"German Stalingrad": the Breslau garrison fought to the death!
Silence on the Oder. The photograph shows a view from the Groschelbrücke bridge over the Oder River in the northern part of Breslau. May 1945.
General situation
In the final stages of the Great War, the defense of the Third Reich began to rely on “fortress cities” (festungs), which were supposed to tie down and delay the Red Army troops.
On July 25, 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau a fortress that had to be defended from all directions. The Führer appointed Karl Hanke, who was endowed with extraordinary powers and was the commander of the Volkssturm militia units stationed in Breslau, as the city's Gauleiter and commandant of the defense area.
The city, located in the rear and least subject to Allied bombing aviation, became the center of the evacuation of the military industry. Defense factories from other cities were moved here, workers were brought in. As a result, large warehouses of weapons, ammunition and food were located there.
A battery of Soviet 152mm ML-20 howitzer guns fires at German positions in Breslau.
The city was literally packed with German refugees who had been evacuated from the eastern regions of the Reich. Up to 1 million people had accumulated there. On January 19, 1945, Hanke ordered all the population unfit for military service to immediately leave Breslau, which had been declared under siege, and evacuate in the direction of Dresden. Trains and buses could not take such a huge number of refugees. The bulk of the refugees went on foot.
During the evacuation, which was not properly prepared, panic set in. It was a freezing time, and many thousands of old people, women and children died. January 21 was called "Black Sunday".
Despite the evacuation, up to 300 civilians remained in the city. According to various estimates, between 10 and 80 civilians died during the siege.
During the Vistula-Oder operation, troops (To Berlin!) of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Konev entered the territory of Silesia, reached the Oder and the approaches to Breslau. Soviet troops fought to capture and expand bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder in the areas of Steinau, Brig and Oppeln (The Death Blow to the Third Reich's War Economy).
On February 8, 1945, the 1st Ukrainian Front began the Lower Silesian Operation. Marshal I. S. Konev recalled:
“The main blow was planned to be struck from two large bridgeheads on the Oder - north and south of Breslau. As a result, the encirclement of this strongly fortified city was to follow, and then, taking it or leaving it in the rear, we expected to develop the offensive by the main group directly on Berlin. ”
On February 13, the mobile units attached to the 6th and 5th Guards armies, advancing towards each other, joined up west of Breslau. On the same day, having carried out a rapid maneuver, the corps of the 3rd Guards reached the Striegau area. tank armies. Counterattacks by German units that tried to maintain the corridor to Breslau were repelled. Soviet infantry quickly created a tight encirclement ring around Breslau.
Soviet forces
The encirclement of the fortress was completed on February 16, 1945 by the forces of the 6th Army under the command of General Vladimir Gluzdovsky and the 5th Guards Army under the command of General Alexei Zhadov. But already on February 18, the 5th Guards Army went to the outer ring of encirclement in the Berlin direction, and until the end of the siege it was led by units of the 6th Army: the 22nd and 74th Rifle Corps, the 7th Fortified Region, an engineer brigade, and two flamethrower battalions.
Additional artillery, including heavy (siege), there were no tanks or self-propelled guns. Therefore, the Germans repelled the first attacks quite easily.
Later, the army was reinforced by the 349th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery, 87th Guards Heavy Tank (from March) and 222nd Tank Regiments.
The air blockade of the fortress was carried out by the 71st Anti-Aircraft Division and the 173rd Fighter Aviation Regiment from the 56th Fighter Aviation Division. From March 10, 1945, the 10th Corps was connected to the blockade. Defense.
Machine gunners of the 1st Ukrainian Front during the battles in Breslau. March 1945
German defense
The city was defended by the Breslau corps group (according to various estimates, from 50 to 80 thousand people, including up to 30 thousand militiamen). The military commandant of the city was initially Major General Hans von Alphen, and from March - General of the Infantry Hermann Niehoff.
Political power in the fortified area was retained by Gauleiter Karl Hanke, who was endowed with dictatorial powers. He shot and hanged everyone who wanted to leave the city without the Fuhrer's order. Thus, on January 28, the second mayor of Breslau, Spielhaten, was executed by order of the Gauleiter.
