Figure 1.--Here two Hitler Youth boys inducted into the Whermabcht move down Bankowa street in Lubań (Lauban). They are armed with Panzerfausts (anti-tank weapons) and Mauser rifles. There was fierce fighting rgeiyghour Sikesia in the kast months of the War. Lauvan was sight of the last successful German operation of the warmm akbwut kastibg only briefly.

Silesia has been Polish territory until the Polish Partirions (18th century). Prussia and Austria fought over Silesia and Prussia got most of it. This province helped to make Prussia an important European power and a match for Austria in the stryggle for German unification. Silesia was resource rich and would be heavily industrailized. Much of the province was Germanized. By the end of 1944 the Red Arny was ready to attack into Silesia, conducting two separate Silesian Offensives (February and March 1945). This was in part to protedt thge flank of the principal Red Army effort--the drive on Berlin. The Selesian Offensives and the build up for the drive on Berlin delayed that offensuce by 2 months. The Lower Silesian Offensive was conducted (February 8-24, 1945), and the Upper Silesian Offensive (March 15-31). The Red Arny in driving the Germans our of Silesia eddectively precluded any attack on the flank of the forces preparing to attack Berlin. Soviet sources report that the Gerams expeienced 54,000 casualties, mostly men killed as a result of the stand and fight orders. [Korovnikov, Lebedev, and Polyakov] Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front after completing the Vistula–Oder Offensive was ordered westward toward Silesia with the expressed objective of protecting the left (southern) flank of the 1st Belorussian Front, which was making the war-winning advance poward Berlin. Two of the major battles in Silesia was the fight for Lauban and Breslau (now Wrocław). Lauban in Upper Silesia was the site of the last NAZI victory in World War II. The Red Army took the city (February 16). About the same time as Breslau. The Germans counterattacked and retook the city (March 8). [Wilczyński] Breslau in Lower Silesia was designated as a Fortress City andvthe firces there ordered to fight to the end abd they essentially did. It was the scene of a 3-month-long siege lasting to the end of the War (February 13 to May 6). There were other bitter fights in Silesia, but none as protracted as Breslau.

Sources

Korovnikov I.T., P.S. Lebedev P.S., and Ya. G. Polyakov On three fronts: The Combat Path of the 59th Army (1974).

Wilczyński, Arkadiusz. Lubań 1945: The Last Victory of the Third Reich (Lubań 1945: Ostatnie Zwycięstwo III Rzeszy)

Created: 10:24 PM 5/17/20202
Last updated: 10:25 PM 5/17/2020