In the southern sector of operations, where the
1st Belorussian Front under
Konstantin Rokossovsky faced
Hans Jordan's
Ninth Army, the main Soviet objective was Bobruysk and the southern crossings of the
Berezina, which would open up the route for the southern 'pincer' of the main encirclement. (Army Group Centre's southernmost flank was covered by
Second Army in the
Pripet Marshes, but this area was largely bypassed by the Soviet offensive.) Rokossovsky had bravely staked his reputation on a plan for a complex double-envelopment of the German forces at Babruysk, in opposition to
Joseph Stalin's preferred plan of a single breakthrough in the sector. Rokossovsky's attack, as with the other initial offensive operations of Operation Bagration, was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment. The first assault, against strong German defences, was however repulsed with heavy casualties. Rokossovsky ordered further artillery preparation for June 24, which eventually resulted in a collapse of the
134th Infantry Division to the north of the sector, as the Soviet
3rd Army pushed forward; the
20th Panzer Division began to counter-attack, but Jordan then ordered it to turn southwards and confront a new breakthrough by the Soviet
65th Army under
Batov.
The encirclement of the German corps For the offensive, Rokossovsky's
First Belorussian Front would be using the multi-pronged offensive against Bobruisk. In the north, Marshal
Georgy Zhukov was inspecting the attack by the
3rd Army from
Rogachev, while Rokossovsky was in the south, launching his assault from
Parichi. Inevitably, a rivalry had developed between the two generals, as both competed to be the first to crack the defence lines of the
Ninth Army. On 24 June 1944, an earth-shaking artillery barrage consisting of 7000 guns, mortars and BM-13 Katyusha rocket launchers began in an attempt to annihilate the Germans. However, the northern sector of the front under Zhukov was met with stiff resistance and there was not much breakthroughs in the Rogachev direction. Rokossovsky encountered less difficulties with the Germans and was able to make rapid advancements in his area. In what was considered to be an old fashion Russian offensive, Issa Pliev's Cavalry-Mechanized Group(KMG), consisting of the mighty
4th Guards Cavalry Corps and the
1st Mechanised Corps, was the spearhead of the assault, with the 28th Army and 65th Army securing its flanks. Pliev's KMG was able to travel across the adverse terrain of the marshes without much challenges, and struck the Ninth Army's southern flank. The KMG then cut south towards Slutsk in order to prevent the Ninth Army from retreating towards the south. By then, the Ninth Army had been cut off and it was doomed to be destroyed. By June 27, Soviet forces were converging near Bobruysk, trapping the five divisions of
Ninth Army's northernmost corps, Lieutenant-General
von Lützow's
XXXV Corps, east of the Berezina. Elements of the central
XXXXI Panzer Corps were also trapped, along with the 20th Panzer Division. The disorganised German divisions commenced a series of desperate attempts to escape the pocket, which stretched for several kilometers along the river's eastern bank: the Soviets reported large fires on 27 June as the Germans destroyed their heavy equipment and attempted to break out, but Soviet air attack and artillery inflicted appalling casualties on the encircled forces. In the meantime, Hitler had relieved Jordan of command due to his confusing instructions to 20th Panzer; Ninth Army was dealt another blow when its main communications headquarters was destroyed by bombing. On the following day, reinforcements arrived behind German lines in the form of
12th Panzer Division, whose commander was greeted by Ninth Army's chief of staff with the words "Good to see you — Ninth Army no longer exists!" On 28 June 1944, the
Ninth Army was officially destroyed, and
Hans Jordan would be relieved of command for the inability to bring up
20th Panzer Division as the reinforcement.
The breakout of XLI Panzer Corps Faced with Ninth Army's imminent collapse,
OKH authorised a withdrawal. Lieutenant-General
Adolf Hamann, Commander (
Commandant) of Bobruysk, was ordered to hold the town with one division, Lieutenant-General
Edmund Hoffmeister's
383rd Infantry Division. Thousands of wounded were abandoned in the
citadel. The remnants of
20th Panzer Division, with a handful of tanks and assault guns, formed a spearhead for XXXXI Panzer Corps' breakout attempt which was placed under Hoffmeister's overall command, while 12th Panzer Division attacked from the
Svislach River to meet the retreating troops. Though a breakout was achieved through positions held by the Soviet
356th Rifle Division of 65th Army, the German forces were again subjected to intense artillery bombardment and air attack as they attempted to make their way along the roads south of Minsk.
The 65th Army takes Bobruysk Batov's 65th Army now fought their way into Bobruysk street by street against stiff resistance from the German rearguard. Bobruysk, in ruins and with much of its population killed during the German occupation, was liberated on June 29, the 383rd Infantry Division commencing withdrawal towards dawn: no further elements of Ninth Army would escape from east of the Berezina. The German breakout had allowed around 12,000 troops - mostly demoralised and without weapons - from the pocket east of Bobruysk to get out, but the Soviets claimed 20,000 taken prisoner. A further 50,000 were dead: Soviet accounts speak of the area being carpeted with bodies and littered with abandoned
materiel. The Soviet writer,
Vasily Grossman, entered Bobruysk shortly after the end of the battle: "Men are walking over German corpses. Corpses, hundreds and thousands of them, pave the road, lie in ditches, under the pines, in the green barley. In some places, vehicles have to drive over the corpses, so densely they lie upon the ground [...] A cauldron of death was boiling here, where the revenge was carried out" Ninth Army had been decisively defeated, and the southern route to
Minsk was open. == Accounts, further reading ==