Mayor of Breslau Wolfgang Spielhagen (1891–1945). Member of the NSDAP, in 1940 he served as the acting head of the city administration of Breslau, and from 1941 he was the 2nd mayor (deputy chief mayor) of Breslau. According to eyewitnesses, in January 1945 he proposed to the Gauleiter of Lower Silesia and commandant of the "fortress city of Breslau" Hanke to declare Breslau a free city due to the futility of resistance. On 27.01.1945 January XNUMX he was shot on Hanke's orders, and his body was thrown into the Oder.
Soviet war correspondent Viktor Shilkin noted:
"The SS men, led by Hitler's Gauleiter Hanke and the garrison commander, the fortress commandant General von Nihoff, established a bloody regime in the city. In the garrison, there were two SS men for every squad of soldiers. The SS men shot anyone who avoided battle or defensive work. Not only deserters or soldiers who tried to go into captivity were shot, but also their families."
The garrison and the remaining inhabitants of the city were convinced that their job was to hold out at this strategic point until the Wehrmacht launched a counteroffensive and liberated them. There was a belief that the troops of Army Group Center, located southwest of Breslau, would break through the encirclement. Also, at first, the soldiers and citizens believed in the appearance of a “miracle-weapons", which would save the Reich, and the success of the offensive in Silesia and Pomerania. Rumors were spreading about the imminent collapse of the anti-Hitler coalition, a conflict between the Western powers and the USSR.
In addition, the front had stabilized relatively close to the city, and artillery cannonade could be heard from there, which for a long time supported the garrison’s hopes for the imminent arrival of help.
German soldiers, father and son, both Iron Cross recipients, take up positions on the outskirts of Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). They are likely from the Fortress Regiment Wehl, formed from Luftwaffe ground personnel. They are armed with Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifles. February 1945.
The city had enough food for a long siege. The situation with ammunition was worse. But it was delivered via an organized "air bridge". The planes landed at the Gandau airfield. Also, during the siege, small units of paratroopers were airlifted into the city and the wounded were evacuated. Thus, on February 25, units of the 1st battalion of the 26th parachute regiment were airlifted, and on March 6, a battalion of the special purpose parachute regiment.
The Gandau airfield was under constant threat of capture. Therefore, Hanke decided to build a new airfield in the city center along one of the main streets of the city – Kaiserstrasse. To do this, it was necessary to remove all the lighting masts, wires, cut down trees, uproot stumps and even demolish dozens of buildings (to expand the runway) for almost one and a half kilometers. There were not enough sappers to clear the territory of the internal airfield, so the civilian population had to be involved.
At first, Soviet intelligence underestimated the enemy, believing that separate units of the 20th Tank Division, the 236th Assault Gun Brigade, a combined tank company, artillery and anti-aircraft units, and 38 Volkssturm battalions (about 15 thousand people) were located in the city.
The Breslau garrison began to form only in early 1945, when the Russians broke through the German defenses on the Vistula line. On January 26, the 609th Special Purpose Division was formed (consisting of three infantry, an artillery regiment, and a tank company), and the active formation of Volkssturm battalions began. By the beginning of the defense, the 269th Infantry Division was in the city, but it mostly managed to leave Breslau before it was encircled. Five fortress regiments and an artillery fortress regiment (2 divisions and 6 fortress batteries) were formed from various and training units, Air Force, and SS units.
Gauleiter of Lower Silesia Karl Hanke inspects the Raketenwerfer 43 mounted grenade launchers
At the same time, the Breslau fortress had a large combat-ready reserve that could be used to reinforce the front lines. It consisted of much less combat-ready Volkssturm militiamen, workers from military factories and enterprises, as well as members of National Socialist structures and organizations fit for military service.
The main forces of the German garrison were concentrated in the southern and western areas. The southeastern, eastern and northern parts of the city were covered by natural barriers: the Weide River, the canals of the Oder River, the Ole River with wide floodplains. In the north, the terrain was swampy, which did not allow the use of heavy weapons.
