Stettin-Rostock operation

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The Stettin-Rostocker Operation ( Russian Штеттинско-Ростокская операция ) from April 20 to May 5, 1945 was one of the last operations of the Soviet troops in the Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania area and part of the Berlin operation during World War II . In the course of these battles, the German 3rd Panzer Army on the northern Oder front was defeated and pursued by several Soviet armies from the 2nd Belarusian front . At the end of the fighting, the Soviet advance into Western Pomerania on the Stralsund - Rostock line, stopped in Mecklenburg before Schwerin and in northern Brandenburg on the line Wittstock - Wittenberge on the demarcation line and established the connection with the allied troops of the Allied 21st Army Group .

prehistory

After the Battle of East Pomerania , the troops of the 2nd Belarusian Front under Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky were moved west to the northern Oder Front to support the troops of the 1st Belarusian Front in the Berlin operation. Rokossowski's front ran for about 170 kilometers from the mouth of the Oder, further along the eastern bank to the south to Schwedt and Oderberg , where it joined the 61st Army of the 1st Belarusian Front. The main power of the front (65th, 70th and 49th armies) was concentrated between Altdamm and Schwedt.

On April 10th, Marshal Rokossovsky carried out the exploration of the future attack area. It turned out that the flood plain between the two arms of the Oder was flooded, a continuous water space of up to 3 km wide had formed, which was difficult to pass by boats because of the shallow water. In order to better overcome the flooded Oder floodplain, the remnants of the dilapidated dams should be used. As a result, it was decided to cross the river at the same time on the whole route, and at the point where the success was shown, to immediately replenish all reserves to follow up. On April 13, the troops of the 2nd Belarusian Front began to prepare for the offensive, the 65th Army occupied the starting position at the bridgehead of Altdamm near Ferdinandstein . From April 16, the troops of the 70th Army arrived south of it on the Oder. The 49th Soviet Army established itself between Kranzfelde and Nipperwiese , and one day earlier, the 61st Army of the 1st Belarusian Front moved into its starting positions as its southern neighbor . Early on April 15, the troops of the 2nd Shock Army replaced the parts of the Polish 1st Army north of the 65th Army between Kammin and Greifenberg . On the same day part of the 19th Army (WS Romanowski) moved to the Baltic Sea coast and replaced the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps, which was supposed to lead a passage to Schwedt.

March

Hasso von Manteuffel

As part of the Vistula Army Group , the 3rd Panzer Army faced the Soviet superiority with around 11 divisions and around 220 tanks: From north to south, the following formations were under General of the Armored Force Hasso von Manteuffel and his Chief of Staff, Major General Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand :

On the night of April 16, individual Soviet units occupied the dams in the Oderaue. The recognized deployment of the Soviet troops was hindered by the artillery of the fortress Stettin. In the days that followed, the bulk of the attack troops were moved forward. The deployment of the armored reserve, consisting of the 1st, 3rd and 8th Guards Panzer and the 8th Mechanized Corps, was completed by April 17th. Throughout the night from April 19th to April 20th, the Soviet Air Force bombed the German defenses. In order to mislead the enemy, preparations were made to cross the river north of Szczecin with troops of the 2nd Shock Army.

The attack over the Oder on April 20th

The 2nd Belarusian Front counted 33 rifle divisions, three artillery divisions and several artillery and rocket launcher brigades. Rokossowski's front had 951 tanks and self-propelled guns and 8,320 artillery pieces (2770 of which were mortars). On the morning of April 20, the attack of the 49th, 70th and 65th Armies between Schwedt and Stettin across the Oder began, the 2nd Shock Army was deployed as a reserve. At the beginning of the operation, the 4th Air Army was deployed under General KA Vershinin . The dividing line with the 1st Belarusian Front was fixed on the line from Arnswalde , Schwedt, Angermünde , Gransee , and Wittenberge during the advance to the west .

