Bratislava-Brno operation

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Russian outline map of the operation

The Bratislava-Brno operation ( Russian Братиславско-Брновская операция , Czech Bratislavsko-brněnská operace, Slovak Bratislavsko-Brnianska operácia) was an offensive of the Red Army in World War II , which was conducted from March 25 to May 5 1945th

prehistory

In the course of the Vienna operation , the troops of the right wing and the center of the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front under Rodion Malinowski launched the Bratislava-Brno offensive on March 25. After the German 6th Panzer Army only fought slowly after the failed Balaton offensive south of the Danube , Marshal Malinowski gave the order to attack the enemy north of the Danube as well. The German troops in the area of Bratislava (Pressburg), Brno and Znaim were to be defeated, and the complete liberation of Slovakia and Moravia achieved.

The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front involved in the operation numbered 352,300 men, 6,160 guns and grenade launchers, as well as 246 tanks and self-propelled guns and 637 aircraft. In the attack were the 40th Army on the right and the 53rd Army on the left , as well as the 7th Guards Army (Colonel General Schumilow ) and the 1st Guards Mechanical Cavalry Group Pliyev (Colonel General Issa Pliyev ) in the main thrust . The Romanian 1st and 4th Armies (with 14 divisions) were also used as reserves . In the south of the Danube, the 46th Soviet Army was simultaneously advancing from the east to the Raba section on Győr .

The German 8th Army under General Hans Kreysing , which was in the attack area and formed the northern wing of Army Group South (Colonel General Rendulic ), had around 150,000 men, 1,800 guns and grenade launchers, 120 tanks and without the few reliable Hungarian units with 11 divisions Assault guns and 150 aircraft. The Soviets had 1.7 times more soldiers, 3.4 times more guns and mortars, 2 times more tanks and self-propelled guns, and 4.3 times more aircraft.

On the night of March 24th, the Hron sector was crossed by Soviet troops in several places. XXXXIII, defending on the right wing of the German 8th Army . Army Corps (General Versock ) with the 96th Infantry Division still held a southern Danube bridgehead near Komorn , which was already outflanked by the advance of the Soviet 2nd Guards Mechanizing Corps (General Swiridow) on the southern bank of the Danube.

course

Advance on Bratislava

On March 25, 1945, the 2nd Ukrainian Front with the support of the 5th Air Army (General SK Gorjunow ) began their offensive on Bratislava, the focus of the 8-hour artillery fire was in the Levice area . The troops of the Soviet 53rd Army (Lieutenant General Managarow ) and the 7th Guards Army expanded the bridgeheads to 17 kilometers in width by evening, the next day the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps (4th and 6th Guards Cavalry Corps) was introduced. The Hungarian 24th Division, which was in reserve in the Banská Bystrica area and was still regarded as reliable, began to disband immediately. On March 28, Vráble was occupied by the 49th Rifle Corps (Lieutenant General Juri Terentjew), the Soviet territorial gain had expanded to 135 km width and 40 km depth. Soviet troops pushed the weak divisions of the German XXIX. (General Röpke ) and LXXII. Army Corps (General Schmidt-Hammer ) returned and crossed the Neutra River .

The mechanized cavalry group Plijew occupied the small towns of Nové Zámky (Nesovice) , Šurany and Nitra . The 7th Guards Army wrested the small town of Neuhäusel from the German Panzer Corps Feldherrnhalle ( general of the Kleemann armored troops ) and also crossed the Waag sector on March 29 . The troops of the 7th Guard Army, which were advancing directly on the northern bank of the Danube, received effective support from the Danube Flotilla ( Rear Admiral Cholostjakow ), which operated in the rear of the German troops and took German positions under fire with its naval artillery. On March 31st, the mechanical cavalry group Plijew, reinforced with the 7th Panzer Corps (General Kamkow) pushed forward near Břeclav (Lundenberg) to the Thaya on the border of Moravia. The 72nd Guards Division of the 24th Guards Rifle Corps (Major General Kruze ) occupied Galanta on the same day . The conquered breakthrough area expanded to 135 km wide and 40 km deep.

