Operation Napoleon (1944 Summer Offensive)

Operation Napoleon was a German offensive conducted on the eastern front in may 1944. The primary goal was to buy time for german industries to deliver fresh weapons, including tanks, artillery, guns, ammunitions and vehicles.'''

By the fall of 1943, the germans were retreating in every sector off the eastern front. Failing to achieve a decisive victory in The Battle of Kursk, the germans were retreating to the newly constructed defenseline across the Dnepr river, tried to repeat the success of the hindenburg line in 1918, bleeding the enemy against the walls, and shortening the fronts for use of troops elsewhere. However, the russians broke the front once again and pushed the germans away from the dnepr river, creating the russian balcony .'''

In 1944, it seemed as the Germans were about to loose the war. The allied had attacked italy and cut the land in two, thus opeinng another front that drained more german resources that were needed for the eastern front. German intelligence had also noticed allied activity in the west, and prosumably a new front was to be created in france. Air raids were also destroying german industries, and after bombardment of oil fields after the more greated air superioty, the german war economy began to falter.

Hitler and his commanders realized this and allthough Manstein was in disput with hitler, the fûhrer realised that he needed help from his commanders to win the war. Hitler, still impressed by the gains of kharkov in march 1943, he gave Manstein total control over army group south. However, the other commanders were still to be sacked by hitler. The largest scapegoat was **** fjkhjj.

Manstein came to the conclusion that, by order of hitler, creating a total "mobile defence frontline" was not realistically possible. The germans lacked both fuel and vehicles to execute that in a larger scale than what was achived in Kharkov 1943. Manstein worked on a plan in late april to stabilise the german front. Intelligence could easily figure out that a wooping 6 separate soviet fronts could attack in any sector. Manstein suggested that the russian balcony prevented the soviets to attack in any sector, otherwise would have created an outstretched and largely outflanked frontline.

The generals, included Manstein, proposed for an offensive in the southen sector, to once again board the dniepr river, and, establish a new more straight defenceline. Manstein know that the plan was very ambitious, but he saw a way that partially reminded of the german attack on france, several years earlier, where german tanks penetrated dangerously deep into the very heart of france, creating chaos. Manstein hoped he could outmanouver the russians, attack them in the back, and force the to retreat, on the way creating heavy casualties. To execute such an offensive in the southern sector, he needed every armoured fighting vehicle, trucks, cars, and heavy equipment that was alltogether left on the eastern front. On the expense of army group north and center, giving up all their tanks, planes and artillery, he hoped he could create two separate spearheads that once again would penetrate the soviet lines, and encircle the russian forces. This would leave the rest of the front very weakly defended and extremly vulnerable to russian attacks.

Also, adequate training for pilots were highly needed.