Eastern Front · Soviet Union vs Germany
Prague Offensive
6 May 1945 – 11 May 1945
The last major European operation of the war. Three Soviet fronts converged on Army Group Centre in Bohemia, which was still fighting after Berlin's fall, while Prague rose against the occupiers. Nearly 900,000 German troops surrendered, with the final actions on 11 May.
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Day by day
— Down from Saxony
Prague has been in revolt since the 5th, with barricades in the streets and the Czech National Council broadcasting appeals for help. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front turns south out of Saxony to come over the Ore Mountains behind Army Group Centre, which is still fighting although Berlin has fallen. The Americans reach Pilsen the same day and stop there on the agreed demarcation line.
— The ceasefire
Dresden falls and the tank armies are through the mountain passes. In Prague the German commander agrees a ceasefire with the National Council that afternoon: the barricades are opened and his troops are allowed to march away west towards the Americans. The general surrender is signed at Karlshorst that night, and Schorner tells his men to fight on and go west.
— Into Prague
The leading tanks of the 4th Guards Tank Army reach the northern edge of Prague at about 04:00 and are through the city by the middle of the morning, with Konev's other armies and the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts closing in behind Army Group Centre. Some 30,000 Germans and about 3,000 Czechs died in the five days of the rising. The great mass of German troops is now south of Prague, walking west.
— Slivice
The last organised German force in Europe, a mixed SS and Wehrmacht column halted near Slivice by Pribram, is shelled through the night of the 11th by Soviet guns and Czech partisans, with American artillery watching from the demarcation line, and gives in at dawn. Army Group Centre gives up about 860,000 men. The fighting in Europe is over.
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