The 'Lublin-Brest Offensive Operation' was a Soviet undertaking within the larger 'Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation' ('Bagration') to clear the German forces from central and eastern Poland (18 July/2 August 1944).

The offensive was executed by the left wing of Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza Konstantin K. Rokossovsky’s 1^st Belorussian Front 1 against Generaloberst Josef Harpe’s Heeresgruppe 'Nordukraine' and Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model’s Heeresgruppe 'Mitte'.

The operation was undertaken within the context of series of multiple and interlinked Soviet strategic and operational offensives, but in the case of the former most especially the 'Lwów-Sandomierz Strategic Offensive Operation' by Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza Ivan S. Konev’s 1^st Ukrainian Front in the south: both offensives were launched some weeks after the start of the more northerly 'Bagration', which cleared the German forces from most of Belorussia. After reaching its initial target objectives, the offensive was continued as the Soviet forces advanced on Warsaw (2 August/30 September 1944) before halting and refusing to aid the Warsaw rising of the Polish Home Army.

On 15 June Haepe’s Heeresgruppe 'Nordukraine' comprised three armies in the form of Generaloberst Erhard Raus’s 1^st Panzerarmee, General Walther Nehring’s 4^th Panzerarmee and Altábornagy Károly Beregfy’s Hungarian 3^rd Army; and Model’s Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' had Generaloberst Walter Weiss’s 2^nd Army, General Friedrich Hossbach’s 4^th Army, General Nikolaus von Vormann’s 9^th Army and Generaloberst Hans-Georg Reinhardt’s 3^rd Panzerarmee.

After feints on 9/10 July to distract German attentions from the Soviet build-up for the 'Lwów-Sandomierz Offensive Operation', and the success of that offensive from 13 July, Rokossovsky’s front started its own operation as an offensive to the to the west. On 18 July five armies of the 1^st Belorussian Front deployed on the front’s left wing to the south of the Pripyet marshes, struck and shattered the defences of the 4^th Panzerarmee to the west of Kovel. Within hours, the 2^nd Tank Army and several mobile corps had started to exploit this initial success to the west, the Soviet infantry following in their wake. Gusev’s 47^th Army and Chuikov’s 8^th Guards Army ripped into German defences, and by 21 July the Soviet forces had reached the Bug river.

On the following day, Bogdanov’s 2^nd Tank Army began its exploitation toward Lublin and the Vistula river, while the XI Tank Corps and II Guards Cavalry Corps led the drive to the north-west in the direction of Siedlce to cut off the retreat of those of the elements of Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' attempting to hold the area around Brest Litovsk and Białystok. Although Bogdanov was wounded on 23 July during the fighting for Lublin and replaced by General Major Aleksei I. Radzievsky, the rapid advance continued, carrying the lead elements of 8^th Guards Army and 2^nd Tank Army to the eastern bank of the Vistula river on 25 July.

On 24 July Rokossovsky’s forces captured Lublin and pushed on to the west in the direction of the Vistula river in the area to the south of Warsaw. The Stavka ordered Radzievsky to turn his army to the north in the direction of Warsaw to help cut off the lines of retreat for Heeresgruppe 'Mitte'.

On 28 July the Soviet forces took Brest Litovsk, and by 2 August, the 1^st Belorussian Front’s left-wing armies had seized bridgeheads over the Vistula river at Magnuszew (Gusev’s 47^th Army) and Puławy (Kolpakchy’s 69^th Army), and then found themselves embroiled in the opening phase of an almost two-month struggle with counterattacking German forces to retain these vital bridgeheads as launching pads for still larger offensives into heart of central Poland and toward Berlin.

General Hans Freiherr von Funck’s XLVI Panzerkorps of Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' counterattacked from 8 August to reduce the bridgehead, and Generalleutnant Hans Källner’s 19^th Panzerdivision and Generalmajor Wilhelm Schmalz’s 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Hermann Göring' mounted several assaults during early August, but the Soviet lines remained firm.

Further battles of that period included the Battle of Studzianki. This was a tactical engagement between elements of the 2^nd Guards Tank Army employed as a cavalry mechanised group of the 1^st Belorussian Front, together with the 1^st Polish Armoured Brigade and elements of the 9^th Army of Heeresgruppe 'Nordukraine' defending the area to the south of Warsaw.

