Battle of Königsberg
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Battle of Königsberg | |
---|---|
Part of the Kaliningrad, Russia ) | |
Result | Soviet victory |
Territorial changes | Königsberg and its surrounding areas are annexed by the Soviet Union |
Air support:
France
80,000 taken prisoner
According to Soviet information, the Germans lost 42,000 soldiers killed and wounded and 92,000 people were captured,[3] about 25–30,000 of those captured were civilians.[2]
The Battle of Königsberg, also known as the Königsberg offensive, was one of the last operations of the
Beginning
The East Prussian offensive was planned by the Soviet Stavka to prevent flank attacks on the armies rushing towards Berlin. Indeed, East Prussia held numerous troops that could be used for this. During initial Stavka planning, Joseph Stalin ordered Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to annihilate the Wehrmacht forces trapped there.
On 13 January 1945, almost 1,500,000 troops supported by several thousand tanks and aircraft of the 3rd Belorussian Front (
The initial setback did not last and on 24 January Soviet advance forces reached the shores of the
Prelude and initial attacks
On 25 January 1945, in a tacit acknowledgement that German forces in East Prussia and the Courland Pocket were far behind the new front line, Hitler renamed three army groups. Army Group North became Army Group Courland; Army Group Centre (the army group surrounded in the Königsberg pocket) became Army Group North and Army Group A became Army Group Centre.
Those forces, now redesignated as Army Group North, were compressed by further Soviet attacks into three pockets: one around Königsberg, one on the adjacent Sambia Peninsula, and one on the coast of the Vistula Lagoon to the south-west (the Heiligenbeil Pocket).
By late January 1945 the 3rd Belorussian Front had surrounded Königsberg on the landward side, severing the road down the Samland peninsula to the port of Pillau, and trapping the 3rd Panzer Army and approximately 200,000 civilians in the city.[5] The civilian provisions were so meagre that civilians were faced with three bleak alternatives:
- Remain in the city and starve – rations were cut during the siege to 180 grams of bread a day
- Cross the front lines and leave themselves at the mercies of the Soviets
- Cross the ice of the Vistula Lagoon to Pillau in hope of finding a place on an evacuation ship
Hundreds chose to cross the front line, but about 2,000 women and children a day chose to cross the ice on foot to Pillau. On his return from a visit to Berlin, Erich Koch the Gauleiter of East Prussia chose to stay in the relative safety of Pillau to organize the evacuation rather than return to Königsberg. The first evacuation steamer from Pillau carrying 1,800 civilians and 1,200 casualties reached safety on the 28 January.[6] The only remaining way to escape Königsberg to Pillau was through
On 19 February the 3rd Panzer Army and the 4th Army attacked from the direction of Pillau, managing to force open a corridor from Königsberg to Pillau.[8] Led by a captured Soviet T-34 tank, this attack was spearheaded by the 1st Infantry Division from Königsberg, intended to link with General Hans Gollnick's XXVIII Corps, which held parts of the Samland peninsula, including the vital port of Pillau. Capturing the town of Metgethen, the unit opened the way for the 5th Panzer Division to join with Gollnick's forces near the town of Gross Heydekrug the next day. This action solidified the German defence of the area until April, re-opening the land route from Königsberg to Pillau, through which supplies could be delivered by ship and the wounded and refugees could be evacuated. This month-long battle is sometimes called the First Siege of Königsberg.[1]
In March the situation had stabilized – by now, the main front line had moved hundreds of kilometres to the west, and capturing the city took a much lower priority for the Soviets. Even so, the garrison was intact and showed no signs of surrender. Eventually, the Soviet command decided to capture the city by assault rather than a siege.
Preparation
Assaulting Königsberg was not to be an easy task. Garrisoned inside the city were five divisions (
Königsberg was, according to
In order to face such defensive power, the Soviet command planned to heavily rely on
After four days of preparatory artillery bombardment, the assault started on 6 April 1945. The assault was planned to be "star-like". Troops would attack from many points around the perimeter and meet in the center of the city, compartmentalising the remaining defenders into isolated groups incapable of mutual support. There were two main fronts: North (held by the 39th and 43rd Armies which included the 208th Rifle Division) and South (11th Guards Army). The 50th Army was stationed in the northeast part of the front. One corps was to hold the line while two corps with a total of six rifle divisions, plus artillery, armor and engineer reinforcements, took part in the attack.[10]
Assault
6 April 1945
In the southern sector of the front, the assault began at sunrise with heavy shelling, enduring three hours, trailed by the primary assault wave. The Soviet rifle divisions quickly went through the first defense line, because its defenders had been largely eliminated and the remainder were demoralized by several days of intense bombing. By noon, the Soviet leading regiments reached the second defensive line, where their progression was halted by stronger opposition, forcing Soviet commanders to use their reserve forces. Three hours later, the second defense line was overrun in several places.
An especially bitter fight raged in the vicinity of Fort Eight. Built at the end of the 19th century and modernized since, the fort had thick walls, considerable firepower and was surrounded by a deep moat, making a frontal assault almost impossible. Despite heavy artillery fire, its defenders prevented any attempt to approach the walls. Only at dusk were Soviet forces able to reach the moat and start using explosives to try to breach the walls.
