Chapter 15 Operation Epsom Shortly before the fall of Cherbourg, Hitler made his last visit to France. His mood was disgusting. The order to throw the Anglo-Americans into the sea was not carried out, and the Fuhrer believed that the commanders of the troops in the West succumbed to defeatist

Chapter 19 Operation Goodwood After the bloody battle for the northern half of Caen, Montgomery was even more worried about the shortage of infantry personnel. The losses of the British and Canadians have already reached 37,563 people. Adjutant General Sir Ronald Adam arrived at

Chapter 25 Operation Totalize While the US 30th Division fought furiously over Morten, the newly formed Canadian 1st Army launched a large-scale offensive along the Falaise road, dubbed Operation Totalize. Montgomery had a low opinion of

CHAPTER 8. Operation? Pervier The relative calm remained for quite a long time. However, on February 10, 1986, Ouedday's guerrillas, together with Libyan troops, resumed attacks south of the 16th parallel, the country's capital was under threat. The reaction from Paris was not long in coming.

Chapter 1. Punitive operation The night sky stretched over the earth like a giant black tent. The stars twinkled on it, as cold and distant as ever. A light breeze stirred my hair, refreshed my face. I gradually came to my senses. And how not to get nervous, if out of a hundred thousand

The events of April-May 1945: documents and facts

The question of who liberated Prague, read every year on the eve of the May holidays, has been agitating Czech society for two dozen "post-revolutionary" years. Historians, publicists, journalists, and simply admirers of Clio "break their spears" defending their views on this issue.

Before, in Soviet-communist times, everything was simple: after the war, the thesis was established and existed for 45 years: Prague was liberated on May 9, 1945 by the Red Army, rushing to the aid of the insurgent citizens of Prague. In the 90s, this statement began to be publicly and persistently challenged. Depending on political predilections and the measure of knowledge (or ignorance) of the history of the question, the answers to it were different, namely: the Prague rebels, who from 5 to 9 May, with more or less success, fought against the German invaders; the Vlasovites (the so-called Russian Liberation Army), who came to the aid of the rebellious Prague; Soviet troops entering the capital of Czechoslovakia on the night of May 8-9. The following statements also appeared: on the evening of May 8, the last shots were fired in Prague, she did not need to be released, she was already free.

Other related issues are actively discussed. For example, such: why did the American army, which turned out to be much closer to the rebellious Prague than the Red Army, did not come to its aid and did not enter the city?

Why did neither the Western allies nor the USSR provide material assistance to the uprising that was preparing in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia?

Why did the rebels, the Czech National Council, fail to coordinate their actions with the actions of the Red Army? ..

Let's start with the events that preceded the five days (May 5-9) of direct battles for the capital of Czechoslovakia.

By mid-April 1945, no one doubted that the days of Nazi Germany were numbered. From the east to Berlin, waging fierce battles, units of the Red Army made their way, from the west - the Anglo-American troops, which met incomparably less enemy resistance. On May 2, Soviet troops captured Berlin, but the Wehrmacht units concentrated on Czech territory continued to fiercely resist the Red Army.

On April 18, American troops under the command of General J. Patton approached from the west the pre-war borders of the Czechoslovak Republic and two days later captured the Czech city of Asch. But then their advance stopped. Having entered Slovak territory in the fall of 1944, the Red Army, overcoming the stubborn opposition of the enemy forces, continued to liberate the country. On April 4, the President of the Czechoslovakia E. Benes and the first government of the National Front of Czechs and Slovaks, formed in Moscow, arrived in the eastern Slovak city of Kosice.

On April 30, 1945, the Red Army liberated Moravska Ostrava, on the same day American troops occupied Munich. The Czech Republic remained at the mercy of the occupiers so far. Here was stationed the largest grouping of the German armies "Center" by the end of the war, under the command of Field Marshal F. Schörner, numbering about a million soldiers and officers. By the beginning of May, she found herself in a giant "cauldron".

On May 1, the troops of the 1st UV (Marshal IS Konev), participating in the Berlin operation, received a directive from the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army: to use parts of its right wing "for a swift attack in the general direction of Prague." On May 2, the 2nd UV received a directive: “to deploy the main forces of the front to the west and strike in the general direction of Jihlava, Prague” with the task, after May 12-14, “to reach the river. Vltava and capture Prague. "

The Third Reich was in agony. In these conditions, the tactics of the Nazis was to drive a wedge between the Western powers and the Soviet Union and try to conclude a separate peace with the former, continuing the war against the latter. D. Eisenhower later wrote: “By the end of April, the enemy finally abandoned all attempts to impede the movement of the allies from the west and east at the same time. He turned his back on the Western allies to concentrate all his remaining forces on a last desperate attempt to delay the Russians; however, it was already too late. As his armies retreated more and more, their units in the rear surrendered in thousands to the Anglo-American forces. "

The troops under the command of Schörner intended to conduct stubborn battles against the Red Army until their main forces were surrendered to the Americans.

