Battle of Königsberg The Battle of Königsberg , also known as the Königsberg Offensive , was one of the last operations of the East Prussian Offensive during World War II . In four days of violent urban warfare , Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussian Front captured the city of Königsberg – now Kaliningrad , Russia . The siege started in late January 1945 when the Soviets initially surrounded the city . There was heavy fighting for the overland connection between Königsberg and the port of Pillau , but by March 1945 Königsberg was hundreds of kilometres behind the main front line . The battle finished when the German garrison surrendered to the Soviets on 9 April after a three - day assault made their position untenable . The beginning : East Prussian Offensive . The East Prussian Offensive was planned by the Soviet Stavka to prevent flank attacks on the armies rushing towards Berlin . Indeed , East Prussia held numerous troops that could be used for this . During initial Stavka planning , Joseph Stalin ordered Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to annihilate the Wehrmacht forces trapped there . On 13 January 1945 , almost 1 , 500 , 000 troops supported by several thousand tanks and aircraft of the 3rd Belorussian Front ( 11th Guards , 39th , 43rd , 50th , 1st Air , 3rd Air , 4th Air , and 15th Air Armies ) entered East Prussia , which was transformed into a gigantic web of fortification s , defensive lines and minefield s . At first , the offensive was almost a failure . Red Army troops only advanced 1 . 5 kilometers the first day , through only three defensive lines . In five days , taking heavy losses , Soviet troops advanced only 20 kilometers , but were still unable to break through German lines into the open . Nevertheless , after quickly overcoming the initial difficulties , the Soviet advance gathered steam , and on 24 January Soviet advance forces reached the shores of the Vistula Lagoon ( part of the Baltic Sea ) , cutting off the German forces in East Prussia from a direct connection with Germany , forcing the Germans to supply the surrounded forces by sea . This operation was accomplished by the 1st Baltic Front under the command of General Hovhannes Bagramyan , also known as Ivan Bagramyan . Encirclement . On 25 January 1945 , in a tacit acknowledgement that German forces in East Prussia and the Courland Pocket were far behind the new front line , Hitler renamed three army groups . Army Group North became Army Group Courland ; Army Group Centre ( the army group surrounded in the Königsberg pocket ) became Army Group North and Army Group A became Army Group Centre . Those forces , now redesignated as Army Group North , were compressed by further Soviet attacks into three pockets : one around Königsberg , one on the adjacent Sambia Peninsula , and one on the coast of the " Frisches Haff " to the south - west ( the Heiligenbeil Pocket ) . By late January 1945 the 3rd Belorussian Front had surrounded Königsberg on the landward side , severing the road down the Samland peninsula to the port of Pillau , and trapping the 3rd Panzer Army and approximately 200 , 000 civilians in the city . The civilian provisions were so meagre that civilians were faced with three bleak alternatives : Hundreds chose to cross the front line , but about 2 , 000 women and children a day chose to cross the ice on foot to Pillau . On his return from a visit to Berlin , Erich Koch the Gauleiter of East Prussia chose to stay in the relative safety of Pillau to organise the evacuation rather than return to Königsberg . The first evacuation steamer from Pillau carrying 1 , 800 civilians and 1 , 200 casualties reached safety on the 29 January . Throughout February , there was desperate fighting as the Germans tried to maintain the narrow connection between Königsberg and Samland . For a time , Soviet troops were successful in severing that connection and cutting the city off completely . However , on 19 February the 3rd Panzer Army and the 4th Army , attacked from the direction of Pillau , managing to force open a corridor from Königsberg to Pillau . Led by a captured Soviet T - 34 tank , this attack was spearheaded by the 1st Infantry Division from Königsberg , intended to link with General Hans Gollnick ' s XXVIII Corps , which held parts of the Samland peninsula , including the vital port of Pillau . Capturing the town of Metgethen , the unit opened the way for the 5th Panzer Division to join with Gollnick ' s forces near the town of Gross Heydekrug the next day . This action solidified the German defense of the area until April , re - opening the land route from Königsberg to Pillau , through which supplies could be delivered by ship and the wounded and refugees could be evacuated . This month - long battle is sometimes called the First Siege of Königsberg . In March the situation had stabilized – by now , the main front