Battle of Poznan

Battle of Poznan

Part of: Second World War , Vistula-Oder operation

The town hall in Poznan, which was affected by the fighting

date	January 25 to February 23, 1945
place	Poznan , German Empire
output	Red Army victory

Parties to the conflict
Soviet Union Poland	German Empire
Commander
Wassili Tschuikow Michail Katukow	Ernst Mattern Ernst Gonell †
Troop strength
up to 100,000 Red Army soldiers around 5,000 Poles around 2,000 townspeople involved in the fighting	between 30,000 and 60,000 men
losses
Around 6,000 Red Army soldiers killed an estimated 100 of the townspeople involved in the fighting	around 5,000 dead

The Battle of Poznan was fought during the Second World War as part of the Red Army's Vistula-Oder operation . It began on January 25, 1945 after the complete enclosure of the city, which had been declared a fortress by the German armed forces , and ended after heavy fighting on February 23, 1945 with the surrender of its last defenders. It is estimated that over 12,000 people and a considerable part of the buildings in Poznan fell victim to the fighting.

Starting position

Between January 12 and 15, 1945, the Red Army began its “final battle” on the Eastern Front with its major offensive from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains . The far superior Soviet units stormed out of their bridgeheads on the Vistula and Narew and forced extensive operational breakthroughs within a few days . These not only triggered an avalanche-like swelling movement of refugees from the ethnic German population of these areas, but also led to the defeat of German Army Group A , which was in the forefront of the Warthegau . Subsequently, within two weeks, the area of ​​the Gau was overrun by the troops of the 1st Belarusian Front, commanded by Georgi Schukow (1896–1974) . At the end of January the first Soviet units were already standing near Küstrin on the Oder and were only 60 km away from the capital of Berlin .

Arthur Greiser (1897–1946), the Gauleiter of the Warthegau, who had announced at the beginning of the major Soviet offensive that “ not a single meter of ground would be released ” in his Gau , gave on January 18, 1945 in view of the dramatically deteriorating situation at the front Permission to evacuate the eastern districts of the Gau and to transport women and children from the Gau capital Posen. The ethnic Germans of the areas cleared for evacuation by Greiser were already on a desperate flight to the west and the evacuation of civilians from the Gau capital, for which Greiser had estimated no more than one day, was ongoing in view of the military situation and the lack of it Transport capacities from completely chaotic. By January 23, the roughly 70,000 (ethnic) German residents had almost completely left the city, mostly on their own on their way to the west, and many of them perished. Most of the Polish urban population - estimated to be up to 150,000 of the total of around 200,000 people - had stayed and could hardly do more than wait for the coming events.

Greiser himself had fled Posen with the members of his staff on the evening of January 20, 1945. Before that, the defenders of the city, which had been declared a fortress , had been alerted at 5:25 am , and they had been told that Posen had to be " held ". Major General Ernst Mattern , the commandant of the Poznan garrison , had been appointed as the fortress commander .

Defenders and attackers of the Poznan Fortress

The exact number and composition of the troops fighting for Posen have long been the subject of various representations. On the part of the defenders, the main problem arises that although it is somewhat known which military and other units were stationed in and around Poznan shortly before the start of the fighting, not how many of them actually defended the city were included and how many were previously withdrawn or were able to settle. In January 1945, the city was also the point of contact for units of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS that flooded back , some of whose members were then also subordinated to the fortress command. It is therefore almost certain that neither the number of 12,000 German defenders given by Major General Mattern nor the numbers given after the war by various participants in the Battle of Poznan and the authors of various studies on it correspond to the reality at the beginning of the battle. For example, in his 1975 study on the Battle of Poznan, Stanisław Okęcki put the German defenders at 32,500, whereas Zbigniew Szumowski said 61,000 in his 1971 and 1980 works.

