Fire and smoke. Steel and gunfire. Rubble and ashes. That is all that remained of Königsberg,
one of the most beautiful medieval cities ever built by the Germans.
The castle, the chapel, the library, and the university were all gone. Over 200,000
civilians and soldiers were now encircled by the Red Army, and there was no way out.
It was April of 1945, and East Prussia was overwhelmed
by more than one million Soviet soldiers. Still, the men in Fort Five, the heaviest
fortification in Königsberg, held their ground for days against brutal engagements and superior odds.
But that quickly changed when the small garrison spotted Soviet sappers
approaching to place explosives and bury them alive, marking the beginning of the end…
The Walled City
During the 13th century, the Teutonic Order, a religious, military order composed of Roman
Catholic Germanic monk-warriors, embarked on a crusade against the pagan tribes that roamed the
lands of Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic. The crusaders built a series of fortresses,
castles, and fortified villages as they expanded throughout the Baltic, while the garrisons of
Teutonic Knights were strategically distributed as they advanced into hostile territory.
In 1255, the Order founded the imposing castle of Königsberg, which became its main headquarters.
From then on, all of the Grand Masters of the Order would live and
lead their troops from the castle until 1525. That year, the last Grand Master of the Order,
Prince Albrecht of Brandenburg, converted to Protestantism and founded the first Lutheran
State, the Duchy of Prussia. By 1724, the surrounding towns
of Altstadt, Löbenicht, and Kneiphof had become part of Königsberg, which became a city.
Königsberg grew in importance as the centuries passed and was seen as a valuable cultural
patrimony for its links to the Teutonic Order and the expansion of Protestantism.
Besides its numerous military fortifications and unique medieval architecture, the city
also grew in importance with the Albertina University of Königsberg, the Dom Cathedral,
and a Gothic Tower where Frederick the First and Wilhelm the First were crowned kings of Prussia.
Königsberg also became a crucial shipping port in Northern and Eastern Europe, where timber,
cereals, and other goods were traded and stored in impressive warehouses along the
8-meter-deep channel that began at Pillau. The city was vibrant and rich in culture,
but it was also a massive fortress. Its defenses would be put into action when
the city was bombed by the Allied forces mere months after the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Combined Bomber Offensive
The fortified city of Königsberg was bombed for the first time on September 1, 1941, by the Soviet
Air Force. Over 11 PE8 bombers dropped their bombload over the city and caused minor damage.
The Soviet air raids began to escalate as the months went by. And so did the civilian
casualties. During a night raid in April of 1943, the Soviets dropped a FAB-5000 bomb on
the city’s square. This was the largest bomb in the Soviet’s arsenal and weighed 5,000 kilograms.
The damage was considerable, and the German garrison had to increase its
defenses and fortifications to shelter the population from more bombings.
In early 1944, with the tide of war already favoring the Allied forces,
the US Army Air Forces and the British Royal Air Force began to increase their bombing
campaigns over German cities to force them into submission. Königsberg was no exception.
In December of 1943, RAF Air Chief Marshal Arthur Bomber Harris said: (QUOTE)
“The aim of the Combined Bomber Offensive…should be unambiguously stated as the destruction of
German cities, the killing of German workers, and the disruption of civilized life throughout
Germany. It should be emphasized that the destruction of houses, public utilities,
transport and lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale,
and the breakdown of morale both at home and at the battle fronts by fear of extended and
intensified bombing, are accepted and intended aims of our bombing policy.”
Decimating the Castle On the night of August 26, 1944, hell
rained from the skies of Königsberg when the No. 5 Royal Air Force bomber group decimated the city
with more than 170 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers. Only four British aircraft were downed,
and the rest delivered the payload on the city's eastern side.
Staying true to the words of Bomber Harris, the RAF returned three days later
to destroy as part of the indiscriminate firebombing campaigns of German cities.
This time, the No. 5 bomber group returned with a force of 190 Lancasters carrying
a combined bombload of over 480 tons of incendiaries and high explosives.
The bombing raid was devastating. More than half the city, including the beautiful medieval center,
was left in flames and surrounded by rubble. Thousands of civilians lost their lives,
and the fires consumed gardens, buildings, and other infrastructure for several days.
The Royal Air Force Bomber Command estimated that more than 40 percent of all households
and 25 percent of all industrial buildings were utterly destroyed.
And the surrounding towns of Altstadt, Kneiphof, and Löbenicht almost ceased to exist.
More than 150,000 civilians were left without a home, but the half-destroyed fortified city and
its population would have to endure much more pain as the German garrison prepared for a new threat.
A Soviet advance was relentlessly advancing from the East, and they were committed to
taking the city at all costs. East Prussian Offensive
In October of 1944, the Soviet Stavka or High Command launched the First
East Prussian Offensive, also known as Gumbinnen Operation. The objective was
to prevent the Soviet forces from being flanked by German troops as they advanced into Berlin.
To achieve that, the Soviet forces had to penetrate East Prussia and get rid of all
the Wehrmacht troops stationed in the sector. After a month of bitter fighting, the outnumbered
German troops of the Army Group Center were able to halt the Soviet advance. The 4th Army and the
3rd Panzer Army got rid of more than 80,000 Soviet forces at the cost of some 17,000 casualties.
Still, German fatalities could not be replaced, while the Soviets heavily
outnumbered them with the various armies that comprised the 3rd Belorussian Front.
