Hitler's Last Army - Ninth Army Breakout 1945

[Music] the german ninth army had found itself in an increasingly desperate situation during the opening moves of the battle of berlin on the 16th of april 1945 three powerful soviet fronts attacked across the order niza line east of berlin by the 20th of april soviet forces had pierced the german defenses in two places and moving quickly soviet armoured and infantry forces had begun to surround beleaguered berlin the main soviet breakthrough was north of the town of custrin on the oldest west bank an ever widening gap grew between the ninth army and the nearby fourth panzer army and within two days the red army controlled the area south of frankfurt under order general theodore busa's ninth army was pushed back towards the south of berlin hitler's holdfast order exposed the ninth army to encirclement and ignoring hitler's order colonel general gotthard heinrichy who commanded army group vistula which contained the ninth army and the fourth panzer army issued orders to busa to pull his army back and withdraw westwards but by this time it was too late to the north of berlin the only real defense was ss obergruppenfuhrer felix steiner's third ss panzer corps which itself was in a poor under strength and combat worn condition by the afternoon of the 20th of april hitler's last birthday soviet tanks had reached berlin's outskirts hitler appeared in public for the final time that afternoon when he laboriously climbed the steps from his bunker to decorate hitler youths in the reich chancellery garden and receive birthday greetings from the other nazi leaders at the door to the winter garden before returning to his subterranean lair his focus now became the relief of berlin this was now urgent as by the morning of the 21st of april central berlin was under long-range soviet artillery fire working off the situation map in his bunker hitler ordered steiner to launch a counter-attack from the northeast of the city the same time busa's ninth army to the south was ordered to reorganize itself and establish a defensive line from the towns of koenig's woosterhausen to cottbus then the ninth was to attack marshall cognev's armoured spearheads cut them off and destroy them on paper these german armies looked impressive but in reality they were short of supplies ammunition tanks and above all combat experienced personnel many of the divisions having been bled white by constant combat their ranks refilled with men from many sources including teenagers convalescence luftwaffe ground crews and the smashed up remnants of former divisions ss obergruppenfuhrer steiner commanding the third ss panzerkaw informed hitler that his forces were too weak to conduct such an operation against so formidable an opponent but he was ignored colonel general heinrichy told hitler that far from attacking the ninth needed to withdraw immediately or be enveloped by the soviet tidal wave and destroy it heinrichy told hitler the due to strong soviet forces between it and berlin the ninth army could not reach the city to bolster its defenses it must instead fall back west all of this fell on deaf ears concerning hitler on the 22nd of april hitler had what amounted to a nervous breakdown at the afternoon situation conference in his bunker beneath the reich chancery when he was informed that steiner had not made his attack in order to raise hitler's spirits colonel general alfred yodel the wehrmacht chief of staff told him that general venk's 12th army facing the americans on the elba river west of berlin could be turned around and used to relieve the ninth army together they could then relieve berlin in my recent video on weng's failed attempts to reach the ninth army link in the end screen i outlined how venk disregarded hitler's insane order and instead tried to create an escape corridor for the surrounded ninth army through soviet lines to the 12th army's positions and thence on to the us lines on the elba river from the ninth army's perspective their best chance of avoiding soviet captivity was to break out west towards the 12th army to this end busa ordered the creation of battle groups to try and punch west through the strong soviet forces at this time the ninth army numbered about eighty thousand men from four main units the eleventh ss panzer corps the fifth ss mountain corps the fifth corps and the frankfurt under order garrison there were only about 79 tanks remaining operational the strongest units were the divisions of the 11th ss panzer corps with about 36 tanks included in this number were 14 powerful tiger twos the 502nd heavy ss panzer battalion soviet forces facing the ninth army numbered some 280 000 men and 280 tanks and self-propelled guns plus massive artillery and air support the ninth army faced being battered to pieces in its pocket or being destroyed trying to break out west to the americans general busser chose the latter option as it was at least giving his men some chance of avoiding soviet captivity