Army Group Ukraine and the Ninth Army - 14 July to 15 September 1944

1944-07-14/1944-09-15

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.

Wikipedia: Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive