Upper Silesian Offensive The Upper Silesian Offensive was a Soviet strategically significant offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II in 1945 . It was aimed at capturing the considerable industrial and raw materials resources located in Upper Silesia and involved forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev . Due to the importance of the region to the Germans , considerable forces were provided to Army Group Centre for its defence and the Germans were only slowly pushed back to the Czech border . Fighting for the region lasted from mid January right up to the last day of the war in Europe on May 8 , 1945 . Prelude . The front lines in Silesia had been established at the end of the Vistula - Oder Offensive in January , during which Konev ' s troops had forced the German Seventeenth Army of General Friedrich Schulz out of the industrial heartland of Upper Silesia around Kattowitz ( Katowice ) . The Lower Silesian Offensive Operation , taking place in February , had seen the northern wing of Konev ' s forces make further gains , closing up to the Neisse River . This had , however , left a long exposed flank to the south and east in the Sudeten Mountains , still held by Schulz ' s troops , which formed a potential threat to the proposed Soviet advance on Berlin . Operation Gemse : the German counter - attacks at Lauban and Striegau . The commander of Army Group Centre , Field - Marshal Ferdinand Schörner , began to build up Schulz ' s forces during February for a counter - attack against the 3rd Guards Tank Army ' s spearheads , which had reached and taken Lauban during the Lower Silesian Offensive . The LVI Panzer Corps and XXXIX Panzer Corps were grouped under the command of General Nehring ; a two - pronged attack began on 1 March , with the 17th Panzer and Führer Grenadier Divisions attacking in the north , and 8th Panzer Division to the south . The 3rd Guards Tank Army was initially taken by surprise , though by 3 March German forces found themselves threatened by Soviet counterattacks from Naumberg . As a result , Nehring decided on a more limited plan of encirclement . Rybalko ' s troops evacuated Lauban to avoid being cut off , and the town was retaken by the 6th Volksgrenadier Division . By 4 March , the encirclement was closed , though large numbers of Soviet troops were able to escape ; within 4 days the trapped force had been destroyed ( the fighting in Silesia has been characterised as " merciless " , with German forces refusing to take prisoners ) . Despite the extremely limited nature of the victory , the recapture of Lauban was presented as a great success by German propaganda , with Joseph Goebbels visiting the town on 9 March to give a speech on the battle . Schörner made preparations for a further attack to the south - east at Striegau , which was commenced on 9 March . Though there were not enough forces available for a double envelopment , the Germans were able to penetrate through the Soviet lines and cut off elements of the 5th Guards Army on the night of 11 – 12 March ; there was an outbreak of panic amongst the trapped troops , who were massacred by Schörner ' s men as they tried to escape . The counter - attack operation at Lauban has generally been considered the last German victory of World War II . Schörner began to organise a more ambitious offensive to the north to relieve the besieged city of Breslau , moving Nehring ' s divisions northwards from Lauban by rail , but Konev acted decisively to regain the initiative in Silesia . Shifting the 4th Tank Army from the northern flank of his Front , he redeployed it near Grottkau in order to spearhead a major attack into Upper Silesia , neutralising the threat to the left flank of his forces and taking the area around Ratibor . Deployments . Wehrmacht . Divisional assignments to Corps as of 31 Dec . 1944 . Units tended to move between Corps depending on situation . Also present : 8th , 16th , 17th , 19th and 20th Panzer Divisions . These tended to pass between Corps . Also Führer Begleit Division , 18th SS Div . , 20th SS GD , and Panzer Division Hermann Göring . The offensive . Konev launched his main attack on 15 March . The 4th Tank Army broke through the German lines west of Oppeln and drove directly southward , heading for Neustadt . A subsidiary attack by the 4th Guards Tank Corps fanned out to take Neisse . South - east of Oppeln , the 59th and 60th Armies also broke through , the former swinging westwards to link up with the 4th Tank Army . The First Panzer Army ' s XI Corps , holding the lines near Oppeln , was now threatened with encirclement . In the south , the 38th Army attacked German troops of the LIX Corps defending with their backs to the highlands of Moravia . By means of a limited tactical withdrawal on 10 March , Heinrici was able to minimise the damage inflicted by the preparatory bombardment , and the front in this sector remained firm . The encirclement at Oppeln . The LVI Panzer Corps positioned near Oppeln also started to pull back , but the 20th Grenadier ( Estonian ) Division of the SS and 168th Infantry Division found themselves trapped by the advance of the 4th Tank Army and 59th Army which linked up near Neustadt . By the 22nd , Soviet forces of the 59th and 21st Armies succeeded in reducing the Oppeln ' cauldron ' ( ) , claiming to have killed 15 , 000 and captured a further 15 , 000 of the German troops trapped there . Konev launched further attacks on 24 March , and by 31 March , when Ratibor and Katscher were taken , was able to declare the offensive phase of operations over . Aftermath . The Upper Silesian Offensive succeeded in stabilising Konev ' s left flank in preparation for the advance on Berlin , and removed the threat of any German counter - attacks from Army Group Centre . The lines in Silesia remained largely unchanged until the end of the war , when Schoerner ' s force surrendered .