Defiant Breakwaters or Desperate Blunders? A Revision of the German Late-War Fortress Strategy

摘要

This article analyzes the impact of Germany's late-war fortress strategy on both the German defensive conduct and Soviet offensive considerations. The strategy remains shrouded in obscurity, as most historians merely employ the - predominantly negative -opinions of German generals. Therefore, it has been dismissed as yet another example of the inadequacy of Hitler and the German High Command (OKH) to form a suitable defensive strategy. The purpose of this article is to balance this view and bring to light some of the lesser-known characteristics of the strategy. Festung Konigsberg, present-day Kaliningrad, will be used as a case study. The developments in and around the city during the period between November 1944 and April 1945 contradict most of the prevailing assumptions about the strategy.