In the conditions of the rapid rapprochement of the armies of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition marching towards each other from the west and east, it was necessary to agree on their plans of action. Eisenhower, through the allied military mission in Moscow, was in constant contact with the Soviet high command. Since the end of March, he regularly informed him of the plans and intentions to advance the troops he commanded in order to avoid possible collisions between the Allied armies during air or ground operations, including in the Czech Republic. At first, Eisenhower did not plan any military action here at all.

On April 24, he received information from Moscow from the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General A.I. Antonov that Soviet troops intend to carry out an operation to clear the valley of the Vltava River from German troops, on both sides of which, as is known, Prague is located. Eisenhower took note of this. A few days later, he reported to the head of the American Chiefs of Staff, J. Marshall: “The Soviet General Staff is planning operations in the Vltava Valley, the result of which would be the liberation of Prague. It seems that they can certainly achieve this goal sooner than we. " Then the Soviet and American troops were approximately at the same distance from Prague, and only subsequent events showed how stubborn the resistance of the Germans was in the east and weak in the west, which, naturally, could not but affect the speed of movement of both allied armies. On April 25, W. Churchill informed the British Chiefs of Staff that Eisenhower "never planned to go to Czechoslovakia" and "never considered Prague as a military, let alone a political goal." J. Marshall also spoke out against the operation in Czechoslovakia. On April 28, he told Eisenhower: “I would not want to risk American lives for purely political goals. Czechoslovakia must be cleared of German units, and at the same time we must cooperate with the Russians. " Eisenhower's reply on April 29 said that "the Red Army is in a brilliant position to cleanse Czechoslovakia" and that the Soviet General Staff intends to conduct an operation in the Vltava Valley, which will result in the liberation of Prague. At the same time, he noted: "I will not try to take a single step, which I consider unreasonable from a military point of view, only to achieve certain political benefits, unless I would have received a specific order from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in this sense." No order followed. The decision was left to Eisenhower. G. Truman did not interfere in the solution of military issues and supported his point of view. On April 30, Eisenhower again transmitted to Moscow detailed information about the plans for military operations of the allied forces and indicated the possibility of their advance to the Pilsen-Karlovy Vary-Ceske Budejovice line, if circumstances permit. The Soviet command took note of this.

In the last days of the war, the Czech Republic acquired particular importance for the Nazis and had to be held by them at any cost. Large armored units of the Wehrmacht and SS, artillery and aviation were located in the vicinity of Prague.

Events on the fronts of World War II acted as a catalyst for the mood of the population in the still occupied part of the Czech Republic. However, for a number of reasons, the Resistance movement here by May 1945 turned out to be significantly weakened. .

At the same time, it must be said that on the eve of the end of the war among the Czech people, and in all its strata, there were many supporters of passive waiting, who believed that liberation would come from outside and that the small Czech people should not risk in vain and shed blood in vain.

The propaganda of the protectorate authorities also found its addressee, warning about the "threat of Asian Bolshevism", warning against "anarchy and chaos", convincing of the need to preserve "calm and order." Nevertheless, in early May in a number of Czech cities, mainly on a regional scale, spontaneous uprisings against the occupiers, different in form and character, took place. The Czech National Council (CNS), a politically motley body in which the Communists played an important role, claimed leadership of the uprising that was preparing in the Czech Republic. But it was formed only at the end of April and did not have time to establish contact with the places. Coordination of actions with the Allied forces was also not established. Almost nothing was known about the CNS and its plans to the Czechoslovak government, which moved to the liberated Bratislava. Moscow's scarce information about the CNS gave rise to its distrust of this body, which increased even more in connection with the actions of the CNS during the uprising.

In Prague, they were pondering whether it was time to start an uprising or not, and at that time Eisenhower ordered Patton's army to launch an offensive in Czechoslovakia, advancing to the Pilsen-Karlovy Vary-Ceske Budejovice line. Eisenhower reported this to Moscow on May 4, adding that, if the situation required, the army was ready to advance further to the Vltava and Laba rivers and liberate the western ones, i.e. left, the banks of these rivers while Soviet troops liberate the eastern, i.e. right, their banks. In a letter to Eisenhower on May 5, Antonov insisted on the initial agreement, arguing that the Soviet troops had already begun to regroup their forces and began to implement the previously planned operation. The advance of American forces to the west threatened the possibility of a clash and mixing of allied forces, which both sides did not want. This was an important military argument that Eisenhower had to admit. But there was undoubtedly a hidden political motivation in the Soviet position.

Czechoslovakia, which had an alliance treaty with the USSR and the overwhelming majority of which was liberated by the Red Army, according to the ideas of Moscow, as well as Eisenhower, was included in the sphere of Soviet interests.