The Nazis created a strong defense. Numerous stone buildings, gardens and parks allowed for the covert placement of fire weapons and their camouflage. The roads were blocked in advance with heaps of stones and logs, barricades and ditches, mined, as were the approaches to them, and were shot at. At the same time, the city itself and its suburbs had a network of good roads, which allowed the Germans to quickly transfer their tanks, assault guns and artillery to the dangerous area.
The armored vehicles were in the commandant's reserve (up to 50 units), and they were used in small groups (1-2 tanks, 1-3 self-propelled guns) in active areas to support the infantry.
A column of German troops enters Breslau. Ahead of the tractor, the Sd.Kfz 10 tows a 75-mm anti-tank gun PaK 40. The German units are preparing for the defense of Breslau, which is declared a fortified city. February 1945
Assault
On February 18, 1945, the 6th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment (349 ISU-8) was transferred to Gluzdovsky's 152th Combined Arms Army. Each rifle regiment allocated an assault group (combined battalion) for combat operations in the city. Assault battalions of the 62nd Separate Engineer-Sapper Brigade, whose fighters were trained for urban combat and the capture of long-term fortifications, were also involved in the assault. The personnel of these units were armed with protective armor, ROKS flamethrowers (Klyuev-Sergeev backpack flamethrower), portable launchers for rockets, captured Faustpatrones and explosives.
The assault groups' combat operations lasted from February 18 to May 1, 1945 (in anticipation of the enemy's complete capitulation, the troops blocking Breslau ended their offensive operations). Due to a shortage of forces, the Soviet troops mainly operated in the western and southern parts of the fortified area. The offensive was uneven: sometimes there was an intensification, sometimes a pause. During the pause, reconnaissance, regrouping and replenishment of forces, delivery of ammunition, and targeting of a new quarter were carried out.
Soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front in battle on the streets of Breslau
The first assault (there had been separate attacks before) began on the night of February 22, 1945, in the southern part of Breslau. After the artillery preparation, the batteries began to accompany the assault groups. The self-propelled guns moved behind the main forces of the assault groups at a distance of 100-150 meters along the streets from south to north. At the request of the infantry, they hit the enemy's firing points. The self-propelled guns moved at some distance from each other, pressing against the walls of houses, supporting their neighbors with fire. Periodically, the self-propelled guns conducted harassing and aimed fire at the upper floors of houses to support the actions of the infantry and sappers, who were clearing a path through the rubble and barricades. Unfortunately, there were also mistakes, for example, two vehicles broke ahead of the infantry and were knocked out by Faustniks.
Soviet sappers actively used directed explosions, using water supply manhole covers as reflectors. Then, they directed fiery streams from flamethrowers into the breaches made in the barricades and walls of buildings.
To destroy obstacles and make passages in minefields, the craftsmen from the 42nd Mechanized Engineering Brigade set up a home-made production of so-called “sapper torpedoes” from captured aerial bombs – 100-kilogram “cigars” made of molten TNT, the basis of which were rockets.
Our troops encountered fierce resistance, and the Nazis repelled the first assault aimed at the city center.
German soldiers inspect a Soviet T-34-85 tank, destroyed on a street in Breslau. February - March 1945.
The crew of the Soviet 76-mm divisional gun ZiS-3 of Sergeant S. I. Golub at the firing line in Breslau.
New attacks
In early March, the 6th Army was reinforced by the 222nd Separate Tank Regiment (5 T-34, 2 IS-2, 1 ISU-122 and 4 SU-122) and the 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment (11 IS-2). The 349th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment was significantly reinforced (29 ISU-152). This strengthened the assault forces, and the fighting resumed with renewed vigor.
As before, tanks and self-propelled guns moved behind the infantry, acting as mobile firing points. The infantry line was usually marked with green or white rocket, red - indicated the direction of fire. Tanks or self-propelled guns made several shots, and the shooters went on the attack under cover of smoke and dust, taking advantage of the fact that the enemy's firing point was suppressed or the Nazis hid in shelters under fire. Soldiers burst into the building, actively using grenades.
