Driving on through Schlochau and Biib-litz, the 2nd Belorussian Front’s tanks reached the Baltic north of Koslin on February 28, cutting the German 2nd Army’s last land communications with the rest of the Reich. This army now had its back to the sea, its right on the Stolpe and its left on the Nogat. A few days later Zhukov broke through to Dramb. urg and drove on to Treptow, in spite of the intervention one after the other of four Panzer or Panzergrenadier divisions. During this fighting General Krappe's X S. S. Panzer Corps was wiped out and Raus was just able to save some
50,000 men of his army who, on March 11, were sheltering on Wolin Island. Eight days later a special Kremlin communique announced the capture of the port of Kolberg (now Kolobrzeg) where the 163rd and the 402nd Divisions were cut to pieces almost to the last man.
Konev’s job in Silesia was to align his front with Zhukov's, according to Russian official histories today. But was it to be only this? Judging by the means employed, it seems unlikely.
On February 4, Konev launched a first attack when he broke out of the bridgehead at Brieg and advanced nearly 13 miles along the left bank of the Oder. South-east of Breslau, the Russians advanced as far as Ohlan, some 13 miles from the Silesian capital, and south down to Strehlen. A special Moscow communique claimed that this action brought in 4,200 prisoners.
A The wreckage of a Mesnerschmitt Bf 110 anil of the Luftieatfe. caught by a surprise Russian attack.
A week later the 3rd Guards Tank and the 4th Tank Armies broke out from the Steinau bridgehead and advanced at Blitzkrieg speed over the plain of Silesia. On February 13, Colonel-General Lelyu-shenko was attacking Glogau, 25 miles north-west of Steinau. On his left, supported by a division of artillery and followed by Colonel-General K. A. Koro-teev’s 52nd Army, Rokossovsky had forced a crossing of the Bober at Bunzlau the night before. On February 15, after a 60-mile dash north-west, the Soviet tanks reached Guben, Sommerfeld, Sorau, and Sagan, which they lost and regained in circumstances still unknown.
So Konev’s aim was not merely to align his front with Zhukov’s but to cross the Neisse, roll up the front along the Oder down-river from Fiirstenberg, and advance towards Berlin through Cottbus. Halted on the Neisse, either by Stavka or by enemy opposition, however, he closed the ring round Breslau. At the beginning of March, he was facing Schorner on the line Bunzlau - Jauer - Schweidnitz Neisse - Ratibor, at the foot of the mountains separating Silesia from Bohemia and Moldavia.
Mopping up East Prussia fell to the 3rd Belorussian Front, reinforced up to 100 divisions against the 24, including five Panzer, of Army Group "North”, at the beginning of February. At the same date the Russians were in the outskirts of
Konigsberg; from here the front moved along the course of the river Alle between Friedland and Guttstadt, then turned north-west to reach the coast near Frauenberg. This left the Germans trapped in a rectangle about the size of Brighton - Guildford - Winchester - Portsmouth. Colonel-General Rendulic did not limit himself merely to defensive operations. On February 19 he counterattacked in a pincer manoeuvre and reestablished communication, though precariously, between Konigsberg and Pillau, the latter a Baltic port giving him a supply and evacuation link with the rest of the Reich less exposed than Konigsberg.
Chernyakhovsky’s idea had been to cut East Prussia in two from south-west to north-east, hut on February 18 he was killed in front of Mehlsack by a shell splinter as he was on his way to the H. Q. of General Gorbatov, commander of the 3rd Army. Twice decorated a Hero of the Soviet Union, he was the youngest and one of the most gifted of the great Russian war leaders. In his honour the small Prussian town of Insterburg was renamed Chernyakhovsk.
Stalin nominated Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky to succeed him, while Vasilevsky’s job as Chief-of-Staff of the Red Army was taken over by General A. I. Antonov.
The offensive proceeded along the same axis, in spite of obstinate German resistance, which General Gorbatov emphasises in his memoirs. The invaders’ superior strength soon began to tell, however. On March 14, the Russian 3rd Army concentrated on a narrow front twice as much infantry and five times as much artillery as the Germans, gained over three miles in three days and got to within eight miles of the sea, which it finally reached on March 25. "What a sight on the coast!” Gorbatov writes. "Several square miles of lorries and vans loaded with materiel, food, and domestic equipment. Between the vehicles lay corpses of German soldiers. Some 300 horses were attached in pairs to a chain and many of these were dead too.”
World History
