Battle of Poznań (1945)

Battle of Poznań
Part of Vistula–Oder Offensive, Eastern Front (WWII)
Date 24 January – 23 February 1945 Location Poznań and nearby area, Poland Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union  Poland	Nazi Germany  Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Mikhail Katukov Vasily Chuikov	Ernst Mattern Ernst Gonell †
Units involved
1st Guards Tank Army 8th Guards Army cytadelowcy	Garrison of Festung Posen elements of 9th Army Volkssturm Hungarian battalion
Strength
100,000 Soviet soldiers 5,000 Polish soldiers	15,700 fortress garrison soldiers 22,600 regular field soldiers 11,600 auxiliary forces 8,000 Volkssturm 1,100 Hungarian soldiers and mobilised Polish citizens 25,000 SS and Police soldiers
Casualties and losses
10,000 Soviet KIA 700 Polish KIA	6,000 German KIA 100 Hungarian KIA 23,000 POW

The Battle of Poznań (Battle of Posen) during World War II in 1945 was a massive assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznań in occupied Poland. The defeat of the German garrison required almost an entire month of painstaking reduction of fortified positions, intense urban combat, and a final assault on the city's citadel by the Red Army, complete with medieval touches.

The city of Poznań (called Posen in German) lay in the western part of Poland which had been annexed by Nazi Germany following their invasion of Poland in 1939, and was the chief city of Reichsgau Wartheland.

By 1945, the Red Army advances on the Eastern Front had driven the Germans out of eastern Poland as far as the Vistula River. The Red Army launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive on 12 January 1945, inflicted a huge defeat on the defending German forces, and advanced rapidly into western Poland and eastern Germany.

Certain cities which lay on the path of the Soviet advance were declared by Hitler to be Festungen (strongholds), where the garrisons were ordered to mount last-ditch stands. Hitler hoped the Festung cities could hold out behind Soviet lines and interfere with the movement of supplies and lines of communication. Poznań was declared a Festung in January 1945. The city was defended by 40,000 German troops from a great variety of units including Volkssturm, Luftwaffe ground forces, police, and highly motivated officer candidates. Facing them were the experienced Guards Rifle troops of General V. I Chuikov's 8th Guards Army – the victors of Stalingrad.

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