Upper Silesian operation

Battle for Upper Silesia

Part of: Second World War

Development on the Eastern Front from March 15 to 31, 1945

date	March 15 to 31, 1945
place	Upper Silesia
output	Soviet victory

Parties to the conflict
German Empire	Soviet Union
Commander
Ferdinand Schörner	Ivan Konev

The Upper Silesian Operation ( Russian Верхнесилезская операция ) was an offensive by the Red Army during World War II that lasted from March 15 to March 31, 1945.

Prehistory and deployment

On January 23, 1945, Breslau was enclosed by the Soviet 6th Army (General Glusdowski ). The Red Army created during the Lower Silesian operation also bridgeheads in Opole and Oława each southeast of Wroclaw on the Oder . The 1st Ukrainian Front faced the German 17th Army (under the leadership of Friedrich Schulz and later Wilhelm Hasse ). Between Strehlen and Ratibor in the area of ​​the German 1st Panzer Army , a front arch on the Oder had formed. The Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev planned to cut off this part of the front by means of a double-sided pincer operation of his armored forces and to smash the German troops inside. The attack from the east was to be carried out by the 60th Army (Colonel General Kurotschkin ) from the bridgehead at Cosel. In the west, in the area south of Brieg , the 4th Panzer Army was deployed on Neisse. The left wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front ordered to take the offensive counted 31 divisions with 408,400 men, 5,640 guns, 988 tanks and 1,737 aircraft.

The 1st Panzer Army of the German Heinrici Army Group , located in the attack field , together with the right wing of the 17th Army of the Central Army Group had around 15 divisions with 60 regiments, 1,420 guns, 94 tanks and 750 aircraft.

course

Offensive on March 15th

The offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front began on March 15, 1945 at 7:00 am with the attack of the 21st Army (General Dmitri Gussew ) and the 5th Guard Army (Colonel General Schadow ) from the Grottkau area . The artillery fire showered the positions of the German VIII Army Corps for almost 1.5 hours. At about 8.40 a.m. the 4th Panzer Army under General Lelyuschenko also intervened on the offensive and advanced south on the western bank of the Glatzer Neisse . On the evening of the first day of the attack, the front of the German 45th Volksgrenadier Division (Major General Daniel ) and the 168th Infantry Division in the Grottkau area were torn open to a width of 8 kilometers. In addition, the 4th Guards Panzer Corps (Lieutenant General Polubojarow ) was introduced into the break-in point. The threatening scope of the Soviet offensive was only fully recognized by the German high command after the introduction of the armored forces and the immediate threat to the city of Neisse . The German 17th Army on the left immediately gave up the XXXX reserve in the Schweidnitz area . Panzer Corps free to Strehlen. The 19th and 20th Panzer Divisions , as well as the combat group of the 10th Panzer Grenadier Division, were able to carry out counterattacks from the Ottmachau area to the east on the following day , which prevented the loss of Neisse for the time being.

Offensive on March 16 and 17

On March 16, after 80 minutes of artillery fire, the Soviets opened their attack to the west with the 60th and 59th Armies (Lieutenant General Korownikow ) from the western Oder bridgehead between Cosel and Ratibor. Air support was provided by the 2nd Air Army under Colonel General Krassowski . The 7th Guards Mechanical Corps (Major General Korchagin ) and the 31st Panzer Corps (Major General Kuznetsov ) were determined to break through in the direction of New Town . After the resistance of the German XI. Army Corps (General von Bünau , from March 20 von Mellenthin ) was broken, Soviet troops broke through the enemy defense on a 12-kilometer-wide front and penetrated 6–8 km deep by evening. In Gnadenfeld the front of the left was 371. Infantry Division used the 18th SS Panzer Grenadier Division breached (General Bochmann) and their mass northward to the right wing of the 344th Infantry Division on the line Reinsch village -Pirchwitz- Kobylice in Space to the southeast of Cosel pushed away. In order to close the now open left flank of the 97th Jäger Division (General Rabe von Pappenheim ), which was not attacked northwest of Ratibor , its right neighbor - the 1st Ski Jäger Division, was detached to create a new front on the Bauerwitz - Dreimühlen - Prussisch Krawarn line build up. The division commander, Major General Gustav Hundt , was also appointed combat commander of Ratibor.

