The Battle of Königsberg was the last battle of the East Prussian Offensive during World War II. In four days of violent urban warfare, Soviet forces captured the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
| Battle of Königsberg | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II | |||||||
| File:Konigsberg streetbattle thumb.jpg Urban warfare during the Königsberg battle. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Axis | Soviet Union | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| General Otto LaschFile:White flag icon.jpg |
Marshal Vasilevsky Marshal Rokossovsky | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 130,000 | 250,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 50,000 | 60,000 | ||||||
The beginning: East Prussian Offensive
Main article: East Prussian Operation
The East Prussian Offensive was planned by the Soviet Stavka as a "helper", in order to prevent flank attacks on the armies rushing towards Berlin. Indeed, East Prussia held numerous troops that could be used for this. In front of this situation, Joseph Stalin ordered Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to annihilate the armies stationed there.
On 13 January, 1945, almost 1,500,000 men supported by several thousand tanks and aircraft entered East Prussia, which was transformed into a gigantic web of fortifications, defensive lines and minefields. At first, the offensive was almost a failure. Red Army troops only advanced 1.5 kilometers the first day, through only three defensive lines. In five days, taking heavy losses, Soviet troops moved only 20 kilometers, but were still unable to break through German lines into the open.
Nevertheless, after quickly overcoming the initial difficulties, the Soviet advance gathered steam, and on 24 January Soviet advance forces reached the shores of the Vistula Lagoon (part of the Baltic Sea), cutting off the German forces in East Prussia from a direct connection with Germany, forcing the Germans to supply the surrounded forces by sea. Those forces, now redesignated as Army Group North, were compressed by further Soviet attacks into a pocket around Königsberg and on the adjacent Samland peninsula.
Throughout February there was desperate fighting as the Germans tried to maintain the narrow connection between Königsberg and Samland, with its vital port of Pillau through which supplies could be delivered by ship and the wounded and refugees could be evacuated. For a time Soviet troops were successful in severing that connection and cutting the city off completely, but German counterattacks restored the situation. This month-long battle is sometimes called the First Siege of Königsberg [1]. In March the situation stabilized, as by now the main front line had moved hundreds of kilometers to the west, and capturing the city became a much lower priority for the Soviets. Regardless, the garrison was intact and showed no signs of surrender. Eventually the Soviet command decided to capture the city.
Preparing the assault
Assaulting Königsberg was not to be an easy task. Garrisoned inside the city were five full-strength divisions, for a total of 130,000 men, along with an impressive defensive disposition. The Germans still held a narrow land connection to the adjacent German pocket on the Samland peninsula. The capture of the city required that this desperately defended link be severed. The German troops on the peninsula, the so-called Samland group, could be expected to stage counterattacks to prevent this from happening.
Königsberg was, according to Winston Churchill, "a modernised heavily defended fortress". Three concentric rings of fortifications surrounded the city: the outer ring of defenses reinforced by 12 forts outside the town, the middle ring in the outskirts and the inner city, a single fortress of anti-tank defenses, barricades and landmines, along with several other forts.
In order to face such a defensive power, the Soviet command planned to heavily rely on aviation and especially artillery support, with densities reaching 250 guns per kilometre in some areas. The German troops were also subjected to propaganda, explaining that their resistance was futile, and that the front line was far behind them—that they were trapped in a "pocket" and that it would be best to surrender. This propaganda had little to no effect.
After four days of preparatory artillery bombardment, the assault started on 6 April, 1945. The assault was planned to be "star-like", meaning the troops would attack from all the points of the compass and meet in the central city point. Still, there were two main fronts: North (held by the 39th and 43rd armies) and South (11th Guards Army). The 50th army was stationed in the northeast part of the front, but took only a limited part in the operation.
The Assault
Day One: 6 April 1945
In the southern part of the front, the attack started at dawn by intense artillery bombing, lasting three hours, followed by the first attack 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 its progression was halted by a 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 the fort #8. Built at the end of the 19th century and modernized since, it 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 Soviet forces were able to reach the moat and start using explosives to try and breach the walls.
In the north (the main attack axis), the attack started at the same time, and by noon, the first defense line had fallen and the second line was badly shaken and broken in several places. However, in the afternoon, the progress became slower and slower, especially on the right flank, as German forces stationed in the western outskirts of the city (the so-called Samland group) attempted several flank attacks.
