Eastern Front · Soviet Union vs Germany
East Prussian Offensive
13 January 1945 – 25 April 1945
Two Soviet fronts attacked East Prussia, cutting the province off from the Reich and splitting the defenders into pockets around Konigsberg, Heiligenbeil and the Samland. The German population fled across the frozen Vistula Lagoon; Konigsberg fell in April after a four-day assault.
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Day by day
— Into the province
Chernyakhovsky's 3rd Belorussian Front attacks west of Gumbinnen in thick fog on the 13th; Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front comes out of the Narew bridgeheads on the 14th and turns north-west, not north. East Prussia has been fortified in depth for two years and the going is slow at first.
— The province cut off
Rokossovsky's 5th Guards Tank Army reaches the Frisches Haff at Tolkemit on the 26th and East Prussia is severed from the Reich. The Fourth Army, ordered to hold Masuria until the last moment, is now falling back west with the civilian columns among it. The only way out is across the frozen lagoon to the Vistula Spit.
— Three pockets
The 11th Guards Army reaches the lagoon south-west of Konigsberg and splits the defenders into the Samland, the city and the Heiligenbeil pocket. Behind them Operation Hannibal is lifting refugees out by sea. That night the submarine S-13 sinks the liner Wilhelm Gustloff off the Pomeranian coast with some 9,000 people aboard, the worst loss of life in any sinking.
— Heiligenbeil
The pocket on the lagoon shore is squeezed for six weeks and destroyed in the last week of March. What is left of the Fourth Army is ferried across to the Vistula Spit from the beaches at Balga and Heiligenbeil. Some 93,000 prisoners are taken and the army's commander, Muller, is flown out.
— Konigsberg
Four Soviet armies assault the city on 6 April behind a bombardment by 5,000 guns and heavy bombers. The forts are taken one by one and the fighting reaches the old town on the 8th. General Lasch surrenders on the evening of the 9th with about 92,000 men; Hitler sentences him to death in absentia.
— Pillau
The Samland is cleared in a fortnight and the port of Pillau, the last embarkation point, falls on 25 April. The province has cost the Red Army about 580,000 casualties and the Germans some 500,000, most of them prisoners. Two million civilians had gone west by sea and over the ice.
