stopped. During the same days, the corps' 24th and 26th Guards Mechanized Brigades, holding defensive positions, were struck by a German tank counterattack between Gross-Baudis and Kostenblut; the latter attempted to break through to Breslau and prevent the encirclement, although the failure of the Soviet attack soon made further counterattacks meaningless. The 24th and 26th Guards Brigades were relieved by the 309th Rifle Division, fresh from the fighting at Liegnitz, early on 12 February. The bringing up of infantry units strengthened the Soviet defense on the outer edge of the partial encirclement. Another German counterattack, involving the 8th and 19th Panzer Divisions as well as Volkssturm and flak units, began at 18:20 on that day, lasting until 13 February; this extended from Kostenblut to Kanth, to the east of the 10–11 February counterattack as the former was the narrowest part of the encirclement, where the outer and inner rings were separated by only 30 kilometers. It achieved temporary success with the capture of Gross Peterwitz, but was soon pushed back to its jumping-off positions by a Soviet counterattack on its flank. The German situation further deteriorated with the approach of the 273rd Rifle Division, which approached the fighting from the west and north, pushing the German forces further to the south and taking up defensive positions on the line of Strigauer Wasser river, securing the outer encirclement ring. At 14:00 on 13 February, the 309th Rifle Division, after repulsing the German counterattack, began advancing on Breslau from the southwest. At 08:00 on 13 February a patrol from the corps' 25th Guards Mechanized Brigade discovered a self-propelled artillery regiment of the 5th Guards Army in Rotsurben, a road junction to the south of Breslau. The encirclement was closed when the brigade's 12th Tank Regiment linked up near Rotsurben with the 252nd Tank Brigade of the 31st Tank Corps of the 5th Guards Army. A last breakout attempt was made on the night of 13–14 February by elements of the 269th Infantry Division and other units trapped in Breslau, who attacked the inner ring of the encirclement. Simultaneously, the 19th Panzer Division again attacked the outer ring, with both German forces meeting in the area of Tinz. Two brigades of the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps were involved in heavy night fighting, only restoring their positions by 11:00 on 14 February. The brief corridor created by the German attack enabled the escape of