Product Description

By January 1945, Silesia had become Germany's key industrial region. When the Soviets launched offensives aimed at capturing it, the German defence was bitter, and the Soviet reactions brutal. This is an account of the events from the Soviet offensive through to the final German defensive actions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #755274 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-13
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: German
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Excerpted from Last Laurels: The German Defence of Upper Silesia, January-May 1945 by George Gunter. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From Ch 19
From Turawa, the thin defensive line of the forces gathered together under the command of General Hartmann’s VIII Corps spanned the area to the east of Oppeln, in a semicircle that ran through the extensive wooded districts, on the once sleepily flowing beautiful Malapane. The area covered Forst Turawa, Forst Föhrendorf, Forst Schönhorst, Grafenweiler Forst, Hochwalder Forst, as far as Gross-Strehlitz. Between Turawa and the village of Malapane, by the Malapane reservoir, the point units of the Soviet attack felt their way forwards against the outer defensive ring that faced Oppeln. Here, the Soviet tanks had no prospect of an easy ride to the Oder. The way to Oppeln would be marked by numerous wrecks of shot-up T-34s. Inhabitants of Malapane, who wanted to flee, were bitterly disappointed and in despair when the expected transport train did not turn up. "Well that’s war," was the cynical comment of the National Socialist Ortsgruppenleiter.

The defenders of Gross-Strehlitz consisted of a weak contingent of regular troops, Volkssturm and Hitler Youth, who had not been able to hold out long against the superior enemy, and had been overrun. Treating them like game, the soldiers moving in hunted down women. Whoever tried to oppose, or resist the brute force, was shot or killed in short order. This also happened to senior priest Pastor Lange, as he placed himself protectively in front of a group of women and girls. He was not the only clergyman who was killed in Gross-Strehlitz. Houses were going up in flames. In Niedersteine, 5 kilometres to the south-east, on the important trunk road no.5 to Breslau-Oppeln-Beuthen, the arrival of the Soviets surprised the population. Up to the late evening of 21 January, the Soviets were broadening their advance from there, by at least another 5 kilometres, in the direction of the Oder at Cosel-Ratibor. To the right, a short distance away, was the Annaberg, Upper Silesia’s holy mountain. This was an old place of pilgrimage for the devout, with an imposing Freikorps memorial, and with blood-soaked ground from the time of the resistance against the Korfanty terror. In Cosel there had been an overpowering sense of alarm from late afternoon.

In the area between Gross-Strehlitz-Tost and Tarnowitz, the Soviets had gained relatively little ground compared with the previous day. The courageous and desperate defence of the overstrained German combat units was still having its effect on the eastern flank, and also directly on the northern periphery of the industrial district. There, the Soviets, suffering considerable casualties, were either stalled or only advancing slowly. But they could increase their pressure from hour to hour by bringing up fresh forces and could eventually bring the arc of the German defence to breaking point. The Germans, until then, were still vainly hoping that at least 20th Panzer Division would arrive.

The village of Zyglin in the north-eastern part of the Tarnowitz Kreis, like the adjacent Georgenberg surrounded by large wooded areas, was occupied by 200 Soviet infantry. 8 German Luftwaffe troops who had been taken prisoner fell victim to the bloodlust of the enemy by the cemetery wall. Randsdorf, on trunk road no.5, west of Beuthen, had not been evacuated according to plan, "although there was sufficient time to have done so." During the night, before the Soviets moved in on 21 January 1945, the mayor and Party leaders of the municipality had secretly made off. In neighbouring Stillersfeld, in spite of being warned in time, only ten percent of the inhabitants could bring themselves to flee. The remaining ninety percent were relying on the hope "that it couldn’t be so bad."

Customer Reviews

Last Laurels: The German Defence of Upper Silesia, January-M
This Book is an essential read for anyone with an interest in the Eastern Front. Although heavy on the hopelessness and horrific nature of war and its impact on civilian life, it is still an excellent narrative of the heavy defensive fighting carried out by the Germans at this time. The extraodrinary bravery shown by the german 'tommy' defending his homeland against the miught of the inevitable Russian juggernaught an outstanding read please may we have more books of this nature on little discussed areas of history.