Danzig's liberation. Last battles for Danzig, Gotenhafen and Arnswalde Liberation of Danzig
By early February 1945, central section the Soviet-German front, the following situation developed. During the Vistula-Oder operation, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian front under the command of I.S. Konev and the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of G.K. Zhukov inflicted a severe defeat on the German forces in the Berlin direction. During the campaign, it was possible to break through German defense along the Vistula River and go out on a wide front to the Oder River. The enemy armies, occupying the defenses between the Vistula and the Oder, suffered serious losses. Berlin was no more than 100 kilometers away.
At the same time, the forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front under the command of K.K. Rokossovsky reached the Baltic Sea and cut off the East Prussian grouping of the enemy from the main forces of the Wehrmacht. Nevertheless, despite a series of heavy blows, the Reich leadership still hoped to stop the Red Army's advance on Berlin. For these purposes, the German command took a number of measures, in particular, significant reserves were thrown at the line of the Oder River, and the Vistula Army Group was formed from the forces that retreated to Eastern Pomerania. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler personally commanded the German troops.
For Nazi Germany, the region of Eastern Pomerania was of major economic and transport importance. The region has a well-developed network railways and airfields, which, together with many seaports, made it one of the largest transport hubs in the Reich. In addition, industry was well developed in Pomerania, including the military, there were a large number of warehouses and arsenals. And the main forces of the German navy were based on the naval bases of Danzig, Gdynia and Stettin, which allowed the Reich to control a significant part of the Baltic and carry out large-scale transfers of troops and equipment by sea. Due to the importance of the region, the German command threw all possible forces to maintain control over it..
In these circumstances, despite the proximity of the German capital, a decisive attack on Berlin looked rather risky. Mainly because of serious fears that the enemy would try to inflict a powerful flank attack on the rear of Zhukov's front. Such a development of events seemed quite likely due to the difference in the pace of advance of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian fronts, between which a serious gap of 250 kilometers formed, where there were practically no Soviet troops. German forces in Eastern Pomerania hung over the right flank of the Zhukov front, and the Wehrmacht command was hardly going to miss the opportunity to strike from there. Thus, for the successful conduct of the Berlin operation, it was necessary to eliminate the threat in the face of the Vistula Army Group.
In early February, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to turn part of the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front to the north to close the gap between the fronts and at the same time entrusted Rokossovsky's troops with the task of eliminating the enemy's East Pomeranian grouping.
As it became clear later, this step was correct.
The initial plan of the East Pomeranian operation was reflected in the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 11021 of February 8, 1945.
The main tasks that the command set for the troops of the Rokossovsky front were as follows: no later than February 20, 1945, capture the border of the mouth of the Vistula River, Dirschau, Berent, Rummelsburg, Neusch-tettin. After that, developing the offensive, clear the entire coast of the Baltic up to the Pomeranian Bay. Also, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front had to release such big cities like Danzig and Gdynia. The front was supposed to start the offensive on February 10, 1945, that is, less than two days were allotted for preparation.
So that the front command could fully concentrate on operations in Eastern Pomerania, the 2nd Belorussian Front was released from participation in the East Prussian operation, and all its right-flank armies were reassigned to the 3rd Belorussian Front.
The 2nd Belorussian Front was reinforced by the 19th Army of General G.K. Kozlov, but they could not complete its deployment by February 10. In fact, by the beginning of the offensive in Eastern Pomerania, the front had four armies: the 2nd shock (I.I. Fedyuninsky), the 65th (P.I. Batov), the 49th (I.T. Grishin) and the 70th (V.S. Popov). The front also included three tank corps, one mechanized and one cavalry. Air support for Rokossovsky's forces was provided by the 4th air army General K.A. Vershinin.
Speaking about the composition of the front, it is worth noting that after fierce fighting in East Prussia most units and formations experienced a serious shortage of personnel. Average population rifle division in the armies did not exceed 4,500 people, with the exception of the 19th Army, which had not yet approached, in which the divisions numbered 8,400 soldiers and officers each. The front also suffered from a lack of equipment. Almost half of the tanks from the staff was under repair.
In fact, on February 10, the 2nd Belorussian Front had at its disposal about 370,000 people, 10,000 guns and mortars, 263 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, as well as 450 aircraft.
