Battle of Sliwitz

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Monument near Milín

The Battle of Sliwitz was the last major battle in the area of ​​the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the last battle of the Second World War on Central European soil. The battle took place east of the settlement Slivice , a district of the municipality Milín , in the Okres Příbram in the Central Bohemian region of Středočeský kraj . On May 11 and 12, 1945, German troops from associations of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS defended themselves against local partisans and the Red Army and tried to surrender to the nearby American troops. The Germans finally capitulated in the early morning hours of May 12th. About 6,000 soldiers were captured by the Soviet forces. Many German soldiers and civilians tried to hide in the forests of the Kammwald military training area . In the course of May 1945, the Czech Revolutionary Guards carried out purges to track down those who had been hidden. Almost all those found were executed. The exact number of victims is unknown.

background

On May 7, 1945, all German armed forces were ordered to remain in their positions and surrender. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner , the commander of Army Group Headquarters stationed in Bohemia, ordered his units to advance west to surrender to the American forces. The units reached the agreed demarcation line in western Bohemia and stopped there. Since the Soviet Army was still days away from the demarcation line, the partisans tried mostly unsuccessfully to stop the Germans who reacted with reprisals against the local population. On several occasions, units of the Russian Liberation Army (also known as the Vlasov Army) - which also tried to reach the Americans - quarreled with the Germans.

On May 9, 1945, a large number of German troops reached the area between the villages of Milín , Slivice and Čimelice near the demarcation line. Among them were parts of the Wallenstein Combat Group . The formation was commanded by SS group leader Carl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghauss . The soldiers were accompanied by fleeing German civilians. Pückler-Burghauss ordered the construction of defensive lines as the road in the direction of the Americans was blocked by local resistance units. After May 8, 1945, however, the Americans sent back any soldiers who tried to surrender to the Soviet side.

battle

On May 11, 1945, partisan groups under the leadership of the Soviet officer Yevgeny Antonowitsch Olesensky tried to storm the Germans, who was dropped there by parachute, but were driven back. Units of the Red Army arrived that afternoon and attacked the German positions.

The attack began with heavy artillery and rocket fire. The Soviet bombing was carried out by the 4th Panzer Division of the XII. 3rd U.S. Army Corps. Troops of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian front attacked the German positions later. During the night the defense collapsed and Pückler-Burghauss signed the surrender at around 3 a.m. on May 12, 1945 in the mill in Rakovice , which was then countersigned by American and Soviet representatives. About 6,000 soldiers and a large number of vehicles were captured. After the battle, Czech partisans began conducting operations in the woods to catch German soldiers and civilians who had fled into the woods.

Commemoration

In 1970 a monument to the battle designed by Václav Hilský was unveiled in Slivice. Czech Military History Associations, the Museum in Příbram and the Army of the Czech Republic have been organizing battle reenactments since 2001. In the vicinity of the villa (across the street) in Rakovice , where Pückler-Burghauss committed suicide, there is another memorial with the inscription: " At this point the American army stopped the retreat of the German army on May 9, 1945. The last military capitulation of World War II in Europe was signed here on May 12, 1945 in the presence of American, Soviet and German military representatives . "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jaroslav Krupka: Poslední bitva druhé světové války. Němci rozpoutali u Milína nesmyslný teror , in: Dotyk.cz, weekly online newspaper, May 11, 2018, online at: dotyk.cz / ...
  2. ↑ Stanislav Kofroň: Konec okupace a rok 1945 ve vzpomínkách pamětníků , online at: web.archive.org / ...
  3. ↑ a b c Slivice. Pomník konce 2. světové války , material of the Spolek pro vojenská pietní místa (Association for Military Places of Piety), online at: vets.cz / ...
  4. ↑ Čimelice. Pomník konce 2. světové války , material from Spolek pro vojenská pietní místa (Association for Military Places of Piety), online at: vets.cz/
  5. ↑ Výbuch amputoval dlaň účastníkovi re Konstrukce bitvy u Slivice , online at: idnes.cz / ...

literature

  • Josef Velfl, Jiří Vostarek: Slivice 1945 - Poslední události 2. světové války na Příbramsku (Slivice 1945 - the last events of World War II in Příbram region), 1995, published by local authorities and the Mining Museum in Příbram.
  • Tomáš Jakl: Květen 1945 v českých zemích - Pozemní operace vojsk Osy a Spojenců (May 1945 in the Czech lands - ground campaigns of the Axis and the Allies), 2004, ISBN 80-86524-07-8 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 38 '36 "  N , 14 ° 2' 50"  E