Sons of Slava

The Red Army launched the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive after OKH had stripped Army Group North Ukraine to the bare bones in order to plug the holes left by a crumbling Army Group Center. This attack was a major operation in its own right, designed to liberate the last remaining Soviet …

1944-07-18

AP070

The Red Army launched the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive after OKH had stripped Army Group North Ukraine to the bare bones in order to plug the holes left by a crumbling Army Group Center. This attack was a major operation in its own right, designed to liberate the last remaining Soviet territory still being held by the Germans. To help slow the Bolshevik hordes, the Nazis recruited thousands of Russia-phobic local nationalits groups to aid in the defense of their homelands. One such unit was called SS-Infanterie-Division 14 “Galicia”, though it was composed mainly of Ukrainian troops with German officers. Although only nominally trained, they were determined to give a good fight on the rolling hills of eastern Poland.

Busk Sasov, Poland

The Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive or Lvov–Sandomierz strategic offensive operation was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from Ukraine and Eastern Poland. Launched in mid-July 1944, the operation was successfully completed by the end of August. The Lviv–Sandomierz offensive is generally overshadowed by the overwhelming successes of the concurrently conducted Operation Bagration that led to the destruction of Army Group Centre. However, most of the Red Army and Red Air Force resources were allocated, not to Bagration's Belorussian operations, but the Lviv-Sandomierz operations. The campaign was conducted as Maskirovka. By concentrating in southern Poland and Ukraine, the Soviets drew German mobile reserves southward, leaving Army Group Centre vulnerable to a concentrated assault. When the Soviets launched their Bagration offensive against Army Group Center, it would create a crisis in the eastern German front, which would then force the powerful German Panzer forces back to the central front, leaving the Soviets free to then pursue their objectives in seizing the western Ukraine, Vistula bridgeheads, and gaining a foothold in Romania.

Russian

German

Scenario Type = Standard