Landing at Horta

On April 7, 1945, troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front ( Marshal of the Soviet Union F.I. Tolbukhin ) broke into the southern outskirts of Vienna with a fight, and the assault on the city began. The grouping of the 6th SS Panzer Army ( Oberstgruppenführer SS and Colonel-General of the SS troops Joseph Dietrich ) offered stubborn resistance. To assist the troops storming Vienna, the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinovsky , whose armies approached Vienna from the north-west and covered Vienna from the north, ordered the landing of the 49th Rifle Regiment from the ships of the Danube Flotilla. rifle division with the task of capturing the settlements of Ort an der Donau (Ort) and Mansdorf an der Donau (Mansdorf) and thereby cut off the enemy’s escape route from Vienna along coastal roads, as well as stop the approach of German reinforcements to Vienna. To accomplish this task, Rear Fleet Commander Rear Admiral G.N. Kholostyakov assigned the 2nd Sulino Brigade of River Ships (commander of the 2nd rank captain A.F. Arzhavkin ), ordering to land an landing 3 km southwest on the night of April 8 city ​​of Ort. Hero of the Soviet Union captain-lieutenant V.I. the Great was appointed commander of the landing squad and landing commander.

The task was complicated by the fact that the left bank of the Danube in this area was occupied by German troops. The passage of ships with an amphibious assault was organized along numerous river channels along the right bank. When driving, the strictest noise and light masking was observed. There were not enough boats, so it was decided to land on several flights. To support the landing, several artillery batteries of the Coastal flotilla escort detachment and from the army were secretly deployed.

The landing of the first detachment of landing was carried out in Gainburg. The composition of the landing ships were allocated 4 armored boats and 3 mine boats . The strength of the first landing detachment was 300 fighters with two 45-mm guns . On April 8, at 1 o’clock in the morning, boats with a landing party reached the landing site. On the way, the boats were discovered and fired by the enemy, but did not open return fire, while, at the request of the landing commander, enemy fire was suppressed by pre-allocated artillery .

At about 5 a.m., the boats landed at the appointed place. When landing, the landing did not meet resistance and began to advance to Mansdorf. Only there the enemy discovered the paratroopers and opened indiscriminate fire. By 8:30 in the morning, the detachment took possession of Mansdorf, cutting off the enemy’s escape route west along coastal roads.

Meanwhile, the boats began to transfer the second landing detachment to the area of ​​the city of Ort, but because of the unequipped approaches to the landing site, the transfer was slow. In the second detachment, 330 people, six 45-mm and two 76-mm guns, 4 mortars , 6 anti-tank rifles , 14 horses, 10 tons of ammunition and 8 tons of different cargo were landed. When crossing the river and landing, the enemy did not counteract, as a result of which the detachment safely landed and connected with the advanced detachment. In the future, the landing continued successful operations, causing a strong panic, loss of communication and control of the enemy, which contributed to the successful operations of the 75th Rifle Corps of the 46th Army , which advanced along the left bank of the Danube. In the afternoon of April 8, the landing combined with the advancing parts of the corps and joint efforts, by storm, captured the strongly fortified city of Ort an der Donau. During the capture of the city, the headquarters of the German Viking SS division suffered heavy losses (according to some reports, 3 generals and 21 officers were taken prisoner). In total, the enemy’s losses amounted to 300 killed and 235 captured soldiers and officers, in addition, 2 aircraft , a steam locomotive and 304 cars, 2 food depots, 7 cars, 18 tractors, and other trophies were captured.

The sudden landing and its successful actions, the seizure of the cities of Mansdorf and Ort, made it possible to crack the enemy’s defenses on the left bank of the Danube. On this day, the advance of Soviet troops here was 20 kilometers. The crossing of the main units of the 46th Army immediately began on this section, which from a busy bridgehead delivered a successful strike bypassing Vienna and contributed to the success of its assault.

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