On the southern flank of the Soviet troops, which began the general offensive against Berlin on April 16, 1945, the last major tank battle took place, culminating in the re-occupation of Bautzen by German troops.
After the high command of the Wehrmacht used up the last strategic reserves in the Ardennes and near Budapest, by April 45, there were almost no forces left to defend the capital of the Reich. In view of the enormous superiority of the forces of the Red Army, no one had any doubts in the end of the war. In addition, the matter was complicated by the fact that Army Group Center, under the command of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, was ordered to defend the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, since there remained the last significant military factories. Thus, Army Group Center could only partly defend Berlin.
On April 16, 1945, Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front and Marshal Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front began the Berlin offensive. Zhukov's troops were supposed to be from the north, and Konev's troops from the south were to cover the imperial capital and, having closed the encirclement, then proceed to storm it. The 1st Ukrainian Front included the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies, the 13th and 52nd Armies, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, as well as the 2nd Polish Army. After a powerful artillery barrage, Konev's troops managed to break through the defense of Army Group Center north and south of Rothenburg, as well as in the Muskau-Forst strip. After that, the main forces of the 1st Ukrainian turned to Berlin, and the smaller part aimed at Dresden. This group had the task, after the occupation of Dresden, to unite with the Americans who were in the Chemnitz area.
The 2nd Polish Army under the command of General Karol Swierczewski (known during the Spanish Civil War as "General Walter") was to cover the southern flank of the 1st Ukrainian Front along the Dresden-Bautzen-Niski line. This unit of the Polish People's Army numbered about 90,000 people, 291 tanks (mainly T-34-85) and 135 self-propelled guns (SU-76, SU-85 and ISU-122). Polish soldiers were mostly inexperienced recruits, and the quality of the officers also left much to be desired.
The 1st Ukrainian Front was opposed by the 4th Panzer Army of the General of the Panzer Forces Fritz-Hubert Greser and the left flank of the 17th Army of the General of the Infantry Wilhelm Hasse. These troops included the 1st parachute-tank division "Hermann Goering" (hereinafter - the 1st p-td "GG"), the 20th tank, motorized division "Brandenburg", the 17th and 72nd infantry divisions and the combat group of the 545th People's Grenadier Division. Later they were to be joined by the 2nd parachute motorized division "Hermann Goering" (hereinafter: 2nd p-md "GG").
The 4th Panzer Army had about 50,000 manpower in the Bautzen-Oberlausitz sector, 62 tanks (2 Tigers, 30 Panthers, 28 Pz IV, 2 Pz III) and 293 self-propelled guns (123 StuG III and IV, 39 Hetzer ", 29" Nashorn ", 39 Jagdpanzer IV, 20 Sturmhaubitze 42 and 43 self-propelled 75-mm anti-tank guns). The artillery consisted mainly of 88 mm anti-aircraft guns.
German troops were not in the best condition and were numerically inferior to the enemy. They included both experienced veterans and recruits, members of the Hitler Youth and Volkssturm. Equipment and weapons were badly worn out. They also experienced supply difficulties, especially fuel.
On April 17, after a powerful artillery barrage, the troops of the 2nd Polish Army broke through the German defenses on the White Sheps and Neisse rivers. Over the next two days, the Polish 1st Panzer Corps and the 8th Infantry Division continued to press against the German forces, while the 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th Infantry Divisions advanced on Dresden. North of Bautzen, the Poles managed to capture bridgeheads on the Spree and encircle part of the German troops in the Muskau area. General Sverchevsky, in violation of Konev's orders, decided at all costs to seize Dresden.
Before the Soviet offensive, the cities of Bautzen and Weissenberg were declared "fortresses". They were to serve as "breakwaters" of the enemy offensive and the basis of future counter-attacks. At the disposal of the commandant of Bautzen, Colonel Dietrich Höpke, were about 3,000 people from the Volkssturm, Hitler Youth, air defense units, a penal company, the remnants of the 1244th grenadier regiment and about 200 people from the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg".
After the breakthrough at Rothenburg, the 7th Guards. the mechanized corps of Lieutenant General Korchagin, located on the southern flank of the breakthrough, directed part of its forces to Weissenberg. After capturing this city on the morning of 18 April, the corps continued its offensive along the Autobahn in the direction of Bautzen. The so-called "tank destroyers", Ju 87 G from the 2nd close support squadron, armed with 37-mm cannons, were able to inflict losses on the tank corps, but they were unable to stop the offensive. During April 18, the 24th mechanized brigade managed to capture the Litten airfield east of Bautzen. With the onset of darkness, the Russians tried to occupy the suburb of Schafberg, defended by a penalty company of the 4th Panzer Army, which they succeeded by 23 o'clock.
