The Gumbinnen Operation,Glantz, ''Failures of Historiography'' also known as the Goldap Operation (or Goldap-Gumbinnen Operation, russian: Гумбиннен-Гольдапская наступательная операция), was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

offensive on the Eastern Front late in 1944, in which forces of the

3rd Belorussian Front The 3rd Belorussian Front () was a Front of the Red Army during the Second World War. The 3rd Belorussian Front was created on 24 April 1944 from forces previously assigned to the Western Front. Over 381 days in combat, the 3rd Belorussian Fr ...

attempted to penetrate the borders of East Prussia.

Planning

The operation was planned as a result of the success of the

Memel Offensive Operation The Battle of Memel or the siege of Memel (german: Erste Kurlandschlacht) was a battle which took place on the Eastern Front during World War II. The battle began when the Red Army launched its ''Memel offensive operation'' (russian: Мемел ...

to the north. The troops of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts had succeeded in pushing the Third Panzer Army back to the East Prussian border, surrounding the city of Memel and reaching the shore of the

Curonian Lagoon The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf; russian: Куршский залив, lt, Kuršių marios, pl, Zalew Kuroński, german: Kurisches Haff, lv, Kuršu joma) is a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surfac ...

. '' Stavka'' permitted Chernyakhovsky to further exploit this success by attacking along the

Gumbinnen Gusev (russian: Гу́сев; german: Gumbinnen; lt, Gumbinė; pl, Gąbin) is a town and the administrative center of Gusevsky District of Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Pissa and Krasnaya Rivers, near the border ...

–

Insterburg Chernyakhovsk (russian: Черняхо́вск) – known prior to 1946 by its German name of (Old Prussian: Instrāpils, lt, Įsrutis; pl, Wystruć) – is a town in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, where it is the administrative center of C ...

–

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

(now

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

) axis deep into East Prussia. Chernyakhovsky's plan involved using the 11th Guards and

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

Armies to break open the German defensive lines, before pushing through exploitation forces from the

2nd Guards Tank Corps The 2nd Guards Tatsinskaya Tank Corps was a tank corps of the Soviet Union's Red Army that saw service during World War II on the Eastern Front of Europe. The unit's most notable moment was in the raid on Tatsinskaya during Operation Little ...

and 28th Army. The 31st and 39th Armies would advance on the flanks of the main force. The opposing German forces, from the Third Panzer and Fourth Armies, were aided by the presence of substantial fortifications, and had been heavily reinforced.

Deployments

''Wehrmacht''

* Army Group Centre (Colonel General

Georg-Hans Reinhardt Georg-Hans Reinhardt (1 March 1887 – 23 November 1963) was a German general and war criminal during World War II. He commanded the 3rd Panzer Army from 1941 to 1944, and Army Group Centre in 1944 and 1945, reaching the rank of colonel general ...

) **Southern flank of Third Panzer Army (Colonel General

Erhard Raus Erhard Raus (8 January 1889 – 3 April 1956) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded the 6th Panzer Division during the early years of the war on the Eastern Front before taking army and army group comm ...

) *** XXXX Panzer Corps (General Sigfrid Henrici) ***

IX Corps 9 Corps, 9th Corps, Ninth Corps, or IX Corps may refer to: France * 9th Army Corps (France) * IX Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * IX Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial Germ ...

(General

Rolf Wuthmann __NOTOC__ Rolf Wuthmann (26 August 1893 – 20 October 1977) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded the IX Army Corps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Wuthmann surrendered to the Red ...

) **Northern flank of Fourth Army (General of the Infantry

Friedrich Hoßbach Friedrich Hossbach (22 November 1894 – 10 September 1980) was a German staff officer in the Wehrmacht who in 1937 was the military adjutant to Adolf Hitler. Hossbach created the document that later became known as the Hossbach Memorandum. Ca ...

) *** XXVII Corps (General

Maximilian Felzmann Maximilian Felzmann (22 April 1894 – 8 June 1962) was an Austrian general (General of the Artillery) in the Wehrmacht during World War II, and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves. Awards and decorations * Iron ...

) ***

XXXXI Panzer Corps XXXXI Panzer Corps (also written as: XLI Panzer Corps) was a Panzer (armoured) corps in the German Army during World War II. Operational history The corps was originally formed, as the XXXXI Corps, on 5 February 1940 in ''Wehrkreis'' VIII (Sile ...

(General

Helmuth Weidling Helmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling (2 November 1891 – 17 November 1955) was a German general during World War II. He was the last commander of the Berlin Defence Area during the Battle of Berlin, and led the defence of the city against Soviet forc ...

) *** Fallschirm-Panzerkorps Hermann Göring (Lieutenant General Wilhelm Schmalz) ***

VI Corps 6 Corps, 6th Corps, Sixth Corps, or VI Corps may refer to: France * VI Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry formation of the Imperial French army during the Napoleonic Wars * VI Corps (Grande Armée), a formation of the Imperial French army du ...

(General

Horst Großmann __NOTOC__ Horst Großmann (19 November 1891 – 4 May 1972) was a German general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 6th Infantry Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Lea ...