The Vistula Army Group, consisting of four armies, including one tank army, as well as the 2nd Wehrmacht Army, which included 13 infantry and 2 tank divisions, 2 brigades, 6 battle groups, acted against Rokossovsky's forces. Germany began building defensive structures in the region as early as 1933. The hilly plain, with patches of forest, rivers and lakes, which is Eastern Pomerania, was covered with a network of trenches, various engineering structures, minefields, wire fences, anti-tank ditches with water. In addition, along the Pomeranian Wall - the main line of defense of the Germans - there were fortified cities (Stolp, Rummelsburg, Deutsch-Krone, Schneidemuhl, Neustettin), each of which was completely ready for defense and street battles.
Even a cursory glance at the balance of power is enough to understand that the firepower of the 2nd Belorussian Front was clearly not enough. Difficulties were added by the weather - in the conditions of mudslides, the swampy terrain in places became an insurmountable obstacle.
Thus, the operation had to begin in extremely difficult conditions, with a lack of forces and time for their transfer.
However, despite all the difficulties, on the morning of February 10, 1945, the troops of the front went on the offensive. The East Pomeranian operation began.
In February 1945 Soviet troops reached the approaches to Berlin. But in order to take the capital of the Nazi Reich, it was necessary to liquidate the positions of the German troops on the flanks, primarily in Pomerania, on the Baltic coast.
Here the enemy had 26 divisions and 2 tank corps - a total of about 430 thousand soldiers, one and a half thousand tanks, over 6 thousand guns and about 500 aircraft. Hitler's troops relied on a pre-prepared defense, the central node of which was the city of Danzig (now Polish Gdansk), an ancient fortress and a large seaport.
It was in this city in September 1939 that the Second World War, the first battle of which was the clash of German and Polish units on the Westerplatte peninsula near Danzig. It was Hitler's demand for Poland to "return" Danzig, then inhabited mainly by Germans, that became one of the reasons for the outbreak of World War II.
Then, in 1939, Danzig-Gdansk itself escaped fighting and destruction - everything was limited to a small shootout of Poles and Germans at the central post office. But by the spring of 1945, World War II returned to Danzig with all its might ...
In the area of the city, the Nazi troops prepared two lines of defense with a large number of trenches, trenches, machine-gun emplacements and bunkers. The first defensive line consisted of 5 lines of trenches, having a depth of up to 5 km. From the south and east, Danzig surrounded the canal, and the area as a whole was impassable for tanks.
The powerful forts of the old fortress were also adapted for defense, whose walls and cellars were able to withstand hits from heavy bombs and shells. In Danzig itself, all the stone buildings, with German-style thick and strong walls, were prepared for firing, equipped with numerous machine-gun points and positions for artillery. City blocks were connected by trenches, barricades rose on the main streets, all intersections were shot from several directions from reinforced concrete pillboxes.
At the same time, the troops of our 2nd Belorussian Front, which were supposed to attack such a serious defense, did not have a significant numerical superiority over the enemy. From our side, 83 rifle and 10 tank divisions were advancing on Pomerania and Danzig. According to the state, they all numbered over 900 thousand fighters, but in reality, most of the formations of the 2nd Belorussian Front, after heavy fighting in East Prussia, consisted of about 50% of the staff. By March 1945, the two guards tank armies of the front numbered only 1,067 tanks and self-propelled guns, one and a half times less than the state requirement.
However, by that time our troops had learned to fight well, they were led by skilled and experienced commanders. The 2nd Belorussian Front was commanded by one of the best commanders of the Great Patriotic War Marshal Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky.
By mid-March 1945, our troops, advancing from south to north, defeated the main German forces in Pomerania and reached the coast of the Baltic Sea, cutting off the German troops of the Danzig fortified area from Germany. Then the city of Danzig itself was cut off by tank strikes, into which units of 9 German divisions retreated - a total of 25 thousand soldiers, 200 tanks and over 500 guns. The Germans rejected the ultimatum proposed by Marshal Rokossovsky to surrender the city.