The next day, the Soviet offensive continued. Simultaneously with the frontal offensive against Bautzen, the 24th Guards Brigade from the east, the 26th Guards Brigade and the 57th Infantry Brigade, bypassed the city from the north. And after the breakthrough of the Polish 3rd brigade from the north, followed by a turn to the south and cutting the road to Dresden, Bautzen was surrounded. During the day, the Russians managed to break into the city itself, and stubborn street fighting began. To the west of Bautzen, one of the Polish infantry regiments reached the N6 autobahn in the Göda area and cut the last connection with the outside world.
On the morning of April 21st, Colonel Höpke was forced to pull back the line of defense deep into the city. The defenders were entrenched in a castle on a rocky plateau overlooking the old city. The situation was desperate, but by this time the German counteroffensive was already in full swing.
After the breakthrough of the 1st Ukrainian Front on Gneiss, Field Marshal Schörner planned to stop it with a blow on the southern flank and break through to the capital. For this, he concentrated his troops in the area of Görlitz and Reichenbach.
On the 16th, Schörner visited the positions of the 1st Parachute Panzer Division and discussed the future operation with its commander, Major General Max Temke. At 1300 divisions Hermann Goering, 20th Panzer, Motorized Brandenburg and 17th Infantry attacked the enemy's southern flank.
The headquarters of the 1st Ukrainian Front was informed about the preparations of the Germans and strengthened its flank. Although German tanks managed to knock out dozens of Soviet ones, they failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough either by the night of April 16-17, or by the next. And on April 18, fierce counterattacks by Soviet troops began, so that all German formations participating in the strike had to go on the defensive.
The next day, two kilometers east of Kodersdorf, a heavy battle took place between the 1st Parachute Panzer Division "GG" and the 1st Polish Panzer Corps. The 17 "Panthers" of Lieutenant Colonel Osman let the Polish tanks walking, as in a parade, at a distance of 50 meters and unexpectedly opened fire for them. The blow was crushing. Within twenty minutes, 43 Polish tanks were knocked out, 12 more were captured (among them 4 heavy IS tanks).
On April 21, a gap was formed between the Polish group advancing on Dresden (8th and 9th under, and 1st k) and the troops stationed in the Muskau area (7th and 10th under), covered only by weak forces - 5th under and 16th torus. Schörner decided to take advantage of the situation, and on April 21, the last tank offensive of the Wehrmacht began in the space between the Spree and Black Sheps rivers.
The Panzer Corps "Great Germany" (hereinafter: TC "VG") under the command of General of the Panzer Forces Georg Jauer, himself in a semi-encirclement, was to attack the northern, and the VLII TC of General of the Panzer Forces Friedrich Kirchner - the southern flanks of the 2 nd Polish attack on Dresden army.
The 1st p-td "GG" and the 20th td, subordinate to the TC "VG", began their offensive at 4 o'clock in the morning. At the same time, the 17th Infantry Division struck at Niski and Weissenberg and made its way to the German units surrounded in the Muskau region.
German formations broke into the gap between the 2nd Polish and 52nd Soviet armies located in the Bautzen area, pushed back the 48th sk and advanced in the direction of Spremberg. At dawn on April 22, the advance units of the VG and VLII military corps linked up in the Stockteich area near Mück and cut the supply routes for the 2nd Polish Army, 7th Guards MK and 254 Rifle Division in Bautzen. The Polish 5th Infantry Division was attacked from the rear and suffered heavy losses. Its commander, General Alexander Vashkevich, was captured. The 16th Polish tank brigade located south of Förstgen lost more than a hundred tanks and was almost completely destroyed.
General Sverchevsky stopped the offensive on Dresden and ordered the 1st military corps to turn back and restore the situation. The same order was received by the 8th Infantry Division. The 9th front division remained at Dresden.
In view of the critical situation, Marshal Konev sent Chief of Staff, General Ivan Petrov, and Chief of the Front's Operations Directorate, General Vladimir Kostylev, to Sverchevsky's headquarters to clarify the situation. Petrov removed Sverchevsky from the command, which was taken over by Kostylev. In addition, Konev sent reinforcements - the 14th and 95th Rifle Divisions and the 4th Guards Military Corps of the 1st Ukrainian Front. They were ordered to head to the area of Kamenets, Königsvart and Sdir in order to hold back the German advance to the north.
