Battle of Dukla Pass

Battle of the Dukla Pass
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Dukla Pass battle monument
Date 8 September – 28 October 1944 Location Dukla Pass, present-day Slovakia-Poland border Result Indecisive - Soviet halt, Axis withdraw, liberation of Ukraine
Belligerents
Germany Hungary	Soviet Union Czechoslovakia
Commanders and leaders
Gotthard Heinrici Béla Miklós (8-16 Sept 1944) Dezső László (16 Sept-28 Oct 1944)	Ivan Konev Andrei Grechko Kirill Moskalenko Ludvík Svoboda
Strength
100,000 soldiers 2,000 artillery pieces 350 tanks	120,000 - 150,000 Soviet soldiers 16,700 Czechoslovak soldiers 1,517 artillery pieces 1,724 mortars 1,000 tanks
Casualties and losses
30,000 Total	80,000–123,000 Total

The Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla / Carpatho-Dukla / Rzeszów-Dukla / Dukla-Prešov Offensive was the scene of bitterly contested battle for the Dukla Pass (borderland between Poland and Slovakia) on the Eastern Front of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September–October 1944. It was part of the Soviet East Carpathian Strategic Offensive that also included the Carpathian-Uzhgorod Offensive. The operation's primary goal to provide support for the Slovaks was not achieved, though it concluded the full liberation of the Ukraine in its modern borders by the occupation of the Subcarpathian region as a territory of the former Carpatho-Ukraine.

The German resistance in the eastern Carpathian region was much harder than expected. The battle which began on 8 September would not see the Soviet forces on the other side of the pass until 6 October, and German forces would stop their heavy resistance in the region only around 10 October. Five days to Prešov turned into fifty days to Svidník alone with over 70,000 casualties on both sides. Prešov that was to be reached in six days remained beyond the Czechoslovaks' grasp for four months. The battle would be counted among one of the most bloody in the entire Eastern Front and in the history of Slovakia; one of the valleys in the pass near villages of Kapišová, Chyrowa, Iwla and Głojsce would become known as the Valley of Death.

In summer 1944, Slovaks rebelled against the Nazis and the Czechoslovak government appealed to Soviets for help. On 31 August, Soviet marshal Ivan Konev was ordered to prepare plans for an offensive to destroy Nazi forces in Slovakia. The plan was to push through the old Slovak-Polish border in the Carpathian Mountains via the Dukla Pass near Svidník to penetrate into Slovakia proper.

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