Destroyed Pz.Kpfw. IV tanks of the German 20th Panzer Division after the Bobruisk Offensive, Belarus, June 1944. The photograph documents the aftermath of fighting during Operation Bagration.
This photograph shows destroyed Pz.Kpfw. IV tanks of the German 20th Panzer Division following the Bobruisk Offensive in Belarus during June 1944. The image documents the battlefield after the fighting, with damaged armored vehicles and fallen German soldiers still visible among the wreckage.
The Pz.Kpfw. IV was one of the principal German medium tanks of the Second World War and served on every major front throughout the conflict. During Operation Bagration, launched by the Red Army in June 1944, numerous German armored formations were destroyed or abandoned as Soviet forces encircled and defeated units of Army Group Centre. The Bobruisk Offensive became one of the decisive phases of this campaign.
Photographed by Mikhail Markov-Grinberg, this image documents the material destruction and human losses that followed one of the largest Soviet offensives of the war. Today it serves as a valuable historical record of the fighting on the Eastern Front during the summer of 1944.
Technical photo data:
📝 Source of information: Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM)
📍 Location: Belarus, USSR
📅 Date of photo: June 1944
📷 Photographer: Mikhail Markov-Grinberg
Recommended literature:
- David M. Glantz. Belorussia 1944: The Soviet General Staff Study.
- David M. Glantz, Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler.
- Steven J. Zaloga. Operation Bagration 1944: The Destruction of Army Group Centre.
- Pz.Kpfw. IV
- German 20th Panzer Division
- Bobruisk Offensive
- Operation Bagration
- Belarus 1944
- Eastern Front 1944
- German armored losses
- Destroyed German tanks
- Army Group Centre
- World War II battlefield
- Mikhail Markov-Grinberg