HITLER'S LAST CHANCE: Kolberg by Kevin. Prenger

Author:Kevin. Prenger [Prenger, Kevin.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399072977
Google: yxFEzwEACAAJ
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Published: 2023-02-14T18:30:00+00:00

The Red Army advances

Whereas during the harvest season of 1944 schoolchildren were deployed to pick fruit in the orchards, and traditional hunting drives were organised in the winter, soon after the turn of the year the area rapidly turned into a war zone. Hitler himself had left his headquarters in Eastern Prussia, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s lair), on 20 November 1944 after the massive German losses on the Eastern front. During the Ardennes offensive he took up residence in the Adlerhorst (Eagle’s nest) in the German state of Hessen. Being far enough from the front himself, he had forbidden an early evacuation, organised in good time, of citizens from the east. Nonetheless, at the end of 1944 and during the start of 1945, there began a massive flow of refugees from Eastern Prussia to the west. In particular, the elderly and women with or without children chose to leave their home and hearth.

Prior to the turn of the year many Germans in the east had fled their bombed-out cities, such as Königsberg. During the night of 26/27 August the city had been bombed for the first time by the RAF. The bombers had flown over neutral Sweden in order to reach their target area safely. A second bombing took place during the night of 29/30 August. Some 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city, including incendiaries that caused massive fires, and as a result many people burned to death. The fires could be seen from miles away. The attacks claimed thousands of lives and many more citizens became homeless.

On 12 January 1945, when the freezing weather meant that the roads were passable and lakes and waterways frozen over, the Red Army launched its Vistula-Oder offensive. The attack was preceded by a bombardment on the German lines lasting three hours, using the notorious Katyusha rocket launchers; due to the organ-like appearance of the launch tubes, these were better known as ‘Stalin organs’. The Wehrmacht was no match for the enemy dominance of 1.6 million men, thousands of tanks and other war material. In less than a month the front line had been pushed backwards over 310 miles towards the west. The Germans were driven out of a large part of post-war Poland and the distance from the front to Berlin had shrunk to some 60 miles. At the end of January Königsberg in Eastern Prussia, renamed Festung Königsberg, was surrounded and besieged. The Red Army failed to capture the city right away, though, and the German occupiers would hold on until 9 April.

From January onwards, many civilians in Eastern Prussia left their home towns, fleeing before the advancing Red Army. Escape by train was all but impossible. In icy wintry conditions they made their way along snow-covered roads with sledges and wagons, filled with household items, pulled by starving horses. Their destination were the Baltic ports in the Gulf of Gdańsk from where they hoped to be evacuated by ship. Their fear of the enemy was enormous. Reports of Soviet soldiers plundering, raping and killing filled the German papers and cinema newsreels.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.