Bobruysk Offensive The Bobruysk Offensive ( ) was part of the Belorussian Strategic Offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944 , commonly known as Operation Bagration . Planning . Operational goals . The operational goals of the Bobruysk Offensive within the context of Operation Bagration were twofold : German intelligence . Ninth Army headquarters had argued particularly strongly that a major attack against Army Group Centre was imminent , and General Jordan had bitterly complained about the high command ' s refusal to sanction tactical withdrawals , but the Army Group commander , Field Marshal Busch , had brushed these concerns aside . Patrols of the 134th Infantry Division had revealed a buildup in the sector of the 35th and 41st Guards Rifle Corps opposite ; each of the three regiments of the German divisions was faced with a full - strength Soviet rifle division of 7 , 200 men . The Ninth Army was , in general , made up of lower quality divisions than Fourth Army to its north ; this may have reflected a belief on the part of the OKH that the terrain in Ninth Army ' s sector was more easily defensible . Deployments . " Wehrmacht " . The city of Babruysk had been designated a " Fester Platz " , or fortified area , under the command of Major - General Adolf Hamann . The above units were under the overall command of Army Group Centre ( Field - Marshal Ernst Busch ) . Red Army . The above units were under the command of the special representative to " Stavka " , Marshal Georgy Zhukov . The offensive . In the southern sector of operations , where the 1st Belorussian Front under Konstantin Rokossovsky faced Hans Jordan ' s Ninth Army , the main Soviet objective was Babruysk and the southern crossings of the Berezina , which would open up the route for the southern ' pincer ' of the main encirclement . ( Army Group Centre ' s southernmost flank was covered by Second Army in the Pripet Marshes , but this area was largely bypassed by the Soviet offensive . ) Rokossovsky had bravely staked his reputation on a plan for a complex double - envelopment of the German forces at Babruysk , in opposition to Joseph Stalin ' s preferred plan of a single breakthrough in the sector . Rokossovsky ' s attack , as with the other initial offensive operations of Operation Bagration , was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment . The first assault , against strong German defences , was however repulsed with heavy casualties . Rokossovsky ordered further artillery preparation for July 24 , which eventually resulted in a collapse of the 134th Infantry Division to the north of the sector , as the Soviet 3rd Army pushed forward ; the 20th Panzer Division began to counter - attack , but Jordan then ordered it to turn southwards and confront a new breakthrough by the Soviet 65th Army under Batov . The encirclement of the German corps . By June 27 , Soviet forces were converging near Babruysk , trapping the five divisions of Ninth Army ' s northernmost corps , Lieutenant - General von Lützow ' s XXXV Corps , east of the Berezina . Elements of the central XXXXI Panzer Corps were also trapped , along with the 20th Panzer Division . The disorganised German divisions commenced a series of desperate attempts to escape the pocket , which stretched for several kilometers along the river ' s eastern bank : the Soviets reported large fires on 27 June as the Germans destroyed their heavy equipment and attempted to break out , but Soviet air attack and artillery inflicted appalling casualties on the encircled forces . In the meantime , Hitler had relieved Jordan of command due to his confusing instructions to 20th Panzer ; Ninth Army was dealt another blow when its main communications headquarters was destroyed by bombing . On the following day , reinforcements arrived behind German lines in the form of 12th Panzer Division , whose commander was greeted by Ninth Army ' s chief of staff with the words " Good to see you — Ninth Army no longer exists ! " The breakout of XXXXI Panzer Corps . Faced with Ninth Army ' s imminent collapse , OKH authorised a withdrawal . Lieutenant - General Adolf Hamann , Commander ( " Commandant " ) of Babruysk , was ordered to hold the town with one division , Lieutenant - General Edmund Hoffmeister ' s 383rd Infantry Division . Thousands of wounded were abandoned in the citadel . The remnants of 20th Panzer Division , with a handful of tanks and assault guns , formed a spearhead for XXXXI Panzer Corps ' breakout attempt which was placed under Hoffmeister ' s overall command , while 12th Panzer Division attacked from the Svislach River to meet the retreating troops . Though a breakout was achieved through positions held by the Soviet 356th Rifle Division of 65th Army , the German forces were again subjected to intense artillery bombardment and air attack as they attempted to make their way along the roads south of Minsk . The 65th Army takes Babruysk . Batov ' s 65th Army now fought their way into Babruysk street by street against stiff resistance from the German rearguard . Babruysk , in ruins and with much of its population killed during the German occupation , was liberated on June 29 , the 383rd Infantry Division commencing withdrawal towards dawn : no further elements of Ninth Army would escape from east of the Berezina . The German breakout had allowed around 12 , 000 troops - mostly demoralised and without weapons - from the pocket east of Babruysk to get out , but the Soviets claimed 20 , 000 taken prisoner . A further 50 , 000 were dead : Soviet accounts speak of the area being carpeted with bodies and littered with abandoned " materiel " . The Soviet writer , Vasily Grossman , entered Babruysk shortly after the end of the battle : " Men are walking over German corpses . Corpses , hundreds and thousands of them , pave the road , lie in ditches , under the pines , in the green barley . In some places , vehicles have to drive over the corpses , so densely they lie upon the ground [ . . . ] A cauldron of death was boiling here , where the revenge was carried out " Ninth Army had been decisively defeated , and the southern route to Minsk was open . Accounts , further reading . In addition to Vasily Grossman , the writer and future dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was present at Babruysk as an artillery officer ; the experience is mentioned in " The Gulag Archipelago " . Gerd Niepold , the 1st Staff Officer of 12th Panzer Division , later wrote a comprehensive account of Operation Bagration , " Mittlere Ostfront Juni 1944 " .