During initial Stavka planning, Joseph Stalin ordered Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to annihilate the Wehrmacht forces trapped there.

In five days, taking heavy losses, Soviet troops advanced only 20 kilometers and were unable to break through German lines into open ground.

[4] 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.

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.

[8] 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.

This action solidified the German defence 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.

[1] In March the situation had stabilized – by now, the main front line had moved hundreds of kilometres to the west, and capturing the city took a much lower priority for the Soviets.

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.

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.

[13] A number of units consisting of "graduates" of the NKFD "anti-fascist schools" attached to the Zemland Group of Forces of the Red Army were sent to Königsberg and other places of East Prussia.

[12] On 22 March, a company of 58 men led by Lieutenant Alfred Peter was sent to Königsberg; 4 other members of the NKFD were sent with the Combat Group to spread pro-Soviet and anti-fascist propaganda.

It returned with 35 German soldiers captured including Oberleutnant Grünwald; 1 member of the Combat Group was killed and two more were wounded during the operation.

So we had to realize to our horror that now, when we were in the heaviest battle for the East Prussian homeland, German soldiers from the Seydlitz group were fighting in the most underhanded way against their own, struggling comrades.

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.

Built at the end of the 19th century and modernized since, the fort had thick walls, considerable firepower and was surrounded by a deep moat, making a frontal assault almost impossible.

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.

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.

Using 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.

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 armor and gun support to advance, taking heavy losses.

Only by dusk was the area completely neutralized, allowing the attackers to approach the third inner defence perimeter, protecting the entrance to the city centre itself.

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.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

The operation was a major success for the Soviet Army due to the comparatively low casualties suffered during the capture of the heavily fortified stronghold.