Film and Television: Starting from the Journey to Guandong

Chapter 164

But in fact, the Battle of Berlin was not the last war between the Soviet Union and Germany, Prague was!

In early May 1945, the battle in the direction of Berlin had ended. Although Army Group Center south of Berlin suffered certain losses in this battle, the main force was still there and was stationed near the border between Germany and the Czech Republic.

Army Group South was renamed Army Group "Ostermark" in April 1945.

After the fall of Vienna, the army withdrew north to the Czech (Austrian) border. Among them, Scherner's Army Group Center has 65 troops remaining, and Lendulik's Army Group Ostmark has 43 troops. The total strength of the two armies is 108 million.

Although the German army was large in strength, it was already in dire straits.

Around them, the Soviet troops on the Eastern Front and the American troops on the Western Front squeezed in together.

In the northern part of the Czech Republic, the 1st Ukrainian Front, which had just concluded the Battle of Berlin, has changed direction and is preparing to attack the German Army Group Center; in the southern part of the Czech Republic, the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front is firmly closing in on the German Army Group Ostmark;

In the eastern part of the Czech Republic, the 4th Ermao Front Army was inserted right at the junction of the two German army groups; in the western part of the Czech Republic, the US 3rd Army advanced to the Pilsen line.

Dangerous situations go beyond unfavorable situations on the battlefield.

On April 1945, 4, Uncle Hitler was defeated and committed suicide in Berlin. The countdown to the demise of the German Third Reich entered; Germany's industrial production has been paralyzed, and the German army stationed in the Czech Republic will no longer receive new material supplies. If the inventory is exhausted, it will fall into The situation of running out of ammunition and food;

Most of the German territory had been captured by the Allies at this time, and German troops scattered in northwest Europe, the north, the south, Yugoslavia, and the Courland Peninsula on the Baltic Sea surrendered one after another.

On May 1945, 5, Dönitz, who had just arrived in Schleswig, Denmark, from Berlin, received the news of Uncle See's death.

According to his will, Dönitz succeeded as head of the German Third Reich.

At 10:20 that night, Dönitz gave a radio speech, first announcing that Mr. Xi had "died heroically."

He then ordered the German troops on the Eastern Front to continue fighting. If the American and British allies attacked the German troops at this time, the German troops would continue to resist.

On May 5, Dönitz sent the new naval commander Frederburg to contact Montgomery, commander of the 3st Allied Army Group on the Western Front. Regarding the partial surrender proposal put forward by Germany (the German army would only surrender to Britain and the United States, but not to the bear), Montgomery agreed according to Uncle Qiu's instructions.

Two days later, the German Army Group G and the 2th Army on the Western Front surrendered to the Allies.

On May 5, General Eisenhower, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces on the Western Front, under the instruction of the new US boss Lao Du, sent a test to the Soviet army and asked whether the US 4rd Army could continue to advance to the Vltava that flows through the city of Prague. River, was rejected by the Soviet army.

Bradley, commander of the US 12th Army Group, also mentioned in his meeting with Konev, commander of the Soviet Ermao 1st Front, that the US military was willing to assist the Soviet army in conquering Prague, but Konev rejected it on the spot.

苏军方面，为了消灭德军中央集团军群和厄斯特马克集团军群，3个方面军共集中20个合成集团军、3个坦克集团军、3个空军集团军、1个骑兵机械化集群、1个独立步兵军、5个坦克军、1个机械化军和1个骑兵军。

The above-mentioned troops total 177 million people and are equipped with 1775 tanks and self-propelled artillery, 2.7 artillery pieces and mortars, and 2942 combat aircraft.

此外，波兰第2集团军、罗马尼亚第1和第4集团军、捷克斯洛伐克第1军也将参加战斗，上述部队兵力约20万人。

In order to end the war as soon as possible, Mao Xiong issued a combat order on May 1945, 5.

The troops were required not to rest and recuperate, but to capture Prague as soon as possible.

Since during the Battle of Berlin, Stalin clearly required Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front to enter Berlin first, so in order to make up for Konev's regret, he also clearly required in this combat order that the Soviet troops entering Prague must be the 1st Ermao Front. of troops.

为此，科涅夫于5月2日率部南下，右路经过5天急行军100~200公里，于5月6日进入布拉格西北约170公里的易北河沿岸里萨。

Two tank armies and two synthetic armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front are concentrated here, and they plan to attack Prague via the German-Czech border city of Teplice.

In addition, the Polish 2nd Army was deployed in the center, and the 28th and 52nd Army on the left were deployed due north of Prague.

The German forces facing them were the 4th Armored Army and the 7th Army that had retreated from the Western Front.

二毛第2方面军其他4个集团军在布拉格东北方向将实施辅助进攻，以牵制德军第17集团军；叶廖缅科指挥的乌克兰第4方面军在布拉格正东方向、德军第1装甲集团军防线实施攻击，首要目标是消除摩尔瓦河东岸的奥洛穆茨突出部。

Malinovsky's 2nd Ermao Front attacked from the southeast of Prague. The German forces in front of them were the 6th SS Panzer Army and the 8th Army.

