Battle of Slivice
1945 battle

The Battle of Slivice (Czech: Bitva u Slivice) was the last large World War II battle in the area of the Czech lands. During 11–12 May 1945, German troops, trying to surrender to nearby American troops rather than the USSR, defended themselves against local partisans and the Red Army. The Germans eventually capitulated during early hours of May 12. About 6,000 men were captured by the Soviet troops.
Background
On 7 May 1945, all German forces were ordered to remain in their positions and surrender. Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, however, the commander of the Army Group Centre deployed in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, ordered his units to force their way westwards in order to surrender to American forces. The units reached the agreed demarcation line in western Bohemia and stopped there. Since the Red Army was still days away from the demarcation line, the partisans tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to stop the Germans, who responded with reprisals against the local population. On several occasions, Russian Liberation Army units that had been fighting on the German side – also trying to reach the Americans – skirmished with the Germans.
On 9 May, a large formation of German troops reached the area between villages Milín, Slivice and Čimelice, near the demarcation line.
“Battle of Slivice” enters the record as 1945 battle. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Battle, Slivice and battle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q276852. Authority coordinates are 49.643, 14.047. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Slivice” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.