Prague operation

USSR

The operation involved troops of three Soviet fronts:

1. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (commander - Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev ):

• 13th Army (Commander Colonel-General N.P. Pukhov )
• 3rd Guards Army (Commander Colonel General V.N. Gordov )
• 5th Guards Army (Commander Colonel General A. S. Zhadov )
• 28th Army (Commander Lieutenant General A. A. Luchinsky )
• 52nd Army (Commander Colonel General K. A. Koroteev )
• 31st Army (Commander Lieutenant General P. G. Shafranov )
• 21st Army (Commander Colonel General D.N. Gusev )
• 59th Army (Commander Lieutenant General I.T. Korovnikov )
• 3rd Guards Tank Army (Commander Colonel-General of Tank Forces P. S. Rybalko )
• 4th Guards Tank Army (Commander Colonel General D. D. Lelyushenko )
• 2nd Army of the Polish Army (Commander-in- Chief of Armor S. G. Poplavsky )
• 25th Panzer Corps (commander Major General Panzer Troops E. I. Fominykh )
• 4th Guards Tank Corps (commander Lieutenant General of the tank troops P.P. Poluboyarov )
• 7th Guards Mechanized Corps (commander Lieutenant General of the tank forces I.P. Korchagin )
• 1st Guards Cavalry Corps (commander Colonel General V.K. Baranov )
• 1st Panzer Corps of the Polish Army (commander , brigade general Joseph Kimbar )
• 2nd Air Army (Commander Colonel General of Aviation S. A. Krasovsky )

2. Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander - Army General A. I. Eremenko ):

• 60th Army (Commander Colonel General P. A. Kurochkin )
• 38th Army (Commander Colonel-General K. S. Moskalenko )
• 1st Guards Army (Commander Colonel General A. A. Grechko )
• 18th Army (Commander Lieutenant General A.I. Gastilovich )
• 31st Panzer Corps (commander Major General of the tank troops G. G. Kuznetsov )
• 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps (commander Brigadier General Karel Klapalek )
• 8th Air Army (Commander, Lieutenant General of Aviation V.N. Zhdanov )

3. The troops of the right flank and center of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (commander - Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky ):

• 40th Army (Commander Lieutenant General F.F. Zhmachenko )
• 53rd Army (Commander Lieutenant General I.M. Managarov )
• 9th Guards Army (Commander Colonel General P. A. Kurochkin )
• 6th Guards Tank Army (Commander Colonel-General of Tank Forces A. G. Kravchenko )
• 1st Romanian Army (commander of the army general Vasile Atanasiu )
• 4th Romanian Army (commander of the corps general Nicolae Daskalescu )
• 5th Air Army (Commander Colonel General of Aviation S.K. Goryunov )

In total, the troops involved in the operation totaled 2,228,100 soldiers and officers (including 1,700,700 Soviet troops, 139,500 Romanian troops, 69,500 Polish troops, 48,400 Czechoslovak troops). They were armed with about 30,500 guns and mortars , about 2,000 tanks , more than 3,000 aircraft .

Germany

On the front from Dresden to Brno, the Soviet Army was opposed by the German Army Group Center (commander - Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner ):

• 4th Panzer Army (Commander-in- Chief of the Tank Forces Fritz Grezer )
• 17th Army (Commander of the Infantry General Wilhelm Hasse )
• 1st Panzer Army (Commander-in-Chief of the Tank Forces Walter Nering )

From Brno and to the south, the troops of the left flank of Army Group South occupied defenses (commander Colonel-General Lothar Rendulich ):

• 8th Army (Commander General of the Mountain Forces Hans Craising )

In total, they included about 900,000 soldiers and officers, 9,700 guns and mortars, 1900 tanks, and about 1000 aircraft ^[2] .

USSR

The decision to conduct the Prague operation was made by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on May 1, 1945, when the assault on Berlin was still ongoing ^[3] . The commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, I. S. Konev, was ordered by May 3 to end the hostilities in Berlin and to deploy the liberated troops for a swift attack on Prague from the north ^[4] . The next day, May 2, 1945, the task was assigned to the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front with the main forces to launch an offensive on Jihlava and Prague from the southeast, and the capture of Prague was planned after May 14 ^[5] .

