![]() The fighting in Hungary was some of the most brutal of the war, as the two Red Army groups, numbering around 1 million troops at the time, suffered 484,300 losses, including 140,000 killed or captured. The Soviet Union lost 26.6 million people during the war, with most credible estimates for military losses ranging between 11.4 and 14.6 million.Īfter almost four years of brutal combat, the troops from the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, the two army groups at the southern end of the Soviet-German frontline, approached Austria’s border from Hungary in the winter of 1945. The aim of Operation Barbarossa was not only to eliminate the Soviet Union as a potential military threat but also to starve and enslave the European population of the country and turn it into a German colony. The story of the Red Army’s occupation of Austria begins in June 1941, when Hitler’s regime launched a genocidal war against the Soviet Union. Austrians also served loyally as soldiers from Germany proper and were just as responsible for Nazi atrocities on the Eastern Front. The Wehrmacht drafted more than 1.3 million Austrians between 19, 242,000 of whom never came back home. Thereafter, Austria was an integral part of the Third Reich, with 700,000 people, or 10 percent of the population, joining the Nazi Party. Even figures such as Karl Renner, an Austrian socialist politician who was the provisional prime minister of the first post-Nazi government appointed by Joseph Stalin, welcomed the Anschluss. ![]() Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, with the overwhelming support of the Austrian population. Image courtesy of Voennyi Albom (a Russian-language website) and Sputnik News. The battle is noted for including the largest known cavalry charge in history.Top Image: Soviet soldiers taking down a Nazi sign in Austria. During the 16 years following the battle, the Austrian Habsburgs gradually recovered and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared of Ottoman forces. Historians state the battle marked the turning point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, a 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires. The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the arrival of the united relief army. Ottoman forces consisted, among other units, of 60 ortas of Janissaries (12,000 men paper-strength) with an observation army of some 70,000 men watching the countryside. The Ottoman army numbered approximately 90,000 to 300,000 men (according to documents on the order of battle found in Kara Mustafa's tent, initial strength at the start of the campaign was 170,000 men). The opposing military forces were those of the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman fiefdoms, commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. ![]() The overall command was held by the senior leader, the King of Poland, John III Sobieski, who led the relief forces. The Viennese garrison was led by Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, an Austrian subject of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter represented only by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (the march of the Lithuanian army was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved). In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans lost almost all of Hungary to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which "the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world". The battle was fought by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire, under the command of King John III Sobieski against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. Battle of Vienna Description: The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683 after the imperial city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |