Timeline of the Eastern Front of World War II

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 Western Ukraine – destruction of Soviet tank armies
• 1941-06-22 – 1941-07-09 Battle of Bialystok-Minsk – Soviet 3rd and 10th armies encircled
• 1941-07-10 – 1941-09-10 Battle of Smolensk – Soviet 16th and 20th armies encircled
• 1941-07-10 – 1941-08-08 Battle of Uman – Soviet 6th and 12th armies encircled
• 1941-08-08 – 1941-09-19 Battle of Kiev – Soviet Southern 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
• 1941-12-5 - 1942-4-30 Winter Campaign of 1941–1942

1942

• January–April Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive (1942) – disastrous Soviet attempt to cut off the Rzhev salient
• 1942-2-8 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
• 1942-09-01 – 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 Battle of the Ukraine

1944

• January – Korsun Pocket
• 1944-01-18 – Siege of Leningrad raised
• 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 – Romania switches sides
• 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
• 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)
• 1945-02-13 – 1945-05-06 – Siege of Breslau
• 1945-03-06 – 1945-03-17 – Lake Balaton Offensive – Last German offensive of the war
• 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

Notes and references

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