It was envisaged to use the configuration of the front line in southern Germany, Czechoslovakia and northern Austria, which was advantageous for the Soviet troops, deeply encompassing opposing German troops from the flanks. The 1st Ukrainian Front from the north and the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the south were to penetrate the German defenses with powerful deep blows and converge into Prague to encircle the Army Group Center and then destroy it. All tank and mechanized troops of both fronts were transferred to the main strike directions. The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front were instructed to destroy the ledge in the enemy’s defense in the area of Olomouc and create conditions for an attack on Prague from the east. The timing for the preparation of the operation was extremely tight, especially since the strike groups still had to make marches from 100 to 200 kilometers to the original areas . The start of the operation was scheduled for May 7.

Germany

The German command hoped to defend themselves in Czechoslovakia as long as possible and try to exploit the differences between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition . Having received data on the transfer of Soviet troops to the flanks, Schörner decided to pull his main units into the Prague area and stubbornly defend there and in the city itself, turning Prague into "second Berlin."

Having established the beginning of the withdrawal of German troops in the Dresden direction, Konev ordered the offensive a day earlier, on May 6. The advance of the front forces did not begin at the same time: the main strike force (the 13th and 3rd Guards armies, the 3rd Guards and 4th Guards tank armies) went on the offensive at 2 p.m., in the auxiliary direction (5th Guards Army) the offensive began at 6 p.m., the rest of the army attacked at dawn on May 7. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front went on the offensive on May 7.

The offensive was carried out around the clock. Soviet troops shot down enemy rearguards from the frontiers of defense, widely applying coverage and bypasses. Tank attack groups took place per day with battles from 30 to 50 kilometers. By the end of the second day of the operation, Soviet troops were in the deep rear of Army Group Center. On May 8, Dresden , Bautzen, Görlitz, Teplice, Znojmo, Jaromerice were released. In view of the changed situation, on May 7, the 4th Ukrainian Front (which had previously been assigned auxiliary tasks) went on the decisive offensive on the orders of the Headquarters of the Supreme Command, on May 8, his troops captured Olomouc .

On the evening of May 8, an appeal was sent from the Soviet command demanding unconditional surrender of the German troops, they were invited to lay down their arms by 23 o’clock. However, the command of Army Group Center did not even respond to the appeal. On this day, German troops announced the surrender of Germany , but immediately indicated ^{[by whom? ]} the need to accelerate the withdrawal to the west in order to surrender to the Americans. An officer of the German General Staff, Colonel Meyer-Detring, arrived at the headquarters of Army Group Center, who explained to Scherner the "order of surrender": "... continue the fight against the Soviet troops as long as possible, because only under this condition can numerous German army units gain time in order to break through to the west ” ^[6] . But on the same day, in the Jaromerzh - Zatec area, tankers of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps defeated the column of the headquarters of Army Group Center, Schörner himself fled into the forest, and together with the adjutant he made his way to Tyrol , where he was arrested by the Americans on May 18. The collapse of organized German resistance began.

May 8, the Czech partisans were captured and later handed over to the Soviet command, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces General Trukhin .

At the beginning of May 1945, the 1st division of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), under the command of Major General Bunyachenko, was moving past Prague south to Austria, where the KONR leadership outlined the concentration of all its forces in view of the completely obvious defeat of Nazi Germany in the war, voluntarily withdrawing from the positions prescribed to her by the leadership of the Wehrmacht. When the German commandant of Prague, Rudolf Tussen, learning about desertion from the front of the division, ordered her to stop unauthorized movement and return to the front, otherwise he threatened to disarm her, although it was unrealistic for the Germans to do this - the German garrison of Prague was about half the size of the Bunyachenko division. On May 5, in Prague itself, a popular uprising began against the German occupation. At the suggestion of the non-communist wing of the rebels to join the "joint struggle against fascism and Bolshevism", hoping thus to subsequently seek political asylum in democratic Czechoslovakia, occupied by American troops, and also taking into account the hostile intentions of the German troops against their division, Bunyachenko decided to help the rebels ^{[ 7] [8] [9]} .