Soviet mortars on Danzig street. Photo: RIA Novosti
On March 27, 1945, Soviet troops began the assault on Danzig - 95,000 Russian soldiers, 750 tanks and 2,500 guns took part in the capture of a well-fortified Baltic stronghold. In order to save the lives of our fighters, the Soviet command assigned the main task of storming to heavy artillery and pre-trained assault groups from the ShISBR, assault engineering and combat engineer brigades.
Each such assault group consisted of 4 "stormtroopers" with machine guns and a large supply of hand grenades, 4 flamethrowers and 4 "faustniks" armed with captured "faustpatrons". Each assault group was supported by at least one IS-2 heavy tank, the most powerful Soviet tank of the period. Its 122-mm shells made it possible to quickly destroy even enemy reinforced concrete pillboxes, and the DShK heavy machine gun mounted on the tower made it possible to “extinguish” firing points on the upper floors and roofs of city buildings.
To storm particularly difficult objects, the group included demolition engineers, who were allocated 200 kg of explosives. With the help of sewer hatches, which were used as reflectors, our sappers staged directed explosions, and then “treated” the punched holes with flamethrowers.
Hiding behind neighboring houses, the assault groups made their way to the intended object and fired at the enemy's embrasures with "faustpatrons". Others, while the "faustniks" suppressed enemy fire, threw grenades at windows and doors. If the enemy's resistance did not stop, one or two concentrated charges were placed under the walls of the building and an explosion was made. After that, the enemy garrison usually surrendered ...
Skillful tactics, combined with the fire of heavy 203 mm B-4 howitzers and IS-2 tanks, made it possible to take a well-fortified city in three days of fighting. Despite the fact that the Germans stubbornly defended themselves in well-prepared positions, their losses were more than twice ours - 10 thousand dead Soviet soldiers against 22 thousand Nazi soldiers who remained forever under the ruins of Danzig. The Nazis were not helped by the support of large-caliber guns located in the Danzig Bay of German destroyers and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. Having lost 80 tanks, the Soviet troops captured 195 German Panzers and over 3,000 prisoners in the captured city.
By the way, this was not the first capture of the ancient port in the Baltic by Russian troops. In 1734, Russian troops under the command of Field Marshal Munnich took Danzig after a 135-day siege. After 211 years, in March 1945, it took Russian soldiers only three days to storm this fortress.
On March 30, 1945, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. Stalin signed order No. 319, which stated: “The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front completed the defeat of the Danzig group of Germans and today stormed the city and fortress of Gdansk (Danzig) - the most important port and first-class naval base of the Germans on the Baltic Sea.
Further in the rubric on March 26, 1944, a detachment of Konstantin Olshansky landed in the port of Nikolaev, all of whose fighters became Heroes Soviet Union Read in the section "Russian victories" On March 25, 1238, the defense of Kozelsk, which lasted seven weeks, began. heroic defenders longest of all Russian cities resisted the Tatar-Mongol invadersThird Reich (modern Poland) |
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Red Army victory |
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Opponents |
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Germany |
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Commanders |
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I. I. Fedyuninsky |
Dietrich von Saucken |
P. I. Batov |
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I. T. Grishin |
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V. Z. Romanovsky |
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Side forces |
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96,500 soldiers, 750 tanks, 2,500 guns |
24,500 soldiers, 200 tanks, 500 guns |
10,000 men killed, 80 tanks, 800 guns |
22,000 killed, 3,000 surrendered, 195 tanks, 450 guns |
Capture of Danzig- the capture of the German city of Danzig by the forces of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army in battles with the troops of the Third Reich in March 1945. It was carried out during the East Pomeranian operation. After capturing the city, the Polish flag was hoisted over it.
The course of hostilities
Coming 95 000 Soviet soldiers. There were only 25,000 Nazis in the city.
By 08:00, battalions of the 59th Guards brigade, reinforced with self-propelled guns ISU-152 of the battalions of the 60th Guards. brigade, machine gunners 28 guards. MSBR and sappers of the 125th Guards Sapper Battalion, went to the Franciscan church in Emaus, an eastern suburb of Danzig. By 20.00 of the same day, advancing along Karthausstrasse, tankers, self-propelled gunners and motorized riflemen reached the Church of the Holy Spirit in the suburb of Schidlitz. The streets of the city are blocked by anti-tank ditches and mined barricades. Some buildings are also mined in order to block the tanks of the Soviet assault groups by blowing them up.
