In 1943, the Allies had agreed that Austria would be treated as a victim of Nazi aggression, but the ensuing Cold War put Austria at the center of a new ideological power struggle in Europe. A period of general lawlessness followed until the situation began to improve as Allied troops from other nations arrived to begin the joint occupation of Vienna.Īustria fared marginally better than Germany in the immediate postwar world. In the wake of the city’s capture, large numbers of Soviet soldiers brutalized the population and looted the city. By April 13, the battle for Vienna was over. Unable to hold out any longer, the remaining German defenders retreated northwards. Meanwhile, the 3rd Ukrainian Front moved to outflank Vienna and rushed towards Linz and Graz. The German commanders struggled to retain control of their scattered units and officers resorted to holding isolated positions. Nearly a week of heavy street fighting ensued, which destroyed many of Vienna’s historic buildings and seriously damaged all but one of the city’s bridges over the Danube River. German forces were unable to delay the well-equipped Soviet forces and quickly retreated to the heart of the city. But as the Soviet assault on Vienna’s southern suburbs began, the German forces assembled to defend the city consisted of only the depleted II SS Panzer Corps, anti-aircraft units, Hitler Youth members, and convalescing soldiers. From Hitler’s bunker beneath Berlin, the German dictator issued orders to his commanders to hold Vienna at all costs. These attacks destroyed more than a fifth of the city’s housing, an estimated 80,000 apartments. On April 13, 1945, Soviet soldiers of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts completed their conquest of Vienna, the Austrian city where Hitler had spent six years before World War I as a starving artist.īy the time Soviet soldiers approached Vienna’s suburbs on April 3, 1945, the city had already endured over 50 Allied bombing raids in the course of the war.
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