On the morning of May 6, the advanced units of Bunyachenko entered the first battles with the SS men at Zbraslav and Radotin, and then the entire division entered the city, occupying the southern, southwestern and western parts of Prague ^[9] . At one o'clock in the morning of May 7, Bunyachenko handed over to his units an order to go on the offensive. The order said: "We need to take Prague to save our Czech brothers . " The actions of the KONR troops were successful and inspiring a popular uprising. But on the night of May 8, most of the CONR troops left Prague, having received no guarantees from the leaders of the uprising regarding their allied status. The departure of ROA troops complicated the situation of the rebels ^{[10] [8]} . The writer O.S. Smyslov called the departure of the Vlasovites from Prague a betrayal of the rebels who trusted them. As the commander of the 2nd regiment of the 1st division of the ROA V.P. Artemyev recalled, “... with tears of fear and despair, people escorted the soldiers, asking them not to leave, but to stay to defend them ... Czech officers from the headquarters of the uprising several times caught up the outgoing division in cars, begging to return to Prague ... " ^[11]

A general retreat from parts of Prague and west of Prague of parts of the Wehrmacht and SS quickly escalated into a stampede towards the western border of Czechoslovakia. At 3 a.m. on May 9, 1945, the advanced units of the 3rd Guards and 4th Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague. The first to enter the city was the head patrol of the 63rd Guards Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade of three tanks under the command of the platoon guard guard ml. Lieutenant Burakova L.E. (tank No. 1-23 - the commander of the guard tank, junior lieutenant Kotov P. D., tank No. 1-24 - the commander of the tank of the guard lieutenant I. Goncharenko, tank No. 1-25 - commander of the guards platoon Lieutenant Burakov L.E.). In the battle for Manesov, the T-34 tank No. 1-24 was shot down, and the guard, Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko, was killed. His name was given to a street in Prague ^[12] . Following the advance detachments, the remaining troops continuously approached the city.

By 13 o’clock on May 9, the advance detachment of the 6th Guards Tank Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Prague. By this time, German units were no longer in the city ^[8] . By 6 p.m., the mobile group of the 4th Ukrainian Front also entered Prague. The circle of encirclement around the main forces of Army Group Center was closed. With the liberation of Prague, more than a thousand Soviet soldiers died. According to Czech data, directly in Prague itself on May 9, 1945, 54 Soviet soldiers died ^[9] .

On May 10, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, in directives by the commander of the fronts, demanded that the 2nd Ukrainian Front and advanced detachments of the 1st Ukrainian Front advance to the west to occupy the line of contact with the allied forces. The main forces of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts were ordered to capture the German troops encircled east of Prague as soon as possible, preventing their breakthrough to the west ^{[13] [14]} .

Performing these tasks, the Soviet troops continued offensive operations. May 10, 1945 in the areas of the cities of Ceske Budejovice and Chemnitz , meetings of Soviet and American troops took place. By the end of May 11, a line of contact between Soviet and American troops was established along the entire line of Chemnitz , Karlovy-Vari , Pilsen , Ceske Budejovice and further south to the Austrian border (all these settlements, except Pilsen , were in the Soviet zone) at the front about 250 kilometers ^[6] . Starting May 10, Army Center Army began mass surrender (more than 80,000 people surrendered that day), while other German units continued their desperate resistance. The units of the Red Army and the special units of the NKGB , which worked together with the Czech partisans, were tasked with preventing the exit of the encirclement of parts of the Army Group Center , in particular, the SS units and ROA formations.

In Soviet and Russian historiography, the date of completion of the Prague operation is considered May 11. But in fact, fierce battles continued for several days, the pursuit of the retreating and the systematic destruction of those who refused to surrender, and after the elimination of the main German groups and units of the ROA, combing the area. So, on May 12, near the city of Pilsen, Soviet soldiers overtook and captured a ROA column, including the arrest of General Vlasov; On May 15, near the city of Nepomuk , the commander of the 1st KONR division, Bunyachenko, and some officers of the division’s headquarters were arrested ^[15] .

On the night of May 12, near the demarcation line near the village of Slivice in the vicinity of Pribram , during the 24-day battle ^[16] , the remnants of the SS mixed divisions retreating from Prague, led by the head of the SS Office in Bohemia and Moravia, Obergruppenfuhrer SS Count Karl-Friedrich von Pückler, were destroyed -Burghouse. The structure of more than seven thousand Germans was the remnants of the SS divisions Wallenstein and Das Reich . The group was joined by a certain number of German civilian refugees and personnel of Nazi administrative institutions in Prague. Having reached the demarcation line, on May 9, von Pückler entered into negotiations with the command of the 3rd US Army, but was denied the possibility of surrender to the Americans. After that, on a hill near the village of Slivice, the SS men organized an impromptu fortified camp. On May 11, von Pückler's camp was attacked by a sabotage group of the NKGB of the USSR under the command of Captain Eugene Olesinsky. Later, regular Red Army units joined the attack with fire support from mechanized formations of the 3rd US Army . After the firing raid , in which the Katyusha multiple launch rocket launchers participated, a frontal assault on the SS fortifications began, ending with the rout of the camp and the surrender of the garrison. Of the seven thousand SS men, about a thousand were killed. Pückler-Burghaus himself, responsible for the genocide of Soviet citizens on the territory of the RSFSR in 1941-1942, shot himself dead.

