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.

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 3rd Belorussian Front's head of intelligence suggested that they faced up to 100,000 defending troops[4] 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.

[3] 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.

[5] 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.

[6] 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.