In the last work on the subject so far, a garrison strength of 15,000 to 20,000 men is assumed. Its core consisted of around 1,500 members of School V for flag junior officers of the Posen infantry , who were automatically promoted to lieutenants by special order in view of the impending events. During the battle they functioned partly as company, platoon and troop leaders, partly as tactical "advisors" and thus represented a welcome addition to the ranks of military leaders. Due to their combat strength, that of their commander, SS-Obersturmbannführer Wilhelm , also proved themselves Lenzer (* 1897), named Kampfgruppe Lenzer as particularly valuable for city defense. It consisted of various SS units that were in the city when it was declared a fortress. Furthermore, at least a few of the eight flak batteries stationed in the city area before the start of the fight were also subordinate to the fortress command. The rest of the city defenders were made up of units made up of scattered members of other regular combat units, police officers, state riflemen (five battalions in total ), Volkssturm men (one battalion), railroad workers, fire fighters and other "fighters".

This colorfully mixed German armed force also stood for defense - the details differ greatly here - up to 30 assault guns III and IV of the assault gun replacement and training department 500 , which had been "collected" in the course of their rail transport at the Poznan train station, and two Panzer IV and one each Panther - and Tiger -Panzer available. An essential element of the city's defense also formed the facilities of the Poznan fortress , which, however, came from the 19th century and only partially corresponded to the requirements of the time. They consisted of 18 outer forts and intermediate works in a ring around the city, four inner forts and the so-called " core works ", the citadel located on a hill dominating the city . The Poznan Fortress had a total of six fortress artillery batteries.

In contrast to the German defenders, who, apart from the rather sporadic air support and supply, were in fact completely on their own, the Soviet attackers, whose number is given as up to 100,000, could not only rely on the support of their air force , which exercised almost unrestricted control of the air in the combat area, but also received sufficient supplies of ordnance. The Soviet troops consisted of various units of the 1st Guards Armored Army and the 69th Army , but above all those of the 8th Guards Army , which bore the brunt of the fighting. They were supported by around 5,000 Polish soldiers and around 2,000 townspeople who took part in various ways, especially in the battle for the Poznan Citadel in the final phase of the battle.

Course of the Battle of Poznan

Poznan was an important traffic junction and was on the main Soviet thrust via Warsaw to Berlin. Since the city, as long as it was in German hands, also represented a permanent threat to the supplies of the Soviet troops charging into Berlin, they were interested in snatching it from the Germans.

After the crossing over the Warta had been forced on January 21 and 24, 1945 by units of the 1st Guards Panzer Army commanded by Mikhail Jefimowitsch Katukow , Posen was until January 25th by the units of the 8th Guards, which were victorious at Stalingrad -Fully enclosed army under Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov . On the same day the Soviets began the systematic attack on the fortifications and the following day the soldiers of the 27th and 74th Guards Rifle Divisions captured two forts in the south of the fortress ring, which left a gap in the city's defensive ring.

Although Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , meanwhile appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula , had sent a message to Posen's defenders on the same day that he would “ not let them down ”, their fate was already sealed at this point. On the German side, there were no forces available for a relief and both Himmler and Hitler soon afterwards rejected an " application to knock out the occupation of Poznan ".

From 28 January which began Soviet Air Force with a fierce bombardment of the city, while the Soviet infantry in battles from district to district and house to house the boiler narrowed around the city more and more. Not least because of these defenders' failures, Major General Mattern was removed from his post as fortress commander on January 30, 1945. His successor was determined with a simultaneous promotion to Major General Ernst Gonell , who had previously directed the Fahnenjunkerschule V in Posen and at the beginning of the fighting had commanded the fortress section " EAST ", where the main Soviet attack had been expected. Gonell, who was considered an experienced and “dashing” soldier, but who, according to Chuikov, was also a “ die-hard Nazi ”, was apparently more likely than the fired Mattern to hold the city on the part of Himmler. According to all reports, Gonell was convinced that the city would be horrified and accordingly approached his new assignment with vigor.

