#Pages of Victory: the assault on Bratislava and why the liberation of Slovakia was a heavy loss for the Third Reich

Czechoslovakia appeared on the map of Europe after the First World War, but did not last long. In September 1938, England, France and Italy approved the annexation by Germany of the Sudetenland. Poland also claimed to Tesinska Silesia. Prague did not dare to go to war and on October 1 began to withdraw its troops from the disputed areas. And already in March 1939 Czechoslovakia was occupied by German troops. Berlin transferred part of the Czechoslovak territories to allied Hungary, and the rest was divided into protectorates by the Czech Republic, Moravia and the puppet state of Slovakia. At the head of Slovakia stood President Josef Tiso.

On August 29, 1944, an anti-fascist uprising began in Slovakia, to which part of the Slovak army joined. The help of the Slovaks who rose to the uprising was rendered by the Soviet command. But in fact, it was not possible to enter the area of ​​the Red Army uprising in 1944. On October 28, the uprising was crushed by the Wehrmacht forces, and the main partisan forces began to withdraw to the mountains.

Only by the end of 1944, Soviet troops, developing the offensive, liberated a significant part of southern and southeastern Slovakia. As a result of the offensive operation, by February 1945, the troops of the 4th and right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian fronts defeated the German troops in the Western Carpathians, reached the approaches to the Moravsk-Ostrava region and to the border of the Gron river.

• © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The Supreme Command Headquarters ordered Marshal of the Soviet Union R. Ya. Malinowski strike in the directions of Brno and Bratislava.

# Malinovsky45 We have been preparing the Bratislava-Brnovsk operation for more than a month, waging continuous battles on the flanks and at the same time replenishing the troops with people, weapons and equipment, creating reserves of fuel, ammunition and food, pontoons and crossing facilities for forcing rivers. pic.twitter.com/S7M1haW5Mq

As a result of the “Bratislava-Brnovsk operation”, it was planned to complete the liberation of Slovakia and partially Moravia.

# Headquarters VGK45 Troops # 2Ukr45 launched the Bratislava-Brnovsk offensive operation. The task: to force the Gron and, breaking through the enemy defenses, to pursue the enemy along the left bank of the Danube, not allowing him to gain a foothold on the prepared lines. Take the city of Bratislava, then take the city of Brno. pic.twitter.com/0JOilpOyh8

# Malinovsky45 Troops of the Bratislava-Brnovsk operation: 40th, 53rd, 7th guards. Army, 1st Guards. horse fur. group, 4th and 1st Romanian armies, Danube flotilla; only 352,000 people, of which Soviet - 270,000, over 6,160 guns and mortars, 246 tanks and self-propelled guns, and about 630 5 VA aircraft. pic.twitter.com/BcoauKcZ2q

On the night of March 25, the twelve reinforced infantry battalions of the 53rd (Colonel General I.M. Managarov) and 7th Guards (Colonel General M.S. Shumilov) armies suddenly crossed the Gron River for the German command and captured several bridgeheads on its right bank.

# 2Ukr45 Introduced into the breakthrough on the river. Gron The 1st Guards Horse-Mechanized Group of Pliev immediately crossed the Pitra River and helped the main strike armies expand the breakthrough to 135 kilometers along the front and 40 kilometers in depth. pic.twitter.com/Ncj9ULv7DB

After the breakthrough of defense on April 1, 1945, the 7th Guards Army entered Bratislava.

# Malinovsky45 The cities of Trnava, Hlohovec and Senec were taken, covering the immediate approaches to Bratislava, and parts of the 7th Guards. Shumilov’s army has already reached the eastern and northeastern outskirts of Bratislava. The headquarters plans to take the capital of Slovakia no later than April 5-6. pic.twitter.com/nF47R2bD8Q

Wehrmacht troops prepared the city for defense, creating numerous reinforced concrete firing points, anti-tank ditches, minefields; Barricades, anti-personnel and anti-tank obstacles were erected on the streets of the city. The eastern outskirts of Bratislava were especially fortified.

# Malinovsky45 Bratislava is thoroughly fortified: approaches to the city are blocked by anti-tank ditches, minefields, roads and streets are blocked by rubble and barricades. The city is covered by three lines of trenches with numerous reinforced concrete firing points.

To avoid great damage, the Soviet command decided to attack the city from several sides at once - the Danube flotilla was fighting from the side of the river, parts of the Soviet troops threw themselves at the city through the mountains.

For two days, the troops of the 25th Guards and 23rd Rifle Corps, with the support of the forces of the Danube Flotilla, Rear Admiral G.N. Kholostyakova fought street fights. The Germans launched a counterattack, trying to push our troops away from communications in the northwest.

# 2Ukr45 25th Guards. the rifle corps (7th Guards Army) broke through the outer contour of the defense of Bratislava, its assault groups are fighting for each house on the eastern and north-eastern outskirts of the city. 4th, 27th guards. corps and 1st horse-fur. the group reached the Small Carpathians northeast of the city. pic.twitter.com/1F6pMb79s2

By the end of April 4, Bratislava was completely cleared of German troops. The remnants of the German garrison fled towards Vienna.

# Glavkerkh45 The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front stormed the important industrial center and the main city of Slovakia, Bratislava - a major communications hub and a powerful stronghold of the Germans' defense on the Danube.

The Soviet side actively helped in rebuilding the city. The archival documents of the Ministry of Defense, declassified for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Bratislava, say that by April 10, 1945 “... the main streets and squares were cleared of debris and debris, the sewer system was put into operation, the city residents returned from the surrounding villages to town".

At the same time as the assault on Bratislava, the offensive of the Soviet troops developed on the right wing of the front. The 40th army of Zhmachenko, with the support of the Romanian troops, fought on the outskirts of Banska Bistrita - the German command considered this city to be one of the key positions in the Carpathians.

On April 5, the important communications hub of Previdza was taken. From Previdza to Trencin, an important military industrial region of Czechoslovakia was located, where ammunition, explosives, engineering equipment and communications equipment were manufactured. In Trencin, there was also a car repair plant for damaged tanks.

• © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

After the loss of Bratislava, the German command entrenched in the city of Brno, through which strategically important roads led - one of them to Prague. Brno was also the center of a valuable industrial area for the Reich. On April 25, Soviet troops entered the city and on April 26 he was completely liberated from Wehrmacht troops. In early May, the Brnovsky industrial region was completely liberated.

On May 5, 1945, the Bratislava-Brnovsk operation ended. For the Germans, the loss of this region to Soviet troops was a heavy blow.

“Nine Nazi divisions were defeated in the areas of Bratislava and Brno, and Soviet troops advanced about 200 km. The fighting on the territory of Czechoslovakia and Austria at that time actually brought down the defense of the Nazi forces in a southerly direction. The path to Prague was open, ”said military historian Yuri Knutov in an interview with RT.

After the war ended in 1945, the border with Poland was restored before the conclusion of the Munich Agreement, and Slovakia became part of Czechoslovakia. Tiso was sentenced to death by the National Court of Czechoslovakia and executed in April 1947.

In the parliamentary elections of 1946, the Communist Party won in the Czech part of the country, and also won 38% in the whole republic. Czechoslovakia entered the zone of influence of the USSR.

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