)

Red Army

(General Ivan Chernyakhovsky) **

11th Guards Army The 11th Guards Army () was a field army of the Red Army, the Soviet Ground Forces, and the Russian Ground Forces, active from 1943 to 1997. History World War II For its prowess in battle, the second formation of the 16th Army was redesignat ...

(Colonel General

Kuzma Galitsky Kuzma Nikitovich Galitsky (russian: Кузьма́ Ники́тович Гали́цкий; 24 October 189714 March 1973) was a Soviet army general who earned the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Biography Kuzma Galitsky was born on 24 October 189 ...

) ***

(Major General Alexei Burdeinei) ** 5th Army (Lieutenant General

Pyotr Shafranov Pyotr Grigoryevich Shafranov (; – 4 November 1972) was a Soviet Army colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Drafted into the Red Army in 1919, Shafranov fought in the Russian Civil War as an infantryman. During the 1920s he became a ...

for Colonel General Nikolay Krylov) ** 28th Army (Lieutenant General Alexander Luchinsky) ** 39th Army (Lieutenant General

Ivan Lyudnikov Ivan Ilyich Lyudnikov, (russian: Иван Ильич Людников; Krivaya Kosa (Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire), – Moscow 22 April 1976) was a Soviet Army Colonel General and Hero of the Soviet Union. Early life Ivan Lyudnikov was b ...

) ** 31st Army (Colonel General

Vasily Glagolev Vasily Vasilyevich Glagolev (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Глаго́лев; 21 February 1896 – 21 September 1947) was a Red Army Colonel general, Hero of the Soviet Union, and commander of the Soviet airborne (VDV). After i ...

) **

1st Air Army __NOTOC__ The 1st Air Army (russian: 1-я воздушная армия) was an Air Army in the Soviet Air Force which served during World War II. It was formed on May 10, 1942, within the Soviet Western Front, and renamed the 26th Air Army on ...

(Colonel General of Aviation

Timofey Khryukin Timofey Timofeyevich Khryukin (russian: Тимофе́й Тимофе́евич Хрю́кин; , in Yeysk19 July 1953, in Moscow) was a Soviet aviator, Spanish Civil War volunteer, and colonel-general of the Soviet Air Force. Emerging from an imp ...

)

Offensive

On 16 October, the 5th and 11th Guards Armies went onto the offensive and initially penetrated some 11 km into the German defensive belt. The flanking armies commenced operations the next day, when units of the 11th Guards Army had already crossed the East Prussian border. The Soviet troops ran into extremely strong resistance. It took them four days to penetrate the initial tactical defenses, and the second defense line was so strong that Chernyakhovsky was compelled to commit the 2nd Guards Tank Corps to break it. Casualties were extremely heavy. On 20 October, the second line was ruptured by the 11th Guards Army and 2nd Guards Tank Corps east of Gumbinnen, defended by the guns of the 18th Anti-Aircraft Division and the Fallschirm-Panzerdivision Hermann Göring, which had been redeployed in the area to counter the Soviet advance. On 21 October, the Soviet reserve, the 28th Army, was committed, but the offensive in the north was fought to a standstill in the region of

Ebenrode Nesterov (russian: Не́стеров), until 1938 known by its German name ( lt, Stalupėnai; pl, Stołupiany) and in 1938-1946 as Ebenrode, is a town and the administrative center of Nesterovsky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located ...

because of effective German counterattacks. Gumbinnen was taken by 22 October but was retaken by German forces on 24 October after the Germans had committed the 5th Panzer Division, and Heavy Panzer Detachment 505 (equipped with

Tiger II The Tiger II is a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' Tiger ''Ausf''. B,''Panzerkampfwagen'' – abbr: ''Pz.'' or ''Pz.Kfw.'' (English: " armoured fighting vehicle"), ''Ausf.' ...

s). Also, Nemmersdorf, on the banks of the

Angrapa River The Angrapa (, , , ) is a river that begins in northeastern Poland and ends in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is t ...

, was taken by units of the 2nd Guards Tank Corps on 21 October but was retaken by German forces on 23 October. Units of 11th Guards Army found themselves cut off in the area of Großwaltersdorf and were involved in intense fighting. In the meantime, the Germans had pressed more reserves, including the 102nd Panzer and Führer Grenadier Brigades into counterattacks at Goldap, on the southern sector of the Soviet penetration. The town was retaken on 25 October. The Soviet attacks continued until 27 October, as the flanking armies sought to close up to the 11th Guards Army. There was more fighting in the operation's immediate aftermath: on 28 October, the 31st Army retook Gołdap in a surprise attack. The town was again taken by the 5th Panzer Division, which was redeployed from the Gumbinnen area on 3 November.

References

Bibliography

*Dieckert, K. and Großmann, H. ''Der Kampf um Ostpreußen'', Gräfe und Unzer Verlag, München, 1960 * * Glantz, D. ''The Failures of Historiography: Forgotten Battles of the Soviet-German War'', https://web.archive.org/web/20161216063344/http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/failures.htm * {{coord missing, Poland Strategic operations of the Red Army in World War II Conflicts in 1944 East Prussia Military operations of World War II involving Germany Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War 1944 in Germany

Planning

Deployments

''Wehrmacht''

Red Army

Offensive

See also

References

Bibliography