Battle of Wehlau

Translation of the article by Günter Gronmeyer "Kampf um Wehlau" (Wehlauer Heimatbrief, no. 71, 2004).

 

Question: Was Wehlau damaged during the fighting? Surprisingly, 60 years later it can be said with certainty that neither Wehlau nor its surroundings suffered from the actions of the Red Army.

My research is based on the following sources:

1. The book by Dickert and Grossmann “The Battle for East Prussia” (“Der Kampf um Ostpreußen” Dieckert / Großmann), pages 93–95;

2. The book by the talented East Prussian military historian Helmut Borkowski, “The Battle for East Prussia and Samland 1944-1945” (Helmut Borkowski „Die Kämpfe um Ostpreußen und das Samland 1944-1945“), pages 22, 23, 31–33;

(both books are based on historical documents!)

3. numerous conversations with former soldiers of the 5th Panzer and 1st Infantry Divisions who fought on the Allenburg- Wehlau - Tapiau line ;

4. Memories of my fellow countrymen who lived in Wehlau or its environs in 1945-1948, as well as an analysis of the volumes of the Wehlauer Heimatbrief (the printed organ of the Wehlau regional community) published over 30 years. — admin ;

5. detailed descriptions of the first Russian settlers who arrived in the vicinity of Wehlau and Tapiau in late 1945 – early 1946, and who still found “old” Wehlau;

6. My own memories: I, born in 1935 in Tapiau, lived from January 22 to April 13, 1945 with my father, who served in a sapper company (bridge construction), stationed in Langendorf (now the village of Sokolniki in the Gvardeisky District, about 25 km as the crow flies from Wehlau. - admin ) on the banks of the Pregel; many of his fellow soldiers, born in the district of Wehlau, constantly asked each other: “Is there fighting in Taplaken? in Allenburg? in Wehlau? in Paterswald? in Grünhain? in Imten? etc.”, “Have the supply trains passed?”, “Where are the Russians now?”;

7. I met many soldiers (many by chance) and constantly communicated with them.

 

So, a brief summary of the existing facts:

 

January 21, 1945 (Sunday)

Wehlau is full of refugees (see the book by Dickert and Grossmann). The civilian population is moving chaotically, mainly in the direction of Allenburg-Friedland. There is no united German front south of the Pregel between Wehlau and Tapiau west of the Alle. The exhausted remnants of the 1st (East Prussian) Infantry Division and the 5th Panzer Division, practically destroyed in the battle near Pillkallen, tried to move in groups along snow-covered roads and crowded streets to a new deployment location: the 1st Infantry Division to the Allenburg area, the 5th Panzer Division to the area west of Allenburg and south of the Pregel in the Tapiau area. Many vehicles (and even tanks) were forced to explode due to lack of fuel. The fact that both divisions still tried to carry out the order was on the verge of possibility (see the above-mentioned books).

 

January 22, 1945 (Monday)

Masses of fleeing inhabitants. There are no combat units in Wehlau. In the evening, Soviet troops occupy Wehlau and Allenburg. (22.01.1945 - the day of the capture of Wehlau according to Dickert/Grossmann).

 

January 23, 1945 (Tuesday)

The few advanced Soviet troops crossed the Alle, but were thrown back. In the evening, the Soviet units captured the intact bridge over the Pregel (the so-called Zohpen Brücke), leading from the center of Tapiau to the railway station. Thus, the Russians reached the rear of the weak German units defending the Alle. The Russians had an opening through the Frisching forest to Friedland, and along the southern bank of the Pregel to Königsberg. In addition, the Soviet troops approached the Deime River near Goldbach.

 

January 24, 1945 (Wednesday)

In the morning, Colonel Knebel's strike force recaptured the Tapiau railway station and the Rückzugsstraße street south of Pregel. The Soviet troops, outnumbering the Germans, crossed the Alle almost without a fight. The German troops, attacked from both the front and the rear, tried to break through to the Tapiau railway station. Fierce fighting continued in the area west of the Alle and on the Tapiau-Friedland road until 25 January. The Deima was crossed north of Goldbach. In the evening, the Russians took Labiau.

 

Conclusions:

1. After analyzing all the facts, it becomes obvious: there was no battle for Wehlau! There were no bombings or artillery shelling.

