 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Vienna offensive | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theEastern Front ofWorld War II | |||||||
 Soviet troops onStudebaker US6 trucks during the Vienna offensive; "Vienna" is written inRussian on a signpost | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Germany Hungary |  Soviet Union Bulgaria Austrian resistance | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Rudolf von Bünau | Fyodor TolbukhinVladimir Stoychev | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 16 March:[1] 25 divisions 270,000 men 772 tanks and assault guns 957 armored personnel carriers 434 guns | 16 March:[1] 77 divisions 1,171,800 men 1,600 tanks and assault guns 5,425 guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 16 March – 15 April: ~30,000 killed 125,000 captured[2] 1,345 tanks and assault guns lost[3][a] 2,250 guns and mortars lost[3] | 16 March – 15 April: 167,940 overall (including 135,000 combat casualties) 38,661+ killed 129,279 wounded or sick 603 tanks and assault guns lost[3] 764 guns and mortars lost[3][5][b] | ||||||
TheVienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet2nd and3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to captureVienna,Austria, duringWorld War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945.[6] After several days of street-to-street fighting, the Soviet troops captured the city.
Vienna had been bombarded continuously for the year before the arrival of Soviet troops, and many buildings and facilities had been damaged and destroyed.
Joseph Stalin reached anagreement with theWestern Allies prior to April 1945 concerning the relative postwar political influence of each party in much of Eastern and Central Europe; however, these agreements said virtually nothing about the fate of Austria, then officially considered to be merely theOstmark area of Greater Germany after theAnschluss. As a result, the success of a Soviet offensive against Austria and subsequent occupation by the Red Army of a large part of the country would have been very beneficial for subsequent postwar negotiations with the Western Allies.[7]
After the failure ofOperation Spring Awakening (Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen),Sepp Dietrich's6th SS Panzer Army retreated in stages to theVienna area.[8] The Germans desperately prepared defensive positions in an attempt to guard the city against the rapidly arriving Soviets.
In the spring of 1945, the advance of Soviet MarshalFyodor Tolbukhin's3rd Ukrainian Front through westernHungary gathered momentum on both sides of the Danube.[9] After they tookSopron andNagykanizsa, they crossed the border between Hungary and Austria.[10]
On 25 March, the 2nd Ukrainian Front launched theBratislava–Brno offensive by crossing theHron river. On 30 March the Front crossed also theNitra river and quickly rushed across theDanubian Lowland towards Bratislava. Having secured his right wing by 2nd Ukrainian Front, Tolbukhin was now ready to advance into Austria and take Vienna.Romanian troops, that were on the Allied side sinceKing Michael's Coup, also took part in the offensive.[11]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Vienna offensive" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
On 2 April, Vienna Radio denied that the Austrian capital had been declared anopen city. On the same day, Soviet troops approached Vienna from the south after they overranWiener Neustadt,Eisenstadt,Neunkirchen andGloggnitz.[10]Baden andBratislava were overrun on 4 April.
After arriving in the Vienna area, the armies of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front surrounded, besieged, and attacked the city. Involved in this action were theSoviet 4th Guards Army, the Soviet6th Guards Tank Army, theSoviet 9th Guards Army, and theSoviet 46th Army. The "O-5 Resistance Group," Austrians led byCarl Szokoll, wanting to spare Vienna destruction, actively attempted to sabotage the German defenses and to aid the entry of the Red Army.
The only major German force facing the Soviet attackers was the GermanII SS Panzer Corps of the 6th SS Panzer Army, along withad hoc forces made up of garrison and anti-aircraft units. Declared a defensive region, Vienna's defense was commanded by GeneralRudolf von Bünau, with the II SS Panzer Corps units under the command of SS GeneralWilhelm Bittrich.