Therefore, the Soviet leadership was interested in the liberation of the Czechoslovak capital by the Red Army. American troops remained on the line agreed in April. In a telegram sent to Antonov, Eisenhower wrote: "I believe that Soviet troops will be able to quickly go over to the offensive and defeat the enemy forces in the center of the country."

And so it happened. On May 4, the command of the 1st UV troops ordered the armies of the right wing to be ready by the end of May 6 to begin "a rapid offensive ... in the general direction of Prague ... and tank armies to take it on the sixth day of the operation." Exhausted in the battles for Berlin, the troops had to overcome the Ore Mountains in the north of the Czech Republic and suppress the stubborn resistance of the enemy.

On May 5, a spontaneous uprising against the occupiers began in Prague. Using the moment of surprise, the rebels forced the Germans to defend and achieved considerable success. They captured ten of the twelve Prague bridges across the Vltava, almost all railway stations, the main post office, an intercity telephone exchange, a power station, and a number of important industrial facilities. In the hands of the rebels were many weapons taken from the Germans. The earlier decision of the CNS to postpone the beginning of the uprising became practically impracticable. The situation was threatening to spiral out of control. The council decided to lead the uprising. On this day, the Nazis showed a willingness to negotiate a truce with the rebels. They needed time to pull well armed and ready to fight until the victory of the SS units stationed outside the city to Prague. F. Schörner gave the order: "The uprising in Prague must be suppressed by all means ... Prague must, of course, again go into German hands."

The idea of ​​negotiations with the Germans was positively received by part of the leadership of the uprising and, above all, by the officers of the former Czechoslovak army.

On May 4, General Patton received an order to launch an offensive deep into the Czech Republic and carried it out during May 5-6, stopping on the Pilsen - Karlovy Vary - Ceske Budejovice line, then, in accordance with the instructions, began to conduct active reconnaissance activities in the Prague direction. He really wanted to enter Prague, fortunately he did not meet virtually any resistance from the Germans. However, on May 6 Eisenhower's order was received: “Please inform General Antonov ... that I ordered my forces not to cross the line Ceske Budejovice - Pilsen - Karlovy Vary. I believe that the Soviet forces can advance quickly and resolve the situation in the center of the country. "

The calls for help to the insurgents, which sounded round the clock on Prague radio in Czech, English and Russian, were known to the Allies. Some of these appeals, broadcast on the night of May 5-6, ended up on Stalin's desk. However, neither the dumping of weapons, nor the landing was followed. In Moscow, a different decision was made: to speed up the previously planned Prague operation of the Red Army. On May 6, the troops of the 1st UV began from the north, and on May 7 they continued the offensive against Prague. On May 7 they were joined by the troops of the 2nd UV. The troops of the 4th UV have accelerated the movement to the west. But the main role in the capture of Prague was assigned to the troops under the command of Marshal Konev. On May 6, he gave the order: regardless of the fatigue of the personnel, develop the offensive at a rapid pace - 30-40 km, and tanks - 50 km per day. Meanwhile, events in Prague did not develop in favor of the rebels. Having recovered from the first confusion, Schörner ordered the suppression of the uprising, since it cut the main route of the planned withdrawal of German units to the west. On May 6, Schörner was ordered to surrender the army to the Americans. “The war against the Americans and the British has lost its meaning,” Schörner telegraphed to the imperial governor in the protectorate C.G. Frank. - If the Anglo-American army wants to advance on the Vltava-Laba line, it will not meet with resistance. The German army will retreat in arms to the eastern banks of these rivers. "

On May 6, SS units began fighting for Prague. Using tanks and aircraft against the rebels, the Nazis again captured a significant part of the city that day. The rebels suffered heavy losses, but the barricades — about 1,600 of them were erected — continued to fight. Finding themselves in a difficult situation, the CNS and the organization of former Czechoslovak servicemen "Bartosz" that collaborated with it, headed by General K. Kutlvashr, began to discuss the possibility of interaction with the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) of General A.A. Vlasov. Its parts were at that time not far from Prague. On May 6 at 5.30 the Prague radio broadcast: “Officers and soldiers of Vlasov's army! We believe that in the last stage of the struggle against the German invaders, as Russian people and Soviet citizens, you will support the rebellious Prague. An appeal on behalf of the commander. " It is not known who initiated this appeal, nor on behalf of any commander. There are a number of versions about who asked the Vlasovites to help the uprising. But these are just hypotheses.

While in the service of the Nazis, the Vlasovites performed security functions, participated in actions against partisans and civilians in the occupied countries, including the Czech lands.

Here they were used as confidants and agents provocateurs; in partisan areas, they posed as escaping Soviet prisoners of war or parachuted Soviet partisans. They also took part in battles against the Red Army, although without success. In the spring of 1945, the ROA formally consisted of three divisions. The first of them was commanded first by a colonel, and from January 1945 by Major General S.K. Bunyachenko was formed in January 1945. The recruitment of the second division had just begun, and the third was generally listed only on paper. In total, the ROA ground forces, according to some sources, numbered about 45 thousand people. It was armed with aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles, mortars, etc. The 1st ROA Division was considered elite. However, her combat training was low.