The superior forces of the Soviet troops tried to achieve strategic objectives in the Norkitten-Taplacken direction by attacking with two powerful wedges to capture bridgeheads south of Pregel for access to the Frischen Haff Bay and north of Pregel for movement along Reichsstraße 1 in the direction of Königsberg and further into the Samland Peninsula and to Pillau. There were no battles for small towns like Wehlau, Tapiau and, to a lesser extent, Labiau due to the superior numbers of Soviet troops on land and in the air. The vague hope for the last natural line before Königsberg – the Masurian Canal, the Alle, Deima and Pregel rivers – was dissipated when they were covered with ice. Why was Wehlau, which stood on the same line, not damaged? The temporary line of defense, consisting of disparate defensive fortifications, could not hold back the Russians even for two days! And then, who was supposed to defend Wehlau? Non-existent units?

2. It seems to me that the rumors that Wehlau suffered from fighting are spread by Russians. These are mainly young educated people who interact with "nostalgic tourists" (like myself) - taxi drivers, tour guides, translators.

Why do they do this? On the one hand, they did not live through the first post-war period, and there is no impartial historical description of those events yet. On the other hand, they are in constant contact with former residents of Wehlau and not only Wehlau, have access to various literature, including German-language literature, and try to study history themselves. And they are ashamed of the actions of their grandfathers and fathers, who absolutely senselessly devastated and destroyed hundreds of villages and towns that remained intact during the war. Therefore, they resort to forced lies, saying that the war is to blame for this destruction. I realized this after living for several weeks in 1993 in the village of Aprelevka (Wargienen) in a large family with many children (who had once moved here from Belarus, from the Gomel region), and gradually winning the trust and respect of its members.

 

 

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admin I would like to add one clarification:

Ernst Knebel   - "Lion of Wehlau" ("Löwe von Wehlau") - Major General (posthumously); born June 2, 1892 in Saxony. In September 1944 he was appointed head of the military school of the 3rd Panzer Army; as military commandant of the Schillen station (now Zhilino), located on the Insterburg-Tilsit railway line, he led the Volkssturm and security units and took part in battles on the Tapiau-Wehlau line, where he was seriously wounded in battle on January 24, 1945.

There are some questions here, since the military school headed by Knebel was stationed in Tapiau, and how Knebel also ended up as the commandant of Schillen, and how he could defend Wehlau and Tapiau, located a good 70 km away, from Schillen together with the Volkssturm, is unclear. The fact that the colonel was nicknamed "the lion from Wehlau" contradicts, in my opinion, the description of the events associated with the battle of Knebel's group in Tapiau given by Günther Gronmeyer above. If Knebel had recaptured the railway station in Tapiau from the Soviet units, his nickname should have been associated with this city. And vice versa - if the nickname is associated with Wehlau, then for what exploits did he receive it and when?

There are also inconsistencies with the date and place of Knebel's death.

Some sources, including foreign ones, claim that he died in a hospital either in Preussisch Eylau (now Bagrationovsk) or in Deutsch-Eylau (now Ilawa in Poland) on March 13, 1945. (4, 5 )

According to other sources (which is more likely, in my opinion), he died in the hospital in Preußisch Eylau on January 27, 1941. Deutsch-Eylau was captured by Soviet troops on January 22, 1945, and the hospital is located 200 km southwest of Tapiau and Wehlau, so it would have been unlikely that Knebel would have been there. Soviet troops captured Preußisch Eylau on February 10, 1945, and the report of his death (January 27), as well as his nomination for an award, could well have been passed on to the appropriate authority. If Knebel died of his wounds in a hospital already occupied by our troops, then who reported his death? Our doctors? The Germans? How?

Knebel was awarded the Knight's Cross (1944) and posthumously the Oak Leaves (No. 744, February 1945).

UPD. The website of the Russian-German project for digitizing German documents in the archives of the Russian Federation has published lists of casualties among the general staff of the German Wehrmacht from 1939 to June 1945. On page 41 of the document, under number 421, you can see Major General Knebel, born in 1892, wounded in battle near Tapiau on January 24 and died on March 13, 1945 in the hospital of Deutsch-Eylau. There was clearly no second Knebel wounded near Tapiau, so this is the very same "lion from Wehlau". But the information from the "List", in my opinion, not only does not add clarity, but, for the reasons I have already stated, confuses the situation even more: how Knebel could have ended up in a hospital in a city already taken by Soviet troops is an absolute mystery to me personally.

 

 

Now let us return to the essence of Günther Gronmeyer's note regarding whether the battle for Wehlau took place.

