East Prussian Operation

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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