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East Prussia has been a battleground for 1,000 years. In January 1945, Soviet forces were poised to bring war home to the Germans. The invasion posed a number of problems for the Soviet high command. The
German defenses were organized in depth, and consisted of powerful permanent fortifications, a series of trench lines and anti-tank ditches, artillery emplacements, etc. In addition, the terrain was difficult, laced with lakes, rivers,
marshes and canals.
The two attacking Soviet fronts mustered between them some 3,800 tanks and assault guns, 25,000 artillery pieces, 3,00 aircraft and 1.2 million assault troops. Opposing them were 780,000 Germans, with 8,200
cannon, 700 to 800 tanks, and about 775 planes. Bolstering the defense were such elite units as the Hermann Goering and Gross Deutschland Divisions. With the Germans fighting on their own soil, and the Soviets determined to deliver the
death blow to the Third Reich, the scene was set for what became the most bitter fighting since Stalingrad.
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