Fort No. 5 — King "Friedrich Wilhelm III"

Fort No. 5 — King Friedrich Wilhelm III — is a military fortification in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), which covered the highway to Pillau. It is part of the ring of forts known as the "Night Quilt of Königsberg." It is named after King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia (1770–1848), who led the state during the war with Napoleon.

This monument of defensive architecture occupies an area of 15.5 hectares. The central structure has the shape of an elongated hexagon (360 by 180 meters) and is surrounded by an earthen rampart, a stone wall, and a moat. The moat’s depth is 3–5 meters, and its width is 20–25 meters.

From the main entrance, which was covered by a powerful pillbox, a central gallery leads inside the fort. The central structure is symmetrically arranged. It included officers’ and soldiers’ barracks, a food warehouse, a guardroom, a hospital, a dining room, a kitchen, a boiler room, and an ammunition depot. The vaulted ceilings, up to 5 meters thick, were made of brick, concrete, and sand.

Along the perimeter runs an earthen rampart reaching up to 6 meters in height. It contained trenches and firing positions for mortars, machine guns, artillery pieces, and flamethrowers. Trees and shrubs, which once surrounded the fortification, were used for camouflage purposes.

The brick Fort No. 5 was built in 1878. Eight years later, for additional protection, it was covered with a thick layer of reinforced concrete, reaching up to 2 meters in some places. An armored rotating dome was also constructed, from which observations were made.

In April 1945, preparing for the assault by Soviet troops, the Germans significantly reinforced Fort No. 5: anti-tank ditches were dug on the flanks, stakes were installed, more advantageous artillery positions were arranged, several more trenches were dug, the area adjacent to the fort was mined, and it was surrounded with barbed wire.

The German garrison stationed at Fort No. 5 consisted of 350 officers and soldiers. The garrison was armed with a fairly large arsenal: over 200 rifles, 25 mortars, 60 submachine guns, 8 artillery pieces, and about 50 machine guns of various calibers. The personnel could take shelter in two casemates (semi-caponier). These casemates adjoined Fort No. 5 on the flanks.

The fort covered the Königsberg–Rauschen (Kaliningrad–Svetlogorsk) road and was part of the combat zone of the 54th Rifle Corps of the Soviet 43rd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Ksenofontov.

The Soviet troops first attempted to capture the fort on April 3–5. The Red Army planned to destroy the structure with artillery fire. However, the artillery of special power failed to accomplish the task: the fort withstood the fire test. After about 90 direct hits, the fort lost its "earthen cushion." But the breaches and holes were isolated and overall had almost no impact on its functioning.

The artillery preparation of the object continued until the reinforced 801st and 806th Rifle Regiments of the 235th Rifle Division, supported by tanks, self-propelled guns, and powerful artillery, approached the fort. Under enemy fire, soldiers of the second rifle company of the 806th Rifle Regiment managed to cross the moat and capture the casemate located on the right flank. Sergeant Alexey Kondrutskiy and Lieutenant Mirza Dzhabiev raised the Red Victory Banner on this casemate.

But the enemy continued to resist. The 550th Rifle Regiment of the 126th Rifle Division had to join the assault. The siege and storming of this defensive structure were persistently carried out alternately by the first battalion of the 732nd Rifle Regiment and the second battalion of the 550th Rifle Regiment. The assault was led by Senior Lieutenant Babushkin.

Fearless sappers, despite continuous enemy fire, blew up the second casemate, located on the left flank. Three sappers — Sergeant Merenkov, Senior Sergeant Malygin, and Private Polupanov — successfully carried out two targeted explosions under the cover of night. Thanks to these explosions, makeshift means for crossing the moat were provided. After crossing the moat, the sappers managed to destroy the floor polygonal front (caponier).

After that, the assault detachments were able to cross the water-filled moat and rushed into the breach. The battle inside the fort lasted all night from April 7 to 8, and only on the morning of April 8 did the remnants of the German garrison surrender. By that time, fighting was already underway in the center of Königsberg. For comparison, the assault on Fort No. 5 took about a day, while Soviet assault units captured Forts No. 6 and 7 within a few hours. According to Soviet data, more than 200 enemy soldiers and officers were killed, and about 100 were taken prisoner.

Fifteen officers and soldiers were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for the blockade and capture of Fort No. 5.

It is worth separately mentioning the ruins of the gorge pillbox. Many sources claim it was destroyed after the war by sappers. This is not accurate; archival photos from 1945 show that the pillbox was destroyed during the assault.

The photos are complemented by the account of an eyewitness, participant in the events, Rastikhin, who commanded a special powerful 280 mm caliber gun. The pillbox was destroyed after the second shot.

As a result of the battles, Fort No. 5 was heavily damaged. The already dire situation was worsened by the fact that after the war, sappers detonated ammunition collected in the area in the left wing of the fort.

The postwar history of Kaliningrad is connected with the search for treasures taken by the Nazis from museums in the suburbs of Leningrad and other cities of the Soviet Union. There is a theory that the famous Amber Room was hidden in the undergrounds of one of Kaliningrad’s forts. A certain Fishzon witnessed soldiers in Fort No. 5 finding amber art objects. Because of this discovery, a special commission was summoned from Moscow. Those who found the cache were rewarded.

In 1989, the famous Soviet film "Hunting the Unicorn" was filmed at Fort No. 5. The shooting took place in the barracks’ casemates, where scenes depicting the life of Soviet prisoners in a concentration camp were filmed.

Fort No. 5 received the status of a Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in 1979. In 2001, a non-governmental museum of military equipment and fortifications was established on the basis of the defensive structure.

Part of the fort has been open to visitors since 2010, and inside there is an exhibition "The Assault on Königsberg" — a display of rare documents, photographs, and wartime artifacts. In memory of the Soviet soldiers who died during the assault on the fortification, a military memorial was created on the surrounding territory. The names of the fifteen Heroes of the Soviet Union are immortalized on the memorial stone.

Sources:

https://gid39.su/fort-5/
Blog of Nikita Zagorny

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_No._5_—_King_Friedrich_Wilhelm_III

https://wikiway.com/russia/kaliningrad/fort-5/