Gallery

 

Conclusion

During the last months of the war, Festung Danzig-Gotenhafen became the haven for so many refugees from East and West Prussia that almost a million people were jammed into the sister ports. In late 1944. Feldpost Nr. 05643 was assigned to the newly-created StnaW Kammandantur d. Landfront d. Festung (otenhafen (Headquarters/Command of the Land Front of the Fortress Gotenhafen). By early March, Marshal Konstantin K. Rokossovsky had swung the troops of his Second White Russian Front behind (3otenhafen, completely cutting off escape to the west — except by sea.

In Gotenhafen, the harbor installations and equipment as well as the wharves and qiiavs had been destroyed. The destruction not only resulted from such actions as the mining of the port, blocking port entry and basins, arid blowing up breakwaters, but also from adapting the port, by the defenders, to the needs of war. Retreating German soldiers destroyed all of the city’s cranes.22

On March 22, Rokossovsky drove a wedge between Gotenhafen and Danzig. Gdynia was liberated on March 28, 1945.
Danzig Report Vol. 1 - Nr. 91 - April - May - June - 1996,  Page 17.