Some buildings were destroyed by direct fire, and brick fences and metal barriers were destroyed by cannon fire. To avoid losses, tanks and self-propelled guns changed their firing positions only after the houses, floors, attics and basements had been completely cleared. Sometimes heavy tanks and self-propelled guns were used as battering rams, making passages in fences and barricades.
Tank IS-2 No. 537 of Lieutenant B. I. Degtyarev from the 222nd separate tank Ropshinsky Red Banner Order of Kutuzov III degree regiment, knocked out at Striegauerplatz in the German city of Breslau.
In the best traditions of Russian ingenuity, tank crews used river anchors to pull apart rubble and barricades. A tank or self-propelled gun approached the rubble under cover of fire from another vehicle, sappers hooked the anchor onto logs, beams and other objects in the rubble, the armored vehicle reversed and pulled apart the obstacle. Sometimes, tank landing forces were used. One tank or self-propelled gun fired at the object, while another with landing forces on board moved at high speed toward the building, stopping at a window or door. The landing forces broke into the building and began close combat. The armored vehicle retreated to its original positions.
However, these forces were not enough to make a decisive turn in the battle for Breslau. In March, there was only a small success in the center, where our assault groups managed to advance from Hindenburg Square in the north direction by four blocks, in other areas only by 1-2 blocks.
The Germans believed that the city would be saved, they just had to hold out. The battles were extremely stubborn. The Germans fought desperately and skillfully, defending every house, floor, basement or attic. The battles were especially fierce on the approaches to the airfield, in the industrial zone of the city.
When retreating, German units blew up and set fire to houses and buildings to delay the enemy. They destroyed tunnels and sewers, all underground communications, so that the Russians could not use them in the underground war. The Nazis used "land torpedoes" - remote-controlled tankettes of the "Goliath" type. As the city was destroyed, Breslau turned into a "German Stalingrad" - a pile of ruins.
The German "tactics of destruction" turned out to be quite effective. After destroying one line of defense, the Nazis retreated into entire houses and buildings, creating a new line of defense. Soviet units that tried to get through the ruins found themselves in the line of fire. The Germans mined the remaining buildings, set local and continuous fires that had to be bypassed. Wasting time and resources.
Fighting on a railway track near Breslau. 1st Ukrainian Front. A soldier holds a DP-27 light machine gun.
The Chief of Staff of the 22nd Corps, Colonel A. Chichin, wrote about the enemy’s tenacity in his personal diary, saying that the enemy was resisting to the death. On March 27, he noted:
"There is no success. Reasons: little infantry, no cooperation with aviation, no artillery can take the basements, and there is no opportunity to use it in street battles. The Germans are strong with panzerfausts and basements. They are fighting to the death...".
Entry from April 10:
"I will tell posterity how we took Breslau, how we fought with the Volkssturm: until you blow up a basement, an apartment, an entrance or an entire house, these Volkssturm fight to the death. Behind them - behind their backs - are the SS."
They tried to use the 87th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment in the northern sector, but it was unsuccessful. The sappers were unable to clear all the road blockages in time, and when the heavy tanks moved off-road, they got stuck in the swampy terrain and became easy prey for the enemy. After this failure, no more active actions were conducted in the northern direction.
A group of German soldiers during a break in fighting in the suburbs of Breslau. The corporals in the center and on the right are armed with a Gewehr 43 (G 43) self-loading rifle.
Soviet machine gunners and a Maxim machine gun crew on Neukircherstrasse in Breslau. March 1945.
"Easter battle"
The assault on the city took on a positional character. Our troops recaptured the enemy house by house, block by block, slowly "biting" into the depths of the city. But the German garrison also showed persistence and ingenuity, and fought back fiercely.
The commander of the engineer battalion of the 609th division, Captain Rother, recalled:
"The streets between the German and Russian positions were littered with rubble, broken bricks and tiles. So we came up with the idea of laying mines disguised as rubble. To do this, we covered the wooden bodies of anti-personnel mines with drying oil and then sprinkled them with red and yellowish-white brick dust, so that they were indistinguishable from brick. Mines prepared in this way were indistinguishable from a distance of three meters from the brick. At night, they were laid with fishing rods from windows, basement hatches and balconies or from the ruins of houses, unnoticed by the enemy. Thus, a few days later, a barrier of 609 such anti-personnel mines disguised as bricks was installed in front of the 5th engineer battalion."
