Heiligenbeil pocket

Heiligenbeil Pocket
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Soviet troops enter Frauenburg, 9 February (?) 1945
Date 26 January – 29 March 1945 Location East Prussia Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
Nazi Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Friedrich Hossbach (Fourth Army until January 29) Friedrich Müller (Fourth Army from January 29)	Konstantin Rokossovsky (2nd Belorussian Front) Ivan Chernyakhovsky (3rd Belorussian Front until February 18 – KIA that day) Aleksandr Vasilevsky (3rd Belorussian Front from February 19)
Strength
?150,000	?
Casualties and losses
80,000 killed 50,000 captured 605 tanks 128 planes (According to Soviet information)	146,780 killed, 97,553 sick or wounded, 2000 tanks and sp guns (estimated)

The Heiligenbeil Pocket or Heiligenbeil Cauldron (German: Heiligenbeiler Kessel) was the site of a major encirclement battle on the Eastern Front during the closing weeks of World War II, in which the Wehrmacht's 4th Army was almost entirely destroyed during the Soviet Braunsberg Offensive Operation (13–22 March 1945). The pocket was located near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia in eastern Germany (now Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Oblast), and the battle, part of a broader Soviet offensive into the region of East Prussia, lasted from 26 January until 29 March 1945.

The Red Army's East Prussian Operation commenced on 13 January 1945 with the objective of rolling up the substantial German defences in East Prussia and cutting off the provincial capital of Königsberg. The Soviet forces were opposed by the German Army Group Centre, including the Fourth Army, under the command of General Friedrich Hossbach. While the 3rd Belorussian Front initially met strong resistance, the outnumbered German forces soon began to suffer serious ammunition shortages. Colonel-General Georg-Hans Reinhardt, commander of Army Group Centre, warned of the seriousness of the situation as early as 19 January, but was not permitted to make a phased withdrawal.

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