On 27 June 1944 Soviet troops managed to push forward and make a deep breakthrough north of Mogilev by crossing the Dnieper River over a bridge at Trebuchi.

The 4th Army dispatched a message to General Erdmannsdorff that Mogilev be held as a "fortified position" and ordered him to hold the town until the very last man.

Later in the evening General Erdmannsdorff reported that German forces had been weakened and the Soviets had started to reach the edge of the city.

The last radio message that was received from Mogilev was at 11 o'clock in the evening and it was Lieutenant General Rudolf Bamler the commanding officer of the 12th Infantry Division requesting that Captain Opke of Artillery Regiment 12 should receive the Oak leaves of the Knight's Cross for "outstanding military exploits".

He was tried by a Soviet tribunal (the Minsk Trial) for crimes committed in Belarus along with 18 other defendants, 14 of whom, including Erdmannsdorff, were sentenced to death on 29 January 1946.