2. Belarusian Front

Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Belarusian Front

19th Army (Lieutenant General Vladimir Sakharovich Romanowski )

  • 40th Guards Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Semjon Petrovich Mikulski
  • 134th Rifle Corps - Major General Andrei G. Frolenkow

2nd Shock Army (Lieutenant General Iwan Iwanowitsch Fedjuninsky )

  • 108th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Vitali Polenow
  • 98th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Georgi Ivanovich Anisimov
  • 116th Rifle Corps - Major General Fyodor Kuzmich Fetisov

65th Army (Colonel General Pawel Batow )

  • 37th Guards Rifle Division
  • 105th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Dmitri Alexeyev
  • 46th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Konstantin Maximowitsch Jerastow
  • 18th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Nikita Jemeljanowitsch Tschuwakow
  • From April 22nd, 1st Guards Panzer Corps, Major General Michail Fedorowitsch Panow with 15th, 16th and 17th Guards Tank Brigade and 30th Panzer Brigade

70th Army (Colonel General Vasili Stepanowitsch Popow )

  • 96th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Jakub Jangirowitsch Chanyzhev
  • 47th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Mikhail Ivanovich Dratwin
  • 114th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Dmitri Ivanovich Ryabyshev
  • 3rd Guards Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General Alexei Pavlovich Panfilow with 3rd, 18th and 19th Panzer Brigades and 2nd Guards Rifle Brigade
  • 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Nikolai Sergejewitsch Oslikowski with 5th and 6th Guards and 32nd Cavalry Divisions

49th Army (Lieutenant General Iwan Tichonowitsch Grischin )

  • 70th Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Vasily Terentjew
  • 121st Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Dmitri Ivanovich Smirnov
  • 8th Guards Mechanical Corps, Major General Alexander Firsowitsch with the 58th, 59th and 60th Guards Mechanized Brigade and 116th Tank Brigade

The 65th Army was the first to form a bridgehead on the west bank of the river, where more troops were immediately followed by ferries. From 9 a.m. the weather improved and the Soviet Air Force was able to provide support. By 1 p.m., the pioneers of the 65th Army had completed two 16-ton bridges in the Pritzlow area . On the first day of the battle, Batow's troops built a bridgehead over 6 kilometers wide and 1.5 kilometers deep. Four rifle divisions of the 46th and 18th Rifle Corps under Lieutenant General KM Jerastow and NJ Tschuwakow were initially transferred there. After the breakthrough in the enemy's defense, each army was reinforced by a tank corps. The 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps remained in reserve behind the left flank of the 49th Army. The troops of the 70th Army, which were concentrated in the Greifenhagen area, also succeeded in gaining a foothold on the western bank in the Gartz area , and the 49th Army also had its first successes south of it . Their pioneers were able to erect crossings over the canals in the empty combat area after the German defense had left this area. After assessing the new situation, Rokossowski decided to use one of the transition bridges to transfer the 2nd shock army, the fortress Stettin should be bypassed from the south.

General Manteuffel threw all German reserves into the 65th Army's breakthrough space. With the support of the artillery of the fortress Stettin (Major General Ferdinand Brühl ), the troops of the Soviet 65th Army were also threatened on the northern flank. The III, which is used separately in the north of Berlin on the front line Spandau - Oranienburg - Finow Canal with the front to the south. SS Panzer Corps was assigned to reinforce the 4th SS Police Division (General Walter Harzer ) to stop the Soviet encirclement of Berlin from the west. At the same time, the CI struck on the Oder had changed. Army Corps (Lieutenant General Sixt) withdrew to the Eberswalde bridgehead .

On the following day, Rokossowski's troops fought to expand the bridgeheads that had been erected. The Soviet 49th Army managed to secure the area at Fiddichow on the west bank of the Oder, but the eruption via Hohenleide to the Randow break could not yet be reached. It was decided to tie up as many German troops as possible here, and to lead the next main blow to the right from the bridgehead of the 65th Army. On April 22nd, the 70th Soviet Army managed a limited breakthrough in the Gartz area towards Petershagen, where weak counter-attacks by the 27th SS Grenadier Division were repulsed. On April 23, it was possible to build a bridge over the canals with a payload of 60 tons, which was immediately covered by German artillery fire. Although some pontoons were damaged, the bridge was repaired and the German batteries destroyed. Soviet tanks then immediately began to cross the Oder. The last 300 to 400 defenders of Schwedt had already set off on bicycles in the direction of Parchim on April 24th .

