Battle of the Seelow Heights
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The Battle of the Seelow Heights (German: Schlacht um die "Seelower Höhen"), was a part of the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation (16 April - 2 May 1945); one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of World War II. It was fought over three days, from 16 to 19 April 1945. Close to one million Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front (including 78,556 soldiers of the 1st Polish Army), commanded by Marshal Georgi Zhukov, attacked the position known as "Gates of Berlin". They were opposed by about 110,000 German soldiers of the Ninth Army,commanded by General Theodor Busse, as part of Army Group Vistula.
This battle is often incorporated into the Battle of the Oder-Neisse. Seelow Heights was where 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 Ninth Army and the Battle of Halbe.
Buildup
On 9 April 1945, Königsberg in East Prussia fell to the Soviet Army. This freed up 2nd Belorussian Front under Marshal 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. 2nd Belorussian Front relieved 1st Belorussian Front along the lower Oder, from Schwedt to the Baltic Sea. This allowed 1st Belorussian Front to concentrate in the southern half of its former front, opposite the Seelow Heights. To the south, 1st Ukrainian Front, under Marshal Konev) shifted its main force from Upper Silesia north-west to the Neisse.
The three Soviet Fronts together had 2.5 million men, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft, 41,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 3,255 truck-mounted Katyusha rocket launchers, and 95,383 motor vehicles.
1st Belorussian Front had 9 regular and 2 tank armies consisting of 77 rifle divisions, 2 cavalry, 5 tank and 2 mechanized corps, 8 artillery and 1 guards mortars divisions, and a mixture of more artillery and rocket launcher brigades. The Front had 3,059 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 18,934 artillery pieces and mortars.[8] 8 of the 11 armies were posted along the Oder. In the north, 61st Army and 1st Polish Army held the river line from Schwedt to the meeting with the Finow Canal. On the Soviet bridgehead at Kustrin, 47th Army, 3rd Shock Army, 5th Shock Army, and 8th Guards Army were concentrated for the attack. 69th Army and 33rd Army covered the river line south to Guben. 2nd Guards Tank Army, 3rd Army, and 1st Guards Tank Army were in reserve. 5th Shock and 8th Guards were posted directly opposite the strongest part of the defenses, where the Berlin autobahn passed through the Heights.
The German Ninth Army held the front from about the Finow Canal to Guben, which included the Seelow Heights. It had 14 divisions and festung Frankfurt, 587 tanks (512 operable, 55 in repair, 20 in transit), 2625 artillery pieces (including 695 anti-aircraft guns.[4] Further south the front was held by the Fourth Panzer Army, opposing the 1st Ukrainian Front. General Gotthard Heinrici replaced Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula on 20 March. He correctly predicted that the main Soviet thrust would be made over the Oder river and along the main east-west autobahn - at Seelow Heights. He decided to defend the riverbank with only a light skirmishing screen. Instead he fortified the Seelow Heights, which rise about 48 meters above the Oder and overlook the river where the autobahn crossed it. He thinned out the line in other areas to put more men at the Heights. The Oder's flood plain was saturated by the spring thaw; German engineers released water from a reservoir upstream, which turned the plain into a swamp. Behind this they built three lines of defenses, spreading back towards Berlin. The last line of defense was the Wotan Line, 10 to 15 miles behind the front line. These lines consisted of anti-tank ditches, anti-tank gun emplacements, and an extensive network of trenches and bunkers.
Battle
In the early hours of 16 April, the offensive began with a massive bombardment by thousands of artillery pieces and Katyushas. Well before dawn, the 1st Belorussian Front attacked across the Oder and the 1st Ukrainian Front attacked across the Neisse. The 1st Belorussian Front was the stronger force but it had the more difficult assignment since it was facing the bulk of the German forces.
The initial assault by the 1st Belorussian Front turned into a disaster for them. Heinrici and Busse anticipated the attack and withdrew their defenders from the first line of trenches just before the Soviet artillery would have obliterated them. The swampy ground proved to be a great hindrance, and under a German counter-barrage, Soviet casualties were heavy. Frustrated by the slow advance, Zhukov threw in his reserves, which according to his earlier plan were to be held back until the expected breakthrough. By early evening an advance of between four and six kilometers had been achieved (the 77th Rifle Corps from the 3rd Shock Army had advanced eight kilometers), but the second German defensive line remained intact. Zhukov was forced to report that his battle was not going as planned. However, in the south the attack by Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front was going according to plan. To spur Zhukov on, Stalin told him that he would let Konev direct his tank armies north, towards the great prize of Berlin.
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