Soldier over saved Vienna: how the Red Army opened the way to Berlin
On March 16, 1945, the Vienna Strategic Operation of the Red Army began. The offensive, which became a dress rehearsal for the Battle of Berlin. Izvestia recalled how it was.
From the shores of Balaton
The Red Army repelled an attempted German counteroffensive on the shores of Lake Balaton, was ready to launch a counterattack — and the General Staff approved a new strategic offensive operation, which should be launched without delay, building on success. For our army, it was a chance to defeat the relatively fresh divisions of the Wehrmacht, which were based in Austria and could play an important role in the defense of Berlin. But the General Staff decided to destroy them near Vienna.
The main role in the operation was to be played by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union Fyodor Tolbukhin. His troops were assisted by units of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky's 2nd Ukrainian Front. The newly formed anti-fascist 1st Bulgarian Army also helped the Soviet troops. The operation was also attended by the famous Danube flotilla of Rear Admiral Georgy Kholostyakov, in which there were many paratroopers who had passed Stalingrad. About 1,300 tanks and self-propelled guns and a thousand combat aircraft took part in the operation, which quickly seized the initiative in the sky.
They were opposed by German and Hungarian troops, of which there were more than 410 thousand in total. They had almost half as many tanks — 700. There are also 700 planes. The Red Army units had an advantage in both numbers of troops and equipment — by about one and a half times. Given the attacking nature of the operation, such superiority is clearly not enough to launch attacks from a position of strength. It was necessary to outplay the opponent. It took quick, thoughtful action.
Time for quick maneuvers
The weather in Austria and Hungary was foggy. Poor visibility forced the artillery preparation to be postponed for several hours. The Soviet guns didn't start firing until the afternoon, when it was a little clearer. On the afternoon of March 16, 1945, a large-scale offensive of the Red Army began from several directions at once. The first defensive lines in both Austria and Hungary were breached in a few days, despite desperate resistance. Most likely, the Nazis did not expect such a large-scale offensive and did not escape the panic. Throughout the entire operation, the Germans were never able to force the Red Army men to go on a protracted defense. The most experienced Hitler generals, such as Otto Wehler and Lothar Rendulich, simply could not keep up with the maneuvers of the Soviet armies this time.
Two weeks were enough for the tank and rifle units of the Red Army to approach Vienna, the capital of Austria, which the Germans tried to turn into an impregnable fortress. But already on April 4, fighting was taking place on the outskirts of Vienna. A serious obstacle to a breakthrough to the city was a deep, wide river — the Danube. He covered the Austrian capital from the north and east. And then there are the fortifications, created according to the latest military engineering science.
"In the Vienna operation... The direction of the main attack was chosen rather heavily ...The main attack was carried out north of Szekesfehervar in mountainous and wooded areas. But this direction, despite the difficulties of the terrain, made it possible to surround the enemy's group," Marshal Tolbukhin recalled.
He launched an attack on the Austrian capital simultaneously from several directions. The Red Army had enough strength for this. The city found itself in a ring that was slowly shrinking. Tolbukhin left a small gap for the Viennese garrison in the western direction — and tens of thousands of German soldiers randomly fled from the "cauldron", abandoning tanks and cannons.
400 tanks participated in the Battle of Vienna. A successful roundabout maneuver by the 6th Guards Tank Army allowed Vienna to be hit from the west, disorganizing the defensive formations of the Nazis.
On April 13, the victory banner flew over Vienna. The last pockets of resistance were suppressed. Intelligence has worked well: our army has managed to preserve a historic European city. Even the tanks that drove through the streets of Vienna did not cause significant damage to the city. And the Austrian group of Nazis ceased to exist. Only about a third of the troops surrendered.
Exploits for all time
The heroes of Vienna knew that victory was near, that it was only a few leaps away. Here, "there is no time for an order, if there were a Homeland." These words come to mind when we learn about the feat of Senior Sergeant Andrei Kulnev. Together with three sappers, he broke through to the rear of the Nazis. He crossed the Danube, sometimes by water, sometimes on rafts, to the Vienna Imperial Bridge. It was carefully guarded by the Germans. At any moment, the Red Army soldiers could come under heavy fire.
