page_title: Operation Solstice
section_title: Red Army
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Solstice / Deployments / Red Army
caption_attribution_description: English: “Marshal Zhukov speaking”. General Georgy Zhukov speaking. Русский: «Выступление Г. К. Жукова». Генерал армии Г. К. Жуков выступает, стоя на трибуне. Россия, Москва
context_page_description: Operation Solstice, also known as Unternehmen Husarenritt or the Stargard tank battle, was one of the last German armoured offensive operations on the Eastern Front in World War II.
  It was originally planned as a major offensive but was executed as a limited attack, due to hasty planning by the Germans and it being partially compromised by Soviet military intelligence. Intended to relieve the city of Küstrin, Sonnenwende was launched on 15 February 1945 from Stargard, Pomerania. By 18 February, the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front led by Georgy Zhukov had defeated the attack, prompting the Germans to call off the offensive. Despite its failure, the operation had forced Soviet High Command to postpone the planned attack on Berlin from February to April, focusing forces on the East Pomeranian Offensive, launched on 24 February and not concluded until 4 April.
context_section_description: While the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts were impressively large formations, the Soviet forces had also suffered serious losses in the Vistula-Oder Offensive. At the beginning of February 1945, the strength of rifle divisions in the 1st BRF averaged around 4,000 troops and those of the 2nd BRF between 3,000 - 4,000. Soviet army strength was further weakened by the need to besiege encircled groups of German soldiers (Festungen - German: "fortresses") in Elbing, Poznan, Deutsch-Krone, and Schneidemühl. Armored strength was also weakened by the recent offensive operations; the 2nd BRF fielded only 297 well-worn tanks early in February 1945. During the period January 12 - February 3, 1945, the 1st BRF suffered 77,342 casualties (7.5% of its assigned strength) while during the East Prussian Offensive of January 13 - February 10, 1945, the 2nd BRF took 159,490 casualties (18% of assigned strength). In the same periods, the 1st Belorussian and Ukrainian Fronts lost 1,267 armored fighting vehicles while the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts lost 3,525. Gun and mortar losses for the two groups of fronts were 374 and 1,644, respectively. To compound their difficulties, the Soviets faced supply bottlenecks as well as increased German air activity, resulting in increased unit requests for anti-aircraft weapons.
caption: Marshal Georgy Zhukov
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "b'\\xcc\\xe0\\xf0\\xf8\\xe0\\xeb \\xc3.\\xca.\\xc6\\xf3\\xea\\xee\\xe2 \\xe2\\xfb\\xf1\\xf2\\xf3\\xef\\xe0\\xe5\\xf2, \\xf1\\xf2\\xee\\xff \\xed\\xe0 \\xf2\\xf0\\xe8\\xe1\\xf3\\xed\\xe5.'", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:30 12:14:28", "Image Artist": "b'\\xcf. \\xc1\\xe5\\xf0\\xed\\xf8\\xf2\\xe5\\xe9\\xed'", "Image Copyright": "b'\\xd0\\xc8\\xc0 \\xcd\\xee\\xe2\\xee\\xf1\\xf2\\xe8'", "Image ExifOffset": "268", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "364", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4089", "EXIF SubSecTime": "919", "EXIF ColorSpace": "", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "719", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1024"}