At this time, the 1st p-td "GG" and the 20th td, together with the 17th and 72nd infantry divisions, managed to break through to the German units surrounded in Bautzen. On the 21st, the defenders of the city received a radio message about the beginning of the counter-offensive and the order to "hold on." On the morning of April 22nd, the 20th TD and the 300th assault gun brigade broke through the Soviet anti-tank defenses at the fork in the road at Weissenberg. The offensive developed successfully. As a result, his Polish army was split in two. P-td "GG" attacked Bautzen from the north-west and simultaneously from the west, along the Spree. On April 23rd, the German vanguards reached Black Sheps in the east, and the settlements of Loza, Opitz and Großdubrau in the west.
In the morning there was a battle between the "Panthers" of the "GG" division and Soviet tanks, as a result of which several T-34-85s were knocked out. In the afternoon, the 1st p-td "GG" and the 20th TD, with the support of the 300th and 311th assault gun brigades, broke into Bautzen.
On the morning of April 24, at about 5.00, the commander of the 20th TD, Major General Herman Oppeln-Bronikovsky, at the head of the assault detachment, managed to break through to the city castle, where no more than 400 defenders remained. Around noon, the 2nd Polish military commander attempted a counterattack at Stibice, two kilometers west of the city center, which, at the cost of heavy losses, was repelled by the Grenadier Division's grenadiers. In the end, the Soviet 24th Guards Tank Brigade was forced to retreat from the city, and over the next few days, as a result of fierce street fighting, Bautzen was again in German hands. But only by April 30 the last centers of resistance of the Soviet troops were suppressed.
In view of the unexpected German counterattack, the command of the Soviet 52nd Army on April 22 ordered the 25th Guards Ibr and 57th Guards Infantry Brigade located south of Bautzen to immediately attack eastward to Weissenberg and restore communication with the 294th Rifle Division located there. But during April 22-24, all these attempts were repulsed by the Germans, and the units became completely incapable of combat, and the 294th SD, surrounded in Weissenberg, was almost completely destroyed in an attempt to break through.
At about 13.00 on April 25, the 1st p-td "GG", located north of Bautzen, struck in the northwest towards Teichnitz and Kleinwelk at the positions of the 2nd Polish Army. "Panthers" of the "GG" division were supported by the 2nd motorized regiment of this division and the 112th battalion of the 20th armored division. The 300th assault gun brigade was in the second echelon. At about 15.00, Soviet troops launched a counterattack, which they managed to repel only with the help of self-propelled guns. After that, Soviet and Polish troops unexpectedly retreated to the north. The Germans immediately began pursuit. On the 26th, the Panthers collided with the T-34-85s of the 1st Polish Tank Corps, and after a heavy battle, the Poles retreated.
On the left flank of the "GG" division, the motorized division "Brandenburg" was successfully advancing. Assault detachments of infantry and sappers with the support of the Walter von Wietersheim tank group recaptured the settlements of Loga, Pannewitz and Krinitz.
The 9th Polish Infantry Division, which remained practically alone in the Dresden direction, received an order to withdraw on April 26th. At that time, orders from the Polish headquarters with information on the routes of withdrawal fell into the hands of the Germans. The Polish units, considering the path safe, moved without sufficient precautions. The German attack came as a complete surprise to them. As a result, its 26th Polish Infantry Division suffered heavy losses in the area of Panschwitz-Kukau and Krostwitz - the "valley of death", reaching 75 percent of its personnel. The commander of the 9th Infantry Division, Colonel Alexander Laski, was captured. In these battles, the Ukrainians of the Free Ukraine brigade also fought on the German side.
On April 26-27, the advanced German units encountered a stubborn defense about 11 kilometers north-west of Bautzen, and they failed to encircle and destroy the 2nd Polish army and the remnants of the 7th Guards MK. The Polish troops and the 4th Guards Military Corps, who came to their aid, built a powerful anti-tank defense, which the German group, consisting of the 1st P-TD "GG", the 20th TD and the Brandenburg division, could not overcome. In turn, she had to repel the counterattacks of the T-34-85 and IS tanks. Without the timely help sent by Konev, the 2nd Polish Army would have been doomed.