But the experienced sappers managed to remain unnoticed. The Germans were going to blow up this bridge. The Red Army soldiers reached his farms from the water, found the wires, and cut them. They saved the architectural story for Austria. And the Red Army secured the crossing of the Danube. Tanks and self-propelled guns went over the bridge. For this feat, Senior Sergeant Kulnev was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
The feat of junior Sergeant Alexei Ponomarev will not be forgotten. He was on a combat mission to scout enemy positions. He crawled close to the enemy trenches. The Germans discovered him and rushed into hand-to-hand combat. Sergeant Ponomarev fought valiantly, destroying three opponents. Seriously wounded, the Germans took him prisoner. They tortured me, squeezed my throat with a noose. They tried to find out information about our units. The guardsman was silent. In an impotent rage, the Nazis doused him with gasoline, set him on fire and threw him out of the trench. He did not live to see the victory for several weeks.
The task of the Red Army was not only to capture Vienna and defeat the Nazi group that had settled in Austria, but also to preserve the unique city and its architectural ensemble. In the event of a retreat, the Germans planned to destroy the city by blowing up the main historical buildings that became symbols of Vienna: bridges, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and the town hall. This was Hitler's logic: if Austria is unable to hold the breakthrough of the Red Army, it is unworthy of existence.
Soviet intelligence and our sappers managed to thwart this plan and save the great city. For many years, the Viennese remembered this well, they knew that it was the Soviet army that saved their capital from destruction. Do they remember this today?
Russian porridge for crowns
On April 9, when the fighting for Vienna had not yet ended, the Council of People's Commissars issued a statement: "The Soviet government does not pursue the goal of acquiring any part of the Austrian territory or changing the social system of Austria. The Soviet government stands by the point of view of the Moscow Declaration of the Allies on the Independence of Austria." Moscow adhered to this principle to the end. The Red Army soldiers came to Austria as liberators. And the main goal of our troops was to pave the way to the Fuhrer's lair.
It was very important to prove to the Austrians, and especially to the Viennese, that they were not enslaved or avenged. Even in March and April 1945, most Austrian citizens remained under the hypnosis of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda. And he shouted several times a day that wild hordes of Bolsheviks were coming from the east to destroy the true Aryans, rape their wives and daughters, and shoot the men, without exception.
The hypnosis subsided when the Austrians saw the victorious Red Army soldiers, who did not even think about retribution in the spirit of "an eye for an eye", but fed porridge with meat to civilians. Iron discipline reigned in the Red Army, which did not allow cruelty towards the local population. And the beauty of Vienna fell in love with many Soviet officers and soldiers, who were happy to be photographed against the backdrop of the opera house, cathedrals and bridges.
The road to Berlin
The west of Hungary and the eastern regions of Austria were an industrial area important for the German war economy. From that time on, they stopped working for the Reich. And it was another major victory of the Red Army.
The liberation of Austria was a major blow not only to the military infrastructure and power of the Reich, but also to its ideology. Hitler considered the unity of Germans and Austrians to be the foundation of his state. The Nazi ideology considered both of them to be true Aryans who were destined to rule the world. The news from Austria plunged Hitler into a deep depression, from which he never came out.
On the outskirts of Vienna and on the streets of the city, 17 thousand brave soldiers and officers of the Red Army died. Already in August 1945, on the initiative of Major General Dmitry Shepilov (in the future he would become Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR), a wonderful monument to Soviet soldiers was unveiled on Schwarzenbergplatz Square. The monument was created by a former student of the Surikov Art Institute, commander of the Intezarian rifle and machine gun platoon. Experienced military engineers, participants of the Vienna operation, supervised the installation of the monument. A Red Army soldier with a banner stands on a high stele against the background of a colonnade. He has a PPSh machine gun on his chest, and instead of a shield, the coat of arms of the Soviet Union. The words of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are inscribed on the pedestal: "From now on, the great banner of freedom of peoples and peace between peoples will fly over Europe." The monument has been preserved. Even today, it towers over the saved Vienna.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