The sources of information cited by the author do not inspire any confidence in me personally. If someone somewhere has not heard, seen or read about something, this does not mean that this “something” did not exist. This only means that the person, for example, was not able to study all the materials and relied in his conclusions only on what was at hand. And the “detailed” recollections of the first settlers in Wehlau look very unconvincing as a source of information. I have heard completely opposite information from those who saw Wehlau and Allenburg in the early 1950s.

On the website of the Wehlau community , which, by the way, publishes the Wehlauer Heimatbrief (and the author of the article assures us that he has been reading it for 30 years), there are several photographs of Wehlau from the post-war period. There is no information on the website about who took these photographs. I can assume that they were taken by the Germans who remained in the city after it was occupied by Soviet troops. So, if these are indeed photographs of Wehlau from 1945-1946 (and I have no reason to doubt this), then when looking at them, it is obvious to anyone that the buildings in the city suffered from fighting, and quite significantly.

 

 

 

 

Moreover, the author of the article contradicts himself, saying that there were no battles in the "small towns", having previously described the situation when Knebel's group recaptured the station in Tapiau, and scattered groups of German troops tried to fight their way to it. In addition, the awarding of Knebel with oak leaves also indicates that the battles were serious, although it is not clear whether he received this award for these merits.

Let's now see what our sources write about the battles for Wehlau.

 

 

"On January 23, 1945, in a battle during the crossing of the Pregel River near the settlement of Wehlau (East Prussia, now the village of Znamensk in the Gvardeisky District of the Kaliningrad Region), Guards Senior Sergeant Zilotin, commanding soldiers, destroyed a machine gun with a crew and about 10 Nazis with a mortar. He was wounded, but remained in the ranks."

(From the biography of the full cavalier of the Order of Glory, M.N. Zilotin)

 

"Shitikov justified his rank as a guardsman during the Insterburg-Königsberg operation that began in January 1945. On January 23, 1945, his battalion approached the Daime River near the city of Wehlau (Znamensk), crossed it on the move and participated in the liberation of the city." (in the text, the Pregel River is most likely mistakenly called Daime. — admin )

(From the biography of Hero of the Soviet Union I.P. Shitikov)

 

"In the January offensive, the 8th Guards Rifle Corps of Guards Lieutenant General Zavadovsky played a significant role in the defeat of the East Prussian enemy group. The corps, introduced into the breakthrough, attacked the Germans unexpectedly, without preliminary preparation. Mobile specially allocated detachments, having occupied the first line of defense, began to smash the enemy's immediate rear. On January 21, 1945, the further advance of the corps units in cooperation with the 1st Tank Corps to the Taplakken area essentially predetermined the fate of Insterburg (now Chernyakhovsk), which was taken the next day. Developing their success, the corps divisions captured a large stronghold of the fascist troops - Wehlau (now Znamensk) in battle, crossed Pregel, Daime and Alle and reached the southern outskirts of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). "

(From the biography of Hero of the Soviet Union Zavadovsky M.N.)

 

"Guards Lieutenant Colonel Shelkovy fought his last battles in the Great Patriotic War during the Königsberg and Samland operations in April-May 1945. The regiment under his command took part in the capture of the city of Wehlau (Znamensk) and in the assault on Königsberg (Kaliningrad)."

(From the biography of Hero of the Soviet Union Shelkov S.E.)

 

From the memoirs of the commander of the 11th Guards Army, Kuzma Nikitovich Galitsky, “In the Battles for East Prussia” (Moscow: “Nauka”, 1970):

 

 

The capture of Wehlau and the army's advance to the Pregel River

 

<…> As a result of the military actions of January 20 and 21, the enemy's defense in front of the 11th Guards Army was significantly disrupted. Despite the fact that by the morning of January 22, the German command had managed to completely transfer the 5th Panzer Division and a number of separate units (Volkssturm battalions, the 662nd Engineer Battalion, and other units) in the direction of Wehlau, and some units of the 548th Infantry Division from the north, it was unable to create a continuous front on the distant approaches to Wehlau and Tapiau. Its defense relied primarily on separate strongholds and command heights. <…>

Together with the commander of the 8th Guards Rifle Corps, General M. N. Zavadovsky (22.01.45. — admin ), we are going to the 5th Division to help General G. B. Peters organize the battle. <…> At 8:30 a.m., the 26th Guards Rifle Division resumed combat operations on the main axis of the corps. Advancing along the northern bank of the Pregel River and repelling counterattacks by enemy infantry and tanks from Petersdorf and Stabingen, it captured these strongholds by 3:00 p.m. and reached the nearest approaches to Wehlau.

