Battle of Lenino

The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place from 12 October to 13 October 1943 as part of the Spas-Demyansk offensive operation in the Duki-Ilovets direction near the town of Dribin, north of the village of Lenino in the Mogilev region of the Byelorussian SSR. It was part of the offensive in the 33rd Army (General V.N.Gordov) sector north of Spas-Demyansk, of the Western Front (Soviet Union) to dislodge units of th... more

The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place from 12 October to 13 October 1943 as part of the Spas-Demyansk offensive operation in the Duki-Ilovets direction near the town of Dribin, north of the village of Lenino in the Mogilev region of the Byelorussian SSR. It was part of the offensive in the 33rd Army (General V.N.Gordov) sector north of Spas-Demyansk, of the Western Front (Soviet Union) to dislodge units of the 4th Army of the Army Group Centre forces. The battle is particularly prominent in the Polish military historiography, as it was one of the first major engagements (with significant casualties) of Polish Armed Forces in the East. The Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division under the command of Zygmunt Berling staging in the second echelon of the 33rd Army was destined to receive its first combat test in this operation. The division was ordered to counter-attack a German force which had previously counter-attacked the Red Army units,... less