Battle of Bautzen (1945)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Bautzen (1945)


caption=A Memorial stone in Bautzen
partof=World War II
place=Bautzen, Germany and surrounding rural areas
date=21-30 April 1945
result=German victory (last successful German tank-offensive)
combatant1=flagicon|Nazi Germany Nazi Germany
combatant2=flagicon|Poland Poland,
flagicon|USSR Soviet Union
commander1=flagicon|Nazi Germany Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski
commander2=flagicon|Poland Karol Świerczewski
strength1=50,000
nearly 300 tanks
600 guns
strength2=Polish Army: 90,000
? tanks (at least 200)
? guns
Soviet Army: unknown
casualties1=unknown
over 350 civilians killed (these are only the civilians of the city of Bautzen and do not include civilians of the rural areas)
casualties2=Poland: 5,000 killed
2,800 missed
10,500 wounded
150 tanks
Soviet Union: unknown|

The Battle of Bautzen (April 1945) fought on the extreme southern flank of the Spremberg-Torgau Offensive Operation saw days of pitched street fighting between forces of the 2nd Polish Army, the Red Army's 52nd Army and remnants of the German 4th Panzer and 17th Armies, and was the last successful German armoured counteroffensive of the Second World War.

The battle was fought in the town of Bautzen and the rural areas to the northeast situated primarily along the line Bautzen - Niesky. Combat began on April 21, 1945, and continued up to April 26. There were still isolated engagements up to April 30. The battle appears to have been part of Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front push toward Berlin, part of the larger Soviet Berlin Offensive. In particular, the Polish Second Army ("Druga Armia Wojska Polskiego") under Karol Świerczewski [Lieutenant General Karol Świerczewski, 1897-1947, served in the Red Army as commander of the 248th Rifle Division in 1941, transferred to the LWP in 1943, commander of LWP I Corps and deputy commander of the LWP in 1944, and commander of the Polish Second Army during 1944-1945. Postwar, commanded III Military Region and served as a vice-minister of defense.] suffered high losses.

The opponents

For the battle, the Germans had the 1. Fallschirm-Panzer-Division "Hermann Göring" and the 2. Fallschirm-Panzergrenadier-Division "Hermann Göring" - around 50,000 men. These units were a mix of combat veterans and new recruits. They still had about up to 300 tanks and 600 guns. The 2nd Polish army consisted of about 90,000 men, with a large part of its soldiers unexperienced in combat.

The Germans succeeded in expelling their opponents from Bautzen after several days of bloody house-to-house combat. The Polish 5th Infantry Division and 16th Tank Brigade were struck in the rear, taking severe losses, and resulting in the death of the commanding general of the Polish 5th Infantry Division, Aleksander Waszkiewicz [Major General Aleksander Waszkiewicz, 1901-1945, served in the Red Army as commander of the 793rd Rifle Regiment during 1942-1944 and later as Deputy Commander of the 116th Rifle Division in 1944. Transferred to LWP in 1944 and assigned as commander of the 5th Infantry Division of the LWP.] . The Polish units were saved from complete destruction by Soviet units that Marshal Ivan Konev had pulled back from his thrust to the west and sent to support them. But the Soviet troops also suffered heavy losses in subsequent combat.

In a relatively short time the 2nd Polish Army lost more than 22% of its personnel and 57% of its tanks and armoured vehicles. According to Polish sources there has been no single military operation except the Warsaw uprising in which more Poles died. The Germans and the Soviets suffered heavy losses as well.

References and Notes

Article Sources

* von Ahlfen, Hans (1977 edition). Der Kampf um Schlesien 1944/1945. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-87943-480-8.
* Grzelak, Czesław; Stańczyk, Henryk; and Zwoliński, Stefan (2002). Armia Berlinga i Żymierskiego. Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa. ISBN 83-88973-27-4.
* [http://www.generals.dk Biographical data for WW2 Generals]

External links

* [http://www.bautzen.de/buergernetz.asp?iid=552 side in German]
* [http://www.myslpolska.icenter.pl/index.php?menu=historia&nr=2005050114473 forgotten battles (Polish)]
* [http://www.wp39.netlook.pl/str/uzup/map/map8.html map (Polish)]

Further reading

*Eberhard Berndt: Die Kämpfe um Bautzen 18. bis 27. April 1945, in: "Kriegsschauplatz Sachsen 1945. Daten, Fakten, Hintergründe", Altenburg/Leipzig 1995