In anticipation of the imminent collapse of Germany, hoping for a possible conflict between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the ROA command tried to establish contacts with the American army with the aim of surrendering to it. By the beginning of May 1945, the main forces of the ROA were located south and south-west of Prague in the Rokycany area. Schörner also intended to use them, primarily the Bunyachenko division, for his own purposes. But Bunyachenko shied away from military cooperation with the Germans. Among the personnel of the division, anti-German sentiments intensified. After May 2, Bunyachenko began to tend to the opinion of the need to provide assistance to the uprising that was preparing in Prague. Vlasov was skeptical.

Rumors spread among the Vlasovites about a possible amnesty in the event of their participation in the fight against the Germans. Bunyachenko, however, most likely counted on the impression that the participation of his division in the Prague uprising could have made on the British and Americans.

On the evening of May 6, Bunyachenko's division entered Prague, which was actually occupied by the Germans and, having entered into battle with them using tanks and artillery, liberated a significant part of the city on the left (western) bank of the Vltava, stopped the strong units of the SS men advancing on Prague from the south, and fought stubbornly in Hradcany, surrounded the barracks and the airfield in Ruzin, and then took possession of it, capturing 20 aircraft. On the walls of houses, the Vlasovites pasted posters calling for the fight against fascism and Bolshevism. Their tanks were painted with the slogans "Death to Hitler!", "Death to Stalin!" To avoid confusion, the Vlasovites received thousands of stitched white-blue-red armbands. Bunyachenko presented a short ultimatum to the command of the Prague garrison, demanding his surrender. At the same time, Bunyachenko acted independently, as an independent force, which was not to the taste of the CNS.

The communists, members of the Council, opposed any agreement with the ROA. They

characterized Vlasov as a traitor to the Soviet Union and believed that cooperation with his army would be a political mistake, affect the attitude of the USSR to the uprising and its assessment in the world. At the suggestion of the Communists, the Council decided to address by radio directly to the rank and file of the ROA with an appeal to help the uprising. The address read: “Soldiers of the so-called Vlasov army. You were organized to fight against your Soviet power. You decided in time to turn your weapons against the Nazis, against the enemies of your homeland. We welcome your decision. Beat the Nazis, beat them like the Prague people, beat them as the glorious Red Army beat them. " The CNS statement was broadcast on the radio in English and Russian: "The Czech National Council declares that the action of General Vlasov against the German troops is their own business and that the Czech National Council has no political or military agreement with them." Bunyachenko, who received information about the signing on May 7 in Reims of the unconditional surrender of German troops, including on the Eastern Front, and that the American troops did not intend to go to Prague, ordered the withdrawal of parts of the division from the city, heading west, to surrender to the Americans. However, part of the division's fighters (about 400 people) remained in Prague and continued to fight against the Nazis. How many Vlasovites were killed in the battles for Prague is unknown; according to Bunyachenko, even before the withdrawal of his division to the west, it lost 300 people. According to one of the senior officers of the division, the citizens of Prague enthusiastically greeted the Vlasovites, hugged, kissed them, offered food and drinks, and threw flowers at them. This was probably the case. How else? The citizens of Prague saw them as liberators from the German invaders.

Meanwhile, the implementation of the previously planned Prague operation of the Red Army continued. On the evening of May 8, having overcome the Ore Mountains, units of the 1st UV entered the territory of Czechoslovakia and undertook a march towards Prague, passing 80 km on the night of May 8-9. The fate of Schörner's Army Group, which had lost its capacity for organized resistance, was essentially sealed on 8 May.

American officers arrived at Kutlwashra's headquarters on the evening of May 7 on their way to Schörner's headquarters. They delivered the message of the German surrender and orders for the American to cease hostilities. The Americans advised to stop fighting in Prague as well.

Schörner, despite the information he had received, decided to break through to the west through Prague in battle, and the order of surrender deliberately did not inform the units.

Using tanks, artillery, aviation, German troops launched an offensive on the city from the south and captured its center. Mass repressions were carried out against the insurgent population. The SS men drove women and children out of their homes and drove them in front of their tanks to the barricades. But at the same time on the morning of May 8, the head of the garrison of German troops in Prague, General R. Toussaint, announced his readiness to begin negotiations on surrender. Meanwhile, the headquarters of the German armies of the "Center" group was captured by Soviet troops. Schörner left his subordinates and, dressed in civilian clothes, fled (or rather flew away) to the west, to the Americans. Later he was handed over to the Soviet authorities and tried.

