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Two Sd Kfz 251/1’s ausf D very near the frontline. Note the soldier standing on the front of the first half-track, this was a common means of carrying out reconnaissance providing a view over the crown of a road. Both vehicles hail from the 19th Panzer-Division, August 1944 outside Warsaw. (Leandoer & Ekholm archive)

The 47th Army’s 77th and 129th Rifle Corps simultaneously attacked Wołomin from the east, and the village of Zabraniec which lay south of it. Defence of the village, which lay in ruins, was the responsibility of a combined unit composed of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf” and the 1131st Grenadier-Brigade, while the stretch of area to the south was manned by the Hungarian 1st Cavalry Division. The Germans took a pause from the fighting but, due to lack of modern weaponry, the Hungarians were beaten down and withdrew towards Zielonka and Rembertów. In an effort to save the situation, SS-Gruppenführer Herbert Gille supported the cavalry division with units from the 73rd Infantry-Division, effectively halting further Soviet successes. In the end, the front along the Wołomin — Dluga River — Okuniew line was temporarily stabilised.

The fighting that had taken place was extremely bloody. According to a report from the “War-diary of the 9th Army,” the IV SS-Panzer-Corps — taking into account only the days between August 18 and August 22 — destroyed 249 Soviet tanks and tracked artillery. Balancing this, however, was the fact that for all practical purposes the Soviet air force had liquidated this German corps’ artillery. Many troops had fallen, forcing the combining of combat entities, as for example: the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf” and the 1131st Grenadier-Brigade. Holding the main Radzymin-Wyszków road became impossible. North of the Bug, the German 2nd Army, under pressure from the 48th and the 65th Armies, withdrew to the other side of the Narew. Gille now began to withdraw the rest of the 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” towards the west, where together with the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf” it would form the new Ślężany-Zawady-Rząda Brook defence line, east of Serock. With this objective in mind, von Vormann ordered General von Lüttwitz to immediately re-deploy the 19th Panzer-Division, with the exception of Panzer-Regiment 27, to the IV SS-Panzer-Corps. Eighty tanks would halt outside of Magnuszew, while the 73rd and 74th Panzer-Grenadier-Regiments, as well as Panzer-Artillery-Regiment 19, would support the 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” in its fight to retain control of the river’s outflow.

German infantry, Poland, summer 1944. (ADM)

On August 26, the Soviet troops commenced the next assault with the support of massive artillery fire. Along the southern bank of the Bug, units from the 28th Army clashed with the Germans as they attempted to cross the river and strike at the XX Army-Corps’ rearguard. The Germans quickly eliminated these bridgeheads but despite this momentary success, the 2nd Army’s main fighting force was soon cut down and driven back during the first week of September across to the other side of the Narew. Prior to this, the biggest apparent problem at the location where the zones of the 9th and the 2nd Armies met involved the frontline fighting being conducted by the combined combat strength of the 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” and the 2nd Army. Rifle divisions of the 28th Army with support from a mass of T-34s and “Shermans” seized Ślężany on August 27, and during the fighting that followed, the villages of Czarnów and Kuligów were also seized. The commander of Heeresgruppe “Mitte,” General Reinhart, interpreted the enemy manoeuvre as a preparatory action for intensifying pressure in the area of the Bug’s discharge, with the goal of attacking the isolated rearguard of the 2nd Army which was engaged in the fighting outside Wyszków. Thinking along the same lines, von Vormann gave Gille the order to launch an immediate counter-attack. Tanks from SS-Panzer-Regimen 5 together with the panzer-grenadiers from the 19th Panzer-Division attacked Kuligów and Czarnów. Initially, the German fire power forced the Soviet infantry to give ground and two of their tanks were knocked out. But then a number of attacking tanks drove into a swampy marsh which they had not noticed bordering the banks of the Bug: The counter-offensive fell apart. During their withdrawal the Germans were forced to blow up twelve of their own tanks and assault guns. An unexpected order from the commander of the 9th Army instructing the 19th Panzer-Division, at the combat ready, to return to Magnuszew, further weakened the 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking.” The only unit left to provide it support was Panzergrenadier-Regiment 73.

A Panther tank ausf G from the 19th Panzer-Division knocked out by Polish forces somewhere in the vicinity of Studzi-anki near Warsaw, August 1944.
Another knocked out Panther tank, ausf G from 19. Panzer-Division in the vicinity of Studzianski near Warsaw, August 1944.
A Panther ausf G hailing from the 19th Panzer-Division acting as a troop transport to a machine gun detachment disembarking somewhere east of Warsaw, August 1944. (All photos: Leandoer & Ekholm archive)

On the same day, further south, the 70th Army carried out an offensive in the area surrounding the village of Zawady — at the same location where the zone of the 5th SS-Panzer Division “Wiking” and that of the 3rd SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf’s” had met. Though sustaining heavy losses, the attackers managed to take control of the villages of Zawady and Łosie, but they didn’t succeed in crushing the SS-soldiers defences at Rządza Brook and on the approaches to Radzymin. The rifle divisions from the 47th Army had great tactical success when they yet again drove out the Hungarian 1st Cavalry Division from its positions outside Wołomin and were able to seize Ossów. Consequently, the Hungarian-German positions in Wołomin itself were outflanked from the south. On August 28, the 129th Rifle Corps continued to attack in that direction, and advancing from the south and the east reached the former built up sector of Wołomin which lay in ruins…

A Katyusha BM 13-16 on its way to the front outside Praga, August 1944 (Leandoer & Ekholm archive)

On August 29, nine rifle divisions from the 28th and the 70th Armies carried out the next violent storming of the 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” positions between Radzymin and the mouth of the Bug. Gille reported to the army staff on a massive infantry attack, in numbers never before witnessed, accompanied by waves of air attacks carried out by the Ił-2 air assault wing, and heavy artillery fire. The 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking’s” right flank (SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 10 “Westland”), after several days of bloody fighting, was forced to retreat back to the village of Ruda. SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 9 “Germania” and Panzergrenadier-Regiment 73, however, had succeeded for the time being in maintaining control of the area around the outflow of the Bug River. To meet this situation, the Soviet 28th Army on August 30 increased its pressure on that area by launching periodic assaults against the exhausted enemy. On August 31, the 28th Army’s troops controlled the entire southern bank of the Bug River and thus its troops could now press on towards the Narew, in the vicinity of Serock. The Germans retired to a line which stretched along Rynia-Białobrzegi-Wólka Radzymińska. The 5th SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking’s” withdrawal toward Rynia and Białobrzegi created a gap between the IV SS-Panzer-Corps’ positions and the area controlled by the 2nd Army; a gap which encompassed the west bank of the Narew between Zegrze and Serock. General Reinhart gave the commander of the 9th Army the order to occupy the area with Gille’s corps. With the aim of ensuring the success of this mission — to begin with, a part of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 9 “Germania” was re-deployed.