Seelow heights. The Battle for Seelow Heights

At the very end of World War II, the Seelow Heights stormed east of Berlin. This truly great battle showed heroism and the incredible sacrifice of many soldiers and officers of the Soviet Army at a time when less than a month remained until the Great Victory.

The Seelow heights are a ridge of hills, located 50-60 km east of Berlin, on the left bank of the Oder. Their length is about 20, and the width is up to 10 km. They rise no more than 50 m above the valley of the river.

German military fortifications

The Seelow Heights of 1945 is a deeply echeloned defense of the troops of fascist Germany. They were a military fortification, which had been under construction for almost 2 years. The main task of the 9th German Army was precisely to protect Seelow Heights.

The Fascist Command created here the 2nd defense zone, consisting of trenches, trenches for anti-tank weapons and artillery, a large number of bunkers and machine guns, as well as antipersonnel obstacles. Separate buildings served as strongholds. Directly in front of the heights was an excavated anti-tank ditch 3.5 meters wide and 3 meters deep. In addition, all the approaches to the defensive structures were carefully mined, and also shot through with cross-machine gun and artillery fire.

The 9th German Army, which defended the Seelow Heights, consisted of 14 rifle divisions, had more than 2,500 barrels of artillery and antiaircraft guns and about 600 tanks.

German Defense

On March 20, General Heindrici was appointed commander of the army group Wisla. He was considered one of the best specialists in defense tactics. He knew in advance that the Soviet Army would direct its main strike along the motorway near which Seelow Heights were located.

Hendrici did not strengthen the bank of the river. Instead, he used the advantageous location of the heights through which the Oder flowed. The floodplain of the river in the spring was always saturated with floods, so German engineers first destroyed part of the dam, and then released the water upstream. Thus, the plain has become a swamp. Behind it were three lines of defense: the first - a system of various fortifications, fences and trenches; The second - Seelow heights, the battle for which will last from April 16 to 19; The third - the line "Votan", located 17-20 km behind the front line itself.

By the beginning of the battle, the 56th German Tank Corps numbered about 50,000 men. After the battle in Berlin, only 13-15 thousand fighters managed to break through, which later became defenders of the fascist capital.

The location of the Soviet troops

On April 9, Koenigsberg fell, the last stronghold of East Prussia. Then the 2nd Belorussian Front, commanded by Marshal Rokossovsky, took the eastern shore of the Oder. Then, during two weeks, Soviet troops were redeployed. Meanwhile, the 1st Belorussian Front concentrated its troops opposite the heights. To the south the connections of the 1st Ukrainian under the leadership of Marshal Konev were located.

In the Seelow Heights area, there were 2.5 million people, more than 6,000 Soviet tanks, self-propelled artillery units, 7,500 aircraft, about 3,000 Katyusha and 41,000 barrels of mortars and artillery.

Battle

On April 16, the 1st Belorussian Front went on the offensive and overcame the first line of defense. By the evening of the same day, he met the strongest resistance of the Germans, defending Seelow heights. The battle was extremely fierce. The reserve divisions of the enemy managed to approach the second line of defense. The density of artillery on both sides of the main highway, which ran along the heights, reached about 200 guns per kilometer.

On the first day, an attempt was made to speed up the advance of Soviet troops. For which two tank armies were introduced into battle. But this did not bring the desired result. Mobile units and infantry were forced to get involved in a grueling battle. It should be noted that practically all tank fights of the Second World War were extremely fierce and bloody. Only towards the end of the day on April 17, after the most powerful air and artillery preparation, the enemy's defense in the main sectors was broken.

Ring around Berlin

Now historians are trying to understand whether this bloody battle was necessary and whether Marshal Zhukov acted rightly, after abandoning the simpler path-the encirclement of Berlin. Those who hold opinions about the expediency of taking the German capital to the ring, for some reason do not notice the obvious, namely the quantitative and qualitative composition of the city's defensive garrison. The 9th German and 4th armored armies, occupying advantageous positions on the Oder, numbered about 200 thousand people. It was impossible to give them even the slightest opportunity to go to Berlin and thereby become his defenders.

Plan of Zhukov

The plan was brilliant in its simplicity. According to him, the tank armies had to take positions located on the outskirts of Berlin and form something like a cocoon around it. His task was not to allow the strengthening of the garrison of the German capital at the expense of the many thousands of the 9th Army, as well as reserve troops, which could come from the west.

At the first stage, the entrance to the city was not planned. At first it was necessary to await the approach of the Soviet combined-arms formations. Then the "cocoon" was to be opened, and after that the storming of Berlin would begin.

The unexpected turn of Marshal Konev to the German capital, as historians note, led to some change in Zhukov's original plan. The conceived "cocoon" turned into a classical environment with the help of adjacent flanks of two nearby fronts. Virtually all the forces of the 9th German Army were caught in a ring in the forests located to the southeast of the capital. This is one of the biggest defeats of the fascist troops, which so undeservedly remained in the shadow of the storming of Berlin itself.

As a result, the capital of the Third Reich was defended only by members of the Hitler Youth, the remnants of the Oder destroyed parts and policemen. In total there were no more than 100 thousand people. Such a number of defenders for the defense of a huge city, as history showed, was inadequate.