On March 27, units of the 59th and 60th Guards. The brigade, advancing along the streets of Karthausstrasse and Oberstrasse, managed to advance to the Neugarten area. Aviation helps a lot, working on targets in the port and in the city itself day and night.
On March 29, Barn Island was finally cleared. An attempt to build a crossing across the Novaya Motlava Canal was unsuccessful: only two tanks managed to cross, after which the crossing was destroyed by artillery fire. The tanks that had crossed entrenched themselves in the building of the customs administration in the Lower City. Strong fire from the area of the barracks, the gymnasium and the Church of St. Barbara makes all attempts to cross over impossible.
March 30, units of the 59th Guards. brigade, 60 guards brigade and 28 guards. MSBR force New Motlava and clear the Lower City.
Side forces
ForcesUSSR: 96,500 soldiers, 750 tanks and 2,500 guns.
ForcesGermany: 24,500 soldiers, 200 tanks and 500 guns.
Side losses
USSR losses: 10,000 soldiers, 80 tanks and 800 guns. During the capture of Danzig, Major General S. R. Rakhimov died.
German losses: 22,000 soldiers (another 3,000 surrendered), 195 tanks and 450 guns.
Results
The Danzig garrison capitulated, the Germans retreated. The Red Army began to advance further. 105,000 soldiers and 950 tanks took part in the battle.
And then, all of a sudden, Christmas Eve came. The sky turned gray, it was felt that soon it would snow.
I sat in the dark hall of the school and looked at the angels dressed in sheets with duct tape wings, at the five-year-old magi with cotton beards, at the toy animals in the pen. In the middle of it all, shaking her fist at the sky, stood Angry Sheep.
- Good for the angels! she said bitterly. – Angels can fly to the manger. And I have to go!
Sheep—a Scout under an old rug taped to an equally old backpack, and with a nose smeared with black ink—squinted her eyes up.
Why should I go to nursery? I don't want to see the baby, whose name is Jesus...
Then she repented and knelt down, shaking her head, while the magi and angels crowded in the back of the stage.
Why was I so angry! Why did you complain? Now I see! Finally I understood everything. Scout lifted her head and looked at us. “This is a special child.
Margaret Mallory leaned over and shook my hand. Together with other parents, we sat in the dark and looked at the stage. I choked with laughter, and hot tears ran down my cheeks.
From the author
The first serious article that didn't require you to party all night with rock stars was about the West End Central Police Department at 27 Savile Row.
The young men and women I met there are some of the the best people in the world. They are real, but the book in which I described their place of work is fiction.
I took the liberty of using real facts to give the book credibility. For example, the Black Museum is indeed located in room 101 of New Scotland Yard, and the letter "From Hell" written by someone who posed as Jack the Ripper is accurately quoted from photographs taken in those ancient times. The letter itself has been lost. The fact that it is kept in the museum is the fruit of the author's imagination.
