User:HełmPolski/sandbox2

Fighting in the region of Tichau
Part of the Vistula–Oder offensive in the Eastern Front of the European theatre of World War II
Date 26-29 January 1945 Location Region of Tichau (German-occupied Tychy), Upper Silesia Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union	Germany
Commanders and leaders
Ivan Konev	Ferdinand Schörner
Units involved
1st Ukrainian Front Soviet Air Forces	Army Group Centre 97th Jäger Division 671st Grenadier Regiment
Casualties and losses
600	2000

On January 12th 1945 Soviet forces launched the Vistula–Oder offensive; troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under Ivan Konev's command rapidly approached Silesia, launching Operation Golden Gates to secure the industrial Dąbrowa Basin and the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. German forces in Upper Silesia retreated along two main axes: to Tichau (German-occupied Tychy) and to Nikolai (German-occupied Mikołów).

Consequently, heavy fighting broke out in the region of Tichau. The heaviest fighting took place between the 26th and 28th of January at Czulow (Polish: Czułów), situated north of Tichau. Fighting in the region concluded with the Soviet capture of Tichau on the 29th of January.

German Preparations

Mass mobilization in Tichau

As a result of heavy casualties suffered in 1943 and the beginning of 1944, Germany doubled down on military recruitment in Tichau - 19- and 18-year-olds were unconditionally conscripted into the Wehrmacht.

Furthermore, a Volkssturm unit was raised in Tichau. This unit however played no significant role during the fighting that would break out around Tichau in January 1945.

Death March through Tichau

On the 17th of January 1944 Nazi Germany initiated the liquidation-process of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which concluded on the 21st of January with the relocation of roughly 56 thousand inmates. Many inmates passed through Tichau on the route Auschwitz-Tichau-Gleiwitz during their death march.

On the 22nd of September that same year, the last public execution in the Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz took place, when 5 inmates of KL Auschwitz were executed under the directive of mayor Herbert Reimann, accused of involvement in the resistance.
The execution took place next to the old post office in Tichau, on Adolf Hitler Strasse (present-day Kościuszko Street), and was carried out with the approval of the chief of the police in Kattowitz and the commandant of KL Auschwitz.

Red Army marches towards Tichau

On the 25th of January the Soviet Air Forces launched a bombing raid on Tichau, hitting the train station on the present day Katowice Street. On the night of the 26/27 January German administrators, NSDAP party members and I and II class Volksdeutsche fled Tichau towards Pleß, some reportedly on bicycles.

Soviet forces approached Tichau from two directions: From Emanuelssegen in the north (present-day district of Katowice) and from Berun in the south-east. On the 27th of January Hitler was notified by General Heinz Guderian that Soviet forces were approaching Tichau.