On the first day of the offensive on March 15, 1945, the Hermann Göring parachute division was withdrawn from the Muskau bridgehead and brought in via Görlitz and unloaded in several squadrons in Ottmachau on March 17 to carry out a counterattack. In a vain attempt to stop the advance of the Soviet 10th Guard Panzer Corps, units of the gendarmerie from Neisse were armed with light firearms and sent into battle, which resulted in the destruction of the entire city gendarmerie. During the battle for the crossing of the Glatzer Neisse near Rothaus, the commander of the 10th Guard Panzer Corps, Colonel ND Tschuprow, fell in combat. Meanwhile the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps advanced further in a south-westerly direction towards Ottmachau, where the Herman Göring Parachute Panzer Division was being unloaded. Corps commander WF Orlov was fatally injured when an enemy grenade exploded at the command post and was replaced by Colonel VI Koretski. At the height of the Battle of Neisse on March 17th, the 4th Panzer Army was given the title of "Guard Panzer Army" by order of the People's Commissariat.

On the evening of March 17th to 18th, heavy Soviet gunfire was already on the threatened city of Leobschütz. In cooperation with the Führer-Escort-Division (Major General Remer ), counter-attacks of the just arriving advance guard of the 16th Panzer Division at Jägerndorf were able to protect the city from Soviet attack. The XXIV Panzer Corps under General Nehring was also assigned the 78th Volkssturm Division for reinforcement .

Kessel battle on the western bank of the Oder

On March 18, the attack wedges of the 10th Guards Panzer Corps of the 4th Panzer Army were able to unite with those of the 7th Guards Mechanical Corps in the area south of Deutsch-Raselwitz. As a result, the remnants of five German divisions were trapped between the rivers Neisse and Oder in the area west of Opole . The basin formed between the Oder and the Glatz Neisse was quickly narrowed.

The 229th Rifle Division (Colonel AS Pipyrjew) of the 55th Rifle Corps of the Soviet 21st Army occupied Falkenberg . The encircled Corps Group Silesia ( General der Kavallerie Koch-Erpach ) ( Generalkommando LVI. Panzer Corps ) tried the Combat Group 168th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Schmidt-Hammer ) and the 20th (Estonian) SS Volunteer Division from the northern Kesselfront Neustadt to the southwest in the Jeseníky Mountains . The 344th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Jollasse ) defended itself between Cosel and Krappitz , south of which the town of Cosel was still held by the 18th SS Division. SS-Oberführer Bochmann fought bitterly all day to get German garbage men. According to orders, Major Matthias Wensauer had to sacrifice himself with a weak rearguard in Opole, but soon tried to break out in the direction of Neustadt. The relief thrust of the XXIV Panzer Corps with the 16th Panzer Division, the Führer Escort Division and the 78th Infantry Division from the area west of Leobschütz could no longer penetrate the already solidified southern front of the pocket. The reinforcement by parts of the 17th Panzer Division (Colonel Kretschmer) and the 254th Infantry Division (Major General Schmidt ), which had been unloaded at Jägerndorf , was only enough to stabilize the newly formed front in the area north of Troppau . One after the other, Rothhaus , Oberglogau , Brandewalde and Steinau fell into Soviet hands on March 18 and 19 . The Silesia Corps Group was wiped out by March 20.

Closing phase from March 24th

On March 24th, the 60th Army with the 28th Rifle Corps (Major General Ozimin ) stormed Leobschütz. On the same day the 117th Rifle Corps (Major General Trubachev ) of the 21st Army threw back the German VIIIth Army Corps and occupied the city of Neisse, which had been hard-fought since March 16. The 5th Guards Mechanized Corps (Major General Boris Skwortzow), newly subordinated to the 4th Guards Panzer Army from the reserve, started the attack from the Leobschütz area at 8:00 a.m. in the direction of Troppau. The 93rd Panzer Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel Alexej Dementjew) and the 22nd Self-Propelled Artillery Brigade (Colonel Nikolai Kornjuschkin) pushed the German XXIV Panzer Corps back about 3–4 km to the south.

On March 28th at 12.00 p.m. the 31st Panzer Corps (Major General GG Kuznetsov), which had been regrouped to the east, was again in the attack, the 107th Rifle Division supported the attack immediately, and from 6.00 p.m. parts of the 6th Guards mechanized corps joined them . By the evening of March 29, the 31st Panzer Corps from the northwest and units of the 60th Army from the east were able to storm the city of Ratibor in combat with the German 97th Jäger Division. On March 31st, the Soviet 5th Guard Army also fell into the hands of Strehlen . The south-western part of Upper Silesia was completely occupied by the Red Army.

According to Soviet sources, more than 40,000 German soldiers fell and another 14,000 were taken prisoner. The Red Army lost around 66,800 men (15,870 dead and 50,920 wounded).

literature

• Georg Gunter : Last laurel , Bläschke Verlag, Darmstadt 1974.
• Alexei W. Isajew: Верхне-Силезская операция (Moscow 2007)
• Upper Silesian Operation (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Верхнесилезская операция 1945 года . Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 27, 2011. 
2. ↑ ОБОРОНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОПЕРАЦИЯ В ЛИТВЕ И ЛАТВИИ ( Memento from March 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive )