Battle of the Seelow Heights

Battle of Seelow Heights
Part of the Eastern Front of the Second World War
A modern view over the Oder from the Seelow Heights
Date 16–19 April 1945 Location Seelow Heights, Germany 52°31′47.3″N 14°25′33.9″E / 52.529806°N 14.426083°E / 52.529806; 14.426083Coordinates: 52°31′47.3″N 14°25′33.9″E / 52.529806°N 14.426083°E / 52.529806; 14.426083 Result Soviet/Polish victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union Poland	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Georgy Zhukov Vasily Chuikov	Gotthard Heinrici Ferdinand Schörner
Strength
1,000,000 men 3,059 tanks 16,934 guns and mortars	112,143 men 587 tanks 2,625 guns
Casualties and losses
Estimate based on Soviet data: 5,000–6,000 killed and missing out of ~20,000 total casualties Estimates of other historians: 30,000–33,000 killed	12,000 killed

Estimate based on Soviet data: 5,000–6,000 killed and missing out of ~20,000 total casualties

The Battle of the Seelow Heights (German: Schlacht um die Seelower Höhen) was part of the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation (16 April-2 May 1945). A pitched battle, it was one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of the Second World War. It was fought over three days, from 16–19 April 1945. Close to one million Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front (including 78,556 soldiers of the Polish 1st Army), commanded by Marshal Georgi Zhukov, attacked the position known as the "Gates of Berlin". They were opposed by about 110,000 soldiers of the German 9th Army, commanded by General Theodor Busse, as part of the Army Group Vistula.

This battle is often incorporated into the Battle of the Oder-Neisse. The Seelow Heights was where some of the most bitter fighting in the overall battle took place, but it was only one of several crossing points along the Oder and Neisse rivers where the Soviets attacked. The Battle of the Oder-Neisse was itself only the opening phase of the Battle of Berlin.

The result was the encirclement of the German 9th Army and the Battle of Halbe.

On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia fell to the Soviet Army. This freed the 2nd Belorussian Front under Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to move to the east bank of the Oder. During the first two weeks of April, the Soviets performed their fastest front redeployment of the war. The 2nd Belorussian Front relieved the 1st Belorussian Front along the lower Oder between Schwedt and the Baltic Sea. This allowed the 1st Belorussian Front to concentrate in the southern half of its former front, opposite the Seelow Heights. To the south, the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev shifted its main force from Upper Silesia north-west to the Neisse River.

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