Eighty years ago a titanic Soviet offensive begins with a hugely successful deception

 

Once Stalin had the assurance that Britain and the USA were fully commited to the invasion of Europe, he launched Operation Bagration (named after a general killed at the Battle of Borodino in the 1812 war), the largest offensive on the eastern front involving 166 Red Army divisions. The intitial thrust was in Byelorussia towards Minsk. Adroit and extensive deception measures had persuaded the Germans that the Soviets would attack north and south of the true area, which gave the Red Army a superiority of 7:1 over the German Army Group Centre  on which the assault fell.

The Japanese army had persisted in its attacks on Kohima even though there was no prospect of success. This destroyed any hope there might have been of an orderly retreat. The two British-led 14th Army forces relieving the siege met north of Imphal, marking the decisive defeat of the Japanese offensive. All that was left was piecemeal, chaotic withdrawal.

At the western end of the Normandy beachhead the US army took the port city of Cherbourg after a few days of siege. Some 30,000 German troops were captured but the port installations had been so comprehensively wrecked that it took weeks for them to return to even limited operation. The garrison commander was awarded the Knights Cross for the sabotage operation even though he had surrendered.

The British army attempted to encircle the city of Caen, which anchored the eastern flank of the German position in Normandy. They had hoped (dimly) to capture Caen on D-Day itself. Operation Epsom took the form of a frontal attack on extensive German positions; it was handicapped by poor weather which left the ground water-logged and grounded Allied aircraft, denying the benefit of air superiority. Epsom failed in its positional goals but forced Rommel to commit his final reserves to holding the attack.