Siege of Breslau

1945 siege of the German city of Breslau during World War II

The siege of Breslau, also known as the Battle of Breslau, was a three month long siege of the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. From 13 February 1945 to 6 May 1945, German troops in Breslau were besieged by the Soviet forces which encircled the city as part of the Lower Silesian Offensive Operation. The German garrison's surrender on 6 May was followed by the surrender of all German forces two days after the battle.

In August 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau a fortress (Festung), and ordered that it must be defended at all costs. He named Karl Hanke, Gauleiter of Silesia since 1941, to be the city's "Battle Commander" (Kampfkommandant). On 19 January 1945, the civilian population was forced to leave. Many thousands died in the bitter cold of the makeshift evacuation; many more arrived in Dresden. Meanwhile, 22nd Rifle Corps commander Major General Fyodor Zakharov ordered his unit at midday on 14 February to capture the southwestern part of the city and advance to the city center by the end of the day. However, the corps' attacks on the Breslau outskirts in the following days proved unsuccessful. The 309th overcame the Lohbrück–Opperau line, while the 218th Rifle Division took Krietern; the German resistance rendered a speedy advance to the city center in a day unfeasible. The 218th began an attack on the key railway embankment in the southwest of the city on 18 February and captured it on the next day, bringing the Soviet forces within two miles of the city center. The 667th Rifle Regiment of the 218th advanced into the Südpark but was forced to retreat back to the railway line on 20 February by a counterattack of the 55th Volkssturm Battalion, made up of Hitler Youth, supported by the garrison's assault guns. An exaggerated account of the Hitler Youth counterattack was published in the Nazi propaganda newspaper Völkischer Beobachter in an attempt to show the resolution of the defenders. Failing to storm the city, Gluzdovsky paused to prepare a thoroughly planned attack. According to the plan prepared by his headquarters on 18 February and approved by Konev a day later, the main attack on the city would be delivered from the south along a two and a half kilometer front from Oltashin to the Südpark with the 273rd and 218th Divisions, reinforced by two regiments from the 309th, forming the shock group; these units comprised the army's strongest divisions in terms of manpower, with the 218th and 309th numbering little more than 5,000 men and the 273rd with slightly above 5,400. Despite being at about half of the authorized strength like many Red Army units by this point in the war, these divisions were well equipped with submachine guns, reflecting Soviet infantry tactics, but had a shortage of heavy and light machine guns. Artillery totalling 572 guns was massed in the attack sector. A secondary attack was ordered on both banks of the Oder to eliminate the German defenses that extended along the river to the northwest. By the end of the first day of the attack, the shock group was planned to advance to the city center and reach the Stadtgraben, the old city moat. Another day was given for the storming of the central island as well as the university, post office, and telegraph. The intelligence directorate of the 6th Army estimated German strength at 18,060, with 141 guns and 45 tanks and assault guns at its disposal. To support the assault, the 280 mm mortars of the 315th Battalion were transferred from the northern sector to the southern sector of the 22nd Rifle Corps. The plan assumed that the forces involved would be ready by 20 February. For the attack, one assault battalion in each regiment was specially formed for urban combat, totalling ten in the entire shock group, including the 22nd Rifle Corps reserve. Each assault battalion was ordered to include a rifle battalion, two 152 mm guns, and either two ISU 152 self propelled guns or 203 mm guns, a battery of 76 mm guns, and a sapper group with demolitions, a sapper group with obstacle clearing equipment, a group of backpack flamethrowers, a group of anti tank riflemen, a sniper group, a machine gunner group, and a group of soldiers armed with captured Panzerfausts. For example, the three assault battalions of the 273rd totalled 872 men, with roughly half armed with submachine guns. The ISU 152s were drawn from the understrength 349th Guards Heavy Self Propelled Artillery Regiment, Gluzdovsky's only armored force, which fielded eight combat ready self propelled guns with six under repair on 19 February. The 6th Army headquarters further recommended that subordinate commanders form assault groups integrating single rifle companies with artillery – operating in direct fire mode – and sappers to capture fortified strongpoints. On the night of 21–22 February, the forces of the 6th Army regrouped and took up jumping off positions for the impending assault. At this time, the 273rd had only two regiments present as the third was still marching into the city from the Strigau area. The divisions of the 22nd Rifle Corps advanced in the traditional manner – two rifle regiment in the first echelon and the third in the second. The assault began at 08:00 with an artillery preparation of two hours and forty minutes. Between 22 and 23 February the 315th Battalion fired 113 280 mm shells, at a relatively short range of four to 5.5 kilometers. The Siege of Breslau consisted of destructive house to house street fighting. The city was bombarded to ruin by artillery of the Soviet 6th Army, as well as the Soviet 2nd Air Army and the Soviet 18th Air Army, and the destruction caused by the German defenders. Local German communists called for an end to the resistance of the city in flyers. In a pamphlet titled the "Freiheits Kämpfer" (English: Freedom fighters) it called for an end to the fighting and told the local population "not to be afraid of the Red Army who came as liberators". Seventeen of the members of the resistance group were executed on Gauleiter Hanke's orders.

Hanke flew out to Prague on 5 May in a small Fieseler Storch plane kept in reserve for General Niehoff. On 6 May, after 82 days of siege and shortly before the unconditional surrender of Germany in World War II, General Niehoff surrendered Festung Breslau to the Soviets. During the siege, German forces lost 6,000 dead and 23,000 wounded defending Breslau, while Soviet losses were possibly as high as 60,000. Civilian deaths amounted to as many as 80,000. Breslau was the last major city in Germany to surrender, capitulating only two days before the end of the war in Europe. Gauleiter Hanke had fled to Prague by the time of the city's surrender. Hanke attached himself to the 18th SS Freiwilligen Panzer Grenadier Division "Horst Wessel" in the uniform of an SS private, to conceal his identity in the event of capture. The group surrendered to Czech partisans on 6 May and were marching when a train passed their route. Hanke and several other POWs ran to the train and clung on to it. The Czechs opened fire, with Hanke falling first while two other POWs slumped on the track. They were then beaten to death with rifle butts.

Breslau was transferred to Poland in the aftermath of the war and renamed Wrocław. Most of the German inhabitants in Wrocław fled or were forcibly expelled between 1945 and 1949 and moved to Allied Occupation Zones in Germany. A small German minority still remains in the city. The post war Polish mayor of Wrocław, Bolesław Drobner, arrived in the city four days after the surrender, on 10 May, finding the city in ruins.