Many of the officers in the Polish Army were Soviet officers of Polish descent. One of the major problems facing the People's Army was the lack of a qualified cadre a 1944 estimate showed that the army had one officer for each 1,200 soldiers. The quality of the officer corps has also been questioned. Many of them were new recruits inexperienced in combat, incorporated from the recently retaken Polish territories. The Polish Second Army consisted of five infantry divisions: ( 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, the 1st Armored Corps, and smaller units), about 84,000–90,000 men, and 500 tanks. The supply train of the 10th SS Panzer Division was also present near Bautzen. This force comprised some 50,000 soldiers, 300 tanks, and 600 guns. For the battle, the Germans had two armored divisions (the 20th and Hermann Göring), two mechanized divisions (the Brandenburg and Hermann Göring 2), an infantry division (the 17th) as well as an infantry division battle group (the remnants of the 545th Volksgrenadier Division). German forces were composed of elements of the 4th Panzer Army and commanded by the headquarters for the Grossdeutschland and 57th Armored Corps. The concentration of Schörner's units went unnoticed by Soviet and Polish reconnaissance. The Germans were pinning their hopes on the idea that the Soviets might be fended off long enough for the city to be surrendered to the Western Allies. His aim was to stop the 1st Front's advance and break through to Berlin to relieve the trapped 9th Army. Meanwhile, Schörner was concentrating his units (the "Görlitz Group") in the Görlitz (Zgorzelec) and Reichenbach region, and planned to launch a counteroffensive at the southern flank of the Polish Army. Świerczewski decided to prioritize the taking of Dresden over securing his southern flank, deviating from the plan he was given by Konev. The following day Soviet units of the 7th Mechanized Corps captured parts of Bautzen and secured the line south of Niesky, taking Weißenberg and trapping several German formations. On 18 and 19 April elements of the Second Army (the 8th Infantry Division and 1st Armored Corps) engaged the Germans in the south and pushed them back while the remaining units (5th, 7th, 9th and 10th infantry divisions) drove on to Dresden, gaining bridgeheads on the River Spree north of Bautzen and destroying German forces in the Muskauer Forst.
Their pursuit of retreating German forces toward Dresden threatened to cut off additional forces in the Muskauer Forst region.
On 17 April, the Polish Second Army breached German defenses on the rivers Weisser Schöps and Neisse. Opposing these forces was the 4th Panzer Army under General Fritz-Hubert Gräser, of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner's Army Group Center. Part of Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front, the Poles operated in the centre of the front, flanked on the right by the 5th Guards Army and on the left by the 7th Mechanized Corps. In the last months of World War II, the Polish Second Army, under General Karol Świerczewski, took part in the Soviet drive on Berlin. The German operation successfully recaptured Bautzen and its surroundings, which were held until the end of the war. Because the war was almost over and the battle had no strategic impact on the ongoing Battle of Berlin, German historiography has focused more on its tactical aspects. The Polish Second Army under Karol Świerczewski suffered heavy losses, but, with the aid of Soviet reinforcements, prevented the German forces from breaking through to their rear.Īfter the battle both sides claimed victory and modern views as to who won the battle remain contradictory. Major combat began on 21 April 1945 and continued until 26 April, although isolated engagements continued to take place until 30 April. The battle was fought in the town of Bautzen ( Polish: Budziszyn) and the rural areas to the northeast situated primarily along the Bautzen– Niesky line.
The battle took place during Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front's push toward Berlin, which was part of the larger Soviet Berlin Offensive. It was fought on the extreme southern flank of the Spremberg-Torgau Offensive, seeing days of pitched street fighting between forces of the Polish Second Army under elements of the Soviet 52nd Army and 5th Guards Army on one side and elements of German Army Group Center in the form of the remnants of the 4th Panzer and 17th armies on the other. The Battle of Bautzen (or Battle of Budziszyn, April 1945) was one of the last battles of the Eastern Front during World War II. Class=notpageimage| Location of the Battle of Bautzen
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