Battle of Crailsheim
The battle in and around Crailsheim at the end of the Second World War from April 5 to 21, 1945 is called the Battle of Crailsheim .
First occupation
After the Wehrmacht had temporarily stopped the American offensive on the Neckar , an advance was planned on the part of the Americans. Tank units were supposed to advance over the old Kaiserstraße from Bad Mergentheim in the direction of Crailsheim and thus bypass the Wehrmacht on the Neckar and threaten them with encirclement .
The commander of the XIII is important for the further fate of Crailsheim . SS Army Corps , SS Gruppenführer Max Simon , who was also responsible for the Crailsheim section of the front. He is described as one of the "worst National Socialist perseverance generals". On the morning of April 5, the 10th US Armored Division started the planned breakthrough attempt and approached Crailsheim on April 6. In the afternoon around 5 p.m., the American tanks entered the city without resistance. The defenders had been surprised by the rapid advance, so that the anti-tank traps at the entrance to the city were closed but not occupied. The air base crew and the local military withdrew from the city after minor skirmishes, the Volkssturm went home. Individual white flags were found on houses, so the Americans took the city almost without resistance.
Counteroffensive
Had it stayed with this first occupation, Crailsheim would have survived the end of the war happily. However, Crailsheim was not the actual goal of the breakthrough, but the encircling action was to be continued in the direction of Schwäbisch Hall and Backnang . The few remaining German reserve forces were concentrated at the apex of the American offensive due to the impending encirclement of the Tauber-Neckar defense line. It happened to be Crailsheim. On April 8 SS units attacked Ellwangen , two regiments Mountaineer and a rocket launcher - Brigade to the city to retake it. She was taken under thrower fire. The city center was badly hit and many houses were destroyed by fire. On April 9 and 10, German infantry attacked the American tank unit located in Crailsheim from the south, east and northeast. Although the US attempt at a breakthrough in the direction of Backnang failed, the US troops in Crailsheim were initially able to assert themselves.
The German units succeeded in decisively disrupting the supply of the Americans, and constant attacks on the supply line on Kaiserstrasse by mobile tank hunting troops even made air supplies necessary. Thus the US troops in Crailsheim were now encircled in the city themselves. Crailsheim, where the fighting was once again very hard, was later nicknamed Little Bastogne by the American soldiers , a reference to the bitter fighting in the Belgian city of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter bombers also repeatedly attacked the air base now used by the Americans with on-board weapons and missiles.
Finally, on April 11, the American troops decided to withdraw towards Bad Mergentheim. They carried out numerous arson attacks. The town's fire-fighting equipment had been destroyed except for a small motorized syringe. Nevertheless, some of the burning houses were saved. This American withdrawal is considered the only major failure of the invading army during their final offensive against Germany east of the Rhine. This "victory" of the Wehrmacht and the SS was exploited for propaganda purposes in a time of poor news for the Nazi rulers. The Wehrmacht report mentioned the battle of Crailsheim, and Joseph Goebbels also wrote about the success in his diary - he even mentioned the recapture of individual villages.
Ingestion
As early as April 13th, however, the American front was again advancing broadly towards Crailsheim. Like almost everywhere in villages and towns, Crailsheim was now preparing for a defense. Motivated by the reconquest, 13 anti-tank barriers were erected in the city, anti-tank trenches were dug and bazookas were given to the Volkssturm. SS-Gruppenführer Simon had Crailsheim declared unofficially a fortress and personally ordered the defense. Anyone who dared to contradict him had to reckon with death, as was made clear by an incident that took place in the nearby village of Brettheim . There Simon had the mayor Gackstatter, the NSDAP local group leader and a farmer (the so-called men of Brettheim ) executed for alleged treason. The three had disarmed Hitler Youth who wanted to resist the American tanks and threw their bazookas into the village pond. When the Americans withdrew again, the SS troops came from Schillingsfürst and, on Simon's orders, hanged the three people on the cemetery linden trees.
