Tank battle in front of Warsaw

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Wolomin Battlefield.png

The tank battle in front of Warsaw, also known as the Radzymin or Wołomin tank battle , was a battle during World War II between four armored divisions of Army Group Center under General Field Marshal Model and the Soviet 2nd Tank Army, which took place from August 1st to 4th, 1944 northeast of Warsaw .

prehistory

As a result of Operation Bagration , the Red Army had advanced from Belarus to the Vistula after a month of fighting . On July 27, 1944, the Soviet 2nd Panzer Army (Lieutenant General AI Radzijewski ) from the Puławy area began the advance on the Polish capital Warsaw . It was covered on the left by the infantry of the 8th Guards Army under General VI Tschuikow and on the right by the 47th Army (Lieutenant General NI Gusjew ). The 8th Guards Army was able to form a bridgehead over the Vistula at Magnuszew south of Warsaw .

The Soviet troops intended to take the Warsaw suburb of Praga out of the movement and to secure the Narew bridges of Zegrze and Serock further north . The Soviet 3rd Panzer Corps, which advanced via Mińsk Mazowiecki as the head of the 2nd Panzer Army in a north-westerly direction, approached the bridge over the Narew River at Zegrze at a distance of 5 km in order to conquer the crossing there. The left wing was accompanied by the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps and the right flank was covered by the 125th Rifle Corps of the 47th Army. The German Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring and the remnants of the 73rd Infantry Division defended the Vistula section in the area of ​​the eastern suburb of Praga on July 28 and 29 . Independent of the Soviet operations, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) began the Warsaw Uprising to liberate the capital itself on the same day .

course

The Soviet 3rd Panzer Corps (Major General ND Wedenejew ), accompanied by the 125th Rifle Corps, advanced to Wołomin northeast of Warsaw at the beginning of August 1944 . This was followed by the 8th Guards Panzer Corps (Major General AF Popow ) and the 16th Panzer Corps (Major General IW Dubowoj ), the Soviet armored forces numbered around 700 tanks and self-propelled guns. General von Vormann , the commander-in-chief of the newly established German 9th Army in the Warsaw area, had hurriedly received reinforcements. According to Generalfeldmarschall Model's plan, the XXXIX. Panzer Corps (General of the Panzer Troops Dietrich von Saucken ) from the Praga area through a counterattack in a north-easterly direction, the lost connection with the IV. SS Panzer Corps of the 2nd Army in the Siedlce area and all Soviet forces that broke through to the west are cut off. The SS-Obergruppenführer Gille ordered the 19th Panzer Division (Lieutenant General Hans Källner ) and the SS Division "Wiking" to carry out a pincer attack on Okuniew. The 19th Panzer Division attacked Radzymin from the direction of Wyskow, while the SS division "Wiking" on both sides of the Wegrow-Okuniew road and the SS division "Totenkopf" (SS Brigadefuhrer Hellmuth Becker ) from the Kałuszyn area in a general direction southwest proceeded to Minsk-Mazowiecki. The road Wyskow-Warsaw was successfully fought and the Soviet 3rd Panzer Corps included. The attack then continued on Wolomin and repulsed relief attacks by the Soviet 16th Panzer Corps. After the complete arrival of the German 4th Panzer Division (Lieutenant General Clemens Betzel ), the lost Radzymin was also recaptured. The 8th Guard and 16th Panzer Corps suffered considerable losses. By August 4, the Soviet 3rd Panzer Corps was wiped out by the German troops.

consequences

The German counterattack had re-established the German defensive front north of Warsaw. As a result of these fighting, the troops of the 2nd Belarusian Front under Marshal Rokossovsky were unable to provide effective aid to the Polish rebels in Warsaw. On September 15, three divisions of the Polish 1st Army deployed in the Red Army under General Zygmunt Berling, north and south of Warsaw, attempted to cross the Vistula. However, they could not break the German resistance, as a result of which the Armia Krajowa had to surrender in early October 1944.

literature

  • Rolf Hinze: Eastern Front Drama 1944 - Army Group Center Retreat Fighting, Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1988, pp. 391–400, ISBN 3-613-01138-7 .
  • Norman Davies: Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw. ISBN 0-333-90568-7 (Uprising of the lost. The battle for Warsaw 1944. Droemer Verlag Munich 2004, ISBN 3-426-27243-1 )

Web links

  • Norbert Bączyk: Sowiecki 16 Korpus Pancerny pod Warszawą (29 lipca – 6 sierpnia 1944) ( Polish )