Konigsberg

by Petter Kjellander, Andreas Leandoer, and Ulf Olsson

Published 15 October 2007
East Prussia was the first genuine part of the German home lands that fell to the Red Army in 1945. Already by 1944 some parts of East Prussia had been under the attack of the Soviets. The tragedy became complete in April 1945. The losses and horrors German civilians had to endure were tremendous. The Red Army showed its worst after the capture of East Prussia. The discovery of the Red Army's behavior in late 1944 in some of the border towns led to the most severe battles ever to be fought in East Prussia. The German army tried in vain to save the civilians from the Red Army onslaught. The battle for East Prussia ended with the siege of Konigsberg and Pillau, April 1945. The loss of human lives during these battles for East Prussia was very high. This book covers a much overlooked and little recorded campaign during World War Two. It draws on sources from both the Russian archives giving the Red Army view and those from the German side gives a good balance, and it contains never before seen pictures of the fighting and a great number of maps and color profiles of the AFVs being employed on both sides in the battle. "