CONCERT

ˈConcert

Conventional name for the offensive of Soviet partisans during the Great Patriotic War to destroy railway communications in the territory of Belarus to disrupt the transport of German Nazi troops during the Red Army’s advance. The 2nd stage of the Rail War operation. The offensive was conducted from September 19 to the beginning of November 1943, it was planned to explode 140,000 rails.

The operation was elaborated by the Central Headquarters of Partisan Movement (CHPM, CSPR) and Belarusian Headquarters of Partisan Movement; numerous detachments of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Leningrad and Kalinin oblasts, Karelia and Crimea were also involved (more than 120 thousand partisans total).

To ensure the Concert operation, it was supposed to transfer 120 tons of military cargos to Belarus by aeroplanes, but meteorological conditions prevented the aviation from fully completing the task (50 % of the cargos were delivered). In this regard, the CHPM gave instructions to postpone the operation to September 25, but part of the partisan brigades had already reached the starting lines and begun the operation on the night of September 19. The rest of formation started on September 25, made a heavy attack to the enemy’s communication. The German Nazi command transferred new railway battalions to Belarus, brought rails and cross sleepers from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany, but the partisans again exploded railway sections repaired.

In the course of the operation, about 150,000 rails were blown up, including more than 90 thousand in Belarus. Belarusian partisans derailed 1,041 enemy trains, disabled 807 locomotives, 6,360 wagons, platforms and tanks, exploded 72 railway bridges, destroyed more than 400 km of telephone and telegraph lines, etc. As a result of the rail war, the railways traffic capacity decreased by 40 % which seriously affected the enemy troops supply during the period of intense battles at the front, prevented the organisation of their planned withdrawal and the export of looted national goods to Germany. The Concert operation, conducted in close cooperation with the units of the Red Army, provided great help in the implementation of the Soviet troops’ offensive operations in 1943.