line had moved hundreds of kilometers to the west , and capturing the city took a much lower priority for the Soviets . Even so , the garrison was intact and showed no signs of surrender . Eventually the Soviet command decided to capture the city by assault rather than a siege . Preparing the assault . Assaulting Königsberg was not to be an easy task . Garrisoned inside the city were five full - strength divisions , for a total of 130 , 000 troops , along with impressive defensive positions constructed in 1888 that included fifteen fort s interconnected by tunnels with integrated accommodations for the troops , and designed to withstand the bombardment of super - guns being designed in that era following the Siege of Paris ( 1870 – 1871 ) . The Germans still held a narrow land connection to the adjacent German pocket on the Samland peninsula . The capture of the city required that this desperately defended link be severed . The German troops on the peninsula , the so - called Samland group , could be expected to stage counter - attacks to prevent this from happening . Königsberg was , according to Winston Churchill , " a modernised heavily defended fortress " . Three concentric rings of fortifications surrounded the city : the outer ring of defences reinforced by 12 forts outside the town , the middle ring in the outskirts and the inner city , a single fortress of anti - tank defences , barricade s and landmine s , along with several other forts . In order to face such defensive power , the Soviet command planned to heavily rely on aviation and artillery support , with densities reaching 250 guns per kilometre in some areas . The German troops were also subjected to propaganda , explaining that their resistance was futile , and that the front line was far behind them — that they were trapped in a " pocket " and that it would be best to surrender . However , this propaganda had little to no effect . After four days of preparatory artillery bombardment , the assault started on 6 April 1945 . The assault was planned to be " star - like " . Troops would attack from many points around the perimeter and meet in the center of the city , compartmentalising the remaining defenders into isolated groups incapable of mutual support . There were two main fronts : North ( held by the 39th and 43rd Armies ( which included the 208th Rifle Division ) and South ( 11th Guards Army ) . The 50th army was stationed in the northeast part of the front , but took only a limited part in the operation . The Assault . Day One : 6 April 1945 . In the southern part of the front , the attack started at dawn by intense artillery bombing , lasting three hours , followed by the first attack wave . The Soviet rifle divisions quickly went through the first defense line , because its defenders had been largely eliminated and the remainder were demoralized by several days of intense bombing . By noon , the Soviet leading regiments reached the second defensive line , where its progression was halted by a stronger opposition , forcing Soviet commanders to use their reserve forces . Three hours later , the second defense line was overrun in several places . An especially bitter fight raged in the vicinity of the fort eight . Built at the end of the 19th century and modernized since , it had thick walls , considerable firepower and was surrounded by a deep moat , making a frontal assault almost impossible . Despite heavy artillery fire , its defenders prevented any attempt to approach the walls . Only at dusk Soviet forces were able to reach the moat and start using explosives to try to breach the walls . In the main attack axis at the north , the attack started at the same time . By noon , the first defense line had fallen and the second line was badly shaken and broken in several places . However , in the afternoon , the progress became increasingly slow , especially on the right flank , as German forces stationed in the western outskirts of the city ( the so - called Samland Group ) attempted several flank attacks . The fort five , claimed to be the best fortification of the entire Königsberg position , formed a strong resistance . In front of such a situation , Soviet commanders decided to surround it and leave it behind , leaving the rear guard troops time to prepare a new assault . At dusk , the battle stalled allowing both sides to consolidate their lines , regroup their forces and bring reserves to the front line . This first day had mixed results , since Soviet progress was not as good as expected . However , both city defenses and the defenders ' morale were seriously shaken , and troops , including officers , began to surrender periodically . During this first day of assault , bad weather prevented the Soviet troops from using precision bombing with as much effect as they would have liked . Additionally , even fortified , the terrain conquered by the Soviet troops