Prague at this time became, as it were, a gateway for the Wehrmacht units, striving to break through to the west in order to surrender to the Americans. German troops continued to rampage on the streets of the city. The CNS went to sign an agreement with Toussaint on how to withdraw all German armed forces from Prague and its environs on the evening of May 8. In this situation, the rebels simply sought to quickly get rid of the occupiers, avoid unnecessary bloodshed and save Prague from destruction. In the 1950s, all members of the CNS who signed the agreement were charged with treason and betrayal. Many of them received various terms of imprisonment, including the communist J. Smrkovsky, and one (J. Nekhansky) was shot.

Not all German units complied with the agreement, and the rebels continued to fight. On the night of 8-9 May, the tank armies of the 1st UV under the command of generals D.D. Lelyushenko and P.S. Rybalko entered Prague from the north and northwest. During the day, units of the 2nd and 4th UV also entered the city. Polish, Romanian and Czechoslovak troops also took part in the liberation of Prague. For more than one day, the liquidation of the last centers of German resistance continued in the city and its environs, and Prague was cleared of SS groups and SS snipers who did not want to surrender.

The losses of Soviet troops in the battles for Prague and the surrounding area amounted to approximately 500 soldiers and officers. From 5 to 9 May, more than 1,500 insurgents and civilians were killed, as well as about 300 Vlasovites. About 1,000 Germans were killed, mostly Wehrmacht and SS soldiers.

Although the authorities urged the citizens of Prague to observe the rule of law, immediately after the liberation their rage “spilled out on the Germans, including civilians who were not guilty of atrocities. Many were lynched in the streets. "

At the same time, the population, according to the reports of the army political workers, enthusiastically greeted the Soviet troops. “Yesterday I was in Prague. The city is in good condition and has almost no destruction, ”I.S. I. V. Konev Stalin on May 12, 1945. Moving westward, the Red Army within a few days completed the rout of the German group on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The Prague operation of the Red Army, which took place from 6 to 11 May 1945, was the last major operation of the Second World War in Europe. During the liberation of Prague, about 860 thousand Nazis were taken prisoner, many tanks, artillery pieces, mortars, more than a thousand combat aircraft were captured. The losses of the Soviet, Romanian, Polish and Czechoslovak troops amounted to 12 thousand people; 40.5 thousand soldiers and officers were injured.

So, it was the Soviet troops, who had planned the operation to liberate Prague at the end of April 1945, that put an end to the "i" on May 9, finally and completely clearing the city of Nazi troops.

The actual liberation of the city began by the inhabitants of Prague themselves earlier, on May 5. For political and alibist reasons, the 1st Russian division of the ROA took part in this, which left Prague on the night of May 7-8 to surrender to the Americans, and refused to leave weapons to the rebels. American troops, with which the Red Army units came into contact west of Prague on the Karlovy Vary - Plzen - Ceske Budejovice line on May 11-12, by agreement with the Soviet command, did not cross this line, despite the desire to be the first to enter Prague and the opportunity to do so.

The Federal Assembly of the Czecho-Slovak Federal Republic adopted in 1991 a decision that the public holiday Day of the Liberation of Czechoslovakia from Nazi invaders would be celebrated not on May 9, as before, but on May 8, as the whole West does, referring to the fact that the act the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed by CET on that day.

Especially for the Centenary

The Second World War was bloody and brutal. Many European countries suffered from its merciless blow. The losses of a relatively small Czechoslovakia were striking in their enormous size: 35 thousand soldiers, tens of thousands of civilians ... Looking for a cheap one, the Germans forcibly took 550 thousand young people to forced labor in Germany. A large piece of territory was disconnected from the country: Carpathian Rus, the Sudetenland and the Tishin region. The state as an independent unit ceased to exist, becoming a German colony: the so-called protectorate.

An occupation

At the end of the war, the Army Center, a fairly large German grouping, was stationed in Czechoslovakia. Its composition numbered as many as a million officers and soldiers. The invaders were commanded by Field Marshal Schörner. He was firmly convinced that the Czech Republic should become an entirely German country. The incoming information that the Russians were preparing the liberation of Prague, the fascist considered absurd and unrealistic. As for the capital itself, in May 1945 it became a training ground for the sixth German combat squadron. The invaders especially carefully guarded the airfield where their planes were stationed, as well as the surrounding area, built up by soldiers' barracks.

Interestingly, the liberation of Prague today causes a lot of controversy and discussion. Historians have divided into three camps. Some believe that the city was cleared of the Nazis by the local rebels, others talk about the brilliant offensive of the Vlasovites, others focus on decisive maneuvers. There is also a version that by the time the Russians arrived, Prague was already free. Is it so? Let's try to figure it out.

First steps

Indeed, many planned to liberate the city. Of course, the plan of the operation was developed by the Red Army. Already from April 1945, the headquarters carefully studied the maps of the capital's terrain, made from reconnaissance aircraft: they could see the positions of the Germans, their firing points and ammunition depots. These tactical targets were to come under the brunt of the attack.