general venk's 12th army attack commenced on the 25th of april and managed to push ford to the town of baylitz holding on to german positions close to potsdam general buses problem was that his rear guard was in constant contact with the enemy making withdrawal difficult he would have to fight front and rear as the ninth armies slowly moved west the ninth army was also critically short of food and importantly fuel for its remaining panzers and vehicles usa planned to use his remaining armor to punch through the rear of the soviet marshal kanyev's powerful force that was attacking berlin the artillery had sufficient ammunition for one final barrage then the guns would be spiked the ninth army held positions in an area of lakes and gloomy pine forest southwest of firstenvalder encircled by both cognaev's first ukrainian front and marshall zhukov's first belarusian front the only viable route for buses army was to cross the berlin to dresden autobahn south of the lakes at toy pits on the 25th of april kanyev rushed reinforcements in to block this obvious route occupying the forest but the soviet line was not consistent a gap existed near the town of barut the first ninth army breakout attempt was timed to coincide with the 12th army's offensive east on the evening of the 25th of april two battle groups attempted to break out towards the important road junction town of barrot kampfgruppe von luc consisting of the remains of the 21st panzer division down to a handful of panthers panzer fours and half tracks and kampf grouper pipcorn named for the commander of the 35th ss and police grenadier division part of this force managed to penetrate through the gap between the two soviet armies cross reichstrasse 96 and reach the bharut to sausan road which was one of the main supply routes for soviet forces fighting in berlin the soviet 50th and 96th guard's rifle divisions counter-attacked the german vanguard that managed to cross the autobahn was spotted by a luftwaffe fisa storch air reconnaissance aircraft and reported to the fura bunker hitler realized that busa was disregarding his orders and simply heading west some frantic signals were sent to order the ninth army to head for berlin but busa did not acknowledge receipt or reply on the 27th of april the ninth army resumed its attacks on two routes in the north a german kampf grouper pushed on from toipets while in the south another approached barroot the northern attack force smashed into the 54th guard's rifle division using what heavy tanks remained and captured the town of zeschamze evo managing to encircle part of the soviet 160th rifle regiment the southern thrust encircled the 291st guard's rifle regiment in radarland but the soviets held out in desperate street fighting until relieved ninth army losses were extremely heavy in the meantime the first breakout group that had managed to get across the autobahn on the 26th of april made it to the forest at kumasdorf which was designated the main rondovu point for all escaping 9th army groups the night of the 28th of april witnessed another strong german push to get out of the halber area a comf grouper got through the defensive positions of the 50th guard's rifle division but more soviet reinforcements constructed fresh defenses in the forest the soviets were trying to break the ninth army up into small pockets who could be more easily eliminated artillery and particularly air attack was relentless and devastating although exhausted and often lost the germans pressed on fearful of capture on the 28th and 29th of april heavy fighting took place at halber as the soviets sought to crush the germans holding it thousands died by the 29th of april most of the panzers had been destroyed or abandoned due to lack of fuel long lines of smashed or abandoned german transports and armored vehicles littered the forest roads and everywhere the corpses of german soldiers and civilians lay at least thirty thousand ninth army soldiers died in the hulber forest battles and an unknown number of civilians perhaps as many as ten thousand over twenty thousand red army soldiers were killed as well thousands more surrendered but against all the odds the german vanguard managed to link up with the twelfth army still holding on to its hard-won positions at baylids over a few days some 25 000 members of the ninth army and a few thousand civilians passed into the twelfth army sector and retreated with it to the elba river to surrender to the americans among them was general busa he was released in 1948 and became west germany's director of civil defense and the author of military history books he died in 1986 aged 88. thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below you

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,551,863

Rating: 4.945785 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Ninth Army, Theodor Busse, Battle of Halbe, Battle of Berlin, Felix Steiner

Id: rPCWO-wZaLo

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020