Battle of Halbe

Part of World War II

Date	April 24 – May 1, 1945
Location	Halbe, Germany 52°6′24″N 13°42′3″E / 52.10667°N 13.70083°E / 52.10667; 13.70083Coordinates: 52°6′24″N 13°42′3″E / 52.10667°N 13.70083°E / 52.10667; 13.70083
Result	Soviet victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Theodor Busse
Walther Wenck

Ivan Konev

Strength

210,000

280,000

Casualties and losses

Over 35,000 - 60,000 killed and 120,000 captured (only 25,000 escaped from pocket)
10,000 civilians killed

Less than 20,000 killed

The Battle of Halbe (German: Kessel von Halbe, Russian: Хальбский котёл, Halbe pocket) from April 24 – May 1, 1945 was a battle in which the German Ninth Army, under the command of General Theodor Busse, was destroyed as a fighting force by the Red Army during the Battle for Berlin.

The Ninth Army, trapped in a large pocket in the Spree Forest region south-east of Berlin, attempted to break out of the pocket westwards through the village of Halbe and the pine forests south of Berlin to link up with the German Twelfth Army commanded by General Walther Wenck with the intention of heading west and surrendering to the Western Allies. To do this, the Ninth Army had to fight their way through three lines of Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev, while at the same time units of the 1st Belorussian Front, under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, attacked the German rearguard from the north east.

After heavy fighting, about 30,000 German soldiers—one fifth of those originally in the pocket—reached the comparative safety of the Twelfth Army's front lines. The rest were either killed or captured by the Soviet forces..

On April 16, the Red Army started the Battle of Berlin with a three Front attack across the Oder-Neisse line. By April 21, they had broken through the German front line in two places and had started to surround Berlin. The German Ninth Army covered the defenses of the Seelow Heights against Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front, but its position was unhinged by the successful attack of Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front (against Army Group Centre) on the Neisse. By April 20, the Ninth Army retreated south-east of Berlin, opening the way for the 1st Belorussian Front.

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Wikipedia