Towards the very end, preparations began for the liberation of Prague in the Czech National Council, formed in 1945. The department, consisting of communists, claimed to lead a mass uprising, the centers of which flashed in the country every now and then. But there was no time left to organize the operation, so the CNS did not play a decisive role in the cleansing of the capital.

At the same time, on May 5, the Vlasovites, soldiers of the ROA First Infantry Division, entered Prague. The fighting unit, under the leadership of Major General Bunyachenko, marked the beginning of the liberation. In a matter of days, they managed to clear out the western part of the city, thereby opening the SS ring.

American actions

While the Vlasovites were beginning to liberate Prague from the Nazis, from the other side, American troops approached the capital under the leadership of General Patton. From the President of the United States, he received an order to put forward positions on the Pilsen - Karlovy Vary - Ceske Budejovice line. The Germans did not particularly resist the Americans, but they fiercely rebuffed the Red Army, advancing from Slovakia. Knowing about the loyalty of the United States to the prisoners, they preferred to fall into their hands than to the peremptory communists. Therefore, the speed of advance of the allies was different.

General Patton took Pilsen. Residents of the city even erected a monument to him after the war. The Americans stopped at this: the Red Army was moving towards, therefore, in order to avoid confusion, they decided to wait. And the US government did not consider Czechoslovakia a political goal. As a result, they decided not to risk the lives of the soldiers once again. When the Russians realized that the Allies were backing down, they continued to liberate Prague on their own.

What happened next?

Meanwhile, after a successful operation to liberate the western part of the city, the Vlasovites retreated. Historians believe that they occupied Prague for two reasons: firstly, they wanted to impress the Americans, and secondly, they hoped for an amnesty after active cooperation with the Germans. But, unable to agree on a union status with the CNS, they left the capital.

As you can see, the liberation of Prague completely fell on the shoulders of the Red Army. The offensive was commanded by His units had just finished clearing Berlin, when they were immediately transferred to the Czech direction. Without even a day's rest, the soldiers began to break through to the city. Battalions of the First Ukrainian Front also took an active part in hostilities. In one of the hottest battles for another bridge, Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko was mortally wounded, after whom one of the streets of Prague was named. The liberation of the Czech capital lasted several days: from 6 to 11 May. It was the final major WWII operation in Europe.

Offensive

Prague became the last major hotbed of fascist resistance. Despite the signed surrender, the local invaders did not want to surrender. Instead, they planned to reunite with a huge German unit called the Mitl Group. The enemy unit continued to conduct active battles, resisting at every line. The Mitl group, driven back to the south, decided to join forces with the fascists who occupied Czechoslovakia. To prevent the strengthening of the enemy's forces, our soldiers rushed into battle. Taking this position became a matter of honor and conscience.

How did the liberation of Prague by Soviet troops take place? At first, the Red Army relentlessly pursued Schörner's units to prevent them from accomplishing their plans. The stake was made on the tankers under the command of Generals Rybalko and Lelyushenko. It was these brave guys who received the order to break through the line of the retreating fascists, leaving them deep in the rear and thereby cutting off from the SS men who were hiding in Prague. The plan was this: when the Mitl group gets to the capital of Czechoslovakia, there will already be Russian soldiers. The main problem for our fighters was only the steep mountains hanging in front. To overcome this line was the main task of the tankers.

End of the Mitl Group

The tank regiments of the First Ukrainian Front began the historic operation. They made their way through narrow, winding and dangerous passes. In the pitch darkness of the night, tracked vehicles swept away the enemy barriers set up by the Germans at every step. When there was a need, the crews left the tanks: the soldiers restored bridges with their own hands, defused mines.

Finally, having thrown off all the barriers, the steel wave of technology crossed the ridges and rolled down the slope - straight to the Czech capital. The appearance of Soviet tanks on the horizon was so unexpected for the SS men that they did not even have time to offer proper resistance. On the contrary, mad with fear, the Germans ran in panic wherever they looked.

Thus ended the liberation of Prague. The date of the significant event is May 11. On this day, the capital of Czechoslovakia was completely cleared of the invaders. Separate groups of fascists were pursued by our tankers for two more days, after which, having captured all the fugitives, they completed a responsible combat mission with dignity.

Liberation of Czechoslovakia

The last country finally liberated from German occupation was Czechoslovakia. Her release began in September 1944, with the conduct of the East Carpathian operation. Then the Red Army failed to break through to Slovakia, and from November the front in this sector froze until the beginning of 1945. The resumption of active battles in Czechoslovakia was associated with the general offensive of the right wing of the Soviet front from the Carpathians to East Prussia.