During the night of January 30th to 31st, 1945, up to 1,200 soldiers who were still in Fort VIII or Fort Grolman (named after a Prussian general of the 19th century , which is now completely cut off) broke in the south-western section of the fortress ring ) persevered, according to orders in small groups and tried to make their way to the main battle line in the west. Meanwhile, the fighting for the fortress continued and tied the forces of a total of four divisions of the 8th Guard Army and two other divisions of the 69th Army commanded by M. I. Kazakov. The deep Soviet incursions in the south and south-west of the city were followed on February 5 by the capture of the " Zeppelinwiese " makeshift airfield in the Weinern district of Poznan not far from the citadel. For the supply aircraft of the German Air Force, which in any case could only insufficiently supply the city, there was no longer any possibility of landing in the city area. By then, according to the war diary of the German Air Fleet 6 , 110.0 tons of ammunition and cables had been flown in and 277 people, mostly wounded, but also women and children, had been flown out of the fortress.

By the time the airfield was lost, the Soviet troops had already conquered a large part of the Poznań city area. On February 11, fortress commander Gonell, who had been promoted to major general two days earlier for his services in the defense, informed the Fiihrer's headquarters that his troops "were very tired of battle [and] prone to apathy, with no prospect of Relief [would] ". A day later the remnants of the German defenders withdrew to the citadel of the old Prussian fortress, where the fighting was now approaching its cruel climax. Gonell gave permission to escape to the up to 2,000 men who had been cut off in the districts east of the Warta and for whom there was no longer any chance of getting into the citadel.

In order to storm the citadel, the designated troops of the 29th Guards Rifle Corps, consisting of the 27th Guards Rifle Division, which had taken position north of the citadel, and the 82nd Guards Rifle Division in the southwest and the 74th Guards Rifle Division to the southeast of the citadel, negotiated the deep trench that surrounded it. On February 18, the general attack on the citadel began, with the Soviet units trying to cross the moat with ladders. They were taken under heavy fire from the citadel's redoubts . It was only after almost three days of fighting that the Soviet units were able to silence the redoubts using flamethrowers and explosives or by blocking their fire hatches with rubble and rubble. After a kind of storm bridge had been built to make it easier to get to the bottom of the moat and the citadel walls, the last section of the protracted battle for Poznan began on February 22nd. On this day, the last radio message from the Posen Fortress was sent on the German side , in which it was made unequivocally clear that the fortress was likely to fall. One day later, on February 23, 1945, at 3:00 a.m., fortress commander Gonell decided to end the resistance and capitulate. Contrary to Himmler's instructions, he gave the remaining troops free to dare to break out of the citadel, for which it was now, however, far too late and which therefore only a small part of the fortress garrison could manage. Gonell himself committed suicide shortly afterwards.

The Wehrmacht High Command commented on the Posens case in its war diary with one of the usual succinct statements, whereas the German press hailed the militarily senseless sacrifice of tens of thousands of soldiers as a “ heroic struggle ” and “ [e] successful breakwater against the Bolshevik storm surge ”.

Consequences of the battle

The fall of Posen illustrates the total failure of Hitler's strategy of being able to stop or at least slow down the Soviet advance by creating so-called “ fixed places ”. In view of their enormous material superiority, the Soviet armed forces could afford to continue their advance unchecked and to leave behind corresponding troop contingents, which then fought down Hitler's “fortresses”. From a military point of view, the defense of the numerous cities on the Eastern Front that had been declared " fortresses " was therefore a completely senseless sacrifice of tens of thousands of human lives.

The battle for Posen had claimed around 5,000 lives on the German side alone. Around 6,000 soldiers died on the Soviet side, as well as a number of civilians that can no longer be precisely determined. Of the approximately 2,000 civilians who were involved in the battle for the citadel, around 100 died. The buildings in Poznan were also badly damaged by the fighting that lasted around a month. 55% of the houses in the city had been partially or completely destroyed by artillery fire and house-to-house fighting, the old town was even 75% destroyed. The residential palace in Poznan , which had been converted into a hospital after the city was enclosed, had suffered comparatively little damage . It is estimated that up to 2,000 wounded were last housed inside. After the castle was occupied by Red Army soldiers on February 2, it served as a collection point for German wounded until March 1945. Some of them were not only robbed there, but also victims of arbitrary acts of revenge by the victors. The German wounded could not be adequately cared for and cared for by their opponents, who also had to take care of a large number of their own wounded, which is why the dysentery soon broke out. At its peak, the disease is estimated to claim up to 30 victims a day. In 1947/48 the Polish authorities exhumed 765 German soldiers buried in a mass grave in the palace gardens alone . But some of the German soldiers who were taken prisoners of war were also victims of attacks by the victors. After their capture, they were led through the city in specially staged "propaganda marches", with rioting on the part of the city residents, who avenged themselves in this way for the years of brutal repression to which they had been subjected under German rule .