In addition, Tolbukhin's 3rd Ermao Front will not participate in the Battle of Prague. The new task assigned to them by the Mao Xiong High Command is to annihilate the German 6th Army stranded in western Austria.

Tito's Yugoslav army was responsible for dealing with the German Army Group E in the southernmost part of the front, which had a strength of 18.

At this time in the Czech Republic, the situation is changing every day.

There are five forces gathered in this small Central European country. In addition to the Soviet army, the Western Allied forces and the German army, they also include the Czech people and the biggest traitor of the Bear, Vlasov, who has not been seen for a long time.

On May 1945, 5, Allied troops entered the Czech Republic from all sides.

Citizens in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, also took action.

That afternoon, some citizens painted out German slogans and wrote anti-German content.

At this time, there were about 1 German military personnel stationed in Prague, but there were very few organic combat troops. Occupy authorities tried to stop the riot through radio broadcasts, but to no avail.

On May 5, there were rumors in the city that the US military had arrived in Prague from the west. Encouraged by this rumor, civil unrest gradually evolved into a military uprising.

That day, the rebels seized the radio station and issued a proclamation at noon, calling on all citizens to rise up and resist and drive the Germans out of Prague.

At night, the number of rebels in the city reached more than 3. They arrested many unsuspecting German soldiers, released Czechs from prison, and built barricades on the streets in preparation for the German counterattack.

On this day, the Soviet traitor Vlasov's 1st Division of the "Russian Liberation Army" entered Prague, and they immediately fell to the rebels.

Vlasov is really a poor man. This person was introduced in the article about the Moscow Winter Counterattack and Lyuban Battle in 1941.

He was originally a woolly bear hero. In the early days of the war, the 37th Soviet Army Group he commanded was affiliated with the Southwest Front.

During the Battle of Kiev, his army performed well at first, but was soon surrounded in the Uman area. He himself successfully broke through and returned to Moscow.

Stalin admired this man very much and handed the 20th Army into his hands. Vlasov did not disappoint Stalin, and his performance during the winter counteroffensive in 1941 was outstanding.

During the first Rzhev-Vyazma battle in January 1942, his group army adopted the tactical method of "narrowing the offensive area and concentrating superior forces and weapons" on the battlefield for the first time, and obtained the internal opinions of the Soviet army at that time and after the war. of high praise.

But the good times did not last long. In the late stages of the Lyuban Campaign that began in early 1942, he was sent by Stalin to the direction of Leningrad to serve as deputy commander of the Volkhov Front and commander of the 2nd Shock Army.

In June 1942, the Battle of Lyuban was defeated and Vlasov was captured by the Germans.

After being captured, Vlasov was imprisoned in a concentration camp. The horrific living conditions there frightened Vlasov. Many people died on the first day of being imprisoned in the concentration camp.

Vlasov believed that the German army would soon win the war, and was determined to surrender to the Germans.

The Germans did not have a good impression of this traitor. SS leader Himmler once commented that he was a "stupid pig and traitor." He was then placed under house arrest in a villa on the outskirts of Berlin. Soon he published an open letter, viciously attacking Mao Xiong and Stalin, and calling on Mao Xiong to resist.

Because Vlasov's letter had not been reviewed by the German side in advance, it angered the German top brass. Keitel, the chief of the general staff of the three armed forces, ordered Vlasov to be sent back to the concentration camp.

In September 1944, German Propaganda Minister Goebbels met with Vlasov.

Later, on his recommendation, Vlasov was released. In January 1945, Uncle Xi appointed him as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Bear Arms" and authorized him to recruit soldiers from the concentration camps to form the "Bear Liberation Army."

Soon, he had 140 regiment-level units and 90 field battalions under his command. These troops were used to deal with guerrillas active in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and other places.

According to incomplete statistics, the strength of the Mao Xiong People's Liberation Army at this time reached 5, mainly composed of captured former Soviet soldiers and Mao Xiong expatriates living in Europe.

But at this time the war was coming to an end, and the situation was very unfavorable to Vlasov. He had to prepare for his retreat.

In order to escape the liquidation of the Woolly Bears after the war, he tried to establish contact with the neutral authorities of Sweden and Switzerland, but was rejected by the other parties. During the same period, other puppet troops formed during World War II to oppose the Bears also joined Vlasov's command in an attempt to unite for warmth, and his strength also grew to 10.

On May 1945, 5, the second day of the Prague Uprising, Scherner, commander of the German Army Group Center, issued a proclamation to all officers and soldiers.

He promised to lead all officers and soldiers back to Germany safely, so he required the troops to strictly observe discipline, prohibit escape, and obey the orders of their superiors.

At the same time, he also issued two orders. The first was to prepare the troops to retreat westward and then surrender to the US military according to the instructions of the new head of the empire, Dönitz. The second was to order the SS troops to move to Prague and eliminate the rebels in the city. , to protect the traffic arteries of the German army's westward retreat.

On May 5, German reinforcements entered Prague and started street fighting with the rebels. At this time Vlasov decided to help the rebels.

