World War II: The German 4th Army is almost destroyed by the Soviet Red Army.
During the tumultuous years of World War II, the German military machine, known as the Wehrmacht, deployed various field armies across its operational fronts. Among these was the 4th Army (German: 4. Armee), a significant formation that played a role in the conflict's devastating trajectory, particularly on the Eastern Front.
The Heiligenbeil Pocket: A Catastrophe in East Prussia
As the Second World War drew to a brutal close in Europe, the Eastern Front became the scene of some of its most desperate and destructive battles. One such engagement was the harrowing Heiligenbeil Pocket, often grimly referred to as the Heiligenbeil Cauldron (German: Kessel von Heiligenbeil). This major encirclement battle unfolded in the final weeks of the war, a crucible of conflict near the town of Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which was then eastern Germany (and is now Mamonovo, part of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast).
The battle for the Heiligenbeil Pocket was not an isolated incident but a critical component of a much broader Soviet offensive designed to crush German forces within the strategic region of East Prussia. From its beginnings on January 26, 1945, through to its bitter end on March 29, 1945, the fighting was relentless. It was during the fierce thrusts of the Soviet Braunsberg Offensive Operation, specifically between March 13 and 22, 1945, that the fate of the Wehrmacht's 4th Army was sealed. Trapped and overwhelmed, this once-formidable German field army faced almost complete annihilation within the confines of the pocket, marking a decisive and tragic chapter in the war's final months.