The Last German WWII Attack - Operation Potsdam 1945

[Music] the last german offensive of world war ii was fought not to conquer territory or even to defeat an enemy but in order to save lives the curious operation came about from the terrible battle of berlin the final important battle on the eastern front between germany and the soviet union but before we get into that a quick word from our sponsor call of war world war ii is a free online strategy game that gathers millions of players worldwide you fight up to 99 other players in real time games that can take weeks to complete the game features world war ii historically accurate maps and units that allows you to create your own path and rewrite history call of war world war ii is fully cross-platform your objective is to take over the world define your own strategy build powerful armies by combining dozens of different unit types and fight for world domination i've set up a special game of call of war for the first viewers click the link in the description go to the website or app type my name in the search bar and enter the password mark felton and mark felton productions viewers are getting a special gift click on the link below to get 13 000 gold and 1 month of premium subscription for free the offer is available for only 30 days so click the link in the description choose a country and fight your way to victory in epic real-time battles on the 16th of april 1945 the soviets had launched their final operation to capture hitler's capital in three days of extremely heavy fighting the red army taking huge casualties and losing hundreds of tanks smashed through the last significant german defensive positions before berlin on the salo heights east of the city the shattered german units fell back into the city itself or became progressively trapped in pockets like the ninth army as soviet forces fought to encircle the city before fighting through to its center adolf hitler decided to stay put and took charge of directing the defense of the city he desperately searched around for some way to break the soviet encirclement which would soon be complete and save the situation by counter-attacking hitler noticed that the 12th army was still in position to the west of berlin its mission to guard the line of the elba river to prevent an american advance on the german capital hitler ordered that the 12th army ignore the americans who it was thought would not advance much further and fight through the soviets to reach the encircled ninth army then together the two armies would relieve berlin and save hitler field marshal wilhelm keitel the head of the german army visited the headquarters of the 12th army at altahurla 37 miles east of magdeburg to brief its commander general walter venk on what needed to be done kaitel came straight to the point of the meeting at midnight on the 22nd of april liberate berlin kaitlyn exclaimed turn your available forces and link up with the ninth army get the fuhrer out venk you're the only one who can save germany if hitler and caitl thought that venk would blindly follow such an illogical order they had picked the wrong man venk told kaitl what he wanted to hear and once the field marshall had left venk called his chief of staff colonel gunter reichelm to a meeting relieving berlin was a hopeless task said venk the 12th army was too weak however here's how we will actually do it outline venk over the situation map we will drive as close to berlin as we can but we will not give up our positions on the elba with our flanks on the river we keep open a channel of escape to the west it would be nonsense to drive towards berlin only to be encircled by the russians we will try to link up with the ninth army then let's get out every soldier and civilian who can make it west part of that operation would be a drive on potsdam whose twenty thousand man garrison was surrounded but still holding out venk ordered that a thin line of outposts be left facing the largely immobile americans while what strength remained was flung against the still disorganized soviets whose vanguard forces were beginning to solidify into a ring of steel around berlin if the 12th army could capture potsdam it might still link up with berlin itself and provide an escape route to the west at the same time the trapped 9th army would attempt to fight its way out of the pocket and join up with the 12th army and retreat west as well the 12th army's 20th corps would make the main thrust towards potsdam under the command of cavalry general carl eric curler for the final german offensive of world war ii curler deployed three new infantry divisions to make the assault these divisions all raised earlier in 1945 represented the late war german army perfectly each being a collection of under strength units and patched together regiments drawn from a variety of different sources on the attack's left flank was the ulrich vonheuten infantry division founded at wittenberg on the 30th of march from the staffs of the destroyed 56th infantry and 18th panzer grenadier divisions its regiments were drawn from another broken formation the 190th infantry division its armored support consisted of a dozen or so panzer jaegers or tank destroyers the ubiquitous hetzer which