Following a brief period of scattered firefights in the region, the Soviet Union
launched the Second East Prussian Offensive to subjugate East Prussia once and for all.
Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was sent to obliterate all German resistance in East Prussia,
including racing Königsberg to the ground. On January 13, 1945, more than one million six
hundred thousand Soviet soldiers advanced between 40 and 60 kilometers into East-Northern Poland.
The 2nd and 3rd Belarusian Fronts, the 1st Baltic Front, and the 43rd Army had more than
3,000 aircraft, 3,000 tanks, and more than 25,000 artillery pieces
to destroy the inferior German defenders. Meanwhile, the Army Group Center comprised the
3rd Panzer Army, the 2nd Army, the 3rd Army, and Volkssturm forces that barely surpassed 580,000
men, 650 aircraft, 650 tanks, and 8,000 guns. Encircling Königsberg
East Prussia was rapidly turned into a fortified defensive line full of mines,
trenches, improvised fortifications, and stationary machine gun and artillery positions.
Königsberg, already decimated by the RAF bombardment, was also fortified
with improvised defenses. After two weeks of humiliating advance, the numerically
superior Soviet forces were finally able to penetrate the first German line of defense.
The Red Army suffered heavy casualties, losing countless tanks,
artillery pieces, and men as they pushed forward. Still, that did not prevent the Soviet 1st Baltic
Front under orders of General Hovhannes Bagramyan from cutting off the Wehrmacht forces in East
Prussia from a direct connection with Germany when they took over the Vistula Lagoon on January 24.
This Soviet maneuver led to the encirclement of German troops in the Courland Peninsula,
leaving them isolated from the newly established frontlines in East Prussia.
Consequently, Adolf Hitler and the German High Command renamed the troops as Army Group Courland.
This was basically the end for them, as the Wehrmacht would not be able to
save them all from the punishing Soviet grip. As January went by, the Soviet attacks began
tightening the encirclement around Army Group Courland.
By early February, the Red Army had encircled the German troops in three pockets: one around
Königsberg, another on the Vistula Lagoon coast, and the other close to the Sambia Peninsula.
At that point, over 200,000 civilians were trapped inside the semi-destroyed
medieval city alongside the 3rd Panzer Army, Volkssturm militia, and other Heer units.
Medieval Siege The situation was so desperate for the starving
population that daily rations were reduced to mere 180 grams of bread per person. Hundreds of people
began to cross the city walls to surrender to the Soviets and have a better chance of survival.
Others began crossing the Vistula Lagoon's ice to reach Pillau,
but most were subjected to fire from the Soviets. Those who made it began to evacuate through the
sea as part of Operation Hannibal, whose objective was to evacuate civilians and
soldiers from the Courland Pocket, East Prussia, Pomerania, and Prussia.
As the civilians were being evacuated, the German garrison kept desperately fighting to
maintain the frontline between Königsberg and Samland. Meanwhile, men from the 1st
Infantry Division and General Hans Gollnick's 23rd Corps managed to maintain a corridor for
the fleeing civilians, and the garrison was then reinforced by the 5th Panzer Division.
Through a series of tactical maneuvers, the less than 500,000 Wehrmacht troops had
managed to halt the advance of more than a million and a half Red Army soldiers.
By mid-March 1945, the Soviet High Command decided to destroy Königsberg. It was the only way to push
forward into the heart of Germany. Raced to the Ground
The fortress city was defended by over 130,000 Germans distributed in 15 forts connected
through a series of tunnels with barracks and rooms to store ammunition and supplies.
The fortifications had been built during the last years of the 19th century but had
managed to survive the bombardment of the RAF. Additionally, the city was surrounded by three
concentric rings of fortifications, which also comprised over a dozen forts outside the city.
Coupled with mines and anti-tank defenses, the garrison was ready to fight to the last man. When
the tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers sighted the imposing, half-destroyed city and its defenses
on the horizon, they realized they would not be able to take it with a conventional assault.
Instead, they had to siege the city in medieval style. This meant heavy artillery bombardment
of more than 1,000 artillery pieces and bombing missions from the Soviet Air Force.
After pummeling the city for over four days and devastating it from all cardinal points,
the Soviet infantry and mechanized forces assaulted it on April 6, 1945.
The outer forts were already destroyed, and the Soviet infantry pierced through the first
outside ring after scattered firefights with the few Germans who survived the shelling.
Still, the Soviet attacks did not stop, sending wave after wave of troops and
vehicles until the fort was utterly destroyed. A day later, the Soviets reached the second line
of defense and, after a successful advance, were ambushed by flanking
maneuvers of German forces that attacked and retreated to their line of defense.
Still, all resistance was futile. Fort Five, the strongest fort, was isolated from the garrison,
encircled, and subjected to more artillery fire until it was breached.
Knowing that resisting would only lead to more bloodshed, General
Otto Lasch defied Hitler’s order to fight to the last man and finally surrendered on April 9.
More than 80 percent of the city had been erased from the map, and after the end of the war,
it was renamed Kaliningrad. The Soviets destroyed the remains of the town,
including the iconic medieval castle, cathedral, chapel, and the university.
The city was then populated with Russians and Ukrainians. Today, Kaliningrad bears
no resemblance to the once powerful and beautiful city, and there is no trace of the imposing castle
that became the emblem of the Teutonic Order and the rich and vibrant towns that surrounded it.
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