Timeline of the Eastern Front of World War II

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Below is the timeline of the events of the Eastern Front of World War II, the conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945.

1941[]

• 1941-06-22 Operation Barbarossa launched – Axis invasion of the Soviet Union
• 1941-06-22 – Battle of the Baltic (1941)
• 1941-06-22 – 1941-07-09 Battle of Bialystok-Minsk – Soviet 3rd and 10th armies encircled
• 1941-07-01 – German army entered Latvian capital Riga
• 1941-07-10 – 1941-09-10 Battle of Smolensk – Soviet 16th and 20th armies encircled
• 1941-07-15 – 1941-08-08 Battle of Uman (1941) Battle of Western Ukraine – destruction of Soviet tank armies
• 1941-08-08 – 1941-09-19 Battle of Kiev – Soviet Southwestern Front encircled
• 1941-09-08 – 1944-01-18 Siege of Leningrad – the city of Leningrad and armies of the Leningrad Front encircled
• Operation Silver Fox German and Finnish forces advance north of Leningrad on Murmansk
• Battle of Roslavl
• 1941-10-24 – 1942-01-07 Operation Typhoon – German advance on Moscow
• 1941-10-21 – 1941-10-27 Battle of Rostov – Germans initially occupied Rostov but were over-extended and driven back along shore of Sea of Azov by the Red Army
• Battle of Vyazma-Bryansk— see Battle of Moscow
• 1941-10-10 – Battle of Vyazma – occupied by Germans
• 1941-10-06 – Battle of Bryansk – occupied by Germans
• 1941-10-02 – 1942-01-07 Battle of Moscow – Operation Typhoon stalls. Soviet Winter counter-offensive
• Crimean Campaign – eight-month-long campaign by Axis forces to conquer the Crimea peninsula
• First Battle of Kharkov— Germans occupy Kharkov
• 1941-11-16 – 1942-07-04 Siege of Sevastopol – Crimea is occupied by the Germans
• 1941-12-05 - 1942-04-30 Winter Campaign of 1941–1942

1942[]

• January–April Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive (1942) – disastrous Soviet attempt to cut off the Rzhev salient
• 1942-02-08 Demyansk Pocket
• 1942-05-12 – 1942-05-30 Second Battle of Kharkov – The Soviet spring offensive to re-take the city that ended in encirclement by elements of the 6th Army and 1st Panzer Army.
• July Battle of Voronezh (1942)
• 1942-06-28 Operation Blue The Axis summer offensive to capture the oil fields in the Caucasus. Later on the goal of capturing Stalingrad was added.
• July First Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive
• 1942-07-23 – 1943-02-01 Battle of the Caucasus – German troops climb Mount Elbrus but Axis cannot fight their way through to the Caspian Sea oilfields
• 1942-08-23 – 1943-02-02 Battle of Stalingrad – Bloodiest battle in history
• 1942-11-19 Operation Uranus launched – Romanian and Hungarian armies destroyed; 300,000 Axis troops trapped at Stalingrad
• November–December Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive – another disastrous Soviet attempt to cut off Rzhev salient; Georgy Zhukov's worst defeat
• 1942-12-12 – 1942-12-29 Operation Winter Storm – fails to relieve Stalingrad
• 1942-12-15 – 1943-02-25 Operation Saturn – Soviet offensive destroys the Axis position in the Caucasus and Donbass

1943[]

• March Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive (1943)
• 1943-02-16 – 1943-03-15 Third Battle of Kharkov – Erich von Manstein traps over-extended Red Army
• 1943-07-05 – 1943-08-01 Battle of Kursk – largest tank battle in history; Germans defeated by defense in depth
• 1943-07-30 Battle of the Mius
• August Battle of Belgorod
• August Fourth Battle of Kharkov
• Battle of Smolensk (1943)
• September–November Battle of the Dnieper
• October Battle of Lenino
• November Battle of Kiev
• December–August 1944 Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive

1944[]

• January – Korsun Pocket
• 1944-01-18 – Siege of Leningrad raised
• 1944-01-14 – 1944-03-01 – Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive
• 1944-04-08 – 1944-05-12 – Battle of the Crimea
• February–July – Battle of Narva – Soviet Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive brought to a halt by German forces including Estonian conscript formations
• June–August – Operation Bagration – destruction of German Army Group Centre
• July–August – Lvov-Sandomir Offensive – destruction of German Army Group South
• July – Soviet Narva Operation – Soviet capture of Narva town
• 1944-07-26 – 1944-08-12 – Battle of Tannenberg Line – Soviet advance to Tallinn harbour brought to a halt by German forces
• August – Operation Iassy-Kishinev (German "Operation Jassy-Kischinew") – defeat of German forces in Romania and switching of sides of Romania
• 1944-08-23 – In a coup led by young King Michael, a pro-Allied government ousts the pro-Nazi regime of Romania and declares war on Germany
• August–September – Warsaw Uprising – failed due to lack of outside support
• 1944-08-29 – 1944-10-28 – Slovak National Uprising – Failed coup of Slovak-Soviet irregular forces in Slovakia
• August–October – Battle of the Baltic (1944) – German Army Group North trapped in Courland
• 1944-09-19 – Soviet Union signs Moscow Armistice with Finland
• 1944-10-06 – 1944-10-28 – Battle of Debrecen – German Army Group Fretter-Pico surrounded and destroyed Soviet Mobile Group Pliyev of the 2nd Ukrainian Front
• 1944-10-16 - 1944-10-30 - Gumbinnen Operation (First East Prussian Offensive) - Soviet forces unsuccessfully try to advance into East Prussia after the Battle of Memel
• October – Battle of Belgrade
• 1944-12-29 – 1945-02-13 – Battle of Budapest

1945[]

• 1945-01-12 – 1945-02-02 – Vistula-Oder Offensive – Soviet advance from Poland to deep within the borders of Germany (seen from the location of the borders then)
• 1945-01-13 – 1945-04-25 – Second East Prussian Offensive – Soviet forces advance in East Prussia and besiege Königsberg.
• 1945-02-02 – 1945-02-24 – Lower Silesian offensive
• 1945-02-13 – 1945-05-06 ��� Siege of Breslau
• 1945-03-06 – 1945-03-17 – Lake Balaton Offensive – Last German offensive of the war
• 1945-03-15 – 1945-03-31 – Upper Silesian offensive
• 1945-04-02 – 1945-04-13 – Vienna Offensive
• 1945-04-16 – 1945-04-19 – Battle of the Seelow Heights – Zhukov's costly frontal assault on Berlin
• 1945-04-16 – 1945-05-02 – Battle of Berlin – One month of street-by-street fighting
• 1945-04-24 – 1945-05-01 – Battle of Halbe – Elements of German 9th Army escape to the west
• 1945-04-30 – Death of Adolf Hitler
• 1945-05-07 – Unconditional surrender of Germany in Rheims
• 1945-05-08 – Unconditional surrender of Germany in Berlin
• 1945-05-08 – End of World War II in Europe
• 1945-05-06 – 1945-05-11 – Prague Offensive
• 1945-05-08 – 1945-05-9 – Liberation of Bornholm

See also[]

• List of Military operations on the Eastern Front European Theater during WW2
• Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II
• Timeline of the Second World War

Notes and references[]