Banska Bystric Offensive Operation

By the beginning of March 1945, the main forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky ) repelled the German offensive during the Balaton defensive operation and were preparing for the offensive in the planned Vienna offensive operation . The right flank of the front at that time acted in central Slovakia , actively constrained the opposing enemy forces and provided cover for the main front forces from the north. The troops of the right wing of the front solved these problems throughout March. Especially the role of these actions increased with the beginning of the Vienna operation (March 16, 1945). Subsequently, this offensive, which was not a direct part of the Vienna operation, received the name "Banska-Bystric Offensive Operation".

The operation involved:

• 40th Army ( Lieutenant General F.F. Zhmachenko , consisting of 5 rifle divisions , 11th artillery division , artillery brigade , 2 artillery and 2 mortar regiments , anti-aircraft artillery regiment, 2 penal companies ),
• 53rd Army (until March 25, 1945, Commander Lieutenant General I.M. Managarov )
• Part of the forces of the 5th Air Army (Commander Lieutenant General S.K. Goryunov )
• 1st Romanian Army ((commander of the Army General Vasile Atanasiu , as of 01.03.1945 - 39 751 people, 212 guns, without tanks) ^[3]
• 4th Romanian Army (commander of the corps general Nicolae Daskalescu , as of 01.03.1945 - 51 634 people, 417 guns, 6 tanks) ^[4]
• 1st Romanian Aviation Corps .

The number of Soviet troops is 79,780, the number of Romanian troops is 91,385.

These forces were opposed by the forces of the 8th Army (commander - General of the Mountain Forces Hans Craising ) of Army Group South (commander - infantry general Otto Wöhler ):

• 72nd Army Corps ( 76th Infantry Division , 8th Jaeger Division )
• 15th Infantry Division
• 24th Hungarian Infantry Division
• 5th Hungarian Infantry Division
• 3 infantry regiments
• up to 10 security battalions.

The total number of troops has not been established.

The operation was difficult. The whole battle was a stubborn advance of Soviet troops westward over the rugged mountainous and wooded area of ​​the Western Carpathians . The main mountain ranges, valleys and rivers flowing along them, as well as roads ran perpendicular to the line of advancement of the Soviet-Romanian troops. All these natural lines were prepared for the defense by the enemy and occupied by his troops, which greatly complicated the offensive. Often the offensive was carried out in directions isolated from each other by natural barriers. The main type of hostilities were bypass maneuvers of specially formed advanced detachments, formed on the basis of rifle units and reinforced with machine guns and mortars, as well as light artillery. To capture each line or stronghold of defense, several such groups were involved at once. To capture particularly stubbornly resisting defense units, a significant amount of artillery was pulled. All this greatly reduced the pace of the offensive, but guaranteed the continuity of the offensive and the holding down of large forces of the German-Hungarian troops.

The 40th Army carried the brunt of the operation. The 53rd Army supported it from the south (on March 25, this army was redirected to participate in the Vienna offensive operation and transferred to another direction). The Romanian armies carried out tasks to ensure actions in the direction of the main attack and attacked in secondary areas.

There was no operational pause before the operation - the troops performed the same tasks in the same directions throughout the first ten days of March. Therefore, the start date of the operation - March 10 - is very arbitrary.

Moving from March 4 to 10 from 4 to 10 kilometers, troops of the 40th Army captured the city of Zvolen on March 14. On March 14, the 40th Army crossed the Gron River on the move, and the 53rd Army displaced German units on the right bank of the Gron River in its offensive zone by March 21. On March 25, the 40th Army reached the strongly fortified city of Banska Bystrica . Instead of storming the city, the army commander ordered the advance groups to occupy all the heights around the city and intercept or take under fire all the roads leading to the city. When this was accomplished, the German garrison was forced to abandon its powerful defensive positions and make its way out of the city with losses. The liberation of Banska Bystrica took only a few hours. On the same day, the 53rd Army crossed the Gron River in its offensive zone and captured a bridgehead up to 6 kilometers deep. Every day, Soviet units in separate directions moved from 4 to 8 kilometers, sometimes the advance was estimated at hundreds of meters per day, but the advance was daily. The enemy showed stubborn resistance, launching strong counterattacks almost daily and sometimes even pushing the advancing troops.

By March 30, Soviet troops marched with continuous battles of 30 kilometers, liberated 2 cities and about 170 settlements. This day is considered the date of completion of the operation, although in fact the battle continued without a pause. The troops fulfilled their mission - they made progress in difficult conditions, did not allow the enemy to strike Soviet troops from the north in the Vienna direction and completely confined the forces opposing them - not a single division was transferred from the Carpathians to Austria.

During the operation, the losses of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached 2104 people dead, 9033 people wounded and sick, a total of 11137 people. The losses of the Romanian troops amounted to 223 killed and 1016 wounded.

German data on the losses of their troops have not been established. According to the daily information in the "Logs of operations" of the 40th and 53rd armies, during the period from March 10 to 30, 1945, the troops of these armies destroyed 7942 soldiers and 1603 were taken prisoner.

• “The journal of military operations of troops of the 2 Ukrainian Front for the month of March 1945” // OBD “Memory of the People”
• “The journal of military operations 40 A for the month of March 1945” // OBD “Memory of the people”
• "Journal of hostilities 53 And for the month of March 1945" // HBS "Memory of the people"
• Zakharov M.V. From Budapest to Prague.//May 9, 1945. Compiled by: V. D. Voznesensky D. B. Rubezhniy. Edited by A. M. Samsonov, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - M.: Science, 1970.