German World War II strongholds

German strongholds during World War II (German: Festung "fortresses") were the selected towns and cities so designated by Adolf Hitler to resist the Allied offensives where the defenders were ordered to defend them at all costs. The doctrine of these strongholds evolved towards the end of World War II, when the German leadership had not yet accepted defeat, but had begun to realize that drastic measures were required to forestall inevitable offensives on the Reich. The first such stronghold became Stalingrad (Battle of Stalingrad).

Subsequently, on the Eastern Front, Warsaw, Budapest, Kolberg, Königsberg, Küstrin, Danzig and Breslau were some of the large cities selected as strongholds whilst on the Western Front locations included the British island of Alderney.

The fate of the strongholds varied. Stalingrad, the first of the "fortresses" to fall is seen as a crucial turning point in the war, and one of the key battles which led to German defeat. In several cases (Breslau and Alderney, for example) the fortresses were bypassed by the attackers and did not actually fall until long after they had been neutralised (although the fighting in Breslau was sustained).

Location	Country	Commandant	Besiegers	Date declared	Date surrendered	Information
Alderney	British Crown dependencies	Lieutenant Colonel Schwalm	Royal Navy		16 May 1945	Contained until after general German surrender See Occupation of the Channel Islands
Boulogne	France	Ferdinand Heim	reinforced Canadian 3rd Division		22 September 1944	Captured after a five-day operation. See Operation Wellhit
Breslau	Germany	Karl Hanke	6th Army	25 July 1944	6 May 1945	See Siege of Breslau
Brest	France	Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke	US Third Army		19 September 1944	Captured after six-week assault. See Battle for Brest
Calais	France	Ludwig Schroeder	Canadian 3rd Division		1 October 1944	See Operation Undergo
Dieppe	France		Canadian 2nd Division		1 September 1944	Evacuated before receipt of the relevant Fuehrer Order; liberated without opposition. See Operation Fusilade
Dunkirk	France	Friedrich Frisius	1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade		8 May 1945	Contained until general German surrender. See Siege of Dunkirk (1944)
Kolberg	Germany	Fritz Fullriede	1st Belorussian Front	November, 1944	14 March 1945	See Battle of Kolberg (1945)
Königsberg	East Prussia, Germany	Otto Lasch	3rd Belorussian Front		9 April 1945	See Battle of Königsberg
Küstrin	Germany	Heinrich-Friedrich Reinefarth, Adolf Raegener	82nd Guards Rifle Division			A small number (<1,000) of the German garrison reached German lines after a breakout during the night of March 29/30 1945.
Le Havre	France	Eberhard Wildermuth	1st Canadian Army		12 September 1944	Captured after 48 hour assault. See Operation Astonia.
Posen (now Poznań)	Poland	Ernst Mattern until 28 January 1945, then Ernst Gonell	1st Belorussian Front			See Battle of Poznań (1945).
St Malo	France	Andreas von Aulock	US Third Army	19 January 1944	17 August 1944	Captured after two weeks
Warsaw	Poland			27 July 1944	17 January 1945	Captured hours after the withdrawal of German troops, in violation of Hitler's order to hold the "Fortress". See Festung Warschau

See also

• Atlantic Wall
• Festung Norwegen

References

• BBC article on Alderney
• Europe: A History, ISBN 0-06-097468-0, the history of Europe; page 1038

External links

• Festung Breslau/Fortress Wrocław