Heiligenbeil Pocket - Destruction of The 4th Army

Destruction of The 4th Army

The pocket was finally crushed in an operation lasting from 13 March - 29 March, officially known as the Braunsberg Offensive Operation, in preparation for the final assault on Königsberg,

The Red Army quickly moved to cut communication between the Kessel and Königsberg, their troops reaching the coastline about 5 miles from the city on 15 March. A crossing of the Frisching River was forced in a night attack on the night of 17–18 March, further rolling up German defences of the Kessel from the east. Clearer weather from 18 March allowed an intensive aerial bombardment of the Fourth Army's positions.

With most communications cut, German forces remaining in the pocket were now largely faced with either death or being taken prisoner; some 'elite' units, such as the Fallschirm-Panzergrenadier Division 2 Hermann Göring and the 24th Panzer Division, were evacuated by sea, but others were gradually cut off in a series of small pockets on the coast, in some cases actually digging into the coastal embankments or beaches. POW reports suggested that many German units were now seriously understrength, with the 50th Infantry Division, for example, able to field only a single incomplete regiment.

The Soviets finally took Braunsberg on 20 March. Heiligenbeil, covering the small port of Rosenberg, was attacked with phosphorus bombs on 22 March and successfully stormed on 25 March, the town suffering almost complete destruction. Rosenberg itself was taken on 26 March, with the remnants of the Fourth Army falling back on the Kahlholzer Haken peninsula, where the perimeter was defended by troops from the Panzerkorps "Großdeutschland" and the 28th Jäger Division. The last evacuations took place on the morning of 29 March from Kahlholz and Balga, where a remnant of the 562nd Volksgrenadier Division was destroyed forming a rearguard (its commander, Helmuth Hufenbach, receiving a posthumous promotion to Major-General). Soviet sources claimed 93,000 enemy dead and 46,448 taken prisoner during the operation (though some German sources claim that many troops in the Kessel were successfully evacuated to the Frische Nehrung; given the chaos prevailing at this stage of the war, it is unlikely that accurate figures will ever be determined, many soldiers having simply disappeared). Further elements of the Fourth Army continued to resist around Pillau, and latterly on the Frische Nehrung, until May.

The 4th Army's archives were buried in a forest near the town of Heiligenbeil (now known as Mamonovo, Russia), in an area still littered with debris from the final battles.