On the southern section of the 3rd Panzer Army, the Soviet 2nd Guards Panzer Army ( General Bogdanow ) had already advanced to the Havel , the forces advancing through the Spandau Forest on Dolgow could cut off the road to Havelberg . The 9th Guards Panzer Corps , which broke through via Hennigsdorf, and the 8th Cavalry Corps reached the Ferch-Drewitz-Güterfelde line on a broad front . The already decimated 25th Panzer Grenadier Division of the CI. Army Corps gave up the bridgehead on the Finow Canal near Eberswalde and was assigned to the III. SS Panzer Corps supplied. She took over the security on the Hohenzollern Canal and was to lead a relief attack south on Spandau near Germersheim in order to reopen the connection between the Soviet fronts now in the Ketzin area .

By April 25, units of the 65th and 70th Armies in the north had expanded the western bridgehead on the Oder to a depth of around 8 km. The 1st Guards Panzer Corps (General Panow) completed the breakthrough in the German defense zone. That day the advance of the 70th Army to the south was more significant. Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy threw their reserves against the 65th Army, the rifle divisions of the 70th Army could now advance and at the end of the day penetrate more than 15 km deep. The advance was temporarily halted by the Randow breach, where the Germans' second line of defense was located. The 49th Army on the left flank overcame the Oder by using the crossings of the neighboring army and advancing 5-6 km in the evening. On the German side, the remnants of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division (Major General Arnold Burmeister ) were relocated from the bridgehead south of the Ruppin Canal to Kremmen in order to delay the Soviet breakthrough at Oranienburg .

On April 26th, troops of the 65th Army stormed the city of Stettin, the opposing defense reached the Randow break and continued the advance to the northwest. By evening the German defenses had been breached on a 20-kilometer front, not only were the defending troops defeated, the newly brought in reserves were now pushed back. After the capture of Schwedt / Oder by the 70th Rifle Corps (Lieutenant General Terentjew) of the 65th Army, the 3rd Panzer Armme withdrew from the Uecker section running from south to north on the night of April 26th and gave up thus the last chance on a closed defense.

Persecution through Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania

The pursuit of the Soviet armies followed the new main thrusts:

  • The reinforced 19th Army had to advance along the coast to Swinoujscie and then to Greifswald.
  • The 2nd Shock Army deployed two corps north of Stettin to pursue them in the direction of Anklam , their goal was the coast near Stralsund and the cleansing of the islands of Usedom and Rügen .
  • The 65th Army, led by the 1st Guards Panzer Corps, had to push through the Mecklenburg Lake District to Rostock in a north-westerly direction northeast of Stettin and reach the sea.
  • The 70th Army with the 3rd Guards Panzer Corps was to advance via Prenzlau and Neubrandenburg in the direction of Wismar and Schwerin .
  • The 49th Army, advancing south of the Strelitz chain of lakes, was supposed to bring the newly added 8th Mechanized Corps and the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps westwards to Wittenberge, Lenzen and Ludwigslust zur Elde via Templin- Wittstock- Pritzwalk .

On April 27, the Soviet offensive continued, the 3rd Panzer Army retreated through the Mecklenburg Lake District, the northern wing of the army was already in the process of disintegration. The 19th Army, which had cleared the Gristow Peninsula from the enemy, was approaching Swinoujscie on its right flank . The right wing of the 1st Marine Division on the Ueckersee was breached. The main forces of the 2nd Shock Army, which operated along the south coast of the Stettiner Haff , advanced on Anklam . On the way, the remnants of the broken-out Stettin garrison, which had withdrawn to the north, and the German troops that were still defending north of Stettin, were smashed. Deployed in the section of the 70th Army, the Soviet 3rd Guards Panzer Corps (General Panfilow) broke into Prenzlau in cooperation with the 47th Rifle Corps (Lieutenant General Dratwin ).

