Battle of Memel

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The battle of Memel and the subsequent siege of Memel (part of the First Battle of Courland ) from October 5th to 22nd, 1944 and the siege until January 27th, 1945 was a conflict on the Eastern Front during the Second World War . The battle began when the Red Army launched its offensive against the East Prussian port city of Memel (Russian: Мемельская наступательная операция) in early October 1944 . The offensive drove the remaining German armed forces in what is now Lithuania and Latvia to a small bridgehead in Klaipėda (Memel) and its port. After that there was a three-month siege , the bridgehead of Memel could only be taken by the Soviet troops in the course of the East Prussian offensive in January 1945.

prehistory

During the Soviet offensive in Belarus ( Operation Bagration ) from June to August 1944, the German Army Group Center was almost completely crushed and driven out of what is now Belarus , most of what is now Lithuania and most of Poland . In August and September 1944, a series of German counter-offensives - Operations Doppelkopf and Operation Caesar - succeeded in stopping the Soviet advance in the Baltic States and maintaining the link between Army Group Center and Army Group North . The Stawka then prepared a new attack of the 1st Baltic Front against the positions of the 3rd Panzer Army , which was concentrated on Memel and provided for the division of the two German army groups again.

Planning

Hovhannes Baghramjan

The commander of the 1st Baltic Front, Army General Hovhannes Baghramjan , decided to lead the main Soviet attack northwest of Schaulen with the forces of the 6th Guard Army (Colonel General IM Tschistjakow ) and the 43rd Army (Lieutenant General AP Beloborodow), and also provided the 5th Guards Panzer Army (Lieutenant General WT Wolski) at the head, which was sent to Memel via Kovnatowo and Lavkosoda. 35 of 57 rifle divisions at the front and 777 (of 1,323) tanks and self-propelled guns were in the attack. All the artillery of the front was concentrated on a 19 kilometers wide section where the breakthrough was to be achieved, which made it possible to achieve a density of 50 tanks and 200 cannons per front kilometer. The intention of the Memel offensive was to destroy the German 3rd Panzer Army, to reach the Polangen - Memel - Neman line to Tilsit and to push the opposing group to the coast of the Baltic Sea. A simultaneous push from the region southwest of Schaulen was transmitted to the 2nd Guard Army (Lieutenant General PG Tschanschibadze) and the 1st Panzer Corps (Lieutenant General WW Butkow ), which was to be led in the direction of Kelme . In the second season of the front, the 51st Army (Lieutenant General JG Kreiser) and a separate rifle corps were made available to push back , while the 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps was also available as a reserve. On the orders of the commander of the 3rd Belarusian Front , Army General Tschernachowski, the 39th Army (Lieutenant General II Lyudnikow), in cooperation with the 2nd Guard Army, had to advance in a general direction towards Tauroggen and encircle the opposing group to the east of this city. The actions of the 39th Army were supported by the armed forces of the 1st Air Army (Colonel General TT Chrjukin ) of the 3rd Belarusian Front. Baghramjan also tried to deceive the German command into the fact that the Soviet main axis of attack was aimed at Riga and took further measures to ensure that no corresponding reserve concentrations could form on the German side.

Deployments

Red Army

1. Baltic Front (General Hovhannes Bagramjan)

From the 3rd Belarusian Front

German army

North wing of the 3rd Panzer Army (General Erhard Raus )

The offensive

On October 5, 1944 at 11:30 am, Bagramjan opened the offensive with a 20-minute artillery strike on a 75-kilometer front and concentrated his main forces against the section of the relatively weak 551st People's Grenadier Division . The latter positions quickly collapsed. Bagramjan led the 5th Guards Panzer Army into the breakthrough section, which extended the Soviet incursion on the first day at a depth of 16 kilometers. The breakthrough route of the Soviet 3rd Guards Panzer Corps (Lieutenant General AP Panfilow) led via Telsiai, Plunge, Kretinga to Polangen, that of the 29th Panzer Corps (Major General KM Malachow) via Lukniki, Rietavas directly to Memel. The main thrust of the 5th Guards Panzer Army north of Memel was followed in the second season by the 51st Army, which began its advance towards the coast of Polangen .

During the fighting up to October 7th, there was a general collapse of the positions of the German 3rd Panzer Army and the penetration of the 43rd Army south of Memel. Within two days, Beloborodov's troops had reached the coast south of Memel, while the Wolskis circled the city from the north. The headquarters of the German 3rd Panzer Army was overrun by units of the 5th Guards Panzer Army, Colonel General Raus and his staff had to fight their way back to Memel. The troops of the 2nd Guard Army also reached the Baltic Sea at Heydekrug , and the advance on October 10th via the Minija (Minge) to Memel brought the capture of Prökuls. In the south, the northern flank of the 3rd Byelorussian Front advanced at the same time on Tilsit .

The commander of the neighboring army group, Ferdinand Schoerner , announced on October 9th that he would undertake an attack to liberate Memel if his army group could be relieved by the evacuation of Riga. A decision on this matter was postponed, but the Navy in the meantime managed to withdraw most of the garrison and some civilians from the port. The German XXVIII. Corps under Gollnick continued to hold a line of defense around the city in a semicircle. The Gollnick group in Memel was made up of the 58th Infantry Division , the 7th Panzer Division and the Panzer Grenadier Division Greater Germany .

The success of the offensive in the northern sector encouraged the Stawka to give permission to the 3rd Belarusian Front, which operated southwards, to penetrate into the main area of ​​East Prussia. This offensive, the Gumbinnen-Goldaper Operation , encountered extremely strong German resistance and was stopped within a few days.

The siege

The stalling of the offensive at Gumbinnen meant that the Soviet armed forces (mainly the 43rd Army) had to decide to blockade the German troops that were entrenched in the Memel bridgehead. The German troops, which consisted for the most part of elements from the Großdeutschland division and the 58th Infantry Division as well as the 7th Panzer Division, were supported by reinforced tactical defenses, the artillery fire of several warships (including the Prinz Eugen ) in the Baltic Sea and by a narrow connection over the Kurische Nehrung connected with the German troops in East Prussia .

The blockade of the Memel bridgehead by Soviet troops was maintained from November and December 1944 until the end of January 1945. During this time, the remaining civilians who had fled to the city and the wounded were evacuated by sea. During this time the Großdeutschland Division and the 7th Panzer Division were replaced by the 95th Infantry Division , which arrived by sea after heavy losses .

The city of Memel was finally given up on January 27, 1945. The Soviet success in the East Prussian offensive in the south made the position of the bridgehead untenable. The German leadership decided the XXVIII. Army corps to withdraw from the city to Samland to support the defense of Koenigsberg . The remaining troops of the 95th and 58th Infantry Divisions were evacuated across the Curonian Spit , with the 58th Division acting as rearguard during the retreat. The last organized German units left the city on January 28 at 4 a.m. A few hours later, Soviet units penetrated the port.

aftermath

Memel, which belonged to Lithuania between 1923 and 1939 before it was annexed to the German Empire , was transferred to the Lithuanian SSR under Soviet administration. In 1947 it was officially renamed under the Lithuanian name Klaipėda.

literature

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