From January 12 to February 18, 1945, the 4th Ukrainian Front (General I.E. Petrov) and part of the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky) with a total strength of over 480 thousand people. carried out an offensive in the Western Carpathians. On the Soviet side, the 1st and 4th Romanian armies (about 100 thousand people), as well as the 1st Czechoslovak army corps (11.5 thousand people) took part in the operation. The Western Carpathians were defended by a 500,000-strong German-Hungarian grouping (1st Panzer, 8th, 1st Hungarian and part of the forces of the 17th Army).

The Soviet offensive in the Western Carpathians took place in conjunction with the Vistula-Oder operation. Fighting in snow-covered mountain-wooded areas and overcoming a well-organized defense, units of the 4th Ukrainian Front could not develop a high rate of advance. True, their onslaught was facilitated by the rapid advance of Soviet troops in central Poland, which threatened to strike from the north, to the flank and rear of the formations defending the Carpathians.

During the West Carpathian operation, the southern regions of Poland and a significant part of the territory of Slovakia were occupied. Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached the approaches to the Moravian-Ostrava region, the 2nd Ukrainian - to the Hron River. In the Western Carpathians, the Red Army gained the rare experience of an offensive in the mountains in winter. In these severe battles, the military cooperation of the Soviet, Czechoslovak and Romanian troops was strengthened. Soviet losses in the West Carpathian operation amounted to about 80 thousand people, the Romanian armies - about 12 thousand people, the Czechoslovak corps - about 1 thousand people.

Having overcome the Western Carpathians, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (General I.E. Petrov) reached the approaches to the Czech Republic. The way there lay through the Moravian-Ostrava industrial region, which was defended by the army group Heinrici. The ratio of forces is shown in the table.

To liberate this area from March 10 to May 5, 1945, the Moravian-Ostrava operation was carried out. She immediately took on a protracted character. In this area, which at that time gave up to 80% of Germany's military production, the Germans created a powerful system of fortifications. About them, according to the recollections of a participant in that operation, General KS Moskalenko, the Soviet command had a very superficial idea.

In the first eight days of fighting, the troops managed to advance only 6-12 km. The Germans, thanks to the active collection of intelligence data, knew about the timing of the Soviet offensive. They withdrew their units from the first line of defense, and all the power of the Soviet artillery strike went into the void. The defenders, having an order from Hitler (he came to Moravska Ostrava on the eve of the Soviet offensive) to keep this area at any cost, fought staunchly and decisively, constantly counterattacking. So, in just 4 days (from March 12 to March 15), in the 38th Army's offensive zone (General Moskalenko), the Germans conducted 39 counterattacks.

Heavy fighting, which lasted almost a month, did not lead to a breakthrough of the German fortification system. On April 5, Soviet troops went over to the defensive in this sector. Perhaps not a single offensive operation of the Red Army at the final stage of the war developed so unsuccessfully. A significant drawback of this operation was the lack of ammunition. So, for artillery guns, only 0.6 of the standard of ammunition was released. At the same time, the overall superiority of the Soviet troops over the Heinrici group was not overwhelming. It was not enough to successfully break through such powerful fortifications.

The offensive of the 4th Ukrainian Front (Petrov was replaced by General Eremenko on March 25) resumed on April 15, on the eve of the start of the Berlin operation. "Gnawing" into the German defense was going on tightly. Artillery was often unable to destroy a system of permanent fortifications. So, 152-mm howitzer cannons did not penetrate the meter walls of 9-embrasure pillboxes from a distance of 1000 m. In these conditions, small mobile assault groups, armed with explosives and flamethrowers, played an important role.

Meanwhile, the situation in other sectors began to favor the solution of the problems of the Moravian-Ostrava operation. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front advancing to the south during the same period advanced almost 200 km and liberated Brno on April 26. From the north, the positions of the 1st Ukrainian Front hung over the Czech Republic. As a result, the Moravian-Ostrava salient, deeply protruding to the east, was formed, vulnerable to flanking attacks, which threatened to completely encircle the German group defending here.

Such circumstances contributed to the successful completion of the Moravian-Ostrava operation. After fierce battles, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, advancing 10-15 km in 10 days, captured the Moravian Ostrava on April 30 (production here continued literally until the last German soldiers left the city). The Germans began to retreat to the west, and by May 5, units of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached the approaches to Olomyuts. The losses of the Red Army in the Moravian-Ostrava operation amounted to over 112 thousand people.

Literally on the same day, an uprising against the Germans began in Prague. By that time, the main forces of the Wehrmacht were defeated in the areas of Berlin and Vienna. This made it possible for the Soviet command to widely use the forces of all fronts near the Czech Republic to carry out the operation to liberate Prague. To help the rebels, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian (Marshal I.S.Konev), 2nd Ukrainian (Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky), 4th Ukrainian (General A.I. Eremenko) fronts were used. They were opposed by Army Groups Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner) and Austria (General L. Rendulich). The ratio of forces is shown in the table.