In April 1945, the main fighting took place in the southern and western parts of Breslau. On April 1, Easter Sunday, Soviet aviation and artillery launched powerful strikes on the city. City blocks went up in flames, buildings collapsed one after another. Under a curtain of fire and smoke, Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns launched a new attack. The "Easter battle" had begun.
German machine gunners fire from a window of a building during fighting in Breslau. April 1945.
Armored vehicles punched holes in the weakening enemy defense, flamethrowers destroyed pillboxes and bunkers, concentrated artillery fire from close range swept away everything alive. The German defense was broken through, our troops captured the main "artery" of the fortress - the Gandau airfield. Breslau was completely cut off from the Reich, since the "internal airfield" on Kaiserstrasse was unsuitable for landing large aircraft that brought weapons and ammunition, and took away the wounded and sick. It became obvious that the fortress's position was hopeless. But the military-political command of the fortress city did not respond to calls for surrender.
The battle continued in the following days. The main battles were fought in the western part of the city-fortress, so all tank and self-propelled regiments were subordinated to the commander of the 74th Rifle Corps, Major General Vorozhishchev. Armored vehicles supported the actions of the 112th, 135th, 181st, 294th, 309th and 359th Rifle Divisions.
On April 3, the 6th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment was transferred to the 374th Army. The self-propelled gunners were tasked with reaching the right bank of the Oder River in cooperation with the 294th Division.
By April 15, despite strong enemy resistance, the task was partially completed. From April 18, the SPG regiment performed the same task, but now supported the offensive of the 112th Division. In the battle on April 18, the 374th SPG regiment lost 13 ISU-152 out of 15. The Germans were able to disperse and destroy the landing force (50 people), the rest of the infantry of the assault detachment was cut off, and the Faustniks burned the SPG. Later, the self-propelled guns of the 374th regiment helped our assault troops take several blocks.
Soviet ISU-122 self-propelled gun, destroyed during the fighting in Breslau. March - April 1945.
Artillerymen of one of the rifle divisions of the 6th Army fire 45-mm 53-K guns at an enemy stronghold on Gutenbergstrasse in the city of Breslau. April 1945.
On April 30, 1945, our troops stopped the offensive, waiting for Germany to capitulate. Breslau did not surrender even after Berlin capitulated on May 2, 1945 (The Fall of Berlin: "We finished him off!"). On May 4, the townspeople, through the priests, suggested to Commandant Niehoff that they lay down their arms to stop the suffering of the people. The suffering of the civilian population had become unbearable. The general gave no answer.
On May 5, Gauleiter Hanke announced in the city newspaper (its last issue) that surrender was prohibited under penalty of death. Hanke himself escaped by plane on the evening of May 5. He landed in Prague, where he joined SS units that were trying to break through to the west and surrender to the Americans. He was captured by Czech partisans south of Chomutov and placed in a prisoner of war camp. In June 1945, while a group of German prisoners attempted to escape, he was probably killed by Czech guards.
After Hanke's escape, General Niehoff entered into negotiations with Army Commander Gluzdovsky on the issue of the honorable surrender of the fortress. The Soviet side guaranteed life, food, the safety of personal property and awards, the return to the homeland after the end of the war; medical care for the wounded and sick, safety and normal living conditions for the entire civilian population.
May 6, 1945 Breslau capitulated. By the evening of the same day, all German troops were disarmed, our units occupied all quarters. On May 7, 1945, gratitude was declared to the troops who took Breslau, and in Moscow salute was given by 20 artillery volleys of 224 guns.
The German garrison lost about 30 people killed and wounded, and more than 45 were taken prisoner. Several thousand more wounded were taken away by plane. The trophies included 559 guns, 534 mortars, 36 tanks, and about 7000 vehicles of all types. The Soviet total losses were more than 31 people.
Senior Sergeant I. Kireev fires a captured German Faustpatrone grenade launcher during a night battle in the city of Breslau.