He hoped to use this to seek asylum in Czechoslovakia after the war, or to plead with the British and American Allies through them to leave a way for him to survive.

He led his troops towards Prague and then joined forces with the rebels. At this time, the Prague rebels were fighting fiercely with the German troops arriving for reinforcements.

The addition of the "Bear Bear Liberation Army" quickly turned the tide of the war and gradually took control of the main areas of Prague.

The U.S. military continued to advance eastward in the past few days, and Patton's 3rd Army crossed the dividing line previously agreed between the Allies and the Soviets on May 5.

On May 5, the leading force, the 6th Armored Division, arrived in the western Czech city of Pilsen. Since the German army gave up resistance to the Allies and used all its forces to deal with the Soviet army, the US military could quickly reach the city of Prague.

However, Eisenhower, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces on the Western Front, strictly ordered Patton to stop advancing to avoid misunderstandings with the Soviet army.

At the same time, he also met with the visiting German negotiator Jodl and withdrew Montgomery's previous commitment to "allow partial surrender of the German army" and demanded that Germany must surrender to all allies.

In view of the fact that the German troops continued to move westward into U.S. military bases and surrender, Eisenhower warned Jodl not to try to delay the German troops' westward withdrawal and then surrender to the Allied forces on the Western Front. He made it clear that the Allied forces would close the channel until May 5.

On the Soviet side, the right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which was responsible for the main offensive mission, completed its assembly in Risa on May 5 and prepared to launch an attack the next day.

That morning, the Soviet army discovered that the German 4th Armored Group was organizing a retreat. Konev, who was worried that the Germans would run away, immediately ordered the main force of the front army that had just entered the new position to pursue it.

At 14:3, the 5rd and 13th Guards Army, the 3th Guards Army, the 4rd and 4th Guards Tank Army, the 25th Guards Tank Army and the th Guards Tank Army began to advance. In order to buy time, the Soviet army abandoned the usual tactic of infantry armies opening the way and tank armies following up, allowing both to advance at the same time.

That night, the 5th Guards Army marched toward Dresden in heavy rain and in the mud. The German "Hermann Goering" Armored Corps in front of them did not retreat. Instead, it resisted quite tenaciously, and the Soviet army fell into a bitter battle.

The Soviet army in other areas was progressing smoothly. The attack group composed of the 4th Guards Tank Army and the 13th Guards Army advanced all the way south. It advanced 6 kilometers on the 23th and 7 kilometers on the 45th, reaching the Czech border-Kru. The northern slope of the Shnei Mountains.

At the same time, the 5th Guards Army, with the support of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, broke through the German defense line and began to attack Dresden.

5月7日，二毛第2方面军左翼和中路如期展开进攻。此时德军第17集团军和第4装甲集团军右翼已经撤退，苏军左翼4个集团军和中路波兰第2集团军开始向南、向西展开追击。

Southeast of Prague, the Ermao 2nd Front Army turned to the offensive on May 5. The German 7th Army in front of them also received an order to retreat and immediately retreated westward. The Soviet army quickly captured various cities south of Prague and approached the suburbs of the capital.

On May 5, Konev won a great victory in the Dresden area. His Polish 8nd Army captured Bautzen and the 2nd Army occupied Görlitz.

During the Battle of Berlin, the German 4th Panzer Army launched a fierce counterattack against Konev's flanks in these areas. That night, the Russians completely occupied Dresden, which had been reduced to rubble by American and British air strikes.

The 4th Guards Tank Army and the 13th Guards Army also made breakthroughs in the Krushnye Mountains area. With the support of 3000 Soviet Air Force aircraft, they broke through the German defense line and advanced 40 kilometers southward, leaving 70 kilometers away from Prague. .

On this day, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Scherner, received representatives of the Wehrmacht High Command at the headquarters. The latter brought Dönitz's order, asking him to lead the troops to surrender and perform his final duty: organize the troops to lay down their weapons, and then handed over to the Allies.

Schörner refused the order, then abandoned his 60 troops and left his headquarters by plane for the Alps. When saying goodbye to the members of the headquarters, he claimed that he had forged irreparable hatred with the Soviets on the Eastern Front battlefield and that he could not fall into the hands of the Soviets.

Since taking over Army Group South at the end of March 1944, Scherner has successively served as commander of Army Group South Ukraine, Army Group North, Army Group Courland and Army Group Center.

His first appearance was in the Battle of Crimea in April 1944. The German 4th Army was almost completely wiped out in this battle. Subsequently, he won the trust of Uncle Hitler with his tough style and became Hitler's most trusted general in the last year after the war. However, at the end of his military career, he did not choose to uphold the honor of the military and fled, leaving his troops behind.

Soon, he surrendered to the US military. At the end of May, at the request of the Bear, Scherner was extradited to the Soviet Union and subsequently imprisoned. In 5, Schörner was sentenced to 1952 years in prison. In 25, he was sent to East Berlin and soon returned to Munich. There he was sentenced to four years in prison for committing the crime of shooting soldiers during the war.

(End of this chapter)