The battle for the Austrian capital was characterized in some cases by fierceurban combat, but there were also parts of the city the Soviets advanced into with little opposition. Defending in thePrater Park was the 6th Panzer Division, along the south side of the city were the 2nd and 3rd SS Panzer Divisions, and in the north was theFührer-Grenadier Division.[12] The Soviets assaulted Vienna's eastern and southern suburbs with the 4th Guards Army and part of the 9th Guards Army. The German defenders kept the Soviets out of the city's southern suburbs until 7 April. However, after successfully achieving several footholds in the southern suburbs, the Soviets then moved into the western suburbs of the city on 8 April with the 6th Guards Tank Army and the bulk of the 9th Guards Army. The western suburbs were especially important to the Soviets because they included Vienna's mainrailway station. The Soviet success in the western suburbs was followed quickly byinfiltration of the eastern and northern suburbs later the same day. North of the Danube River, the 46th Army pushed westward through Vienna's northern suburbs. Central Vienna was now cut off from the rest of Austria.
By the 9th of April, the Soviet troops began to infiltrate the center of the city, but the street fighting continued for several more days. On the night of 11 April, the 4th Guards Army stormed the Danube canals, with the20th Guards Rifle Corps and1st Mechanized Corps moving on theReichsbrücke Bridge. In acoup de main on 13 April, theDanube Flotilla landed troops of the80th Guards Rifle Division and7th Guards Airborne Division on both sides of the bridge, cutting demolition cables and securing the bridge.[c] However, other important bridges were destroyed. Vienna finally fell when the last defenders in the city surrendered on the same day.[d] Bittrich's II SS Panzer Corps, however, pulled out to the west on the evening of 13 April to avoid encirclement.[13] The same day, the 46th Army tookEssling and the Danube Flotilla landed naval infantry up the river byKlosterneuburg.
While the street fighting was still intensifying in the southern and western suburbs of Vienna on 8 April, other troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front by-passed Vienna altogether and advanced onLinz andGraz.[10]
On the 10th, all but two of the bridges in the city had been destroyed. TheFloridsdorf bridge had been left intact by aFührer Order dictating that the bridge be held at all costs. The 2nd SS Panzer"Das Reich" left a dozen artillery pieces including 37mm anti-aircraft guns to hold off enemy attacks. That night, the "Das Reich", including their last remaining three dozen armored vehicles, pulled out of the city for the last time. Vienna had fallen, and the Germans now moved northwest to hold the next defensive line.[14]
By 15 April, armies of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front pushed even further into Austria. The completely exhausted remnants of what had been the 6th SS Panzer Army were forced to flee to the area between Vienna and Linz. In pursuit of the retreating Germans were elements of the Soviet 9th Guards Army and the Soviet 46th Army. The26th Army and27th Armies advanced towards the area north of Graz just behind the retreating 6th Army. The57th Army and theBulgarian 1st Army advanced towards the area south of Graz (nearMaribor) just behind the retreating2nd Panzer Army. None of these German armies were in any shape to do more than temporarily stall the advancing Soviet forces.
Some of Vienna's finest buildings lay in ruins after the battle. There was no water, electricity, or gas — and bands of people, both foreigners and Austrians, plundered and assaulted the helpless residents in the absence of a police force. While the Soviet assault forces generally behaved well, the second wave of Soviet troops to arrive in the city were reportedly badly undisciplined. A large number of lootings and cases of rape took place in a several-week long violence that has been compared to the worst aspects of theThirty Years War.[15]
Like Bittrich, General von Bünau left Vienna before it fell to avoid capture by the Soviets. From 16 April until the war's end, he ledGeneralkommando von Bünau, surrendering to the Americans onVE Day. Von Bünau was held as aPOW until April 1947. Bittrich also surrendered to U.S. forces and was held as a prisoner by the Allies until 1954. Fyodor Tolbukhin went on to command the SovietSouthern Group of Forces and theTranscaucasian Military District until his death in 1949.
Austrian politicianKarl Renner set up a Provisional Government in Vienna sometime in April with the tacit approval of the victorious Soviet forces,[16] and declared Austria's secession from theThird Reich.
On 30 April, the followingorder of battle was recorded by the German Army High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, orOKW). From 20 April-2 May, OKW moved fromZossen (near Berlin) toMürwik (part ofFlensburg in northGermany, nearDenmark).[17] This order of battle shows what remained "on paper" of the German armies that fought in Hungary and Austria.
The order of battle for the3rd Ukrainian Front during the same period was:
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)