Russia at war 1941-1945

7,500 tanks in the last month. But the V-bombing of London continues... " Then there would be atrocity stories about such-and-such little girls and somebody's 87-year-old grandmother having been raped. Next, another military march and again: Terror-bomber, Terrorbomber over such-and-such cities. Finally the same old baritone would then sing his little song: "Geht zu Bett und geht zu Ruh, geht dem neuen Morgen zu", ["Go to bed and go to sleep, until the morning comes".] or the Fräulein would wind up reassuringly, and yet rather conscious, one felt, of the silliness of the remark: "Good night, and sleep really well."

The Russian press published many lurid accounts of Berlin, especially after the immense fire raid of February 4. But so far the big land offensive in the West had not yet started, and the Russians tried to push on as fast as they could.

On February 1 Rokossovsky took Torun by storm, after a six-days' siege.

On February 6, Konev forced the Oder along a wide front in Silesia and isolated Breslau.

By February 9, Königsberg was almost entirely encircled, and a German prisoner was

reported as saying:

There is not much enthusiasm amongst the troops who have been ordered to defend

Königsberg to the last. All are tired, and the soldiers are silently watching the panic among the civilians; it has a depressing effect on soldiers and officers alike. The city is full of gloomy rumours. All the schools, theatres and railway stations are packed with wounded. The civilians have been told that they must get out of Königsberg asbest they can.

On February 10 Rokossovsky took Elbing, and on the 14th Zhukov took Schneidemiihl,

after several days' street-fighting. On February 23, after a month's siege, Zhukov took Poznan and its citadel, the last German stronghold there. General Chuikov, of Stalingrad fame, and a specialist in street-fighting took a leading part in the fighting there. 23,000

prisoners were taken. That was the day on which the Allies launched their offensive in the west.

A few days before, one of Russia's most brilliant young soldiers, General

Cherniakhovsky was fatally wounded outside Königsberg. Marshal Vassilevsky took

over the command of the 3rd Belorussian Front.

During March, the war in the East became somewhat less spectacular than in January and February. Everywhere the Germans were resisting fiercely. Vassilevsky was battering at Königsberg which, reduced to a heap of rubble, was not going to fall until April 9.

Zhukov's and Rokossovsky's troops were closing in on Danzig from different directions.

By the middle of March Danzig was completely isolated, except by sea; on March 28

Gdynia was taken, with its harbour wrecked, but its modern Polish-built town—called

"Gothenhafen" during the German rule—more or less intact. Not so Danzig, which fell on March 30, after several days' fierce street-fighting. The beautiful medieval city had been reduced by then to a smoking ruin, but the Polish flag was solemnly hoisted on what was henceforth to be known as Gdansk. Ten thousand German prisoners were taken, but

many more than that were dead. Many civilians in and around Danzig committed suicide, so great was the fear of falling into Russian hands. I was later to see a German Army leaflet printed during the last days of the defence of Danzig; it was full of last-ditch resistance slogans and stories of Russian atrocities, and it promised a mighty German counter-offensive. Significantly, there was no mention of Hitler in it.

It was, more or less, the same at Königsberg. When it fell, 84,000 prisoners were claimed there, and 42,000 German dead, though the Russians also had lost many thousands of

men. A few thousand half-demented civilians were still living among the ruins, among them many Russian war prisoners and deportees. Except for some minor mopping-up

operations still to be done, East Prussia had vanished from the map by the middle of April. The country was to become partly Russian, partly Polish. Most of the Russian

troops in East Prussia could now be moved to the Oder where, with the bridgeheads the Russians already held on its west bank, the stage was now set for the final onslaught on Berlin. Meanwhile, after the fall of Danzig, Rokossovsky was pushing along the Baltic towards Stettin.