A new level of thought was needed to bridge the gap in scale. World War I was an example of the clash between old thought and the new reality. Modern armies became too large, well supplied and resilient to be so easily affected. Nationalised armies and the industrial era changed things. In classic military thought, tactics and strategy were connected because a single battle often could affect a war. All this was due to higher level planning in terms of the operational level, as opposed to only either tactical or strategic thinking or some connecting combination and the necessary capabilities finally being in place. Several more were seriously damaged and the Wehrmacht actually had higher casualties than the Soviets for a change while the Soviets ended up in position to attack directly into the Reich.
Operation Bagration was the grand implementation of this on the largest scale ever and the results were tragic for the Germans. The key in how this was accomplished was a uniquely Soviet innovation in military thought: The operational level of military planning. Everything from the training levels of individual soldiers, the quality of their equipment, the development of supply and transportation networks, increased military mechanization and the skills of their military leaders had finally all come together to allow the Soviets to aggressively pursue the German army. This was the period of ascendancy into total strategic offensive operations for the Soviets over the waning Wehrmacht. January 1944 marks what the Soviets consider the third period of the war for the Red Army. The Forward Detachment within the Soviet Operational Art of War.
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