Samland Offensive The Samland Offensive was a Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front in the final stages of World War II . It took place in Sambia ( ) ; ( ) . The East Prussian Offensive , which commenced on January 13 , 1945 , had seen the Red Army clear German forces from much of East Prussia . The defenders had been driven into a series of pockets on the Baltic coast and in the city of Königsberg , in which they were besieged . Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky , who had taken over command of the 3rd Belorussian Front in February , incorporated General Hovhannes Bagramyan ' s 1st Baltic Front into his command from February 22 , redesignating it as the Zemland Army Group ( or Samland Front ) . Bagramyan ' s forces initially laid siege to Königsberg ; the city was eventually stormed on April 9 . They were then given the task of overcoming the substantial German force still remaining in Sambia . German planning . German defence efforts had largely focused on the port of Pillau at the tip of the peninsula , which was the main evacuation point for casualties and East Prussian civilians . Throughout the siege of Königsberg , Sambia had been defended by Army Detachment Samland under the command of General Hans Gollnick , who had tried to maintain a corridor between Königsberg and Pillau . On April 7 , the remnants of Second and Fourth Armies , which had been destroyed in encirclements at Danzig and Heiligenbeil respectively , were combined as " Armee Ostpreußen " with the task of defending Sambia , the Vistula delta and the Hel Peninsula ; Gollnick ' s troops were incorporated in it . Most of the units of " Armee Ostpreußen " were little more than remnants , and the entire formation was very poorly supplied . During the battle for Sambia , its officers were outraged to discover that the " Luftwaffe " and " Kriegsmarine " had maintained large underground depots full of stores and fuel in the woods of the peninsula ; the supplies had to be destroyed in the retreat . The offensive . The offensive plan called for the 5th and 39th Armies to break through towards Fischhausen as the main strike force , with the 11th Guards Army in reserve . The 2nd Guards Army would attack in the north , with the 43rd Army breaking through on the southern flank . There would also be amphibious landings in the south of Sambia . The 3rd Belorussian Front ' s head of intelligence suggested that they faced up to 100 , 000 defending troops but by shortening the frontage of each unit the attackers were able to achieve a superiority of two to one in men and three to one in artillery . Bagramyan issued a call for the defenders to surrender in exchange for fair treatment and medical assistance for the wounded , but this went unanswered , and the offensive commenced with an artillery barrage and air attacks on April 13 . The initial attack scattered many of the remaining German forces , some falling back towards Pillau . The Soviet 115th Rifle Division broke through and cleared the 551st Volksgrenadier Division from Rauschen on the north - western tip of Sambia ; the German forces in the north of the peninsula , including the 95th Infantry Division and parts of Heavy Panzer Detachment 502 , were driven southwards into Palmnicken and destroyed . By April 16 , Soviet forces broke through near Fischhausen ; parts of XXVI Corps , including the 5th Panzer and 28th Jäger Divisions became cut off on the peninsula at Peyse , and were lost . A defence line , the " Tenkitten - Riegel " , had been improvised across the narrow strip of land leading to Pillau ; to break German resistance , the 11th Guards Army was committed on April 20 . Fighting intensified at Tenkitten , where the commander of the 16th Guards Rifle Corps , Major - General S S Gur ' ev , was killed by a shell fragment on April 22 . The German defensive perimeter was pushed back towards Pillau , which was defended by elements of the 1st , 21st , 58th and other Infantry Divisions ; remaining German troops were evacuated to the Frische Nehrung . Pillau had been heavily fortified , being described by Bagramyan as " Konigsberg in miniature " , and was supported by fire from naval artillery and coastal batteries . After a stubborn defence , it was eventually stormed by units of 11th Guards Army , including the 31st Guards Rifle Division , on April 25 , the town being cleared in around 12 hours . The last German position to fall was a battery commanded by Major - General Karl Henke , which was overrun by the 16th Guards Rifle Corps on April 27 . Aftermath . The Red Army claimed to have killed or taken prisoner 80 , 000 German troops during the operations in Sambia . The remnants of IX Corps resisted on the Frische Nehrung to the end of the war , though the corps staff was removed to Bornholm . The headquarters of the Zemland Group of Forces later became the headquarters of the Baltic Military District on 9 July 1945 .