Free Warszawa II by Norbert Bacyk Page A

ten days in August 1944. (MWP)
    A command vehicle PzBfWg V “Panther” Sd Kfz 267 from the Company Staff’s Panzer-Regiment 35. The picture is probably taken during fighting in the vicinity of Radzymin during the first ten days of August 1944. (MWP)
    On the morning of August 4, General von Vormann informed General Field Marshal Model that the 3rd Tank Corps had been destroyed, although it actually had not been completely neutralised. The commander of Heeresgruppe “Mitte” made a mistake here caused by the successive and, for every passing day, increasingly serious crisis emerging outside Magnuszew. At this point in time, the most vital concern for Model was the 8th Guards Army’s attack on his frontline troops. On August 3, the enemy had namely concentrated nearly nine rifle divisions, a tank brigade, plus two “assault-gun and tracked-artillery” regiments on the German forces. He then gave the order that the combat forces in Gruppe “von Saucken” be divided into two independent combat forces. A portion of the 19th Panzer-Division, together with “Hermann Göring,” would cross over the Wisła at Pilica while two Waffen-SS panser divisions would guarantee that stability was maintained in moving towards Praga. The 4thPanzer-Division was also to be withdrawn.
    A tank, model PzKpfw V Sd Kfz 171 “Panther” Ausf. G, from the I Panzer-Regiment 35, August 1944. (MWP)
    A tank, model PzKpfw V Sd Kfz 171 “Panther” (“800”), belonging to the commander of the 8th SS-Panzer-Regiment 5 “Wiking,” SS-Obersturmführer Karl Nicolussi Leck, Radzymin region August 1944. (ADM)
    A Soviet 8.2 cm calibre mortar, model 1938, in the vicinity of Warsaw, August 1944. (WAF)

    A Tiger tank under repair, serial nr. “912” from the 9th SS-Panzer-Regiment 3 “Totenkopf”, the Slupno region, August 1944. (Bundes-Archive)
    This order began to be implemented almost immediately after it had been given. Fallschirm-Pz. Gren. Rgt. 2 “Hermann Göring” – which had only just now completed its consolidation and had not participated in the fighting in Praga – was sent towards the frontline troops. A panzer grenadier battalion from the Panzer-grenadier-Regiment 74, supported by a column of PzKpfw IV tanks, left on the same day through a Warsaw in violent revolt. The Germans’ objective was to makes their way into the city, in which they were only partly successful and only at a heavy cost of lives.
    The rest of General Källner’s division and the “Hermann Göring” left the battlefield a short while later. General von Vormann decided to continue pursuing the battle outside Praga until at least August 5. In this way, he could capitalize on the successes he had thus far achieved, thanks to the formidable consolidation of combat strength. On August 4, an attack was launched from the Wołomin area in a southerly direction against a Kampfgruppe from the 19th Panzer-Division and “Hermann Göring.” The Germans attacked the 8th Tank Guards Corps’ position (60th Tank Guards Brigade, 59th Tank Guards Brigade, and the 28th Mechanised Guards Brigade) outside of Okuniew along both banks of the Długas River. In carrying out this attack they sought to drive yet another Soviet tank corps away from the suburbs of Praga. The difficult terrain and the strong defences hindered the attack. The I Panzer-Regiment 35 and the II Panzergrenadier-Regiment 12, for example, could not force a break in the 59th Tank Guards Brigade’s position in the area around Zabraniec, though they spent an entire day in the attempt. At this same time-point, troops from the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf ” began an offensive against Okuniew from the east through Pustelnik and Michałów. This attack, despite some initial success outside Michałów, was also bloodily thrown back. The battles conducted by Becker’s