WW2 - Goldap is retaken from Soviets (Nov 1944)

WW2 footage. German Wartime Newsreel (Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 741, 16-Nov-1944)

The Gumbinnen Operation, also known as the Goldap Operation (or Goldap-Gumbinnen Operation), was a Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front late in 1944, in which forces of the 3rd Belorussian Front attempted to penetrate the borders of East Prussia.
The offensive failed, due to strong resistance by the Wehrmacht. As a result it is largely known through German accounts of the defence and because of the atrocities that were alleged to have been committed by troops of the 11th Guards Army, the so-called Nemmersdorf massacre.

On 16 October, the 5th and 11th Guards Armies went onto the offensive and initially penetrated some 11 km into the German defensive belt. The flanking armies commenced operations the next day, by which time units of the 11th Guards Army had crossed the East Prussian border.
The Soviet troops ran into extremely strong resistance, however. It took them four days to penetrate the initial tactical defences, while the second defence line was so strong that Chernyakhovsky was compelled to commit the 2nd Guards Tank Corps to break it. Casualties were extremely heavy. On 20 October, the second line was ruptured by the 11th Guards Army and 2nd Guards Tank Corps east of Gumbinnen, defended by the guns of the 18th Anti-Aircraft Division and the Fallschirm-Panzerkorps Hermann Göring, which had been redeployed in the area to counter the Soviet advance. On 21 October, the Soviets' reserve, the 28th Army, was committed, but the offensive in the north was fought to a standstill in the region of Stalluponen thanks to some effective German counter-attacks.
Gumbinnen was taken by 22 October, but retaken by German forces on the 24 October, after the Germans committed the 5th Panzer Division, and Heavy Panzer Detachment 505 (equipped with Tiger IIs). Units of 11th Guards Army found themselves cut off in the area of Großwaltersdorf, and were involved in intense fighting. In the meantime, the Germans had pressed more reserves, including the 102nd Panzer and Führer Grenadier Brigades into counter-attacks at Goldap, on the southern sector of the Soviet penetration. The town was retaken on 25 October.
The Soviet attacks continued until 27 October, as the flanking armies sought to close up to the 11th Guards Army.
There was more fighting in the operation's immediate aftermath: on 28 October, the 31st Army retook Goldap in a surprise attack; the town was again taken by the 5th Panzer Division, which was redeployed from the Gumbinnen area, on 3 November.

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[SkibaFelix]

What is Polish tankette TKS doing in the newsreel?

[IustitiaPax]

@JumalanMyrsky In fact, the occupying Nazi Germany inside Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania and in Belarus gave back the Kolchoz communist collective farms to private native farmers. There are videos of this (Monatsschau) "Latvian Farmers receive back their land property stolen by the Soviets. Handing over of property certificates." "Ukrainian farmers receive back their farms stolen by the Soviets." (1944) "The German representatives are received warmly with salt and bread by the Ukrainians

[MrStewart149]

@JumalanMyrsky either way the land is not their's to conquer ' i have heard some moronic arguments in my time to excuse the behaviour of the nazi's but yours is right at the top ....

[mohnach1]

@JumalanMyrsky Strange logic.

[JumalanMyrsky]

It makes a major difference to conquer land from communist country (like Soviet Union) where no one owns the land, than occupy such a country where citizens own their lands privately (like Germany, Poland). The latter is a major offense against the landowners who lose their property, while the former hurts no people's rights in the same way.

[notaire2]

Der deutsche Gegenangriff war erfolgreich.

[gosuc]

Natürlich war Goldap deutsch. Im Video sind wohl die Namenschilder der Geschäfte auf deutsch zu sehen. Bestenfalls kann das als "Beutepolen" bezeichnet werden.

[overbum]

que? tap szpadl

[prawdziwydillinger]

Goldap is Deutsch? Du Nazi schweine!

Gołdap niemiecki? Ty nazistowska świnio!

[IustitiaPax]

@einbenutzer17 Goldap jest niemiecki miasto!