GREAT TRIUMPH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 5

GREAT TRIUMPH

KONIGSBERG VICTORY One Of Most Skilful Operations In Military History Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, April 10. The Times Moscow correspondent reports that Russian newspaper commentators rate the battle for Konigsberg as one of the most skilfully conducted and most audaciously executed operations in military history, full of gripping incidents, unexpected evolutions and dramatic moments. Troops of the Third White Russian grouping, before they were able to. come to grips with the defenders, had to penetrate defences which were described as not less powerful and considerably deeper than the Siegfried Line. A model of the Konigsberg lay-out was built many miles before the actual battlefield. Gunners, sappers and assault troops went through an intensive course of battle training. Red Army engineers, meanwhile, laid 100 miles of railway lines to bring up siege guns and ammunition. An exact calculation was made of the calibre of shell necessary to destroy the great forts that ringed Konigsberg. There were 13 forts, covering 150 to 250 yards, each manned by 300 men and ringed by deep, flooded, concrete-sided moats, the walls in places being 10ft deep. New Russian armies came into the line for the reduction of Konigsberg, including units under General Bagramyan. The battle began with a squall of shellfire and bombing that was planned to last for three hours along the whole front. Thousands of guns participated. The blow was so shattering that the gunners were able to lengthen the range ahead of schedule, enabling assault troops to go forward. The speed of the assault frustrated the Germans' plans to flood great areas near the city by dynamiting the river levees. Speed of Attack Beat Huns The newspaper Red Star states that the Russians who entered Konigsberg found grim evidence of the German leaders' efforts to check desertion. Mass executions were carried out near the north railway station, where many victims were hung, head downwards. The Germans reckoned on a lengthy siege, but could not stand the simultaneous assault launched from all sides of the fortress.

The Soviet communique says that troops of the Third White Russian Command at Konigsberg, from 9.30 p.m. yesterday to to-day, accepted the surrender of 50,000 German prisoners. Russians during the fighting in Konigsberg from April 6 to to-day took 92,000 prisoners, including the commander of the fortified area of Konigsberg, Infantry General Lasch, the deputy-commander of the fortress, Lieutenant-General Mikosch, the commander of the Sixty-first Infantry Division, Lieutenant-General Sperrle, the commander of the 367 th Infantry Division, Major-General Hoehne, besides 1819 officers. The Germans in the same period lost 42,000 men killed alone. The Russians at Konigsberg captured 2023 field guns, 89 tanks, 8560 lorries, 574 locomotives, 8544 railway wagons, 146 river cutters and barges, and destroyed 120 planes, 1193 guns, 104 tanks and 23 locomotives. On Samland Peninsula, west of Konigsberg,' the Russians fought their Avay into several places.