Vilnius Offensive The Vilnius Offensive ( ) occurred as part of the third phase of Operation Bagration , the great summer offensive by the Red Army against the " Wehrmacht " in June and July , 1944 . The Vilnius Offensive lasted from the 5th to the 13th of July 1944 , and ended with a Soviet victory . During the offensive , Soviet forces encircled and captured the city of Vilnius ; this phase is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Vilnius . Some three thousand German soldiers of the encircled garrison managed to break out , including their commander , Rainer Stahel . After the offensive , the Vilnius or Wilno Region was liberated from Nazi occupation . Prelude . From 23 June 1944 , the Red Army conducted a major offensive operation under the code - name Operation Bagration , liberating Belarus , and driving towards the Polish border and the Baltic Sea coast . By the beginning of July the front line had been torn open at the seam of German Army Group Centre and Army Group North , roughly on a line from Vitebsk to Vilnius . While a large part of the Soviet force was employed to reduce the German pocket east of Minsk , following the Minsk Offensive Operation , the Soviet high command decided to exploit the situation along the breach to the north , by turning mobile formations towards the major traffic centre of Vilnius , in eastern Lithuania . For the German high command , it became imperative to hold Vilnius , because without it would become almost impossible to re - establish a sustainable connection between the two German army groups , and to hold the Red Army off outside East Prussia and away from the Baltic Sea shores . " Stavka " issued a new order , number 220126 , to the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front on July 4 . This required them to develop their offensive towards Maladzyechna and Vilnius , capturing the latter no later than 10 July , and to force crossings of the Neman River . The 33rd Army was transferred from the 2nd Belorussian Front in order to assist these objectives . The German defenders were still in comparative disarray after the Minsk offensive . Remnants of the Fourth Army that had escaped the encirclement , and units of the 5th Panzer Division ( reorganised into an " ad hoc " " Kampfgruppe " , later redesignated XXXIX Panzer Corps , under General Dietrich von Saucken ) fell back to form a defence before Maladzyechna , an important rail junction ; but the 5th Guards Tank Army was able to cut the route between there and Minsk on July 3 . The offensive . Chernyakhovsky ordered that his main mobile ' exploitation ' forces , the 5th Guards Tank Army and 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps continue their advance from Minsk on July 5 in the direction of Vilnius , with the aim of reaching the city by the following day : they were to encircle Vilnius from the south and north respectively . The rifle divisions of 5th Army were ordered to follow and close up to them . To the south , the 39th Army was directed to move on Lida , while the 11th Guards Army would advance in the Front ' s centre . Soviet reports suggested that units on their northern flank advanced to schedule , noting some resistance from scattered remnants of the destroyed VI Corps of Third Panzer Army , but stated that the 11th Guards Army in particular encountered strong German resistance and several counter - attacks . The 5th Panzer Division was , however , unable to hold Maladzyechna . The Soviet 5th Army was able to advance to the outskirts of Vilnius by July 8 , while the 5th Guards Tank Army encircled the city from the south , trapping the garrison . Lida , another rail junction , was taken by the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps on the evening of July 8 , after the German defenders ( largely from the notorious SS units of " Gruppe " von Gottberg and the Kaminski Brigade ) abandoned their positions in old World War I trench lines , despite reinforcement from Weidling ' s units . The latter gave up their attempt to hold the city on July 9 . The battle for Vilnius . During the battle for the city itself , the Soviet 5th Army and 5th Guards Tank Army engaged the German garrison of " Fester Platz " Vilnius ( consisting of Grenadier Regiment 399 and Artillery Regiment 240 of the 170th Infantry Division , Grenadier Regiment 1067 , a battalion from the 16th Parachute ( " Fallschirmjäger " ) Regiment , the anti - tank battalion of the 256th Infantry Division and other units ) under the command of Luftwaffe Major - General Rainer Stahel . The Soviet 35th Guards Tank Brigade initially took the airport , defended by the battalion of paratroopers ; intense street - by - street fighting then commenced as the Soviets attempted to reduce the defence . The breakout attempt . On 12 July , the garrison ' s parent formation , Third Panzer Army , counter - attacked . 6th Panzer Division , organised into two groups ( " Pössl " and " Stahl " ) attacked eastwards from outside the encirclement ( the divisional commander and Colonel - General Reinhardt personally accompanied the advance group ) . The opposing Soviet forces , taken by surprise and hampered by extended lines of supply , were not able to hold the cordon and 6th Panzer ' s forces were able to advance some 50 km to link up with forward elements from the Vilnius garrison . A fierce battle on the banks of the Neris ensued as men of the Polish Home Army unsuccessfully attempted to stop the relief troops . In the city itself , a Soviet attack on the morning of 13 July managed to split the German forces into two pockets centred around the prison and the observatory ; around 3 , 000 Germans escaped through the corridor opened by the 6th Panzer Division before Soviet forces closed the gap . Even so , 12 - 13 , 000 German troops were lost in the city , which was finally liberated towards the evening of 13 July . Despite the Soviet forces ' success , Rotmistrov ' s commitment of a tank corps in costly urban fighting ( along with earlier disagreements with his Front commander , Ivan Chernyakhovsky ) led to his replacement as commander of 5th Guards Tank Army . Contribution by the Polish Home Army . The battle was also marked by an uprising under the code - name Operation Ostra Brama by the Polish Home Army , in expectation of the arrival of the Red Army , as part of Operation Tempest . The accounts of the battle given by the Home Army differ from the official Soviet account , particularly with regard to the date of Soviet entry into Vilnius . Outcome . While the German aim of holding Vilnius as a " Fester Platz " or fortress was not achieved , the tenacious defence made a contribution in stopping the Red Army ' s drive west for a few precious days : most importantly , it tied down the 5th Guards Tank Army , which had been instrumental in the initial successes of the Red Army during Operation Bagration . This delay gave German forces a chance to re - establish something resembling a continuous defence line further to the west . Hitler recognised this achievement by awarding Stahel the 76th set of Oak Leaves to the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross awarded during the war . Nevertheless , the outcome fell far short of what the German command had hoped for , and the continuous frontline that was established only held for a short time . Without the traffic network based on Vilnius , the German position in the southern Baltics was untenable . By the end of July , the 3rd Belorussian Front was ordered to conduct the Kaunas Offensive Operation to further extend the gains of Operation Bagration . Most of the few remaining Jewish residents of Vilnius , who had been afforded some measure of protection in the HKP 562 forced labor camp by the actions of a " Wehrmacht " officer , Karl Plagge , were murdered by the SS as Soviet forces approached the city . Plagge was however able to issue a coded warning which resulted in around 250 lives being saved .