East Prussian Offensive

Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Soldiers of the German 4th Army man positions on the East Prussian border immediately prior to the offensive

Date	13 January – 25 April 1945
Location	East Prussia
Result	Soviet victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Georg-Hans Reinhardt
Friedrich Hossbach
Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller
Erhard Raus
Walter Weiss
Dietrich von Saucken

Konstantin Rokossovsky
Ivan Chernyakhovsky †
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Hovhannes Bagramyan

Strength

580,000 men
200,000 Volkssturm troopers

1,669,100 men

Casualties and losses

Unknown killed or wounded
220,000 captured

126,464 dead or missing
458,314 wounded and sick

The East Prussian Offensive was a strategic offensive by the 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 16–27 October 1944, and was carried out by the 3rd Belorussian Front under General I.D. Chernyakhovsky as part of the Memel Offensive 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.

The main thrust of the offensive was to be conducted by the 3rd Belorussian Front under Ivan Chernyakhovsky. His forces were tasked with driving westwards towards Königsberg, against the defensive positions of the 3rd Panzer Army and 4th Army, the northern armies of General Georg-Hans Reinhardt's Army Group Centre.

From the north, on Chernyakhovsky's right flank, General Hovhannes Bagramyan's 1st Baltic Front would attack the positions of the 3rd Panzer Army on the Neman, as well as crushing its small bridgehead at Memel. Chernyakhovsky's left flank would be supported by the 2nd Belorussian Front of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, which was initially ordered to push north-west to the Vistula, through the lines of the 2nd Army, thereby sealing off the whole of East Prussia.

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