Description:

HITLER ISSUES ORDERS FOR THE DEFENSE OF KONIGSBERG
ADOLF HITLER (1889 - 1945) Fuhrer of Germany and Nazi Party leader, Hitler's bloody rise to power, his military seizure of most of Europe and North Africa and his genocidal racial policies culminated in suicide in his Berlin bunker as Russian troops approached. HITLER'S ORDERS FOR THE DESPERATE DEFENSE OF KONIGSBERG An important and excessively rare signed military directive, typed on the 'Fuhrer typewriter' and signed in blue indelible pencil, 2pp. large 4to., [Berlin], Feb. 27, 1945 to Generaloberst HEINRICH-GOTTFRIED VON VIETINGHOFF-SCHEEL (1887-1952) who had assumed command of Ferdinand Schorner's Heeresgruppe 'Nord' which Hitler had renamed Heeresgruppe 'Kurland'. His forces were at the time intensely squeezed by a succession of Soviet attacks and divided into three pockets: one around Konigsberg, one on the adjacent Samland peninsula, and one on the coast of the Frisches Haff in the south-west (the Heiligenbeil pocket). Hitler's order contains detailed instructions on how the vital Konigsberg-Pillau road, recaptured eight days earlier, is to be kept open. He further orders that attacks on the Samland Peninsula must be intensified and that the 4th Army is to hold at all costs. Pillau was a crucial port on Gdansk Bay and offered the only viable resource for supplying besieged Konigsberg. In small part: 'To the: Commanding Officer Army Group North I cannot agree with the reasons put to me for the proposal that the Army Group should push forward to re-establish a link-up with the 4th Army at Koenigsberg. The supreme commander of the Kriegsmarine has informed me that a daily supply to Rosenberg of up to 2000 tons can be guaranteed. There is a possibility of ice blocking the entry to Pillau, and these circumstances, producing a loss of at most 1 1/2 days supply, could be unfavourable This is an additional risk which can, and must, be accepted. The most important task for Army Group North consists in strengthening the link-up which has been re-established between Pillau and Konigsberg on the Samlan peninsula, and to shorten the front there still further. In relation to this objective, your proposal for a link up between Koenigsberg and the Ermland represents a step backwards. My orders accordingly are as follows: - i) The attack on the Samlan peninsula will be pushed forward up to the line of shortest link-up between Konigsberg and the Brokist inlet. The possibility of gaining surprise by an advance northwards from our stronghold is to be fully utilized. ii) The question of the transport of one infantry division of 4th Army to Koenigsberg will be examined. The Navy is in a position, after ice clearance, to transport a division...in 8-10 days. iii) The present front of 4th Army will continue to be held. In the event of the transport of a division to Koenigsberg, a very limited straightening of the Army's southern front may, in extreme circumstances and on request, be put into effect. 4th Army retains, in any event, its principal task of preventing, by the defense of the area it holds at present, any pressure from the south on the port of Pillau. iv) Availability for combat duties from the total ration strength of 500,000 reported on 24.2 must be stepped up to a much greater degree than hitherto. I cannot assent to the proposal of putting the home guard, the police, the provost corps, the frontier guards and the Organisation Todt completely under your command. Measures necessary for the prosecution of the war are to be taken in a spirit of confident co-operation with the civilian governor...'. Near fine condition. This last-ditch effort to stem the Russian onslaught is an example of Hitler's disastrous late-war direct intervention in military planning and execution, and as a signed directive, it is the rarest of Hitler documents. On February 19th, the 3rd Panzer Army and the 4th Army attacked from the direction of Pillau, managing to force open a corridor from Konigsberg to Pillau. This action solidified the German defense of the area until April, allowing supplies to be delivered by ship and the wounded and refugees to be evacuated. Within the city remained 130,000 troops, along with impressive defensive positions constructed in 1888 that included fifteen forts interconnected by tunnels. On April 6, 1945 the Red Army commenced a massive attack upon Konigsberg and the city surrendered on the 9th. Almost 80% of the city was destroyed; first by the Royal Air Force in August 1944, and then by Soviet shelling in April 1945. During the operation the main forces of German East Prussia group were destroyed. Only the Army Detachment Samland remained operational, but was annihilated by 25 April, in the Soviet Samland offensive.

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November 29, 2023 10:00 AM EST
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