The 25th Panzer Grenadier Division arrived from the Oranienburg bridgehead as reinforcements, while the 7th Panzer Division, embarked at sea via Danzig, arrived at the battlefield. On the Soviet side, the 5th Guards Division was newly brought in and pushed the remnants of the corps of units back to Templin and the chain of lakes between Lychen and Neubrandenburg . In the section west of Templin, the General Command XXVII , brought from East Prussia , took over . Army Corps (General Hörnlein ) took control of the 547th Volksgrenadier Division and Brigade 1001, both formations fell behind the 49th Army in pursuit.

From the room Gransee -Löwenberg the first was RAD - Division Schlageter (Major General Heun ) for reinforcement in the area XLVI. Panzer Corps relocated. In the Neustrelitz area the 7th Panzer Division tried in vain to counter the Soviet forces that had broken through at Bergfeld and Goldenbaum to set up a defensive position. The 27th and 28th SS divisions fed via Feldberg had to withdraw to Waren via Neustrelitz .

General Hoernlein took command of the XXVII on April 28th . Army corps that had withdrawn from the Strasburg - Heinrichswald -Ferdinandshof- Ueckermünde line on Friedland . More and more German refugees and wounded poured into Anklam. On the morning of April 28, fighting was already taking place in nearby Ducherow , and the combat commandant of Anklam, Colonel Rudolf Petershagen, tried to avoid the fight. The left wing of the advancing 65th Army took the cities of Friedland and Neubrandenburg on April 29, and on the same day the 46th Rifle Division of the 108th Rifle Corps broke into Anklam. On April 30, the 90th Rifle Division under Major General Ljaschchenko occupied the city of Greifswald. The commander of the 46th Rifle Division, General Botschew , accepted the offer of surrender by the Greifswald parliamentarians. In contrast to the neighboring cities of Anklam and Demmin , Greifswald was saved from destruction. Colonel Petershagen was sentenced to death for the surrender without a fight. German units retreating through the Peene Valley saw Anklam in bright flames. The city of Stralsund was also handed over to units of the 2nd Shock Army without a fight. The city of Demmin became a beacon for the spiritual horrors of war. On the night of May 1st, Red Army soldiers plundered the small town overcrowded with refugees, and the women in particular had to endure great suffering.

End of the war on the Elde and Elbe

At the end of April there were no Soviet units east of the demarcation line on the Elde and Elbe , but units of the Wehrmacht and the SS. In Mecklenburg, Soviet troops pushed forward as far as the Neuruppin - Müritzsee- Rostock line . Their fighters and attack pilots intervened in the fighting for Mecklenburg. On April 30, Soviet tank breakthroughs from Penzlin to Waren and from Neubrandenburg to Malchin took place in the Mecklenburg Lake District . Alt-Strelitz and Malchin were taken under fire, and large parts of the towns went up in flames during the fighting. In Neustrelitz the castle, the theater and other buildings burned down. At XXXXVI. Panzer Corps, the 281st Infantry Division (General Ortner) occupied an intermediate position at Demzin. The 28th SS Division took a final defensive position against the pursuing Soviet 70th Army near Waren. The XXVII. Army Corps abandoned the position between Wesenberg and Fürstenberg after the 49th Soviet Army broke through to the west south of the Plauer and Müritz lakes. Mirow and Wesenburg were evacuated by the 547th Volksgrenadierdivision , and they withdrew to Röbel .

In the south, the Soviet 61st Army (General Below ) accompanied the advance from the Fehrbellin area over the Hohenzollern Canal to Havelberg to the Elbe section, the left flank of which was secured by the advance guard of the Polish 1st Army, which was advancing towards Sandau . The remains of the CI. Army Corps (General Sixt ) had to give up Zehdenick . In the Rheinsberg area , the remnants of the 5th Jäger Division (Major General Blaurock ), which had been pushed to the north, were encircled, south of it near Lindow the 3rd Marine Division fought its way back west via Alt-Ruppin. The Schirmer Brigade and the remains of the 4th SS Police Division were pushed onto the Ruppin chain of lakes. The remains of the XXXII. Army corps were retreating to Güstrow . The troops of the 71st Rifle Division (Colonel Nikolai Beljaew) of the 47th Rifle Corps occupied Malchin. The 7th Panzer Division fought for a retreat west of Waren via Jabel , the 281st Infantry Division was pushed onto the Krakower See , to the north of it the 25th Panzer Grenadier Division returned between the Malchiner Lakes to Teterow .