On April 4th, after heavy fighting, the troops of the 7th Guard Army and the Plijew cavalry group, with the support of the Danube Flotilla, were able to occupy the capital of Slovakia - Bratislava. The 46th Army deployed on the left wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Lieutenant General Petruschewski ) was simultaneously pursuing the II SS Panzer Corps south of the Danube. North of the Neusiedler See, the 18th Guards Rifle Corps (General Afonin) and the 23rd Panzer Corps broke through the positions of the 6th Panzer Division and occupied Bruck an der Leitha on April 4th . On April 6, the bulk of the Soviet 46th Army crossed west of Hainburg to the northern bank of the Danube and penetrated Deutsch-Wagram by April 11 .

The 25th Guards Rifle Corps (General Ostschenko) of the 7th Guards Army crossed the April 5 March and established on the west bank a first bridgehead at Marchegg . From April 8, the 7th Guard Army crossed the March section between Dürnkrut and Groissenbrunn to the north and advanced through the Marchfeld to the north. The German 96th Infantry Division and the 101st Jäger Division (Lieutenant General Assmann ) had to evacuate Gänserndorf and Angern on April 10th. The German 25th Panzer Division (General Audörsch ) deployed near Zistersdorf could not prevent the loss of the oil fields there. On April 7th, the guardsmen of the Mechanized Cavalry Group Pliyev had also formed a small March bridgehead near Brodsk. To the north of it followed on April 12th the river crossing of the 57th Rifle Corps (Lieutenant General Safiulin ) of the Soviet 53rd Army, whose 49th Rifle Corps (Major General Terentjew ) occupied Hodonín the following day .

Advance on Brno

Soviet troops with US-supplied M4 Sherman tanks in downtown Brno in April 1945

In the middle of April in the Mistelbach area the 7th Guards Army was united with the 6th Guards Panzer Army, which had withdrawn from Vienna and which was again subordinate to the Malinowski front, and attacked Brno from the south. On April 18, one-week fighting between the cavalry group Pliyev and the IV Panzer Corps began near Groß Urhau . In a tank battle near Groß Urhau on April 24th, tank units of the German Central Army Group that had arrived outside Brno were repulsed. After the fighting, the villages were largely in ruins. 189 houses were destroyed and 23 residents died in the fighting. 960 Russian and 275 German soldiers were killed in the battle. 34 tanks were destroyed on both sides. After reinforcement by the 44th Infantry Division , the Poysdorf - Ungerndorf - Staatz line could be held for the time being . The German XXXXIII. Army Corps (now under Lieutenant General Kullmer ) defeated the pursuing 23rd and 25th Guards Rifle Corps via Laa on the Thaya to the south bank of the Thaya (Dyje) on April 22nd . On April 26th Brno was captured by attacks from different directions by Soviet troops.

Final phase

On April 27, the offensive in the direction of Olomouc was continued, the plan was to unite with the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front , which also carried out the Moravian Ostrava Operation , thereby encircling the German 1st Panzer Army . On May 8th, the 3rd Rifle Corps (Major General Andrei Jakowljewitsch Vedenin) of the 60th Army, in cooperation with the 11th Rifle Corps (Lieutenant General Mikhail Ivanovich Saporoshenko) of the 38th Army, occupied the city of Olomouc.

consequences

The Red Army advanced up to 200 km, smashed 9 German divisions, conquered Czechoslovak industrial areas and lost 79,600 men (16,940 dead and 62,660 wounded). At the beginning of May the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front received orders from the south to immediately support the attack of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the Prague operation .

literature

Web links

Commons : Bratislava-Brno Operation  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ОБОРОНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОПЕРАЦИЯ В ЛИТВЕ И ЛАТВИИ ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )