Soviet pressure all along the line

Events on the Central Front were not quite as dramatic, though during the autumn of 1943 they severely tested Field-Marshal von Kluge and his commanders. The enemy was superior in men and materiel and kept up his attacks relentlessly.

On October 6 the Kalinin Front, which was to become the 1st Baltic Front on the 20th, opened up an attack on the 3rd Panzerarmee at the point where Army Group "Centre” joined Army Group "North”. Colonel-General Reinhardt’s lines were very thin on the ground and the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Shock Armies were able to break through at Nevel’. The Russians then attempted to drive forwards from the ground they had won north of the Dvina, one arm thrusting towards Polotsk, the other towards Vitebsk. If they won these objectives, the way would then be open to the Baltic coast.

The Germans, however, made a determined stand and counter-attacked, discouraging any further advance by Eremenko’s troops, who nevertheless were able to establish a position south of the Vitebsk-Polotsk railway. In the German 4th Army sector General Sokolovsky and his West Front made repeated attempts to force a crossing of the narrow strip of land between the Dvina at Vitebsk and the Dniepr at Orsha. Each attempt was repulsed with heavy losses to the Russians, who advanced on a narrow front and were massacred by General Heinrici’s heavy concentrations of artillery, which in places amounted to 70 batteries under unified command. A Polish division, the "Tadeusz Kosciuszko”, under Colonel Zygmunt Berling, fought in this battle wearing Red Army uniforms. By the turn of the year the 2nd Baltic Front, formerly the Bryansk Front, under Popov, had reached the Dniepr in the area of Zhlobin and the Belorussian Front, formerly the Central Front (Rokossovsky), was engaged at Mozyr’, 56 miles beyond the Dniepr and in contact on its left with the 1st Ukrainian Front.