In the main attack axis in the north, the attack started at the same time. By noon, the first defense line had fallen and the second line was badly shaken and broken in several places. In the afternoon, however, progress became increasingly slow, especially on the right flank, where German forces stationed in the western outskirts of the city (the so-called Samland Group) attempted several flanking attacks.
Fort Five, claimed to be the best fortification of the entire Königsberg position, formed a strong resistance point. In front of such a situation, Soviet commanders decided to surround it and leave it behind, leaving the
At dusk the battle stalled, allowing both sides to consolidate their lines, regroup their forces and bring
During this first day of assault, bad weather prevented the Soviet troops from using precision bombing with as much effect as they would have liked. Additionally, even fortified, the terrain conquered by the Soviet troops during this day was not so densely populated as the central city would be, reducing problems associated with urban warfare.
7 April 1945
During the night, the German troops attempted several counterattacks, using their last reserves. Despite the bitter engagements and heavy losses on both sides, the counterattacks were driven off. The most active part of the front was still the one facing the Samland group, where a dozen such counterattacks were attempted.
Better weather conditions allowed the Red Army to make good use of daylight precision bombing. Several hundred bombers belonging to 1st, 3rd and 15th Air Armies, supported with Baltic Fleet aviation, bombarded the downtown and the Samland Group's bridgeheads.
Meanwhile, Fort Eight, blocked by Soviet troops, was still a strong pocket of resistance. After several unsuccessful attacks, a more cunning plan was developed. Using smoke screens to conceal their approach and flamethrowers to weaken the defense positions, several hundred men managed to cross the moat and enter the fortress, where bitter
During the day, the 11th Guards Army sought to reach the
In the north, Fort Five proved to be a strong pocket of resistance as well. Soviet
At the end of the day, seeing that further resistance was pointless, General Otto Lasch radioed Adolf Hitler's headquarters and asked for permission to surrender. Hitler's answer was "fight to the last soldier".[citation needed]
8 April 1945
During the night, the Pregel was crossed by the 11th Guards Army and despite enemy fire by dawn a full bridgehead was established on the opposite bank. Continuing their advance northwards, they linked up with the northern troops, completing the encirclement and cutting off the Samland group from the city.
In the afternoon, Marshal
By the end of the day, it was clear that any attempt by the Samland group to break out of the encirclement would be pointless. However, victory was nowhere near, as almost 40,000 men were garrisoned in the city centre, which was regularly subjected to heavy shelling.
9 April 1945
During the last day of the battle, the besieged German defenders were overwhelmed and the defence coordination fell apart. Having been comprehensively defeated, and in the realisation that further resistance was futile, Otto Lasch decided on his own initiative to send emissaries to negotiate the surrender. At 18:00, the emissaries arrived at the Soviet lines, and a delegation was sent to Lasch's bunker. Shortly before midnight, the surrender was acknowledged.
Aftermath
Almost 80% of the city was destroyed; first by the Royal Air Force in August 1944, and then by Soviet shelling in April 1945.
During the operation the main forces of German East Prussia group were destroyed. Only the Army Detachment Samland remained operational, but was annihilated by 25 April, in the Soviet Samland offensive.
The operation was a major success for the Soviet Army due to the comparatively low casualties suffered during the capture of the heavily fortified stronghold. The capture was celebrated in Moscow with an artillery salvo by 324 cannons firing 24 shells each. A Medal "For the Capture of Königsberg" was established and 98 military units were named after the Königsberg operation.
After the war, following the transfer of northern half of East Prussia to the
See also
- German World War II strongholds
- East Prussian offensive
- Evacuation of East Prussia
- Metgethen massacre
References
- Notes
- ^ ISBN 0-415-03589-9.
- ^ a b c d Alexander Katerusha. (10 May 2012). "Штурм Кенигсберга в цифрах: Победили не числом, а умением" [Battle of Königsberg in numbers: Won by not quantity, but quality]. Комсомольская правда. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
- ^ Кенигсбергская наступательная операция, 6-9 апреля 1945 г.
- ^ Jukes. Stalin's Generals, p. 30
- ^ Beevor, pp.25
- ^ Beevor, pp. 49
- ISBN 978-1-935149-20-0. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
- ^ Beevor, pp.88–92
- ^ Churchill’s comments on Königsberg — from, "Triumph and Tragedy: The Second World War” vol 6 Rosetta Books 1953 (Kindle online digital edition) Book II The Iron Curtain: ch. 20 Preparations for a new conference, page 318 “The heavily defended fortress of Königsberg…” Notes and Highlights, page 482 "The modernized fortress of Königsberg proved to be tough.”
- ^ Soviet General Staff, Prelude to Berlin, ed. and trans. Richard W. Harrison, Helion & Co., Solihull, UK, 2016, pp 262, 264-65, 614-15
- Bibliography
- ISBN 0-670-88695-5
Further reading
- Empric, Bruce E. (2017), Onward to Berlin! Red Army Valor in World War II - The Full Cavaliers of the Soviet Order of Glory, Teufelsberg Press, ISBN 978-1973498605
- Galitzky, K.N. (commander of 11th Guards Army), Fighting for Eastern Prussia, Moscow, 1970.
- Shefov, Nikolai. Russian fights, Lib. Military History, M. 2002 (Russian: Bitvy Rossii / Nikolai Shefov. Moskva : AST, 2002. SSEES R.XIII.1 SHE (see: SSEES Library Recent Acquisitions: January 2007)