during this day was not so densely populated as the central city would be , reducing problems associated with urban warfare . Day Two : 7 April 1945 . During the night , the German troops attempted several counterattacks , using their last reserves . Despite the bitter engagements and heavy losses on both sides , the counterattacks were driven off . The worst part of the front was still the one facing the Samland group , where a dozen such counterattacks were attempted . The better weather conditions allowed the Red Army to make a profitable use of daylight precision bombing . Several hundred bombers belonging to 1st , 3rd and 15th Air Armies , supported with Baltic Fleet aviation , bombarded the downtown and the Samland group ' s bridgeheads . Meanwhile , fort eight , blocked by Soviet troops , was still a strong pocket of resistance . After several unsuccessful attacks , a more cunning plan was developed . Using both smoke screens to conceal their approach and flamethrowers to weaken the defense positions , several hundred men managed to cross the moat and enter the fortress , where bitter close combat began . Once the outer defenses were weakened , a massive frontal assault began . Finally , the assault succeeded and the remainder of the garrison surrendered . During the day , the 11th Guards Army sought to reach the Pregel river , eliminating all resistance on the southern side . However , their advance was slowed in the central area of the city , where every building had to be literally taken apart along with its defenders . A particularly bitter skirmish took place in the main railway station and its platforms , where almost every railcar was transformed into a firing point , and Soviet troops had to use armour and gun support to advance , taking losses . Only by dusk was the territory completely neutralized , allowing the attackers to approach the third inner defence perimeter , protecting the entrance to the city centre itself . In the north , fort five proved to be a strong pocket of resistance as well . Soviet sappers finally managed to place explosives at the base of the walls , breaching them and allowing for a direct assault . As with the assault on fort eight , bitter close combat began in the fort , lasting all night and ceasing only in the morning when the last troops surrendered . At the end of the day , seeing that further resistance was pointless , General Otto Lasch radioed Adolf Hitler ' s headquarters and asked for permission to surrender . Hitler ' s answer was " fight to the last soldier " . Day Three : 8 April 1945 . During the night , the Pregel was crossed by the 11th Guards Army and despite enemy fire by dawn a full bridgehead was established on the opposite bank . Continuing their advance northwards , they linked up with the northern troops , completing the encirclement and cutting off the Samland group from the city . In the afternoon , Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky once again asked the defenders to surrender . This offer was refused and the German forces attempted to break out of the encirclement , attacking both from the city centre and the Samland bridgehead . The latter managed to advance several kilometres before being stopped . Although another attack was prepared , the Germans ' lack of air defenses allowed Soviet Ilyushin Il - 2 ground attack aircraft to destroy a large number of troops . During this campaign , Soviet aviation generally proved very effective . By the end of the day , it was clear that any attempt by the Samland group to break out of the encirclement would be pointless . However , victory was nowhere near , as almost 40 , 000 men were garrisoned in the city centre , which was regularly subjected to heavy shelling . Day Four : 9 April 1945 . During the last day of the battle , the besieged German defenders were overwhelmed and the defence coordination fell apart . Having been comprehensively defeated , and in the realisation that further resistance was futile , Otto Lasch decided on his own initiative to send emissaries to negotiate the surrender . At 18 : 00 , the emissaries arrived at the Soviet lines , and a delegation was sent to Lasch ' s bunker . Shortly before midnight , the surrender was acknowledged . Aftermath . Almost 80 % of the city was destroyed ; first by the Royal Air Force in August 1944 , and then by Soviet shelling in April 1945 . Almost all German residents who remained at the end of the war , an estimated 200 , 000 out of the city ' s prewar population of 316 , 000 , were expelled from the city . After the war , following the transfer of northern half of East Prussia to the Russian SFSR , Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad , and was installed with predominantly Russian ( and , to a lesser extent , Belarusian and Ukrainian ) settlers from other areas of the Soviet Union . This area is now known as the Kaliningrad Oblast .