt that the hour of liberation was near”Slide5
Rationale for Taking over the Baltics
Lebensraum
“Living space”
2)
Resources
British BlockadeSlide6
Timeline
February 2nd, 1943
Battle of Stalingrad ends
August 3rd, 1939
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed
June 22nd, 1941
Operation Barbarossa begins
May 9th, 1945
Courland Pocket Surrender
September 14th, 1944
Soviets launch Baltic OffenseSlide7Slide8
Weaponry: Tank Battle
Germans:
Tiger I
High fuel consumption
Speedy
Panzer Battalions
USSR:
JS-2 (Joseph Stalin)
Specifically designed to defeat Tiger tanks
AKA PoacherSlide9
Operation bagration
Soviet Union’s strategy at destroying German forces in the Baltics
April 17, 1944: the first deceptive tactic was to switch the Soviet front to a defensive mode
halted major offensives and created (sometimes false) defensive positions
Soviet forces started to spread false rumours that the offensive was to be made against Army Group South in Ukraine, reinforcing a strategy that the Germans originally expected
When the operation launched, 1st and 3rd Ukrainian Armies in Ukraine were deployed to further support that false information.
The Germans fell for the deceptions
.
The real Bagration offensive began on the morning of
22 June, 1944
Soviets almost had a
10-to-1 numerical advantage
with armor and 7-to-1 with aircraft
Minsk and Belarus fell under Soviet control
End of July 1944: entire Army Group Centre was destroyed, lost 300,000 men to death and 120,000 to prisoners of warSlide10
The Baltic Offensive
Soviet Offensive
Plan to take back the Baltic States from the Germans
Siauliai Offensive Operation
: (July 1944) 3rd phase of Operation Bagration. The Soviet army attacked towards Riga on the Baltic coast.
The
Tallinn Offensive
: (Sept 1944) carried out by the
Leningrad Soviet Front
to drive German forces from mainland
Estonia
.
The
Riga Offensive
: (Sept-Oct 1944) carried out by the
3rd
and
2nd Baltic Soviet Fronts
, cleared the eastern coast of the
Gulf of Rig
a of German forces (Soviet victory)
The
Moonsund Landing Operation
: (Sept-Nov 1944) the landing on the Estonian islands, Blocking access to the Gulf of Riga, Germany evacuated from estonia by estonian and soviet troops
The
Memel Offensive
: (Oct 1944) an attack by the
1st Baltic Front
, DIssolving the connection between the German Army Groups Centre and North.
Effects: isolation of German Forces, severed connection between Army Groups
Germany:Slide11
German Reaction
Attempts to reconstruct severed connections between Army Groups
German Forces:
Army Group North
Army Group Centre
Operation Doppelkopf: (Aug 1944) launched as a counterattack against Soviet Union carried out by Army Group Centre
At first the Germans cut off the Soviet troops on the coast and temporarily established a connection between Army Group Centre and Army Group North
Main goal: re-occupy the important road junction of Siauliai (Lithuania)
October 22, 1944: connections between Germany’s two armies--Army Group North and Army Group Centre--are lostSlide12
Operation DoppelKopf Slide13
Final Surrender
Courland Pocket
200,000 Germans trapped in Latvia
Eventually surrendered on May 9th, 1945
Soviet VictorySlide14
The Eastern Holocaust
WARNING!Graphic content aheadSlide15
The Eastern Holocaust
Occurred in the Baltic States
Far more brutal and deadly
Occurred during the German occupation of the Baltic States in 1941
About a total of 300,000 Jews residing in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia were murdered
Entire Jewish populations were exterminated, little to no survivors
Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian Jews were gassed, burned, and shotSlide16
The Eastern Holocaust
Estonia:
Soviet Union annexed Estonia in 1940 and authorities forced Jewish institutions to disband. At least half of Estonian Jews left the country during this period.
In 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis gradually occupied Estonia and it was included in the Reich Commissariat Ostland (
German civilian administration)
Starting in 1942, tens of thousands of Jews from other European countries were sent to forced-labor camps inside Estonia
With the advance of the Soviet army in the fall of 1944, the Nazis evacuated the Estonian camps, as well as other camps throughout the Baltics.
Some Jews were transferred by sea to the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig. Many thousands were forced on death marches along the Baltic coast.
No Estonian Jews in the country at the time of the German occupation had survived.
In Jan 1942, Estonia was declared ‘free of Jews’Slide17
The Eastern Holocaust
Lithuania:
In 1939, they signed nonaggression pact with Germany but got screwed over
Germany annexed Lithuanian territory in 1940 but then the Soviet union annexed the country that same year
Germany occupied the country again in 1941. Began riots against Jews
Most Jews shot in rural Lithuania, then rounded up in ghettos where most were massacred. Eventually in 1943 some were deported to labor camps in Estonia and Latvia and others to killing centers in Poland
90% of Jews were murdered in been murdered in three years
Soviets reoccupied in 1944Slide18
The Eastern Holocaust
Latvia:
Soviet Union annexed country in 1940
Germans occupied Latvia in 1941 in the invasion of the Soviet Union
Detachments of German
Einsatzgruppen
(mobile killing units), together with Latvian and Lithuanian auxiliaries, massacred most Latvian Jews
Ghettos were established in the larger cities of Riga and a few others. Several hundred Jews in the Riga ghetto organized resistance against the Germans. Small groups sought to escape from the ghetto.
The Nazis deported thousands of German and Austrian Jews to the Riga ghetto in 1941/1942. Einsatzgruppen and Order Police murdered most of them
Only 5,000 remained by 1943
Soviets reoccupied in 1944Slide19
Impact
Soviet victory
Expulsion of German forces from Estonia and Lithuania
Soviet Union regained control of the Baltic States
Absolutely no hope for Germany
German soldiers lost morale
Miscalculation on Hitler’s part for misjudging Soviet Union
Fall of BerlinSlide20
Works Cited
O'Hara, Vincent. "Baltic Sea, Area of Operations."
World War II at Sea
:
An Encyclopedia
, edited by Spencer C. Tucker, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2012, pp. 83-86.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
,
Chen, C. Peter. "Operation Bagration." WW2DB
. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2017. Buttar, Prit.
Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II. Oxford: Osprey, 2015. Print.
"Baltic Sea Operations." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society
, ABC-CLIO, 2017, worldatwar.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/797545. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.
Frame, Arthur T. "Belorussia Offensive: World War Ii."
World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society
, ABC-CLIO, 2017, worldatwar.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/953081. Accessed 4 Apr. 2017.
"Lithuania." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
Rubanenko, N. (2017, April 22). Personal interview.
Webb, Chris, et al. “The Holocaust in the Soviet Union and Baltic States.”
The Holocaust in the Soviet Union and Baltic States Http://Www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
, H.E.A.R.T. , 3 Feb. 2012, www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/Holocaust-in-the-east.html. Accessed 24 Apr. 2017.