Battle of Würzburg (1945)

Battle of Würzburg

Part of: Western Front , World War II

The destroyed Ludwigsbrücke over the Main

date	March 31 to April 6, 1945
place	Wurzburg
output	Allied occupation

Parties to the conflict
German Empire	United States
Commander
Richard Wolf	Harry J. Collins
Troop strength
approx. 3,500 soldiers	approx. 5,000 soldiers
losses
approx. 1,000 dead (including civilians)	approx. 300 dead

The Battle of Würzburg in 1945 lasted from Holy Saturday , March 31, 1945 to the following Friday, April 6, 1945 and ended with the capture of the Lower Franconian city by the 42nd US Infantry Division ( Rainbow ).

The Defense of Würzburg under Gauleiter Otto Hellmuth and the military leadership of the Wehrmacht colonel Richard Wolf and on Hitler's orders represented the first serious resistance to the American division after crossing the Rhine. After Hettstadt in the northwest of Wurzburg had fallen into American hands on Easter Sunday, were in On the night from Easter Sunday to Easter Monday under the pressure of the advancing American troops and because reinforcements did not arrive as expected, all German forces were withdrawn to the right bank of the Main .

While the US artillery took up position on the heights of the Nikolausberg and Katzenberg in order to bombard the city center from there, the Keesberg in the right Main Main area was armed with German artillery. On Easter Monday , around 11:30 a.m., the Ludwigsbrücke (also called Löwenbrücke), around 4:45 p.m. the Alte Mainbrücke and around 5:15 p.m. the Luitpoldbrücke (today Friedensbrücke) were blown up, making all three Würzburg Main bridges that existed at the time impassable for American troop movements were.

In the night of Tuesday, some GIs in the Ludwigsbrücke area crossed the Main in light boats without encountering any resistance worth mentioning, and on the following day the bridgehead erected there was expanded. The troop movements, however, soon came under targeted fire from snipers posted in houses by combat commander Wolf. Downstream (north) of the Old Main Bridge were on one of pioneers built pontoon bridge transported from April 3 light vehicles and infantry on the right bank of the Main.

The heaviest house-to-house fights took place on Wednesday and Thursday in the inner city area, which had been in ruins since the bombing raid on Würzburg on March 16, 1945 , a counterattack attempted by German troops in the direction of the three Main bridges on April 5 failed due to insufficient armament and Würzburg fell in american hand.

After his son in the fight in a Volkssturm had fallen department, the also struggling with the gun in hand, mayor sat Theo Memmel from the hinterland. On Friday, April 6, 1945, the last German units in outlying districts also ceased the resistance and the battle for Würzburg was over.

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  Motorized infantry in the destroyed streets of Würzburg

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  GIs in the rubble field of downtown Würzburg in April 1945

literature

• Karl Kunze: End of the war in Franconia and the battle for Nuremberg in April 1945 (= Nürnberger Forschungen 28) , Nuremberg 1995.
• Ulrich Wagner: The conquest of Würzburg in April 1945. In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I – III / 2 (I: From the beginnings to the outbreak of the Peasant War. 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1465-4 ; II: From the Peasant War 1525 to the transition to the Kingdom of Bavaria 1814. 2004, ISBN 3 -8062-1477-8 ; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 ), Theiss, Stuttgart 2001–2007, Volume III (2007), Pp. 294-314 and 1290-1292.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Easter 1945: The senseless struggle for Würzburg. mainpost.de, accessed on April 6, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Easter 1945: The battle for Würzburg. Retrieved September 1, 2013 . 
3. ^ Würzburg in May 1945 - film recordings from the National Archives in Washington DC, commented on by Roland Flade. Retrieved September 1, 2013 . 

Coordinates: 49 ° 48 '  N , 9 ° 56'  E