4th Army (Wehrmacht) - East Prussia

East Prussia

During late 1944–45 the 4th Army, now under the command of Friedrich Hoßbach, was tasked with holding the borders of East Prussia. The Soviet East Prussian Offensive, commencing on 13 January, saw the 4th Army driven steadily backwards towards the Baltic coast over a period of two weeks and threatened with encirclement. Hoßbach and Army Group Centre's commander, Georg-Hans Reinhardt, attempted to break out of East Prussia (defying their orders, for which they were relieved of command) by attacking towards Elbing; but the attack was driven back, and the 4th Army was again encircled in what became known as the Heiligenbeil pocket.

The army held its positions along the coast of the Vistula lagoon until overwhelmed by Soviet attacks in late March. The few remaining forces in the area were incorporated in the East Prussian Army Group commanded by Dietrich von Saucken, which surrendered to the Soviets at the end of the war in May.

Read more about this topic:  4th Army (Wehrmacht)

Famous quotes containing the words east and/or prussia:

    At length, having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultuous surface.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Austria the shield and Prussia the sword!” Too bad that they are attached to the wrong arm: The right one holds the defiantly glistening shield, and the left one is supposed to wield the sword.
    Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)