On May 13, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front captured up to 2500 enemy soldiers, and on May 14 - up to 12,000 people ^[17] . On May 16, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front captured at Carlsbad up to 15,000 people ^[18] .

During the Prague operation, the last organized military force of the Wehrmacht ceased to exist. The Second World War in Europe was victoriously completed. In honor of the victory, the medal “For the Liberation of Prague” was established. Marshal Konev was awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of Prague”.

Losses of the Soviet side (with its allied armies)

• The personnel of the Red Army:
  • 11,265 irretrievable losses
  • 38 083 wounded and sick
  • Total 49 348 people

• The personnel of the Polish Army:
  • 300 irretrievable losses
  • 587 wounded and sick
  • Only 887 people

• The personnel of the Romanian troops:
  • 320 irretrievable losses
  • 1410 wounded and sick
  • Total 1730 people

• The personnel of the Czechoslovak army corps:
  • 112 irretrievable losses
  • 421 wounded and ill
  • Only 533 people

• Total for the above troops:
  • 11,997 people irretrievable losses
  • 40 501 injured and ill
  • A total of 52,498 people ^{[19] [20]}

In Prague, one of the largest memorial burial places in Prague is the Olshansky cemetery . In addition to the Olshansky cemetery, there is also a cemetery of Soviet soldiers near the Gae metro station .

• Material losses ^[20]
  • 373 tanks and self-propelled guns
  • 1006 artillery pieces and mortars
  • 80 aircraft

Losses of the German side

Army Group Center has been completely liquidated, almost all personnel have been killed, wounded, or capitulated. The total number of prisoners (including those who laid down their arms after May 11) amounted to about 860,000 people, including 60 generals. 9500 guns and mortars, 1800 tanks and assault guns, and about 1100 aircraft were captured as trophies ^[21] .

Loss of Conr

During the battles in Prague, at least two hundred soldiers of the 1st Division of KONR were killed on the side of the rebels and several hundred were injured ^[9] . Some of the wounded ROA, placed for treatment in Prague hospitals, were shot by Soviet troops in the following days ^[8] . According to the Hoffman historian, in Prague and the surrounding area, up to 600 ROA fighters were shot without trial. They are also buried in the Olshansky cemetery ^[10] . Kirill Alexandrov wrote that at least 325 ROA fighters were buried in Prague and its environs ^[9] .

• Alexandrov K. M. Prague uprising on May 5–8, 1945: armed struggle and politics // New Historical Bulletin . - 2010. - T. 25 , No. 3 .
• Alexandrov K.M. Soldiers of the Army of General Vlasov. “Take Prague to save the Czech brothers!” (Neopr.) . an interview . Russian service "Radio Prague" (May 8, 2015). Date of treatment March 17, 2016.
• Auski S. Betrayal and treason: the troops of General Vlasov in the Czech Republic . - San Francisco: Globus Publishers, 1982.
• Mernikov A.G., Spector A.A. World War History. - Mn. : Harvest , 2005. - S. 652. - ISBN 985-13-2607-0
• Konev I.S. Forty-fifth. - M .: Military Publishing , 1970.
• Lelyushenko D. D. Moscow - Stalingrad - Berlin - Prague. Notes of the commander. - M.: Science , 1987.
• The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945: A brief history. The crush of fascist Germany. / 3rd ed., Rev. and add. - M .: Military Publishing, 1984. - 560 p., Ill. - 250,000 copies.
• Pishenkov A.A. Last battle. Who freed Prague? - M .: Yauza ; Eksmo , 2017 .-- ISBN 978-5-699-99479-3
• The President of the Russian Federation will meet with the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (inaccessible link) // RIA Novosti.
• Hoffmann J. History of the Vlasov Army = Die Tragödie der ‚Russischen Befreiungsarmee '1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin / Per. with him. E. Hesse. - Paris: YMCA-PRESS, 1990 .-- 379 p.
• Prague victorious Red Army liberator (inaccessible link)
• Who liberated Prague in 1945? // BBC

• Prague offensive operation May 6 - 11, 1945 on the website of the Ministry of Defense of Russia