By this time, the advance units of the 56th and 549th Infantry Divisions (German - admin ) began to approach Wehlau from the Insterburg area, which, together with the retreating units of the 13th Motorized Regiment and the 561st Infantry Division, began to hastily organize the defense of the city. In the area of ​​the crossings over the Pregel, enemy field artillery was set up for direct fire. The bridge over this river was blown up just before our units approached. However, the units of the 26th Division advanced quickly, and the Germans were unable to fully organize the fire system and establish firm control over the units that had taken up defensive positions. In addition, most of the units of the 56th and 549th Infantry Divisions were still on the march and could not take part in the battle for the city.

The commander of the 79th Guards Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel S. E. Shelkovy, took advantage of this. He did not wait for the supporting artillery to arrive and at 17:00, with the support of his regimental and battalion guns, under fierce enemy fire, he began to force the Pregel across thin ice and over the remains of the destroyed bridge. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, the regiment's forward units attacked the Nazis on the northern outskirts of Wehlau and captured the adjacent city blocks, as well as all the enemy artillery deployed for direct fire.

The German units, driven back from the northern outskirts of Wehlau, retreated to the city center, where, together with units of the 56th and 549th infantry divisions, which had retreated from the east, they began to put up stubborn resistance, relying on buildings adapted for defense. The balance of forces that had developed here in favor of the enemy allowed the latter to counterattack the regiment's units along the streets. The Germans sought to drive our 79th regiment to the northern bank of the Pregel River. Certain moments of the battle were quite critical. <…>

Thus, when the regiment's units counterattacked the superior infantry and tank forces of the enemy, the entire party organization of the 3rd rifle company, led by party organizer Sergeant Melnikov, rushed to meet them. Communists Burov, Mamontov and others led groups of fighters who, with anti-tank grenades in their hands, rushed to intercept the tanks. Soon two of them were ablaze, six stopped, knocked out by grenades, the rest turned back, and the guards attacked and destroyed the German infantry.

Having assessed the situation that had developed on the northwestern outskirts of the city, the commander of the 26th Division, Major General G. I. Chernov, sent the 75th Regiment here, which by that time had reached the northern bank of the Pregel River. Now two rifle regiments resumed the offensive. Spreading with stubborn battles along the streets of the city, units of the division by 8 p.m. had completely captured its center. The Germans were still holding the western and southern outskirts and the railway junction. General Chernov brought his second echelon, the 77th Rifle Regiment, into battle and by 11 p.m. (22.01.1945. — admin ) had completely captured the city of Wehlau. The 16th Guards Rifle Corps began combat operations on the morning of 22 January with the task of eliminating the group defending itself north of the river. Pregel in the area (excl.) Taplakken - Sterkeningken - Virbeln. The German fascist command strove at all costs to contain our advance and thereby ensure the crossing of the retreating troops to the southern bank of the Pregel River. This explained the ferocity with which the enemy troops fought."

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the book “Small towns of the Kaliningrad region. Encyclopedic reference book” (2011):

"In accordance with the task set by the Headquarters of the Supreme Command, within the framework of the Insterburg-Konigsberg offensive operation, the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky, after the defeat of the Tilsit-Insterburg group, decided to deliver the main blow in the general direction of Wehlau. Having captured Insterburg on January 22, 1945, the troops of the 11th Guards Army rapidly developed an offensive to the west and by the evening of the same day were already fighting north of Wehlau with the forces of the 79th Guards Rifle Regiment. To exploit the success, the commander of the 26th Guards Rifle Division, Major General G.I. Chernov, committed all available forces to the battle. The 5th Guards Rifle Division (Major General G.B. Peters) took part in the capture of the city. By the morning of January 23, the city was cleared of German troops. <…>

The war did not pass without a trace for Wehlau - the city was heavily (according to some estimates, up to 90%) destroyed by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front. In the central part of Wehlau, only about 10 undestroyed buildings remained, in the city as a whole there are about 50 - 60 houses, and including the suburbs about 200 houses."

 

I think the above information gives a slightly different answer to the question of whether the Battle of Wehlau took place than Günther Gronmeyer.

And the last thing I would like to say. I can rightfully consider myself one of those whom the author of the article called "educated people" (let's omit the age), who are sometimes truly ashamed of what happened (and is happening now) with the German cultural heritage that was inherited by the residents of the Kaliningrad region. But at the same time, I am also against any ("forced", accidental, conscious, sacred) lies. Moreover, I would like others to adhere to a similar position, especially in matters of history.