The center of hostilities was the settlement of Neschwitz. The Baroque castle and the adjacent park passed from hand to hand several times. On April 27, east of Neschwitz, the offensive of the 1st p-td "GG" finally got bogged down in a wooded area near Holldrubau. In the west, the Brandenburg division tried to take the town of Kaslau, defended by Soviet troops, but retreated after suffering heavy losses. Only the next day, after a strong artillery barrage carried out by the Vespe and Hummel self-propelled guns, and with the support of the units of the 20th TD, the Brandenburgers managed to occupy Neschwitz.
Ultimately, here, too, the German offensive ran out of steam. There were no forces to push the enemy further north. In addition, the lack of fuel was increasingly manifested.
By the end of April, Polish troops and the Soviet 4th Guards Corps firmly held the Kamenz-Doberschütz-Dauban line and were preparing to attack the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and its capital, Prague.
On April 30, the 1st p-td "GG" was transferred to the area north of Dresden. After the last unsuccessful attempt to break through to Berlin on May 3-6, the division, weighed down by numerous refugees, began to retreat south to the Ore Mountains.
The 20th TD, under the command of Major General Oppeln-Bronikovsky, retreated after the Battle of Bautzen at Ottendorf-Okrilla northwest of Dresden. The remnants of the division tried, after May 3, to break through to the west and southwest, towards the Americans.
The 1st Ukrainian Front was forced to cancel the offensive on Dresden. The Saxon capital, like Bautzen, only after the surrender of Germany on May 9, passed into the hands of the Red Army.
General Sverchevsky, although he was removed from command by Konev due to incompetence and alcohol abuse, nevertheless retained his post thanks to the support of the Soviet high command and the NKVD. After the war in Poland, a myth was created about Sverchevsky as an "invincible commander". After the fall of communism in Poland, the attitude towards it became more critical.
The battles for Bautzen were very fierce. In many cases, neither side took prisoners, and hospitals and ambulances were considered a "legitimate target." The Russians and Poles often killed the captured Volkssturm fighters, as they did not regard them as “combatants” protected by the “laws and customs of war”.
As a result of the battle, the 2nd Polish Army lost 4,902 people killed, 2,798 missing, 10,532 wounded. About 250 tanks were also lost. Thus, in two weeks of fighting, she lost 22 percent of the personnel and 57 percent of the armored vehicles.
Soviet and German troops also suffered heavy losses, but there is no reliable information about them. Veterans of the 7th Guards MK call the death toll of 3,500 people, and the loss of equipment - 81 tanks and 45 self-propelled guns, which is 87 percent of the original number.
After April 18, more than 1000 Wehrmacht, Volkssturm and Hitler Youth soldiers were buried at the Bautzen cemetery. In addition, some 350 civilians were killed in and around Bautzen. About 10 percent of houses and 22 percent of housing stock were destroyed. Also, 18 bridges, 46 small and 23 large enterprises, 35 public buildings were destroyed.
The attack on Bautzen-Weissenberg is considered the last successful operation of the German troops in World War II, but its strategic goal - to save Berlin - was not achieved. On the other hand, the troops participating in it and numerous refugees managed to break through to the west and not fall into the hands of the Red Army.
The command of Army Group "Center" in April 1945 did not create illusions about the final outcome of the war, which raises the question of what motives it was guided by when planning this "event".
First, it tried not to leave the civilian population to its own devices and helped it to go west.
Secondly, to save as many of our troops as possible from Soviet captivity.
In addition, the command of Army Group Center had the following political grounds. In view of the insurmountable ideological contradictions between the Anglo-American allies and the USSR, an imminent split in the coalition was expected. And there were reasons for that. New American President H. Truman, who took office on April 12, 1945, was much more hostile to Stalin and the Soviet Union than his predecessor, Roosevelt. Truman planned to provide economic assistance to Europe, including Germany. He began this political reversal immediately after taking office, but the process dragged on until 1947. The German command hoped to keep in their hands the Protectorate with its powerful industry as an argument for negotiations with the Western allies.
Another reason for the resilience of the German troops was persistent rumors about the "miracle weapon" available to Germany. On May 2, two days after Hitler's death, the new Foreign Minister, Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosig, in his speech on the radio, addressed the Western Allies with an offer of cooperation and warned that a future war could lead to the collapse of not only nations, but also of all mankind. He stated: "The terrible weapon, which they did not manage to use in this war, will manifest in all its power in the Third World War and bring death and destruction to humanity." Schwerin von Krosig was unambiguously hinting at an atomic bomb. The first atomic weapon test took place at Los Alamos, New Mexico, two and a half months later, on July 16, 1945. How did the Doenitz government know that atomic weapons were not just theory? How far have German scientists really come? This is one of the unsolved mysteries of the Second World War.
