As a result of the Prague operation, the Red Army liberated the capital of Czechoslovakia and thus ended the Second World War in Europe. The city was cleared of Wehrmacht forces the very next day after Germany signed the act of surrender.
On the eve of
In the spring of 1945, the Berlin and Prague operations became the final chords of the defeat of the Nazi regime in Europe. When the German capital had already capitulated, the Czech capital was not yet affected by the fighting. The Soviet army was waiting for orders to advance on Prague. At the final stage of the war, the whole of Europe turned into a pie, which the victorious countries shared among themselves. For some time negotiations were underway on a possible attack on the American army in Prague . But in the end, Czechoslovakia moved into the sphere of influence of the USSR.
On the evening of May 8, when the German command had already signed the act of surrender, a Soviet ultimatum arrived in Prague. The Nazis, who controlled the city, were asked to surrender unconditionally. They were given a day to think. In case of failure, an offensive operation began. The Wehrmacht's Prague group was significant. Here at the last frontier Army Group Center stopped, which all the second half of the war retreated from the Soviet Union. In total, there were about 900 thousand Nazi soldiers in the city, as well as their allies, who fled to Prague from all over the liberated Europe.
Organization of the operation
In preliminary preparation for the operation, the Soviet command paid special attention to the creation of large artillery groups. By the beginning of the last offensive, about 6 thousand guns and mortars had been assembled. At the final stage of the war, the Red Army had no problems with security. This operation was no exception. The Prague attack was accompanied by sorties of the 2nd Air Army under the command of General Stepan Krasovsky. Almost 2 thousand aircraft were involved in the main direction, and another 400 more in the auxiliary ones.
All decisions related to determining the size of the troops used were made by the leadership of the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian fronts. It was an initiative “from below”, which only after consideration “on the spot” was approved by the Headquarters. What, from the point of view of the organization, was this operation complicated? Prague, the final "head" of the Great Patriotic War, "finished" in an incredible hurry. So, for example, the forces of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts needed to regroup in just three days. It was about distances of 100-200 kilometers and huge masses of people.
The start of the persecution
On May 6, Red Army intelligence reported that the enemy had begun an organized retreat from the held Czech regions at a distance of about 100 kilometers from Prague. Soviet forces began to pursue the enemy. The rear guards of the Wehrmacht were confused and scattered by the advanced detachments of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The Prague operation, the outcome of which was the actual end of the entire war, was a pursuit of fleeing Germans. Very few decided to resist. Basically, these were people who faithfully believed Nazi ideology and decided that in the event of the defeat of their native country in the war, they still would have nothing to lose.
The main strategy for destroying the enemy was powerful converging attacks on the flanks of the enemy. So the Germans not only surrounded, but also split up, becoming less dangerous. The interaction of the Red Army units proved to be effective. At the beginning of the operation, these were mainly the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian fronts, and then the 1st and 2nd. The advance of the tanks was quick, even though they had to operate in mountainous and wooded areas. They moved 60-100 kilometers per day.
On the same day (May 6), the 4th Guards Tank Army was already near the slopes of the Ore Mountains. It was a blow from an unexpected Dresden direction, which allowed us to surround the 40,000th Wehrmacht group in Breslau. On May 7, the offensive of the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front began. The 7th Guards Army of Shumilov immediately broke through the German defenses and advanced a distance of 12 kilometers. At the same time, the forces of the 4th Ukrainian Front fought for Olomouc - an important transport hub that connected the whole of Czech Republic.
Escape from Prague
The rapid offensive of the Red Army in all sectors of the front demoralized the already lost faith in the victory of the Nazis. The commander of the German forces in the capital of Czechoslovakia was Ferdinand Scherner. He ordered the evacuation to the west. The Germans preferred to surrender to the Americans than the Soviet Union. An organized retreat in Prague began on May 9th. However, very soon it ceased to be controlled by someone and escalated into a stampede.
Meanwhile, the strike force of the 2nd Ukrainian Front broke through another enemy line of defense. She advanced 60 kilometers, taking control of Znojmo. The left wing of this army turned out to be on the banks of the Danube and began to move along its northern shore, discarding the German rearguards. During these three days, Soviet aircraft made more than 7 thousand sorties, supporting the attacks of the Ukrainian fronts.
City liberation
On May 9, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague. Now the Red Army and representatives of the special services were to prevent the Germans from escaping from the encirclement. The Czech partisans, who knew the city and its surroundings much better than foreigners, helped them in this.
East of Prague, surrounded by more than 50 divisions. These were the main forces of the enemy grouping. The German soldiers were disorganized, their command lost any control over their subordinates. Only a few divisions belonging to the army group "Austria" managed to escape into captivity to the Americans.
ROA environment
The Prague offensive operation was carried out not only against the Wehrmacht, but also against the ROA - the Russian Liberation Army. In this formation were Soviet collaborators, who at the beginning of the war went to cooperate with Germany. In the spring of 1945, the ROA decided to urgently evacuate to the west so as not to fall into the hands of the Soviet authorities.
On May 12, General Vlasov, the commander of this army, was arrested. He and many other ROA officers were taken to the USSR. There they were tried and shot. Ordinary soldiers of the ROA, captured during the operation in Prague, were mostly in camps and exiles.
Last resistance
The remnants of the retreating SS units were destroyed on the night of May 12. Karl Friedrich von Pückler-Burghaus, the head of the local death squad department, also died in the battle. This last group consisted of the divisions Das Reich and Wallenstein.
The detachment reached the border with the Americans on May 9, but they refused to accept the surrender of the fugitives. Then the cornered Germans created a small fortified camp. On the evening of May 11, they were attacked by a group of security officers from the People's Commissariat of State Defense of the USSR. Soon, units of the Red Army joined. By the morning of May 12, this last Nazi squad was destroyed. Thus ended the Prague operation. From year to year, city residents on anniversary days pay tribute to the Soviet liberators. Their names are streets and parks. Marshal Konev, who led the offensive operation, became an honorary citizen of the city of Balti.
Losses and totals
For two million soldiers of the Red Army and the allied states (Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia), the end of the war was precisely this operation. The Prague defense of the Germans was a desperate attempt by a few detachments to break out of the encirclement. However, these clashes led to major losses - in all, 12 thousand Red Army soldiers died in the battles.
For several days of the operation, Soviet units managed to destroy or capture about 860 thousand Wehrmacht and SS soldiers. 60 generals of Army Group Center and others were captured. 9,500 captured weapons and mortars, 1,000 aircraft, 1,800 assault guns and tanks, as well as various other weapons and military equipment were captured.
On May 11, the Prague operation came to a logical conclusion. The Soviet military reached the line of contact with the Americans. It was held along the border with the cities of Chemnitz and Plzen. Since then, Czechoslovakia has for many years been in the sphere of Soviet influence. Communist power was established in this country. The state joined the Warsaw Pact Organization.
Operations 1945 and 1968
Due to further developments in socialist Czechoslovakia, the operation in Prague (1945) and the operation of the Prague Spring of 1968 are often compared. The last of them began when the Soviet government sent troops into the capital of this Slavic country, arguing its decision with "normalizing the political situation." In 1968, in Czechoslovakia liberal reforms were under way that the leadership of the USSR did not like, since their consequence could be the exit of Czechoslovakia from the zone of communist influence.
Prague Spring, Operation Danube and subsequent events became an important part of the Cold War. Today in the Czech Republic, the attitude to the events of 1945 and 1968. just the opposite. In the first case, Soviet troops came to Prague as liberators from the Nazis, and in the second, the same army crushed the democratic freedoms of the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia with caterpillars of tanks.