Failed German offensive against Kursk salient - Ukraine in July 1943 enabled Soviets to launch their offensive against German Heeresgruppe Sud (Army Group South) in August 1943 to regain Ukraine region. With Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, Germans striped armor reserves on Ostfront and dispatched them to Italian front (these reinforcements also prevent Italian Fascist government from signing a conditional surrender with Allies like Vichy French forces did in North Africa in Nov 1942).

Related model and history : F4F Wildcat Fighter and surrender of Vichy French forces in North Africa, Nov 1942 - UweMilitaria.org/3-Aerial/AfricanWildcat/19.html

Spring 1944, Soviet offensive in southern front secured majority of Ukraine, thus pushed a salient into German Ostfront lines. From this launch point, German weight options of defending Byelorussia (with its major transportation hub in Minsk) within Army Group Center sector, or defending Romania (with its Polesti oil fields) in Army Group South sector. With crucial shortage of Panzer and Panzergrenadier forces, Germans formed mobile reserves to be deployed in-masse in countering Soviet offensive breakthroughs.

Related model and history : Hetzer tank destroyer and Soviet 1943-1944 Winter Offensive - UweMilitaria.org/2-Track/Hetzer/17.html

Inset 1 : Soviets prepared 19 infantry armies, 2 tank armies, 5,200 tanks, 31,000 artillery, 5,000 aircraft, totaling 1.4 million men. Germans countered with 900 tanks, 9,500 artillery, 1,350 aircraft, and 1.2 million men. However, in one of the greatest military deceptions, German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command) was convinced Soviet main offensive blow would fall on Army Group North Ukraine near Tarnopol by accepting faked radio broadcasts as bonafide disposition orders. In meantime, Soviets began secret build-up against German Army Group Center via night-time maneuvers targeting Vitebsk - Orsha - Rogachev region. Oberkommando der Wehrmacht - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OKW

Although Germans intercepted Soviet radio commands to their Partisan groups to commence behind-the-lines sabotage operations on 20 June 1944, Germans transferred bulk of armor reserves southward into Army Group North Ukraine in preparation for anticipated offensive, thus depleted Army Group Center of armor forces (remaining defensive armor were mainly assault guns and self-propelled guns, such as Sturmartillerie-Brigade 667). RED ARMY DECEPTION: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GERMAN ARMY GROUP CENTER (OPERATION BAGRATION, 22 June - 29 August 1944) - www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_3-88_histp.htm

Note WW2 Soviet partisan groups were considered most organized, coordinated, and militarily successful of all Allied partisan organizations since they were directly controlled by Soviet military high command. In addition, they were also an ethno-political homogeneous group (Russians, Ukrainian, Byelorussian indoctrinated in Soviet Bolshevikism) contrasted with other rancorous Allied partisan groups in France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. As for brutality of Allied partisan attacks versus draconian Axis retaliations, each successive postwar generation will pass their own judgment on its moral consequences. Soviet partisans - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisan

22 June 1944 : Soviet launched Operation Bagration (3-year anniversay of 22 June 1941 German invasion) against German Army Group Center, with a preliminary 9,500-gun artillery bombardment against urban centers of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogliev, Bobruisk and achieved 9 major penetrations across entire corps sector by June 23rd. With German armor reserves caught out of position in Army Group North Ukraine, her frontline forces were encircled and quickly collapsed in unison, Vitebsk on June 26th, Orsha on June 27th, Mogliev on June 28th, Bobruisk on June 29th. Soviet offensive was named after Russian Prince Ivanovich Bagration who battled Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Czarist Empire. Prince Ivanovich Bagration - www.napoleon-series.org/research/russians/c_bagration.html

Rollover : Another magnitude of German defeat was Chancellor Adolf Hitler's "No Retreat" order. Although Germans prepared defensive lines 20 miles deep, Hitler ordered all encircled German units to hold current position as festePlatze (German for Firm Place or Fortress Plaza) and wait for relief column or "zum Letzte Patrone" (to the last cartridge or fight to the last man). This only accelerated German collapse since units could not maneuver to escape encirclement and armor reinforcements could not arrive in time from Army Group North Ukraine to thwart disaster. The result : German IX Corps destroyed at Vitebsk frontier, LIII Corps encircled at Vitebsk pocket (30,000 men lost), 9th Army encircled at Bobruisk pocket (70,000 men wiped out on June 29th). Operation Bagration - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration

German 4th Army encircled at Orsha, its commander Gen. Tippelskirck desperate to save his forces, ignored Hitler's orders, sent falsified combat reports that he was holding his festePlatze, while ordering general westward retreat. 4th Army made it to Berezina river east of Minsk before being wiped out. By 3 July 1944, Soviet forces reached outskirts of Minsk, street battles ensued as 43,000 Germans trapped inside city were wiped out within 24 hours, Soviet retook city on July 4th.

Offensive lasted 68 days from June 23rd to August 29th, Soviets gained depth up to 350 miles across a 700-mile front. Estimates varied for German losses, German recorded 260,000 killed, 250,000 wounded 116,000 POW. Soviet recorded 400,000 killed, 590,000 wounded, 158,000 POW. 50 German divisions lost over 50% manpower, 17 out of 97 divisions wiped from order of battle, along with 3 out of 13 armor brigades (Sturmartillerie-Brigade 667 battled through Soviet encirclements, but was so depleted that it merged with Sturmartillerie-Brigade 245 until war's end). Soviets acknowledge loss of 60,000 killed and 110,000 wounded. Operation Bagration (Belarus Embassy) - www.belarusembassy.org/belarus/worldwarII/operation_bagration.htm

Inset 2 : Soviet 1944 Bagration offensive success had dire consequences upon postwar Eastern Europe beyond Bolshevik socio-political domination. Firstly, to redress territorial losses from 1917 WW1 defeat of Russian Empire and subsequent 1920s border war with Poland, Soviets secured Big-3 Allied approval (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union) at Feb 1945 Yalta Conference in seizing 20,000 square miles of eastern Poland up to so-called Curzon Line, ostensibly to reintegrate ethnic Byelorussian and Ukrainian population back into Soviet Union. Poland was compensated via transfer of 20,000 square miles of Germany's East Prussia and parts of Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia. However, postwar Poland now had significant numbers of ethnic-Germans within her borders, thus deciding on a concise ethnic homogeneous nation, Poland expelled these Germans back to Germany. Yalta Conference - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference

Secondly, Baltic States (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia) which gained brief independence after WW1 until 1940 Soviet invasion, generally allied with Germans in WW2 to prevent Soviet re-domination. 1945 witnessed Soviet reconquest of Baltic States as part of Soviet socialist republics. When Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt confronted her husband US President Franklin Roosevelt on democratic plight of Baltic States, he allegedly replied that in the greater postwar European division, no one is going to worry about loss of three small nations to the Soviets. Baltic States would have to wait until 1991 collapse of Soviet Union before regaining full independence. Baltic states - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_states

Thirdly, fearing ethnic Germans may allied with another future German Reich generations to come, all European nations (especially eastern regions) attempted to rectify dilemma via massive expulsion of Reichsdeutsche (people who declared German Reich citizenship during WW2) and Volksdeutsche (people with ethnic German lineages). End of Cold War in 1990s revealed about 16 million of these Germans were deported to West Germany, East Germany, or Soviet gulags. Increasingly, this postwar contention has assumed national attention in various German elections, most notably by right-wing parliamentary success in eastern Germany. Expulsion of Germans after World War II - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_after_World_War_II