Powerful Fortress: Assault on Fort No. 5 during the Red Army's offensive on Koenigsberg
On April 6, 1945, the Red Army began its offensive against Koenigsberg, a city in East Prussia.
It is worth noting that the latter itself was a real fortress with minefields, egoza, machine-gun nests and, of course, numerous forts built at the end of the XNUMXth century.
The most powerful of them was Fort No. 5, bearing the name "King Friedrich Wilhelm III". The German troops in this hexagonal structure held out almost until the surrender of the entire garrison located in Koenigsberg.
Soviet troops tried to destroy the fort with artillery, inflicting massive strikes on it from April 3 to 5, but failed.
As a result, it was decided to take the fortress by storm.
A serious obstacle for the mechanized formations of the Red Army was the moat around the fort, filled with water. Meanwhile, already on the evening of April 7, the assault units of the Red Army were able to break into the fortress.
According to historical according to information, the Soviet soldiers managed to get inside Fort No. 5 through the knocked-out left embrasure. The first to go were knapsack flamethrowers, who flooded the caponiers of the Germans with fire. Behind them, attack aircraft entered the battle.
Retreating under the onslaught of the Soviet military, the Wehrmacht soldiers closed the heavy metal doors between the premises of the fort. It was extremely difficult to overcome such an obstacle.
Therefore, often the attack aircraft of the Red Army had to leave the fort and climb onto the roof, where holes formed after artillery strikes. It was through them that the Soviet soldiers again penetrated into the fortress and continued to storm it.
The Wehrmacht garrison defending Fort No. 5 capitulated on April 8. At the same time, the fighting was already in the center of Koenigsberg. The next day, General von Lyash signed the surrender.
For the capture of the fort "King Friedrich Wilhelm III" 15 soldiers of the Red Army were awarded the highest award - the Hero of the Soviet Union.
About the preparation of the assault and the capture of Koenigsberg in the video below:
Information