The 2^nd Tank Army was launched through the breach in the 4^th Panzerarmee's front between Parczew and Chełm, and was intended to bypass Lublin and seek to find a crossing over the Vistula river. The 2^nd Tank Army was supported by the 1^st Polish Army, including its 1^st Polish Armoured Brigade. In a hasty encounter battle, the 1^st Polish Armoured Brigade was incorporated in the first echelon of the 2^nd Tank Army. At the point where the army was able to occupy the Magnuszew bridgehead, the Polish brigade engaged advance elements of the counterattacking 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Hermann Göring', which was under direct orders to prevent the Soviets from crossing the Vistula river. The German counterattack then sought to dislodge the Soviet engineers and the Polish troops supporting them, behind the Vistula river, and thereby eliminate the bridgehead.

On 9 August the Germans captured the village of Grabnowola before attempting to drive forward and destroy the Soviet forward elements. Initially achieving some success until an attack by the 3^rd Polish Tank Company pushed the Germans back, and two days later an attack by the 1^st Polish Tank Company expelled the Germans from the village of Studzianki. Fierce fighting ensued as the German attack stalled with the 1^st Polish Tank Company being forced to fight for the village more than 7 times. On 15 August, however, most of the German force was encircled and destroyed. The remaining German elements continued to fight for another day before they fell back on 17 August.

The battle had been a complete failure for the Germans. Whilst the had initially achieved some success, pushing all the way to the bridgehead itself, they had then been compelled to retreat in the face of the Polish counterattack after losing many men and much equipment. The German losses were in the order of 1,000 or more mewn killed, wounded or taken prisoner, and at least 40 tanks, nine half-track carriers and 26 pines of artillery and mortars, The losses of the Soviets and Poles about 2,000 men killed, wounded or missing, and 27 tanks.

During the offensive bringing the 1^st Belorussian Front’s left wing closer to the Vistula river, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) launched its 'Burza' insurrection in Warsaw: the Soviet advance was one of the factors which accelerated the rising as the Poles both counted on Soviet support but wished to secure their capital independently of the Soviets.

Only days before the start of the rising on 1 August, the Stavka instructed Rokossovsky to dispatch his 2^nd Tank Army in the direction of Praga, Warsaw’s eastern suburb. By 28 July, Radzievsky’s army, with three corps abreast, engaged Generalmajor Kurt Hähling’s 73^rd Division and the 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision some 25 miles (40 km) to the south-east of Warsaw. A race ensued between Radzievsky, who was seeking to seize the routes into Warsaw from the east, and the Germans, who were attempting to keep those routes open and keep their hold on Warsaw.

The 2^nd Tank Army was to be protected on the right by the II Guards Cavalry Corps and the 47^th Army, but the tank army reached the region to the east of Warsaw on 29 July before the slower 47^th Army could provide support as this formation and the II Guards Cavalry Corps were engaged in the battle around Siedlce, some 30 miles (50 km) farther to the east. The Germans counterattacked, in what became known as the Battle of Radzymin, with General Dietrich von Saucken’s XXXIX Panzerkorps and SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Nikolaus Heilmann’s (from 6 August SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS Herbert Otto Gille’s) IV SS Panzerkorps.

Fought on 1/10 August, the Battle of Radzymin was one of the last elements of the 'Belorussian Strategic Offensive Operation near the town of Radzymin near of Warsaw. Part of the battle was a major armoured battle at Wołomin, and this was the largest tank battle on Polish territory in World War II. The battle was a significant Soviet defeat in the area between the Bug and Vistula rivers, and it is unclear to what extent this reverse contributed to the Soviet decision not to aid the Warsaw uprising.

After crossing from Russia into Poland, the 1^st Belorussian Front had continued its advance on Warsaw. The 12 divisions of the 65^th Army, together with the attached I Guards Tank Corps, were to advance towards the town of Serock and then outflank Warsaw from the north. The nine divisions of the 28^th Army, together with I Mechanised Corps and IX Tank Corps, were advancing directly toward Warsaw and the 28^th Army was separated from the 47^th Army by the Siedlce-Mińsk Mazowiecki line, and from the 65^th Army by the Sokołów Podlaski-Węgrów-Radzymin line. It was planned that both armies, additionally supported by the II and IV Guards Cavalry Corps, were to take part in repelling a German tactical counterattack at Radzymin and Wołomin near Warsaw. At the same time, the 10 divisions of the 47^th Army were to seize the southern approaches to Praga, take the east bank part of Warsaw and cross the river across the bridges in Warsaw or across a temporary bridge in Góra Kalwaria. The four divisions of the 70^th Army were to follow those of the 47^th and serve as a tactical reserve.

At the same time the remaining forces of the front were to support the assault on Warsaw by crossing the Vistula river to the south of the city near Magnuszew, and outflank the city from the south and west. The nine divisions of the 8^th Guards Army, together with the three divisions of the Polish 1^st Army and nine divisions of the 69^th Army, supported by the XI Tank Corps, were to cross the Vistula river at Magnuszew.

