Warszawa II by Norbert Bacyk Page B

afternoon, which is to say, until a couple of hours after the city had been deserted by the most vital German forces, which coincidently included the very units that had earlier been earmarked for pacifying an eventual uprising. The commander for the Warsaw region, General Stahel, was forced to go on the defensive and, as late as August 4, the Home Army still retained the initiative. The fighting that burst out in Warsaw also made it more difficult for the division “Hermann Göring” to reach the front. This was particularly the case for Fallschirm-Pz. Gren. Rgt. 2 “Hermann Göring” which had not been involved in the fighting in Praga. However, it should be pointed out that the two, model PzKpfw V “Panther” tanks, which were captured on August 2 by insurgents in the city quarter of Woła, had not hailed from “Hermann Göring” but, instead, came from the 1st Company, I Panzer-Regiment 27. On August 2, this “Herman Göring” unit fought with all the strength at its disposal in Praga’s environs and, as earlier noted, had no access to tanks of this model. The Uprising also obstructed the 19th Panzer-Division from carrying out a complete troop consolidation. Namely, it was isolated from its main force which was en route from Holland. The resulting outcome was that the artillery reinforced II Panzer-grenadier-Regiment 73 had to make a detour south around the whole of Warsaw and, on August 1, found themselves in the Wilanów district.
    Finally, in the fields outside of Praga, the tank battle reached its culmination. On August 1, a part of the 19th Panzer-Division (Gruppe “Baler”) circled around the Soviet positions outside of Radzymin, and then detoured north through Wysków, Serock and Zegrze along the Bug and Narew Rivers. After having joined together part of the II Panzer-Regiment 27, the I Panzer-grenadier Regiment 74, and the I Battery plus
some smaller divisional formations in the forest adjacent to Nieporęt, the resulting force then went on the attack against Aleksandrów via Wólka Radzymińska. At the same time, the Fallschirm-Pz. Gren. Rgt. 1 “Hermann Göring” made use of the powerful support provided by the division’s artillery and tanks (the II Battalion and commandeered Tiger-tanks from the III Battalion arriving from the south) and fought their way from Marki towards Struga. Despite the heavy opposition put up by soldiers from the 50th Tank Brigade, destroying at least ten German tanks, both attacks succeeded. The 19th Panzer-Division seized Aleksandrów and the Luftwaffe grenadiers took Struga. Soviet troops were also forced to abandon the village of Słupno, retreating with heavy casualties toward the inner defensive line surrounding Radzymin. The southern Kampfgruppe, the 19th Panzer-Division (Pz. Gren. Rgt. – I 73rd , II 174th, II Artillery-Regiment), regrouped in the morning at Wesoła, west of the capital, and from there launched an attack against the troop forces defending Okuniew, drawn from the 60th Tank Guards Brigade and the 8th Tank Guards Corps. This counter attack was also crowned with success. Having captured Okuniew; the Germans switched to a defensive war posture while awaiting the arrival of tanks from the Waffen-SS scheduled to arrive from the east.
    4:e Panzer-Divisions armament, August 1st 1944 Model:
TYPE
PzKpfw V “Panther”
58 (40)
PzKpfw IV
83 (45)
PzBfWg III
5 (3)
Panzerjäger IV
12
“Marder” III
10
“Grille”
9
“Wespe”
6
“Hummel”
6?
Sd Kfz 250/251/253
311 (237)
Armoured cars
?
Pak 40 AT-guns
7
|e|G infantry guns
10
leFH 18/sFH 18/K 18 guns and howitzers
38?
sGrWr 34 (8 cm) mortars
26
sGrWr 42 (12 cm) mortars
12
FLAK 36 (37 mm) AA-guns
8
FLAK 18/36 (8.8 cm) AA-guns
8
Machine guns
718
Soldiers
12,700
    On August 1, both Waffen-SS divisions drove round Stanisławów, while simultaneously covering the 5th SS-Panzer-Division