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As the Nazis had effectively forbidden evacuation of East Prussia's civil population, when the Red Army attacked on 12 January 1945 civilians began a mass flight west to the Baltic sea coast. Many people were killed by Soviet troops, and by severe frost. At the coast, in particular in the harbour of Pillau, the ''[[Kriegsmarine]]'' managed to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians over the Baltic sea, and encouraged fierce resistance on land, since every delay to the Red Army meant the rescue of additional old people, women and children.
Attempts by the Red Army to break through the German perimeter early in February were fought back, with the Fourth Army receiving heavy artillery support from the German cruisers ''[[German cruiser Admiral Scheer|Admiral Scheer]]'' and ''[[German cruiser Deutschland|Lützow]]'' firing across the Haff from the Baltic sea into the [[Frombork|Frauenburg]] end of the pocket.<ref name=duffyp204>Duffy, p. 204</ref> Frauenburg itself was taken on February 9, in fierce fighting involving elements of the [[170th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|170th Infantry Division]].<ref name=frauenberg>See [http://eng.9may.ru/24.02.1945/eng_inform/m9004166 RIA Novosti archives] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090227183146/http://eng.9may.ru/24.02.1945/eng_inform/m9004166 |date=2009-02-27 }}</ref> During one Soviet attack the [[3rd Belorussian Front]]'s commander, General [[Ivan Chernyakhovsky]], was killed by a shell splinter near [[Pieniężno|Mehlsack]]. His successor, Marshal [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]], having effectively contained the remains of the Army Group, concentrated on assembling reinforcements over the next month. Under the supervision of Major-General [[Karl Henke (general)|Karl Henke]], the Germans continued to attempt resupply and evacuations of wounded along the Frische Nehrung, often at night to avoid air attack. A long, narrow corridor through to the besieged garrison of Königsberg was also maintained against the attacks of the [[11th Guards Army]] through a joint effort by the garrison, and by the [[Großdeutschland Division|Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division]].<ref name=duffyp162>Duffy, pp. 161–2</ref>
Though the German forces in East Prussia had no realistic hope of victory, and were severely short of manpower, ammunition, and fuel, they continued to offer strong resistance, inflicting extremely high casualties (584,788+) on the Red Army during the East Prussian Operation.<ref name=casualties>Official Soviet figures gave a total of 584,788 casualties for the entire area of the offensive during the period from 13 March – 25 April.</ref> ''Ad hoc'' battle groups were often bolstered by civilians press-ganged into the ''[[Volkssturm]]'', and many East Prussian villages and towns had been turned into fortified strongpoints, in addition to the substantial fortifications centred on [[Lidzbark Warmiński|Heilsberg]].<ref name=hastingsp307>Hastings, p. 307</ref> The fighting was prolonged in order to keep open civilian escape routes, and because requests to evacuate the main body of the Fourth Army were refused by the [[Oberkommando des Heeres|German High Command]].
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