After Soviet reconnaissance units had reached Warsaw late in July, on 1 August the Warsaw uprising started. Starting from an area to the south of Mińsk Mazowiecki, General Major Nikolai D. Vedeneyev’s III Tank Corps (part of the 2^nd Tank Army) drove to the north-west through Okuniew and Wołomin to Radzymin, reaching an area only 3 miles (5 km) from the strategically important bridge over the Narew river at Zegrze.

In response to Vedeneyev’s thrust, the Germans launched a tactical counterattack near Radzymin on 31 July. Carried out by four understrength Panzer divisions, the undertaking was designed to secure the eastern approaches to Warsaw and the Vistula river crossings, and to destroy the three tank corps of the 2^nd Tank Army in detail. Under Model’s leadership, the 4^th Panzerdivision, 19^th Panzerdivision, 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Hermann Göring' and 5^th SS Panzerdivision 'Wiking' were ordered to move from different areas and concentrate in Wołomin area between 31 July and 1 August. The III Tank Corps managed to check the initial assaults of the 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Hermann Göring' and 19^th Panzerdivision, the arrival of the 4^th Panzerdivision and 5^th SS Panzerdivision 'Wiking' marked the end for the isolated and outnumbered III Tank Corps.

By 1 August, the leading elements of the 19^th Panzerdivision and 5^th SS Panzerdivision 'Wiking', closing from the west and east respectively, linked at Okuniew, isolating the III Tank Corps from the other components of the 2^nd Tank Army. Pressed into the area of Wołomin, the III Tank Corps was wholly encircled and destroyed on 3 August. Attempts to reach the doomed tank corps by the VIII Guards Tank Corps and XVI Tank Corps failed, the VIII Guards Tank Corps suffering heavy losses in the attempt. Although Model had planned to attack the VIII Guards Tank Corps next, the withdrawal of the 19^th Panzerdivision and 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Hermann Göring' to bolster the German defences around the Magnuszew bridgehead forced the remaining German divisions around Okuniew to go over to the defensive.

On 29 July Radzievsky dispatched General Leytenant Aleksei F. Popov’s VIII Guards Tank Corps and General Major Nikolai D. Vedeneyev’s III Tank Corps to the north in an attempt to swing to the north-east of Warsaw and turn the German defence’s left flank, while General Major Ivan V. Dubovoi’s XVI Tank Corps continued to fight on the south-eastern approaches to the city’s suburbs. Although the VIII Guards Tank Corps successfully fought its way to a point 12.5 miles (20 km) to the east of the city, the III Tank Corps ran into a series of Panzer counterattacks.

Starting from an area to the south of Mińsk Mazowiecki, Vedeneyev’s III Tank Corps thrust to the north-west through Okuniew and Wołomin to Radzymin, reaching an area only 3.25 km (5 km) from the strategically important bridge over the Narew river at Zegrze.

In response to Vedeneyev’s thrust, the Germans started a tactical countermove near Radzymin on 31 July. The counterattack by four understrength Panzer divisions was intended to secure the approaches to Warsaw and the crossings of the Vistula river from the east, and was to destroy the three tank corps of the 2^nd Tank Army in detail. Under Model’s overall supervision, Schmalz’s 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision, Källner’s 19^th Panzerdivision, Generalleutnant Clemens Betzel’s 4^th Panzerdivision and SS-Oberführer und Generalmajor Eduard Deisenhofer’s (soon SS-Standartenführer und Oberst der Waffen-SS Johannes Mühlenkamp’s) 5^th SS Panzerdivision 'Wiking' were concentrated from different areas and reached the area of Wołomin between 31 July 31 and 1 August. Although the III Tank Corps initially managed to hold the initial assaults of the 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision and 19^th Panzerdivision, the arrival of the 4^th Panzerdivision and 5^th SS Panzerdivision spelled the effective end of the isolated and outnumbered Soviet formation.

On 1 August the leading elements of the 19^th Panzerdivision and 5^th SS Panzerdivision 'Wiking', closing from the west and east respectively, linked at Okuniew, cutting off the III Tank Corps from the other formations of the 2^nd Tank Army. Pressed into the area of Wołomin, the III Tank Corps was compressed every more tightly and destroyed on 3 August. Attempts to reach the III Tank Corps by the VIII Guards Tank Corps and the XVI Tank Corps failed, the VIII Guards Tank Corps suffering major losses in the attempt.

Although Model had planned to attack the VIII Guards Tank Corps next, the withdrawal of the 19^th Panzerdivision and 1^st Fallschirmpanzerdivision 'Herman Göring' to bolster the German defences around the Magnuszew bridgehead forced the remaining German forces around Okuniew to go on the defensive.

