Battle of the Dukla Pass

Battle of the Dukla Pass
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

A monument to the battle on the Slovak side of the Dukla Pass.
Date8 September – 28 October 1944
Location
Dukla Pass, present-day Slovakia-Poland border
49°25′3.425″N 21°41′57.736″E / 49.41761806°N 21.69937111°E / 49.41761806; 21.69937111
Result

Inconclusive

  • Soviet failure to join Slovak rebel troops
  • Eventual Axis withdrawal from the area
Belligerents
 Germany
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) Hungary
 Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany Gotthard Heinrici
Nazi Germany Harald von Hirschfeld  (DOW)
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) Béla Miklós (8–16 Sept 1944)
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946) Dezső László (16 Sept – 28 Oct 1944)
Soviet Union Ivan Konev
Soviet Union Andrei Grechko
Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko
Czechoslovakia Ludvík Svoboda
Strength
100,000 soldiers
2,000 artillery pieces
350 tanks
Soviet Union 378,000 men[1]
Czechoslovakia 16,700 men
1,517 artillery pieces
1,724 mortars
1,000 tanks
Casualties and losses
61,000
(Czech estimates)[2]
70,000
(modern Russian estimates)[3]
 Soviet Union:
10,060 killed
41,387 wounded
13,548 sick
1,806 missing[2]
(modern Czech estimates)
131,000[1]
(German historian Freiser)
 Czechoslovakia:
935 killed
4,518 wounded
756 missing[2]

The Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla, Carpatho–Dukla, Rzeszów–Dukla, or Dukla–Prešov offensive, was the battle for control over the Dukla Pass on the border between Poland and Slovakia on the Eastern Front of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September–October 1944. It was part of the Soviet East Carpathian strategic offensive that also included the Carpathian–Uzhgorod offensive. The operation's primary goal, to provide support for the Slovak rebellion, was not achieved, but it concluded the full liberation of the Ukrainian SSR.

The German resistance in the eastern Carpathian region was much stronger than expected. The battle which began on 8 September would not see the Soviet forces on the other side of the pass until 6 October, and German forces would stop their heavy resistance in the region only around 10 October. Five days to Prešov turned into fifty days to Svidník alone with over 70,000 casualties on both sides. Prešov that was to be reached in six days remained beyond the Czechoslovaks' grasp for four months.[4] The battle would be counted among the most bloody in the entire Eastern Front and the history of Slovakia;[5] one of the valleys in the pass, near the villages of Kapišová, Chyrowa, Iwla and Głojsce, would become known as the "Valley of Death".[6]

  1. ^ a b Frieser et al. 2007, p. 863.
  2. ^ a b c Jaroslav Hrbek, Vít Smetana, Vladimír Pilát a Petr Hofman: Draze zaplacená svoboda I, Paseka Praha 2009, str. 351
  3. ^ Великая Отечественная без грифа секретности. Книга потерь. – Москва., 2009, стр. 152
  4. ^ Vladimir Baumgarten, General Ludvik Svoboda: Commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps
  5. ^ Battle of the Dukla Pass Lecture
  6. ^ "The Carpatho-Dukla Operation". Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2008.