Heiligenbeil Pocket | |||||||
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Part of the East Prussian Offensive in the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
![]() Soviet troops enter Frauenburg, 9 February (?) 1945 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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![]() (2nd Belorussian Front) ![]() (3rd Belorussian Front until February 18 – KIA that day) ![]() (3rd Belorussian Front from February 19) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
?150,000 | ? | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
80,000 killed 50,000 captured 605 tanks 128 planes (According to Soviet information) [1] | Unknown |
The Heiligenbeil Pocket or Heiligenbeil Cauldron (German: Kessel von Heiligenbeil) was the site of a major encirclement battle on the Eastern Front during the closing weeks of World War II, in which the Wehrmacht's 4th Army was almost entirely destroyed during the Soviet Braunsberg Offensive Operation (13–22 March 1945). The pocket was located near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia in eastern Germany (now Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Oblast), and the battle, part of a broader Soviet offensive into the region of East Prussia, lasted from 26 January until 29 March 1945.