At Wolgast , the German units retreated to the other bank of the Peene on April 30, under fire protection from ships of the navy operating on the Peene , in order to fire from there the troops of the Soviet 2nd Shock Army advancing on the city. German pioneer units detonated explosive charges on the Wolgast bridges in order to cut off the way for the Soviet troops to the island of Usedom by destroying the crossings . By the morning of May 3, Soviet pioneers had built a makeshift bridge over the Peene. The 354th Rifle Division (Major General Vladimir Nikolajewitsch Janjgaw) of the 105th Rifle Corps moved into Grimmen . The fighting did not end here until May 5th, a Russian command post was set up in Wolgast.

On May 1st, the 70th Army reached Rostock with the 3rd Guards Panzer Corps (Lieutenant General Panfilow), and on the following day the 3rd Panzer Brigade (Lieutenant Colonel Fedor Chrisanfowitsch Jegorow) also occupied Warnemünde, cleaning up the coast . In the last days of the war, more than 60,000 refugees, soldiers and wounded were evacuated to the west with war and merchant ships via the ports of Rostock and Wismar in order to escape Soviet captivity.

consequences

The withdrawal of Army Group Vistula to the Elbe

Although Rokossowski's operation had no direct influence on the Battle of Berlin , it tied the forces of the 3rd Panzer Army and thus ruled out any shifts of forces to other sectors of the front. As a result, it contributed significantly to the rapid collapse of the German Oder front. The withdrawal from the Soviet troops on the Baltic coast no longer gave the German high command the opportunity to dispatch evacuated troops from the Kurland pocket to the ports of Mecklenburg to defend Germany. Large units of the Wehrmacht withdrew to the Ludwigslust, Grabow and Schwerin line to go into US captivity. Before the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front , the High Command of the Wehrmacht had fled from Zossen to the northwest. Rokossowski's 2nd Byelorussian Front occupied Western Pomerania (Stralsund - Rostock), Mecklenburg (until shortly before Schwerin) and northern Brandenburg on the Wittstock - Wittenberge line in the last days of the war.

On May 3, the Soviet 3rd Guards Panzer Corps, southwest of Wismar, made contact with the front units of the British 2nd Army . On May 4th, the troops of the 70th, 49th Army, 8th Mechanized and 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps met at the demarcation line with the troops of the British 21st Army Group, which had advanced in some places across the Elbe . Parts of the Soviet 19th Army and troops of the 2nd Shock Army fought one more day to clear the island of Wollin, Usedom and Rügen from German troops. On May 5th, units of the 2nd Shock Army occupied Peenemünde ; two divisions of the 19th Army landed to clean up the Danish island of Bornholm .

At Schwerin there was a clash between the Red Army under Marshal Konstantin Rokossowski and soldiers of the Western Allies. A meeting between Field Marshal Montgomery and Marshal Rokossowski took place on May 7th in Wismar. The demarcation line initially ran east of Wismar – Schweriner See – Ludwigslust – Dömitz. Schwerin and West Mecklenburg were first occupied by the Americans and the British before the Soviets took control on July 1st. The dividing line was moved further west in accordance with the decisions of the Yalta Conference .

literature

  • Konstantin Rokossovsky : Одер - Эльба. In: Солдатский долг. Воениздат, Moskva 1988.
  • Освобождение городов: Справочник по освобождению городов в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941–1945. Воениздат, Moscow 1985, OCLC 13002838 .
  • Richard Lakowski: Seelow 1945. The decisive battle on the Oder. Mittler and Son, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8132-0934-1 .
  • Hans Schäufler, Wilhelm Tieke : The end between Vistula and Elbe 1944/45. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02298-2 .