Soviet ISU-152 self-propelled guns on the street Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland). With a high degree of probability, the ISU-152 in the photo is from the 349th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Regiment (regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Shishov).
The meaning of the "miracle of Breslau"
The defense of Breslau was exploited by Goebbels's office, who compared the battle to the Battle of Aachen during the Napoleonic Wars. The "Miracle of Breslau" became a symbol of national resilience. The German garrison fought for almost three months, held most of the city until the end of the war, and surrendered only after the capitulation of the entire Reich.
Thus, the German military historian Kurt Tippelskirch noted that the defense of Breslau became “one of the most glorious pages in stories the German people. "
However, he also noted that the defense of Breslau had strategic significance only in the first phase of the Red Army's winter offensive of 1945, that is, in January and the first half of February 1945. At that time, the Breslau fortified region attracted part of the forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which made it easier for the German command to create a new line of defense from Lower Silesia to the Sudetenland. After February, the defense of the fortress no longer had military significance; several Soviet divisions besieging Breslau did not reduce the forces of the Red Army.
That is, Breslau could have capitulated without damage to the Wehrmacht already at the end of February - beginning of March 1945. But the political significance of the defense of the fortress city (propaganda) had more weight than the military one.
An assault group of sappers led by squad leader Senior Sergeant Vasily Mozgovoy from the 58th Engineer-Sapper Battalion of the 62nd Engineer-Sapper Nikopol Red Banner Brigade crawls and drags boxes of explosives to blow up a house that the enemy has turned into a fortified point.
Why the Red Army was unable to storm Breslau
The answer is simple. The front command almost immediately withdrew all forces from this area, except for the rather weak 6th combined arms army of Gluzdovsky. The 6th army conducted the siege mainly with its own forces (two rifle corps - 7 rifle divisions, 1 fortified area), without additional artillery and tank forces. Its forces were too few for a full-fledged assault from several directions, which would have definitely led to the fall of the fortress. The Germans could maneuver their forces, transfer reserves to one dangerous direction.
At the same time, the Soviet command initially greatly underestimated the size of the enemy garrison. At the beginning of the siege, its numbers were estimated at only 18 fighters (not counting the militia), but as the siege dragged on, the estimate of its numbers increased first to 30 people, then to 45 people.
Thus, the number of troops in the 6th Army was initially smaller than the German garrison (essentially, an entire army), and there was not enough artillery, tanks, and aircraft, which were used in other, more important areas.
Soviet soldiers fire from a PTRS-41 (Simonov anti-tank rifle model 1941) on Welfstrasse in Breslau. Author's title: "PTSR sergeants L. Myasnikov and A. Kryukov fire."
Soviet ISU-152 self-propelled gun from the 349th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment and T-34-76 tank from the 222nd Separate Tank Regiment in battle on Breslau Street
They also underestimated the strength of the enemy fortifications: powerful stone walls of residential and industrial buildings, which, in essence, became separate fortresses; long underground communications, including railway lines, where bomb shelters, bunkers and warehouses were equipped. Large-scale underground communications allowed maneuvering forces between city blocks and districts, transferring not only infantry, but also artillery. Numerous factories, enterprises, railway junctions were turned into strongholds, resistance centers. The ring railway lines with their high embankments were an impregnable obstacle for our tanks, were good positions for German units. Main highways and roads were also prepared for defense, bridges were mined.
Also among the objective reasons for the long defense of the city were the geographical features of the location of the large city. It was covered on both sides by natural barriers that interfered with the actions of mechanized units.
It should not be forgotten that the Germans were still a strong and skillful enemy. Good knowledge of the terrain, flexible maneuvering of reserves in dangerous directions, and competent use of artillery significantly slowed down the advance of Soviet assault troops into the city center. A successful solution was to move the resistance line inside the city blocks (the so-called "Niehof Line"), which reduced the effectiveness of the Soviet assault groups.
The Soviet High Command was busy with larger tasks: Königsberg, Pomerania, Berlin, western Hungary, Vienna. Breslau no longer had any particular military significance. The fortress was doomed, and its fall was only inevitable. Therefore, no special efforts were made to capture Breslau.
A column of German prisoners of war on the march to Breslau
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