In January 1945, the Red Army unleashed its long-awaited thrust into
Germany with terrible fury. One by
one the provinces and great cities of the German East were captured by the
Soviet troops. Breslau, capital of Silesia, a city of 600,000 people stood firm
and was declared a fortress by Hitler. A bitter struggle raged as the Red Army
encircled Breslau, then tried to pummel it into
submission while the city’s Nazi leadership used brutal methods to keep the
scratch German troops fighting and maintain order. Aided by supplies flown in
nightly and building improvised weapons from torpedoes mounted on trolleys to an
armoured train, the men of Fortress Breslau held out against superior Soviet
forces for three months. The price was fearful. By the time Breslau surrendered
on 6th May 1945, four days after Berlin had fallen, 25,000 soldiers and
civilians were dead, the city a wasteland. Breslau was pillaged, its women raped
and every German inhabitant driven out of the city which became Wroclaw in post-war Poland. Based on
official documents, newspapers, letters, diaries and personal testimonies, this
is the bitter story of Hitler’s Final Fortress.