For reasons which are still disputed, on 2 August all the Soviet armies which were to have assaulted Warsaw received revised orders. The 28^th, 47^th and 65^th Armies were now instructed to turn to the north and seize the undefended town of Wyszków and the line of the Liwiec river. The 2^nd Tank Army was left where it was and had to fight the Germans alone, without support of any infantry formations. The 69^th Army was also ordered to halt, while the 8^th Guards Army was instructed to pause and prepare to meet a German counterattack from the direction of Garwolin.

Fighting continued until 10 August, when the Germans finally withdrew. The Soviet losses had been heavy, but not severe enough to affect the overall course of the Soviet thrust to the vicinity of Warsaw. The III Tank Corps had been destroyed, the VIII Guards Tank Corps had sustained heavy losses, and the XVI Tank Corps had suffered lesser but nonetheless significant losses. In overall terms, the 2^nd Tank Army’s losses were significant enough that it had been withdrawn from the front by 5 August.

Between 1 and 10 August, the 2^nd Tank Army had lost 409 men killed in action, 1,271 wounded and 589 missing, and had also lost 284 tanks and self-propelled guns, of which 40% were not recoverable, amounting to 113 armoured vehicles lost permanently, out of 679 available to the army on 30 July.

The Soviets did not blame Vedeneyev for the encirclement and destruction of the III Tank Corps, for he survived the battle and remained in command, and the III Tank Corps was honoured by being designated as the IX Guards Tank Corps in November 1944.

In the larger scheme of things, from 30 July to 5 August the German forces succeeded in pushing back the Soviet vanguards, inflicting heavy losses on them in the process. By 5 August the 47^th Army’s forces had arrived in the area, and the 2^nd Tank Army was withdrawn for rest and refitting. The three infantry corps of the 47^th Army were stretched along a front of more than 50 miles (80 km) from a point to the south of Warsaw to Siedlce, and were unable to undertake any immediately renewal of the drive on Warsaw or to the Narew river with the strength and speed available to the tank units.

The eastward lines of communication to Heeresgruppe 'Mitte' had therefore been damaged but not cut.

After this setback, throughout the entire period up to 20 August the 1^st Belorussian Front’s 47^th Army remained the only major Soviet formation deployed across the Vistula river opposite Warsaw. The Soviets made no attempt to aid the uprising, concentrating on securing the western bank of the Vistula river and not even providing the insurgents with artillery support. At the time, the bulk of the 1^st Belorussian Front’s centre and right wing were struggling to overcome the German defences to the north of Siedlce on the approaches to the Narew river and, according to Soviet accounts, were unable to support any action to aid Warsaw directly. Western and contemporary Polish accounts claim that Iosif Stalin deliberately withheld support for the Polish Home Army as he wanted this Polish force, which supported the Polish government-in-exile and was thus a rival to the pro-Soviet Polish Committee of National Liberation, to be destroyed.

It seems that the Soviets did not blame Vedeneyev for the encirclement and destruction of the III Tank Corps, for Vedeneev survived the battle and remained in command. Moreover, the III Tank Corps was honoured in November 1944 by being designated as the IX Guards Tank Corps.

On 20 August Berling’s Polish 1^st Army joined the 47^th Army. The Soviet forces to the north of Warsaw finally advanced across the Bug river on 3 September, closed up to the Narew river on the next day, and fought their way into bridgeheads across the Narew river on 6 September. The leading elements of two divisions of the Polish 1^st Army finally delivered an assault crossing of the Vistula river into Warsaw on 13 September, but made little progress and were evacuated back across the river 10 days later. The insurgents in Warsaw surrendered on 2 October, and the Soviets finally took Warsaw without a major battle during their advance early in 1945.

The bridgeheads at Serock, at the confluence of the Bug and Narew rivers, had been established by the 65^th Army at the end of the 'Lublin-Brest Offensive Operation' against General Rudolf Freiherr von Roman’s XX Corps of the 2^nd Army. On 3 October elements of Generalleutnant Franz Westhoven’s 3^rd Panzerdivision and Generalmajor Oskar Audörsch’s 25^th Panzerdivision, supported by Generalleutnant Melzer’s 252^nd Division, were committed in an attempt to eliminate the 65^th Army’s positions in the bridgehead. On the southern face, German units reached the bank of the Narew river by 5 October. An attack on the northern part of the bridgehead was planned for 8 October with the 19^th Panzerdivision and 5^th SS Panzerdivision, but the gains made were eliminated by a Soviet counterattack on 14 October.