Yelnya offensive

The Soviet Army's Yelnya Offensive (August 30, 1941- September 8, 1941) was part of the Battle of Smolensk during the Great Patriotic War.

The offensive was against the semi-circular Yelnya salient which the Germans had extended 50km East of Smolensk forming a launching place for an attack on Moscow. On August 26 Stavka ordered the 24th Army (commander: Major General Konstantin Rakutin) to start an offensive on August 30 against the salient. On September 3, under the threat of the encirclement the Germans started retreating from the salient while maintaining resistance on the flanks. On September 6 Yelnya was retaken. The Soviet offensive continued until September 8, when it was stopped at the new German defense line.

This was the most substantial reverse that the Wehrmacht had suffered up to that date and the first successful planned Soviet offensive operation in the Soviet-German war. German losses in the operation were 45,000 killed, wounded or captured.

The Yelnya Offensive is also associated with the creation of the elite Soviet Guards units.

Reference

• Voyenno-Istorichesky Zhurnal (Military History Journal), # 10, October 1986.