Liberation80: Historian: Largest Military Operation Took Place Near Levice

Bratislava, May 7 (TASR) - The largest military operation during the liberation of Slovak territory from fascism at the end of WW2 began when Soviet troops crossed the Hron River between Levice and Zeliezovce, historian Pavol Steiner, who works at the Department of Archaeology of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, told TASR in an interview. “They launched what was by far the largest military operation ever carried out on Slovak soil. It involved the deployment of an entire Soviet Guards Army, which was later joined by the 1st Guards Cavalry - Mechanized Group — a formation of army-level strength. Opposing them was a full German tank corps,” Steiner explained. According to the historian, the German forces lacked sufficient infantry in that area, and therefore could not hold the entire front line stretching from Sturovo to Kozarovce. “The Germans attempted counterattacks using their tank units, including the heavy tank battalion Feldherrnhalle, which was equipped with the legendary 70-ton Koenigstiger (Tiger II) tanks, but it simply wasn't enough,” he added. Steiner pointed out that the Soviets were able to simply bypass the areas where German resistance was limited to nothing but infantry and motorized units. “That's why the advance was so fast, and in fact, within the first four days, the Soviets were already crossing the Nitra River,” he said. Steiner noted that one of the bloodiest battles occurred during the clashes between Soviets and Germans near Sturovo. He added that while statistics from this period are unreliable, the magnitude of casualties is evident. “Roughly 5,500 soldiers are buried in the military cemetery in Sturovo, which reflects the intense fighting in the area,” he claimed. “At Slavin [a major war memorial in Bratislava], there are only about 500 more soldiers buried. This shows that the battles in the quadrilateral of Levice, Sturovo, Komarno, and Nove Zamky were extremely brutal, with casualties on both sides reaching into the thousands,” he emphasized. “By comparison, during the capture of Bratislava, the Soviets reported just over 700 fallen soldiers, and that figure includes divisions fighting in the Little Carpathians. On the German side, the estimated number of dead was around 400,” explained Steiner. mf