Dönche Flak Battery — 88 mm defensive position, 1 April 1945

Kassel, DE

The **Dönche** — a large wooded military training and exercise area on the southern edge of Kassel — was the site of the last organised German defensive effort in the battle for the city. On **1 April 1945**, when the US **80th Infantry Division** advanced northward from the Fritzlar–Waldeck axis, it was halted at the Dönche by a battery of **88 mm Flak 36/37 guns** deployed in the ground anti-tank role. The **88 mm Flak** gun was the Wehrmacht's most feared dual-purpose weapon, capable of destroying any Allied tank at normal combat ranges and effective to over 2,000 metres. Used in the ground role with the crew deploying at low elevation, it had been the decisive anti-tank weapon in North Africa and remained lethal to the end of the war. The battery halted the 80th Division's advance for a full day. US artillery was brought forward on **2 April** and destroyed or silenced the position, allowing the infantry to resume its advance into the city. The Dönche is now a nature reserve and recreational woodland south of the Kassel city centre; no dedicated marker commemorates the action.