Battle of the Dukla Pass

Battle of the Dukla Pass
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
A monument to the battle on the Slovak side of the Dukla Pass.
Date 8 September – 28 October 1944 Location Dukla Pass, present-day Slovakia-Poland border 49°25′3.425″N 21°41′57.736″E / 49.41761806°N 21.69937111°E / 49.41761806; 21.69937111 Result Inconclusive Soviet failure to join Slovak rebel troops Eventual Axis withdrawal from the area
Belligerents
Germany Hungary	Soviet Union Czechoslovakia
Commanders and leaders
Gotthard Heinrici Harald von Hirschfeld  (DOW) Béla Miklós (8–16 Sept 1944) Dezső László (16 Sept – 28 Oct 1944)	Ivan Konev Andrei Grechko Kirill Moskalenko Ludvík Svoboda
Strength
100,000 soldiers 2,000 artillery pieces 350 tanks	378,000 men[1] 16,700 men 1,517 artillery pieces 1,724 mortars 1,000 tanks
Casualties and losses
61,000 (Czech estimates)[2] 70,000 (modern Russian estimates)[3]	Soviet Union: 10,060 killed 41,387 wounded 13,548 sick 1,806 missing[2] (modern Czech estimates) 131,000[1] (German historian Freiser)  Czechoslovakia: 935 killed 4,518 wounded 756 missing[2]

The Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla, Carpatho–Dukla, Rzeszów–Dukla, or Dukla–Prešov offensive, was the battle for control over the Dukla Pass on the border between Poland and Slovakia on the Eastern Front of World War II between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September–October 1944. It was part of the Soviet East Carpathian strategic offensive that also included the Carpathian–Uzhgorod offensive. The operation's primary goal, to provide support for the Slovak rebellion, was not achieved, but it concluded the full liberation of the Ukrainian SSR.

The German resistance in the eastern Carpathian region was much stronger than expected. The battle which began on 8 September would not see the Soviet forces on the other side of the pass until 6 October, and German forces would stop their heavy resistance in the region only around 10 October. Five days to Prešov turned into fifty days to Svidník alone with over 70,000 casualties on both sides. Prešov that was to be reached in six days remained beyond the Czechoslovaks' grasp for four months.^[4] The battle would be counted among the most bloody in the entire Eastern Front and the history of Slovakia;^[5] one of the valleys in the pass, near the villages of Kapišová, Chyrowa, Iwla and Głojsce, would become known as the "Valley of Death".^[6]