So deterred, nobody resisted the planned defense of Crailsheim. The Americans knew about the defense preparations through aerial reconnaissance. From April 16, the city was repeatedly attacked by numerous fighter bombers, which caused severe damage in the city area. As early as October 1944, when the Crailsheimer Volkssturm was excavated, NS district leader Hänle had announced that “there will be […] fighting here, and if the war must be won in Crailsheim” and the fire brigade's chief of operations said during the battle: “ Crailsheim [is] doomed [, it should] be allowed to burn. "
On April 20, US troops were again in front of Crailsheim, after bombing and artillery shelling, they tried to persuade the crew of Crailsheim to surrender. However, there were only about 600 residents in Crailsheim, the majority of the approximately 10,000 residents had fled to the surrounding villages, and the mayor Fröhlich was hiding in Rechenberg Castle . Those part of the population who were still in town sat intimidated in cellars and were afraid of the SS who were still in town.
After the Americans in Crailsheim could not establish contact for handover activities , they continued the artillery bombardment with phosphorus shells . The defenders in the city withdrew slowly when the bombardment began and moved in the direction of Ellwangen. The shelling of the city continued into the early morning hours of April 21, around noon the US soldiers marched into the rubble desert. On the morning of April 21, some important buildings in the city center, the castle and large parts of the city fortifications were burned. Nobody in town tried to extinguish the fire.
Hundreds of people, soldiers as well as civilians, men, women and children, were killed in the final weeks of the war. Of 1799 buildings in the city, 444 were totally destroyed, 192 severely, 77 moderately severely and 439 slightly damaged. The degree of destruction within the old city wall was 95%. Only the Johanneskirche in the southern old town survived the firestorm with some surrounding buildings relatively unscathed.
literature
- SA hoists the swastika flag at the town hall . In: Hohenloher Tagblatt of January 9, 2008, p. 19.
- Hans grasses (ed.): The battle for Crailsheim. The war in the Crailsheim district during World War II . Baier, Crailsheim 1997, ISBN 3-929233-12-6 (publications on local history and local history in Württembergisch Franken, 13)
- Horst Boog : Crailsheim and the bombing war . In: The battle for Crailsheim . Pp. 15-153.
- Wilhelm Ehrmann: The fighting in northern Württemberg March / April 1945 with special consideration of the fighting around Crailsheim . In: The battle for Crailsheim . Pp. 154-645.
- Folker Förtsch: Why Crailsheim was destroyed in 1945 . In: Folker Förtsch and Thomas Schnabel: End of the war in southwest Germany. Why Crailsheim was destroyed in 1945 . Baier, Crailsheim 2005, ISBN 3-929233-49-5 (Historical series of the city of Crailsheim, 2). Pp. 25-60
- Bernd Friedel: Crailsheim in the rain of fire. The last months of the war in the fiercely contested city during World War II. Hohenloher Druck- und Verlagshaus, Crailsheim 1985, ISBN 3-87354-133-5 . List of references on page 4
- Willi Glasbrenner: The railroad in Crailsheim . In: Johann Schumm (Hrsg.): Heimatbuch Crailsheim . 4th edition. Baier, Crailsheim 2001, ISBN 3-929233-01-0 . Pp. 491-516
- Friedrich Hummel: History of Crailsheim . In: Johann Schumm (Hrsg.): Heimatbuch Crailsheim . 4th edition. Baier, Crailsheim 2001, ISBN 3-929233-01-0 . Pp. 126-420
- Armin Ziegler: Crailsheim 1945/1946. Survival and a fresh start . Baier, Crailsheim 1999, ISBN 3-929233-18-5 ( Publications on local history and local history in Württembergisch Franconia. Volume 18)
- Friedrich Blumenstock: "The American and French invasion of northern Württemberg in April 1945. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1957
Web links
- The Struggle for Heilbronn and Crailsheim (p. 415 ff.)