By the beginning of May, the last large group of the Wehrmacht that remained operational was in Czechoslovakia. The Germans were actually already surrounded. From the north, east and south it was covered by a ring of Soviet fronts, and west of Prague there were US troops. In the current situation that was hopeless for the command of Army Group Center, its main task was to withdraw its forces to the west into the American zone of occupation. In this regard, the Prague operation was a successful attempt by the Soviet command to stop such a retreat.

The seizure of the eastern regions of Germany and Austria allowed the Soviet command to carry out a large-scale flanking maneuver and pinch the Army grouping "Center" "in pincers". The operation began on May 6, 1945. The main flank attacks on the German groupings were delivered by the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts, whose units from the north (from East Germany) and the south (from the Vienna-Brno line) moved to Prague. On the morning of May 9, the advanced tank units of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke into the Czech capital. In the afternoon, the main forces of both fronts approached it, which surrounded almost a million German grouping east of Prague.

The bulk of the troops from Army Group Center surrendered on May 10-11. This concludes the Prague operation, which took less than a week to complete. The total number of prisoners taken during the Prague operation was 860 thousand people. The liberation of Prague was the last major operation in World War II in Europe.

The losses of the Red Army during the Prague operation amounted to over 49 thousand people. Considering that the operation took six days, the amount of daily losses (8.2 thousand people) was very high. This testified to the intensity of the recent battles in Europe and the active resistance of the German units (if not all, then in some areas). The participants in this operation were awarded the medal "For the Liberation of Prague". In the battles for the freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1944-1945. killed 140 thousand Soviet soldiers.

In general, the irretrievable losses of the Soviet troops during the campaign in Europe in 1945 amounted to 800 thousand people, sanitary losses - 2.2 million people. German losses during the same time amounted to 1 million killed and over 2 million prisoners (of which 1.3 million surrendered after Germany signed a surrender).

In the course of the completion of the Prague operation in Berlin, the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender was signed. It meant the end of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union.

The main result of the Great Patriotic War was that the Soviet Union was able to defend its independence and gain the upper hand in the struggle against the strongest military enemy in the entire history of the country. After the victory in this war, the USSR entered the category of great powers that were deciding the structure of the post-war world at that time. In fact, the pre-war Soviet borders in the West were recognized, that is, the entry into the USSR: Moldova, the Baltic republics, Western Ukraine and Belarus. The victory of the USSR meant a new alignment of forces in Europe, when Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria entered the zone of Soviet influence.

The situation at the land borders of the USSR has radically changed. Now there were mainly countries friendly to him. 1945 was the peak of military successes, which the Russian army had not achieved for 130 years. The total irrecoverable losses of the Red Army (killed, died of wounds, missing and taken prisoner) amounted to 11.2 million people. (of which 6.2 million people, or more than half, are the losses of the first period of the war - from June 1941 to November 1942). Irrecoverable losses of Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front amounted to 8.6 million people. For the participants of the Great Patriotic War, a special medal "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" was issued. For this victory, Supreme Commander-in-Chief JV Stalin received the highest military rank of Generalissimo.

Irrecoverable losses of Russia (USSR) and Germany with its allies on the Eastern Front in the First and Second World Wars (thousand people)

* The approximate percentage of irrecoverable losses of the country's armed forces on the Eastern Front is given in parentheses.

** This includes the losses of national and volunteer formations that fought as part of the German armed forces (Austrians, Sudeten Germans, Lorraine, Spaniards, Belgians, Vlasov, Muslims, etc.).

In the Great Patriotic War, 8 million 668 thousand Soviet soldiers (4.4 percent of the country's population) died on the battlefield, died of wounds and in captivity, and disappeared without a trace. In terms of the number of irrecoverable demographic losses, the Great Patriotic War exceeded all Russian wars combined. One of the features of this war, which sharply distinguished it from the previous ones, was the huge decline in the civilian population. A significant part of those killed in the Great Patriotic War falls on the civilian population).

The material losses of the country were also unprecedented. The damage to the state and the population during the Great Patriotic War amounted to 679 billion rubles (in 1941 prices). During the war, the aggressors destroyed in the USSR:

1.7 thousand cities;

70 thousand villages and villages;

32 thousand factories and plants;

98 thousand collective farms;

4.1 thousand railway stations;

65 thousand km of railway tracks;

13 thousand bridges;

84 thousand schools and other educational institutions;

40 thousand hospitals and other medical institutions.

The shock that the country endured after this terrible invasion had lasting consequences. In particular, the insistence of the country's leadership to ensure that this does not happen again led to a constant and disproportionate military build-up that ultimately undermined the Soviet economy.

Chapter 4 SECTION OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA All that you can put your bloody hand on, hold tight, gentlemen! Wellington Colonel of the British Colonial Army Wars don't start out so easily - there must be reasons for war. In addition to reasons, there must be pretexts: must