Festung Kassel — Urban Battle, April 1945

Kassel, DE

In the final weeks of the war, Hitler designated **Kassel** a **Festung** (fortress city) with orders to defend it to the last round. The city had already been reduced to a landscape of rubble by the RAF bombing raid of **22–23 October 1943**, which killed approximately 10,000 civilians and destroyed 90% of the city centre in a single night — one of the most destructive single raids of the European war. By April 1945 its civilian population had shrunk from 230,000 to fewer than 50,000. The garrison was commanded by **Generalmajor Johannes Erxleben**, a signals officer with no meaningful combat experience, appointed by virtue of seniority and availability rather than battlefield competence. Erxleben had at his disposal a scratch force of Volkssturm, depleted Wehrmacht rear-echelon units, and a handful of Luftwaffe ground personnel — perhaps 6,000 men in total, poorly equipped and with minimal artillery. On **1 April 1945**, the US **80th Infantry Division** (Major General **Horace L. McBride**), part of **XX Corps** / **Third Army** (General **George S. Patton Jr.**), approached from the south. The division's advance was halted that day by a battery of **88 mm Flak guns** firing in the ground role from the **Dönche** military training ground south of the city centre — the only serious defensive obstacle encountered. By **2 April** US artillery had neutralised the Dönche battery. The **318th Infantry Regiment** moved to secure the wooded **Habichtswald** ridge to the west, cutting off any escape or reinforcement from that direction, while the **319th Infantry Regiment** crossed the **Fulda River** south of the city and advanced northward along its east bank, encircling Kassel from the east. On **4 April**, elements of the 318th reached Erxleben's command bunker. US tanks simultaneously crossed the Fulda from the east into the city centre. At **noon on 4 April 1945**, Erxleben formally surrendered. **1,325 prisoners** were taken. The battle had lasted four days and cost relatively few US casualties — testament to the near-total collapse of German defensive capacity at this stage of the war.