The Battle of Groningen took place from April 14 to 18, 1945, between a mixture of German soldiers, Dutch and Belgian SS troops numbering 7,000 against the entire 2nd Canadian Infantry Division, though the whole division was never in combat at any given time. There were also substantial amounts of Luftwaffe units manning flak guns in the area.
Groningen was also the site of the headquarters for the Sicherheitsdienst in the North of the Netherlands. The German command structure was poor and the defenders had never exercised together.
The Canadian division, consisting of nine infantry battalions, a machine gun battalion, and a reconnaissance battalion, three combat engineer companies (Royal Canadian Engineers), was battle experienced with a proportion of partially trained reinforcements.
The heaviest fighting took place around the central market square, where the enemy had fortified the houses along the north side of the largest open space in the inner city. These positions were overcome by maneuvering tanks into position to destroy the buildings occupied by German Troops.
The German garrison commander finally agreed to surrender at noon on April 16 and the next day the last holdouts put down their weapons and joined their comrades in prisoner-of-war cages, which held 95 officers and 5,117 other ranks. The 2nd Division reported 43 fatal casualties and 166 wounded in the battle of Groningen. This was a high price to pay at this stage of the war, and the deaths of 110 civilians caught in the crossfire added to the tragedy.
Despite the civilian casualties and the destruction of 270 buildings, including many of symbolic and historical importance, the citizens of Groningen were determined to celebrate their liberation.
The Germans surrendered on April 29, 1945 in Italy after Hitler's death and total, unconditional surrender was signed on the 7th of May. By the 8th of May, Winston Churchill announced that the War had come to an end in Europe by announcing Victory in Europe.
A great tournament was held at Groningen from August 13th to September 7th in 1946 that was not the first major international tournament after World War II, but it marked the first time the Soviet Union sent a team of players to a foreign event. Their results confirmed the growing recognition of the great strength of Soviet players.
It was a close race to the end between Mikhail Botvinnik and Max Euwe. Botvinnik had a lead much of the way, but successive losses to Kotov and Yanofsky in rounds 14-15 let Euwe go ahead by a point.
However, Euwe then drew three in a row while Botvinnik won three in a row to pull ahead by a half-point going into the last round.
Botvinnik was outplayed by Najdorf, but Euwe blundered and lost a drawn position against Kotov leaving the final standings unchanged.
For Botvinnik, it was his first outright victory outside the Soviet Union and for Euwe, it was his last great international success.
1) Botvinnik 14.5
2) Euwe 14.0
3) Smyslov 12.5
4-5) Najdorf and Szabo 11.5
6-7) Boleslavsky and Flohr 11.0
8-9) Lundin and Stoltz 10.5
10-12) Denker, Kotov and Tartakower 9.5
13) Kottnauer 9.0
14) Yanofsky 8.5
15-16) Bernstein and Guimard 7.0
17) Vidmar 6.5
18) L. Steiner 6.0
19) O'Kelly 5.5
20) Christoffel 5.0
One of the most exciting games was played in the 6th round when Euwe chased Szabo’s King all the way from g1 to b8 and the win left him tied with Botvinnik at 5.5out of 6.
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| The King's journey |
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