Tony Parsons
Maxim Kupinov
30.03.2011 - 08:47
61 years ago, on March 30, 1945, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief signed Order No. 319, which stated: “The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front completed the defeat of the Danzig group of Germans and today, March 30, stormed the city and fortress of Gdansk (Danzig) - the most important port and first-class naval base of the Germans on the Baltic Sea. The national flag of the Polish state was raised over Gdansk...”. It is unlikely that the Poles in Gdansk now remember this order, the most important document in the history of this city, which determined its post-war fate. Well, who in their place would like to remember that it was Stalin and his soldiers who turned German Danzig into Polish Gdansk, allowed them to “raise the national flag of the Polish state”? It should be noted that the Poles had some relation to the capture of Danzig. The Polish army took part in the battles for this city. tank brigade. How Polish were the units of the then Polish Army, especially tank ones, is a separate issue. Danzig was a very serious fortress. Powerful, well-camouflaged forts kept under fire the entire area within a radius of 15 kilometers from the city. The rampart, left over from former times, encircled the city, and in front of it grew the outer belt of modern defensive structures. At all without exception command heights - reinforced concrete and stone concrete pillboxes. Widely and skillfully planned field positions complemented the defense. As is known to all bearers of "universal" ideas, the Red Army fought mediocrely, "cannon fodder", running on the attack exclusively under the bullets of detachments, with one rifle for three. That's just, fighting with such methods, you can only fill up the earth with corpses, in this way it is possible to win only on the pages of liberal publications. Therefore, a special role in taking the fortifications of Danzig was played by the 203-mm B-4 howitzers, since the time of the assault on the Mannerheim Line, due to their effective work on Finnish pillboxes, they have earned the nicknames “Stalin's sledgehammer” and “Karelian architect”. With the role of "architect" Danzig, they also coped admirably. The 203-mm projectile made fundamental changes to the Danzig landscape. The IS-2 tanks, the most powerful soviet tanks of that period. 122-mm shells made it possible to quickly "resolve issues" with the enemy's fortifications, and the 12.7-mm DShK machine gun mounted on the tower served as an effective means of fighting enemy infantry, making it possible to "extinguish" firing points on the upper floors of buildings. Anti-aircraft rapid-fire machine guns mounted on armored personnel carriers were also adapted for the same purpose. During the assault, Soviet troops actively used captured anti-tank weapons: the Faustpatron and the Panzershrek rocket launcher. Captured "Faustpatrons" were ordered to collect and transfer to the disposal of engineering services. But they were not intended to fight tanks - there were enough anti-tank weapons in the Red Army. Most of the faustpatrons were placed at the disposal of the assault engineer-sapper brigades (ShISBr), which used them as part of assault groups to suppress enemy firing points. Before the assault on Danzig, 30 assault groups were trained in the 1st ShISBr. Each sapper assault group consisted of 4 attack aircraft and 4 flamethrowers (of which 2 were reserve). With each of these assault groups, a group of "faustniks" of 4 sappers operated (a squad leader and three "faustniks", one of which had a special machine for salvo throwing). This machine was a domestic invention and allowed to simultaneously throw up to 10 faustpatrons. The Faustnikov group was armed with 50-80 Faustpatrons and machine guns. One tank or self-propelled guns, which also provided fire support, was allocated for the transportation of a sapper assault group. To storm especially difficult objects, demolition men were included in the group. 200 kg were allocated to the squad of sappers explosive. With the help of sewer hatches, which were used as reflectors, they staged directed explosions, and then, after pre-treatment of the hole with a flamethrower, they finished off the surviving Nazis. Hiding behind neighboring houses, sappers armed with faustpatrons made their way to the intended object and fired at the window where the enemy machine gun was installed. Others at this time threw grenades at windows and doors, from which the Nazis fired. If the enemy's resistance did not stop, one or two concentrated charges were placed under the walls of the building and an explosion was made. After that, the enemy garrison usually surrendered. If he continued to resist, the infantry threw grenades at the breach. During the first two days of the assault on the city, enemy resistance in 19 buildings was suppressed in this way. When fighting within the quarter, the importance of faustpatrons and flamethrowers increased, since under these conditions, the processing of assault targets by direct-fire artillery and tanks became almost impossible. And when the sappers-attack aircraft managed to get close to the object of the assault or the firing point at the distance of a shot from a flamethrower, the success of the assault was ensured, since flamethrowing in all cases forced the enemy to leave the defended object. Almost daily, assault groups fired 200-250 faustpatrons at the enemy. True, hits by faustpatrons were not always accurate enough, but the force of their explosion made it possible to eliminate enemy firing points equipped in buildings with two or three shots. The great opportunities provided by the weapons of the Red Army, rich trophies and the ability to use all this effectively made it possible to carry out the operation to capture Danzig swiftly according to the norms of street fighting. The assault on Danzig began on the morning of March 27, 1945. On March 30, the city fell. Troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front captured 10,000 German soldiers and officers, and also captured 140 tanks and self-propelled guns, 358 field guns, and 45 submarines. Belarusian front Konstantin Rokossovsky "for skillful leadership of major operations, as a result of which outstanding successes were achieved in the defeat of the Nazi troops", the Order of Victory. Then the settlement of Danzig by the Poles began. In March 1949, in commemoration of the liberation of Gdansk and Gdynia, the people's councils of these cities awarded Rokossovsky the title of honorary citizen ... I wonder if this title has been retained by the marshal now?