Battle of Memel

Battle of Memel
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Date 5–22 October 1944 (main offensive); 28 January 1945 (end of siege) Location Memel, East Prussia (Klaipeda, Lithuania) 55°40′N 21°30′E / 55.667°N 21.500°E / 55.667; 21.500 Result Soviet victory Territorial changes The Soviet Union annexes Memel and return it to the Lithuanian SSR
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Erhard Raus (Third Panzer Army) Hans Gollnick (XXVIII Corps)	Hovhannes Bagramyan (1st Baltic Front)

The Battle of Memel or the siege of Memel (German: Erste Kurlandschlacht) was a battle which took place on the Eastern Front during World War II. The battle began when the Red Army launched its Memel offensive operation (Russian: Мемельская наступательная операция) in late 1944. The offensive drove remaining German forces in the area that is now Lithuania and Latvia into a small bridgehead in Klaipėda (Memel) and its port, leading to a three-month siege of that position.

The bridgehead was finally crushed as part of the subsequent Soviet East Prussian offensive in early 1945.