literature

• Maciej Karalus and Michał Krzyżaniak: Poznań 1945. Bitwa o Poznań w fotografii i document. The struggle for poses in images and documents. Battle for Poznan in the photograph and documents (= Poznan Fortress 1945). Vesper Publishing House, Poznań 2010, ISBN 978-83-7731-018-2 .
• Manfried Müller: Posen 1945. In: Circular letter No. 46 of the German Field Post Office 1939-1945 eV

Web links

• Werner Brähler: From my time (1943–1950) , Chapter 6: Fahnenjunkerschule Posen , pp. 179–298. (PDF; 6931 kB)

References and comments

1. ↑ On the military situation on the Eastern Front in January 1945 and the subsequent major offensive by the Red Army, cf. for example John Keegan : The Second World War. German by Hainer Kober . Rowohlt Verlag , Reinbek near Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-61914-4 , pp. 756-763.
2. ↑ Quoted from Heinrich Schwendemann and Wolfgang Dietsche: Hitler's Castle. The "Führer Residence" in Poznan. 1st edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-289-1 , p. 154.
3. ↑ On the situation at that time and the subsequent struggle for Posen cf. also Schwendemann / Dietsche (2003), pp. 154–158.
4. ↑ Quoted from Schwendemann / Dietsche (2003), p. 156.
5. ↑ Maciej Karalus and Michał Krzyżaniak: Poznań 1945. Bitwa o Poznań w fotografii i document. The struggle for poses in images and documents. Battle for Poznan in the photograph and documents (= Poznan Fortress 1945). Vesper, Poznań 2010. Unless otherwise stated, all information given here is based on this work, in particular pp. 19–29.
6. ↑ The so-called Landesschützen belonged to the security troops and were usually used for security tasks (guarding prisoners of war, military and war-essential objects as well as transport routes, etc.) at home and in the rear military area.
7. ↑ For details of the units used, cf. Müller, Posen 1945 and Brähler: From my time (1943–1950) , p. 221, accessed on January 25, 2010.
8. ^ Brähler: From my time (1943-1950) , pp. 200-203, accessed on January 25, 2010.
9. ↑ Quoted from Schwendemann / Dietsche (2003), p. 157.
10. ↑ See Christopher Duffy : Red Storm on the Reich. The Soviet March on Germany, 1945. Routledge, London 1991, ISBN 0-415-03589-9 , p. 249. - According to Tschuikow, Gonell commanded the fortress with an “ iron hand ”. He also reports that he was an eyewitness when a group of German soldiers who displayed white flags and tried to surrender to the Soviet soldiers were shot dead by their own officers. Incidents like this did not happen that rarely in the Poznan Fortress .
11. ↑ See Brähler: From my time (1943–1950) , p. 240 f. and 252 f., accessed on January 25, 2010.
12. ↑ See Brähler: From my time (1943–1950) , pp. 237–240, accessed on January 25, 2010.
13. ↑ For the supply flights cf. Müller, Posen 1945 . - According to the list there, a little more than 257.0 t of supplies were flown into the city or dropped over the city area by the fall of the fortress with 195 aircraft.
14. ↑ Quoted from Schwendemann / Dietsche (2003), p. 157.
15. ↑ The corresponding article appeared at the beginning of March 1945 and is illustrated by Brähler: From my time (1943–1950) , p. 259, accessed on January 25, 2010. The author does not state in which newspaper this article appeared.
16. ↑ See Schwendemann / Dietsche (2003), pp. 158–161 and 166–169.