also equipped the panzer yega uptailungs of the other two 20th core divisions taking part in the offensive the division also had a few new waffentrager 88 millimeter tank destroyers and eight wheeled sdkf said 234 3 heavy reconnaissance armored cars the division was commanded by the experienced general leutenant gerhard engel holder of the knights cross with oak leaves in the centre of the attack was the scharnhorst infantry division it was made up of about 80 officer cadets trainee ncos and soldiers about to begin nco courses in the desau area the second tranche of personnel were former luftwaffe ground personnel and the combat hardened veterans of two shattered infantry divisions the 167th and 340th it also had some hetzers a few stug assault guns and some mobile flak cannons and was commanded by general leutenant heinous guts another knight's cross with oak leaves holder the offensive's right flank unit was a responsibility of the teodor kerner infantry division formed on the 4th of april 1945 at the doberitz military training area from combat experience survivors the 215th infantry division and some seven and a half thousand rad personnel the rad or reichs arbeitsteinst was a paramilitary labor service of the nazi party its personnel had already received some military training as part of their service in the rad and that they had then completed eight weeks basic infantry training with the army there were also officer cadets from derberits convalescents and soldiers on leave who could not reach their original units the teodor kerner division was under the command of general leutenant bruno frankevitz the assaults would be supported by ample artillery fire as venk had many supplied barges packed with ammunition supplies and food stranded in his area but how well these reconstituted forces would do against the battle-hardened red army was anyone's guess the offensive opened on the 24th of april when the teodor kerner division supported by what remained of the 243rd assault gun brigade launched an assault northeast out of the nemic area the attack preceded by a heavy artillery barrage [Music] due to heavy refugee congestion on all the roads leading west the largely infantry attack went cross-country the teodor kerner struck elements of the soviet fifth guard's mechanized corps which was not expecting such a strong even fanatical assault and the teodor kerner division managed to reach the outskirts of tujanbritsen 21 miles south of potsdam furious fighting raged around the town the germans managed to briefly recapture the town before being pushed back on the 25th of april the center force the scharnhorst division launched its assault in the most spectacular part of the offensive advancing on the baylets area the scharnhorst behaving more like the german army of 1941 during operation barbarossa caught the soviet sixth guard's mechanized core on an exposed flank and penetrated the soviet rear areas capturing complete red armor units including tank repair depots and supply convoys the movement created panic on the soviet side as the scharnhorst managed to push forward an astounding 11 miles into the soviet positions by late afternoon the division's reconnaissance element reached the health resort at heilstedton baylets only 15 miles from berlin and ejected occupying soviet troops the resort was being used as a huge field hospital and clinic containing over 3 000 german wounded soldiers and huge numbers of evacuated sick children from berlin for three days soviet troops had occupied the resort looting it and assaulting female staff the scharnhorst division secured the vicinity and plans were made to evacuate everyone west 50 miles to the elbe at barbie another furious battle developed around baylets as the soviets rushed in reinforcements to stop and then crushed the german attack [Music] on the left flank the ulrich von huten division advanced northeast of belzig towards potsdam it forced the soviets back some miles german attacks could get no further as heavy soviet air support began to pound the three divisions and heavy tank support broke the semi-encirclement to the town of troyan britson by the teodor kerner division although the german 20th corps was able to hold on to its positions for several days the strength and sheer weight of numbers of the soviet opponent ensured that they could not break through to potsdam or berlin at the same time the encircled ninth army tried to fight its way towards the twelfth army but that's a story that will be the subject of another video in the near future general venk abandoned the operation on the 28th of april 1945 two days before hitler's death in berlin reporting to the german high command that his entire army was being forced back no further attack towards berlin was possible the remnants of the 12th army retreated through the halber forest and trudged west to surrender to the americans at the elba river thanks for watching please subscribe and share and visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton details below you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,516,758

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, Battle of Berlin, Potsdam

Id: LHT2y4QKVMo

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020