Battle at Kielce 1945

[boomschors]

I'm spending two weeks of my summer vacation in the Kielce area and I would like to visit some ww2-related places.
Is it treu that the battle at Kielce (South-east poland) was the longest tank battle of ww2? And if so, why isnt there any information about this tank battle on internet?

Regards

Kaj

[Auseklis]

You should try to get a copy of:
Wydawnictwo Militaria - 189 - Kielce 1945

It contains a lot of usefull information for your trip.

[Benoit Douville]

Here is some info about the Battle Of Kielce:

It was between the German 4th Panzer Army and the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front in January 1945.

The Soviet tank units were in action against the 168th Infantry Division and 51st Panzer Battalion with its own tanks, all of the German tactical reserve. By the the evening of 12 January 1945 Koniev's tank and infantry formations had broken through Fourth Panzer Army's defenses to a depth of over twelve miles along a 25-mile front, with Lelyushenko tanks at least twenty miles into the German positions though now about to collide with Nehring's XXIV Panzer Corps aimed at the Soviet Northern flank. In 36 hours of heavy fighting, which brought over two hundred German tanks and assault guns into action, Lelyushenko and Pukhov drove top the river Nida on a broad front, while Rybalko's 3rf Guards tank Army with two infantry armies held off more German counter-attacks in the area of Chmielnik.With three Soviet armies closing on Kielce 4th and 3rd Guard Tank Armies, the fate of XXIV Panzer Corps was sealed, trapped as it was to the south of Czarna Nida. Lelyushenko outflanked Kielce from the west in a drive across the Nida, Soviet infantry fought a final fierce Battle for Kielce, losing it briefly to Panzer troops who were eventually destroyed. Hitler ordered the Gross Deutschland Panzer Corps from East Prussia to Lodz in order to stiffen the defence of Kielce but Kielce had already fallen to the Soviets!

Source: The Road to Berlin by John Erikson

Regards

[donwhite]

I think the 51st Pz Abt is a misprint/typo in Erickson's book (It appears in my copy as well!) and probably should read 501st sPz.Abt (actually Renamed sPz.Abt.424). Assuming I'm correct, there is a fair bit on the web about the ambush & near destruction of the 501st as it tried to make its way back to German Lines along with the rest of XXIV Pz Korps who faired better.

Cheers

[boomschors]

Thanks for the tip and information.

[frontowik]

Well, there is many information about tank battle at Staszów and the Soviet bridgehead at Baranów-Sandomierz, but in polish and russian mostly.

At the start about summer 1944:

Some information in english:
http://www.battlefield.ru/content/view/167/lang,en/
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/articles/tigertam.htm

In polish:
About liberation city of Mielec:
http://www.tmzm.mielec.pl/m3KA_63RwyzMiel.htm

About bridgehead at Baranów:
http://www.dws.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=2&p=1325100 (many useful information with links)
http://www.odkrywca.pl/przyczolek-baran ... 19476.html

Some interesting photos:
http://www.odkrywca-online.com/przyczol ... 34068.html
http://www.odkrywca-online.pl/tygrysy-w ... 16644.html

In russian:
http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/071/877.htm
http://velikvoy.narod.ru/karta/strateg_oper.htm (interesting russian maps)

And now January 1945 and Soviet Vistula-Oder operation:

Very good and detailed maps of frontline in January 1945 at Baranów-Sandomierz bridgehead:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/ ... 1UF_Poland

The city occupants’ memories about liberation of Kielce (in polish):
http://www.slowoludu.com.pl/gazeta/codz ... I/15/7.pdf

Units of Red Army which were involved in “liberation” of Kielce:

3 гв. А - 389 сд (генерал-майор Колобов Леонид Александрович) 76 ск (генерал-лейтенант Глухов Михаил Иванович); 150 тбр (полковник Пушкарев Сергей Филиппович); 13 адп (генерал-майор арт. Кофанов Владимир Иванович) в составе: 88 тгабр (подполковник Шилов Алексей Кузьмич), 91 тгабр (генерал-майор арт. Сонин Сергей Давыдович).
13 А -102 ск (генерал-майор Пузиков Иван Михайлович) в составе: 172 сд (генерал-майор Краснов Анатолий Андреевич), часть сил 121 гв. сд (генерал-майор Червоний Логвин Данилович); 26 отд. гв. ттп (подполковник Саенко Свирид Назарович), 372 гв. сап (подполковник Иванов Серафим Михайлович); 1 гв. адп (генерал-майор арт. Хусид Виктор Борисович) в составе: 3 гв. лабр (полковник Жагала Виктор Макарьевич), 98 тгабр (подполковник Пурин Павел Павлович); 16 тминбр (полковник Сальцин Иван Петрович).
2 ВА - 208 нббад (полковник Юзеев Леонид Николаевич); часть сил 8 гв. бад (полковник Грибакин Гурий Васильевич) 6 гв. бак (генерал-майор авц. Полбин Иван Семенович); часть сил 219 бад (полковник Анисимов Петр Николаевич) 4 бак (генерал-майор авц. Архангельский Петр Петрович).

Приказом ВГК присвоено наименование Келецких: 329 сд (полковник Шикита Александр Андреевич), 389 сд, 340 гв. сп (подполковник Яковлев Василий Федорович), 747 сп (подполковник Помазов Иван Фомич); 62 гв. тбр (полковник Денисов Сергей Алексеевич), 29 отд. тп (майор Грачев Михаил Иванович), 88 отд. тп (майор Черных Федор Гаврилович), 91 отд. итп, 938 сап (подполковник Федоров Петр Александрович), 262 гв. тсап (подполковник Щербаков Дмитрий Афанасьевич), 1451 сап (подполковник Любарь Степан Калинович), 16 тминбр, 200 отд. лабр (полковник Козубенко Иван Николаевич), 134 ап (подполковник Богданов Сергей Васильевич), 200 гв. лап (майор Пащенко Александр Терентьевич), 556 гап (подполковник Нотариус Наум Юрьевич), 1034 ап (майор Косянчук Алексей Максимович), 240 минп (подполковник Яшагин Иван Федорович), 2003 зенап (майор Киваев Матвей Семенович), 2007 зенап (подполковник Ашкеров Василий Павлович), 47 обро (майор Кучеренко Андрей Григорьевич), 48 исб (майор Лазебников Семен Игнатьевич), 107 отд. мшисб (майор Блинников Сергей Александрович), 240 отд. исб (подполковник Артеев Михаил Павлович), 125 опс (подполковник Каврус Виктор Михайлович), 167 олбс (майор Нехорошев Павел Петрович), 445 олбс (майор Алексеев Федор Сазонович), 2 отд. полку специальной службы (полковник Покровский Василий Яковлевич).

Войскам, участвовавшим в боях за освобождение Кельце, приказом ВГК от 15 января 1945 г. объявлена благодарность и в Москве дан салют 20 артиллерийскими залпами из 224 орудий.

source: http://www.soldat.ru/spravka/freedom/9-poland.html

At the end here is solution for trouble with polish (good polish-english and english-polish translator):
http://www.translatica.pl/

Good luck.

[boomschors]

Frontowik, great info and links!

[perrya]

Are there any maps showing the bulge at Stazow on Aug 12 1944? I have some of the russian ones showing the battle with the 501 T, 16 Pz, but they do not show what other forces were nearby to this battle.

Even had the german attack been a success, would it had made a difference?

Perry

[tigre]

Hello to all ; an old thread but................

Battle of Staszow - Aug 1944.

Some sketches from the Russian side.

Source: Lwy Stalina. Militaria 272. A. Smirnov. Warszawa 2007.

Cheers. Raúl M .