The Battle of the Seelow Heights was part of the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation during 16th April and 2nd May 1945. It was an assault between Soviet soldiers of the 1st Belorussian Front and German 9th Army. The fighting took place on the horseshoe-shaped plateau of the Seelow Heights.
At 3:00 AM on April 16, Marshal Georgy Zhukov commenced a massive bombardment of the German positions using artillery and Katyusha rockets. The bulk of this struck the first German defensive line in front of the heights.
The German 9th Army under General Theodor Busse was positioned in the Oder Marsh, about 90 km east from Berlin. Russian armored columns pierced the German lines and raced west, leaving follow-on forces to execute mop-up operations. Soviet armor averaged 25 miles a day, and Soviet infantry nearly 18 miles a day. Pockets of Germans fought desperately as they began a general retreat toward the Oder River.
Because the German troops seemed to offer little resistance, Zhukov launched an attack which, however, met with little success. The 143 antiaircraft defense searchlights placed in the front lines in order to blind the enemy, caused disorientation among his own troops instead.
Things started to go wrong for the Soviets – the debris and smoke from the massive bombardment meant that the glare of the 140-plus searchlights, intended to blind the Germans, was reflected and blinded the attackers, as well as turning them into easy targets, silhouetted against the light. The intensity of German defensive fire took the Soviet troops by surprise.
The Soviets sustained over 30,000 killed as well as lost 743 tanks and self-propelled guns. German losses numbered around 12,000 killed. Though a heroic stand, the defeat effectively eliminated the last organized German defenses between the Soviets and Berlin.
Battle of the Seelow Heights 1945
