Lower Silesian Offensive

Part of Eastern Front of World War II

Date	February 8–24 1945
Location	Lower Silesia
Result	Soviet Victory

Belligerents

Nazi Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Ferdinand Schörner

Ivan Konev

The Lower Silesian Offensive (Russian: Нижне-Силезская наступательная операция) was a Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II in 1945, involving forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev. It cleared German troops from much of Lower Silesia and besieged a large German force in the provincial capital, Breslau.

The offensive directly succeeded the Vistula–Oder Offensive, in which Konev's troops had driven the German Army Group A from Poland, liberating Kraków and taking bridgeheads over the Oder River.

Konev intended to break out of the Steinau and Ohlau bridgeheads, which had been secured at the end of the Vistula–Oder Offensive, on February 8. He preceded the initial attack with a fifty-minute artillery bombardment, his troops crossing the start lines at 06:00. By the end of the day the Front's spearheads had penetrated some 60 km. The 3rd Guards Tank Army was ordered to wheel southwards and then eastwards in order to encircle the city of Breslau from the rear, while the 4th Tank Army continued its push westwards from the Steinau bridgehead.

By February 15, forces from the two bridgeheads had surrounded Breslau while 3rd Guards Tank Army had closed the gap to the west, only elements of the German 269th Infantry Division managing to withdraw. Another 35,000 troops and 80,000 civilians had been blockaded in Breslau. The resulting Siege of Breslau lasted until the very end of the war.

...
Wikipedia