East Prussian offensive

East Prussian offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Soviet offensive in East Prussia
Date13 January – 25 April 1945
Location
Result Soviet victory
Territorial
changes
Most of East Prussia is annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union annexes Königsberg, Memel and their surrounding areas.
Belligerents
 Soviet Union
German Empire Kampfgruppen[1]
 Germany
 Italian Social Republic [citation needed]
Commanders and leaders
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Ivan Bagramyan
Georg-Hans Reinhardt
Lothar Rendulic
Friedrich Hossbach
Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
Erhard Raus
Walter Weiß
Dietrich von Saucken
Units involved

Red Army

Soviet Union Soviet Navy

Nazi Germany Wehrmacht

Volkssturm

IX Settembre Battalion
Strength
1,669,100 men,[2] 3,000 tanks, 25,000 guns, 3,000 aircraft 580,000 men, 200,000 Volkssturm troopers, 700 tanks, 8200 guns and 700 aircraft
Casualties and losses
126,464 dead or missing
458,314 wounded and sick[3]
Unknown killed or wounded
220,000 captured[4]

The East Prussian offensive[5] 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.

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[6] 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.

  1. ^ Willy Wolff (1976) [1973]. An der Seite der Roten Armee На стороне Красной армии.
  2. ^ This covers all personnel of the 3rd and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, and the elements of 1st Baltic Front involved (Glantz & House 1995, p. 300).
  3. ^ Glantz & House 1995, p. 300.
  4. ^ Владимирович, Пигарев Ростислав. "Восточно-Прусская стратегическая наступательная операция (13.01—25.04.1945)". geroiros.narod.ru.
  5. ^ Russian: Восточно-Прусская стратегическая наступательная операция
  6. ^ Russian: Мемельская операция)

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