And so the German 4th Army was cut in two and trapped in two pockets. Meanwhile, on March 12, Hitler had replaced
The Russian Joseph Stalin-2 heavy tank
Weight: 45.5 tons.
Crew: 4.
Armament: one 122-mm D-25 gun with 28 rounds, one 12.7-mm DShK and two 7.62 DT machine guns. Armour: hull glacis 110-mm, nose 127-mm, sides 89-mm, and front pannier sides 133-mm; turret front 64-mm, sides 95-mm, roof 45-mm, and mantlet 102-mm. Engine: one V-2K inline, 600-hp.
Speed: 27 mph.
Range: 100 miles.
Length: 31 feet 7 inches.
Width : 10 feet 3 inches.
Height: 9 feet.
Rendulic as C.-in-C. Army Group "Kurland” and Colonel-General Weiss, C.-in-C. 2nd Army, was given the sad honour of presiding over the death-throes of Army Group "North”. On March 30, the pocket which had formed round the little towns of Braunsberg and Heiligenbeil surrendered, yielding (if we are to believe a Soviet communique of the period) 80,000 dead and 50,000 prisoners. In the night of April 9-10 General Lasch, commander of the Konigsberg fortress, decided to send envoys to Marshal Vasilevsky. The town had been under heavy and incessant air bombardment for some ten days, whilst the attackers, having taken the fortifications, infiltrated the streets amidst the burning buildings. No German authors we have consulted blame the commander for surrendering, though 92,000 men were taken prisoner and 2,232 guns were lost. Lasch was condemned to death in his absence, however, and his family imprisoned.
On April 15, the Russians invaded the Samland peninsula, from which they had been driven out two months previously. Ten days later, the last remnants of the German 4th Army, now under the command of General von Saucken, evacuated the port of Pillau, which had served as a transit station for 141,000 military wounded and 451,000 civilian refugees since January 15.
Along the lower Vistula, Rokossovsky had the right of the 2nd Belorussian Front, and in particular the Polish 2nd Army (General Swierczewski) facing the six corps and 17 divisions, all very dilapidated, which the reorganisation of command in January had put into the incapable hands of the sinister Heinrich Himmler.
By February 18, on the right
V A Russian SU-152 assault gun lumbers into the ruins of Kbnigsberg, once the heart of East Prussia.
Bank of the Vistula, the Russians had reached Graudenz (Grudziadz) but it took them until March 5 to overcome the last resistance of this small town. On February 21 they took Dirschau (Tczew) on the left bank 21 miles from Danzig. On March 9, the Soviet forces which had reached the Baltic north of Koslin crossed the Stolpe and drove on towards Kartuzy, turning the right flank of the German 2nd Army, which had come under the command of General von Saucken after the transfer of Colonel-General Rendulic.
World History