The fort #5, claimed to be the best fortification of the entire Königsberg position, formed a strong resistance. In front of such a situation, Soviet commanders decided to surround it and leave it behind, leaving the rear guard troops the time to prepare a new assault.
At dusk, the battle stalled allowing both sides to consolidate their lines, regroup their forces and bring reserves to the front line. This first day had mixed results, since Soviet progress was not as good as expected. However, both city defenses and defenders' morale were seriously shaken, and troops, including officers, began to surrender periodically.
During this first day of assault, bad weather prevented the Soviet troops from using precision bombing with as much efficiency as they would have liked. Additionally, even if fortified, the terrain conquered by the Soviet troops during this day was not so densely populated as the central city would be, reducing urban warfare issues.
Day Two: 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 worst part of the front was still the one facing the Samland group, where a dozen such counterattacks were attempted.
The better weather conditions allowed the Red Army to make a profitable use of daylight precision bombing. Several hundred bombers belonging to 1st, 3rd an 15th Air Armies, supported with Baltic Fleet aviation, bombarded the downtown and the Samland group's bridgeheads.
Meanwhile, fort #8, blocked by Soviet troops, was still a strong pocket of resistance. After several unsuccessful attacks, a more cunning plan was developed. Using both 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 close combat began. Once the outer defenses were weakened, a massive frontal assault began. Finally it was defeated and the remaining of the garrison surrendered.
During the day, the 11th Guards Army sought to reach the Pregel river, eliminating all resistance on the Southern side. However, their advance was slowed in the central area of the city, where every building had to be literally taken apart along with its defenders. A particulary bitter skirmish took place in the main train station and its platforms, where almost every railcar was transformed into a firing point, and Soviet troops had to use armour and gun support to advance, taking losses. Only by dusk was the territory completely neutralized, allowing the attackers to approach the third inner defence perimeter, protecting the entrance to the city centre itself.
In the north, fort #5 proved to be a strong pocket of resistance as well. Soviet sappers finally managed to place explosives at the base of the walls, breaching them and allowing for a direct assault. As during the assault on fort #8 bitter close combat began in the fort, lasting all night and ceasing only in the morning when the last troops surrendered .
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".
Day Three: 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, thus completing the encirclement and cutting off the Samland group from the city.
In the afternoon, Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky once again asked the defenders to surrender. This offer was refused and the German forces attempted to break the encirclement, attacking both from the city centre and the Samland bridgehead. The latter managed to advance several kilometres before being stopped. Although another attack was prepared, its lack of air defence allowed the Ilyushin Il-2 ground attack aircraft to destroy a large group of troops. Generally, during the campaign the Soviet aviation proved very effective.
By the end of the day, it was clear that any attempt by the Samland group to break the encirclement would be pointless. However, victory was anywhere but near as almost 40,000 men were garrisoned in the city centre, which were regularly subjected to heavy shelling.
Day Four: 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 von Lasch decided on his own initiative to send emissaries to negotiate the surrender. At 1800, the emissaries arrived at the Soviet lines, and a delegation was sent to Lasch's bunker. Shortly before midnight, the surrender was acknowleged.
Aftermath
Almost 80 percent of the city were destroyed, first by the Royal Air Force in August 1944 and then by the Soviet shelling in April 1945, and lay in ruins. Almost all German residents who remained at the end of the war, an estimated 200,000 out of the city's prewar population of 316,000, were expelled from the city. Many people died of hunger during the war's closing stages and the shortages which followed. Simultaneously, mass lootings took place all over Eastern Prussia.
After the war, following the transfer of East Prussia to the Russian SFSR, Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad, and was resettled by the predominantly Russian (and, to a lesser extent, Belarusian and Ukrainian) settlers from other areas of the Soviet Union. This territory is now known as the Kaliningrad Oblast.
References
- Antony Beevor, Berlin - The Downfall 1945
- Nikolai Shefov, Russian fights, Lib. Military History, M. 2002
- History of Great Patriotic War, 1941 — 1945. Мoscow, 1963.
- Assault on Königsberg. 3rd ed. Kaliningrad, 1973.
- K.N. Galitzky (commander of 11th Guards Army), Fighting for Eastern Prussia, Moscow, 1970.
Footnotes
- ^ [Christopher Duffy Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany, 1945