the Battle was preceded by a panic withdrawal of German troops from Prague to the West. The SS men tried to get into American captivity, to avoid paying for their misdeeds during the war. May 8 going to town Pleseni where stood part of the American army of General Patton, Graf pückler-Burghaus started negotiations of surrender. However, the US military did not want to have and be done with punitive and has rejected all proposals.
may 10, at the towns of české budějovice and Chemnitz there was a meeting of Soviet and American troops, but by this time the remains of the SS divisions dug in on a hill near the village between śliwice. Using rugged terrain, they have created a system of trenches and machine-gun nests, dug in the ground remaining guns and tanks.
the First fortified position found diversionno-prospecting group captain Eugene Olesinski. They were joined by groups of local residents. Using the element of surprise guerrillas and saboteurs of the red army attacked the SS, but lost in the battle of 13 people departed. Soon help came in the vanguard of the 2nd mechanized corps of Lieutenant-General Sviridov Carp, and then came armored brigade.
the Attack began with the shelling of enemy trenches with heavy artillery. The Soviet barrage was supported by the 4th armored division of XII corps, 3rd US army. However, the Germans desperately fought back. Not wanting to destroy people in the attack, the Soviet high command struck a division of rocket launchers. After shelling, the Germans began to surrender, but finally the group finished off with air pilots of the 112th guards fighter aviation regiment.
Around three a.m. may 12 at the mill Rakovica Pückler-Burghaus signed the Protocol of surrender. From the Soviet side the signature under the document was signed by the commander of the 104th guards rifle division major-General Ivan Seregin, and from the us – chief of staff of the 4th Panzer division. After that, the SS General Pückler-Burghaus returned to his Villa and shot himself. The prisoner was about 6,000 German soldiers.
56 officers and soldiers of the red army, died a heroic death in this battle, 46 fighters lost to the Czechs, anti-fascists. In 1970, in between śliwice on the site of the battle was a monument, designed by architect václav Heliski.
