As the Nazis had effectively forbidden evacuation of East Prussia's civil population, when the Red Army attacked on 12 January 1945, civilians began a mass flight west to the Baltic sea coast. Many people were killed by Soviet troops, and by severe frost. At the coast, particularly in the harbour of Pillau, the
Kriegsmarine managed to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians over the Baltic sea, and encouraged fierce resistance on land, since every delay to the Red Army meant the rescue of additional old people, women and children. Attempts by the Red Army to break through the German perimeter early in February were fought back, with the Fourth Army receiving heavy artillery support from the German cruisers
Admiral Scheer and
Lützow firing across the Haff from the Baltic sea into the
Frauenburg end of the pocket. Frauenburg itself was taken on February 9, in fierce fighting involving elements of the
170th Infantry Division. During one Soviet attack the
3rd Belorussian Front's commander, General
Ivan Chernyakhovsky, was killed by a shell splinter near
Mehlsack. His successor, Marshal
Aleksandr Vasilevsky, having effectively contained the remains of the Army Group, concentrated on assembling reinforcements over the next month. Under the supervision of Major-General
Karl Henke, the Germans continued to attempt resupply and evacuations of wounded along the Frische Nehrung, often at night to avoid air attack. A long, narrow corridor through to the besieged garrison of Königsberg was also maintained against the attacks of the
11th Guards Army through a joint effort by the garrison, and by the
Großdeutschland Panzergrenadier Division. Though the German forces in East Prussia had no realistic hope of victory, and were severely short of manpower, ammunition, and fuel, they continued to offer strong resistance, inflicting extremely high casualties (584,788+) on the Red Army during the East Prussian Operation.
Ad hoc battle groups were often bolstered by civilians press-ganged into the
Volkssturm, and many East Prussian villages and towns had been turned into fortified strongpoints, in addition to the substantial fortifications centred on
Heilsberg. The fighting was prolonged in order to keep open civilian escape routes, and because requests to evacuate the main body of the Fourth Army were refused by the
German High Command. The Soviet attack, however, came tragically late for the remaining inmates of the
Heiligenbeil concentration camp, along with other camps in the area. Even as Hossbach's forces were attempting to break out of East Prussia, the prisoners were
driven to the coast at Palmnicken and ordered to commit suicide by marching into the Baltic Sea. ==Destruction of the 4th Army==