East Prussian offensive

The East Prussian offensive^[4] was a strategic offensive by the Soviet Red Army against the German Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front (World War II). It lasted from 13 January to 25 April 1945, though some German units did not surrender until 9 May. The Battle of Königsberg was a major part of the offensive, which ended in victory for the Red Army.

For the Imperial Russian invasion of East Prussia during the beginning of the First World War, see Russian invasion of East Prussia (1914).

The East Prussian offensive is known to German historians as the second East Prussian offensive. The first East Prussian offensive (also known as the Gumbinnen Operation), took place from 16 to 27 October 1944, and was carried out by the 3rd Belorussian Front under General I.D. Chernyakhovsky as part of the Memel offensive^[5] of the 1st Baltic Front. The Soviet forces took heavy casualties while penetrating 30–60 km (19–37 mi) into east-northern part of Poland, and the offensive was postponed until greater reserves could be gathered.

Some 15 divisions of the 4th Army had become encircled on the shore of the in what became known as the Heiligenbeil Pocket. After bitter fighting, these units were finally overcome on 29 March.^[12]

Vistula Lagoon

The remnants of 3rd Panzer Army—placed under 4th Army's command—became isolated in the . The city was finally taken by the Soviets—after massive casualties on both sides—on 9 April. After this point the remaining German forces around the Bight of Danzig were reorganised into Armee Ostpreußen under the overall command of Dietrich von Saucken.

siege of Königsberg

The third group of German forces—the or Armeeabteilung Samland under General der Infanterie Hans Gollnick—occupied the Samland Peninsula, where the port of Pillau was retained as the last effective evacuation point for the area. The last elements were cleared from Pillau on 25 April in the Samland offensive.

XXVIII Army Corps

Evacuation of East Prussia

Prussian Nights

Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II

(2002), Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-670-88695-5

Beevor, Antony

Duffy, Christopher (1991), Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany, 1945, Routledge, 0-415-22829-8

ISBN

; House, Jonathan (1995), When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, ISBN 0-7006-0899-0

Glantz, David M.

, archived from the original on 10 April 2006

Map of the Soviet Advance into East Prussia & Siege of Königsberg January 13 - May 9, 1945

, The Soviet‐German War 1941–45]: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay (PDF), pp. 84–87, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 July 2011

Glantz, David M.

Popov, Grigory (2020). Красный шторм зимой 1945 г. Восточно-Прусская наступательная операция [Red Storm in winter 1945: The East Prussian offensive operation] (in Russian). Moscow: Veche. 978-5-4484-2371-0.