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The Battle of Poznań (Battle of Posen) during World War II in 1945 was a massive assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznań in occupied Poland. The defeat of the German garrison required almost an entire month of painstaking reduction of fortified positions, intense urban combat, and a final assault on the city's citadel by the Red Army, complete with medieval touches.〔''The storm operation recalled the breaking of a medieval siege'', Erickson, p. 523〕 ==Background== The city of Poznań (called ''Posen'' in German) lay in the western part of Poland which had been annexed by Nazi Germany following their invasion of Poland in 1939, and was the chief city of Reichsgau Wartheland. By 1945, the Red Army advances on the Eastern Front had driven the Germans out of eastern Poland as far as the Vistula River. The Red Army launched the Vistula-Oder Offensive on 12 January 1945, inflicted a huge defeat on the defending German forces, and advanced rapidly into western Poland and eastern Germany. Certain cities which lay on the path of the Soviet advance were declared by Hitler to be ''Festungen'' (strongholds), where the garrisons were ordered to mount last-ditch stands. Hitler hoped the ''Festung'' cities could hold out behind Soviet lines and interfere with the movement of supplies and lines of communication.〔Duffy, p. 249, Erickson, p. 523〕 Poznań was declared a ''Festung'' in January 1945.〔Erickson, p. 470, Baumann, p. 11〕 The city was defended by 40,000 German troops from a great variety of units including Volkssturm, Luftwaffe ground forces, police, and highly motivated officer candidates.〔Duffy, p. 102. Some of the larger German units were the Fifth Infantry Officer Candidate School, Assault Gun Replacement Battalion 500, five ''Landesschützen'' battalions, one ''Volkssturm'' Battalion, Air Force Replacement Battalions I and IV, Fortress Antitank Battalion 102, Police Regiment Schallert, Kampfgruppe Lenzer, and six batteries of fortress artillery.〕 Facing them were the experienced Guards Rifle troops of General V. I Chuikov's 8th Guards Army – the victors of Stalingrad. The defenders made use of some of the surviving ''Festung Posen'' fortifications that had been built during Prussian rule in the 19th century. The Fort Winiary citadel stood on a hill to the north of the city centre. Around the perimeter of the city were 18 massively-built forts, spaced at intervals of about 2 kilometres in a ring with a radius of about 5 kilometres. General Chuikov described the forts as
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