The defeat of the German garrison required a month-long reduction of fortified positions, urban combat, and a final assault on the city's citadel by the Red Army, complete with medieval touches.

The Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder offensive on 12 January 1945, inflicted a huge defeat on the defending German forces, and advanced rapidly into western Poland and eastern Germany.

Certain cities which lay on the path of the Soviet advance were declared by Hitler to be Festungen (strongholds), where the garrisons were ordered to mount last-ditch stands.

[8] The city was defended by 15,000–20,000 German troops from a great variety of units including Volkssturm, Luftwaffe ground forces, police, and highly motivated officer candidates.

The upper works of the forts were sufficiently strong to provide reliable protection against heavy artillery fire.

Thus, the Red Army had to clear the city of German troops before the final assaults designed to capture Berlin and end the war could begin.

Meanwhile, Red Army tank units had swept north and south of the city, capturing hundreds of German aircraft in the process.

[11] Moving further west, the Soviet tank units left the capture of the city to other Red Army forces.

[12] By the southwestern suburb of Junikowo, the 11th Guards Tank Corps took up positions to block any German attempt at retreat.

Incensed, he ordered his troops that were east of the Warta River to attempt to break out, and some 2,000 German soldiers managed to infiltrate the Red Army lines and head west on the following night.

In an odd echo of medieval warfare, the Soviet forces used ladders to cross this obstacle but found themselves swept by fire from the citadel's redoubts.

[13] On the evening of 22 February, Colonel-General Chuikov was informed by General Bakanov, commander of the 74th Guards Rifle Division, that the citadel's garrison had surrendered.

Doubtlessly, their possession of the city complicated Soviet resupply efforts, but other influences had also convinced the Stavka to pause the Red Army advance at the Oder River instead of attempting to push on to Berlin in February 1945.

[citation needed] The battle definitively reduced the old Prussian fortress system which today stands mostly as monuments to an earlier military era.

[citation needed] Today, the Poznań Citadel site is a large park, in which are situated the remains of some of the fortifications, a memorial to the Red Army and one for the Cytadelowcy (the some 2000 local Poles, under Polish and Soviet officers, conscripted as assault or 'sapper' troops for the assault on Fort Winiary towards the end of the battle), military cemeteries, and a military museum containing exhibits relating to the 1945 battle.