Fighting for the city
On 27th January, 27th Guard Infantry division leaded by general Nikolai Glebov and 74th Guard Infantry division leaded by general Dmitry Yevstigneyevich Bakanov breached the German defence on the south as well as on the southwest edge of the city which was filled with inexperienced soldiers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). Also the fort IXa was seized as the first of 18 old Prussian forts embracing Poznań. A wedge which was driven into German defence on 30th of January, quickly made it possible for the Russians to take over districts like Dębiec, Górzyn, Łazarz and Wilda. At night between 30th and 31th January, around 1000 soldiers from the Fort VIII, VIIa and VII, which lay on the western edge of the city, escaped from the Poznań Fortress trying to reach their line of defence on Pomerania.
On 31th January, due to this military defeat, Himmler appointed a new commander of the Fortress – Ernst Gonell, previous chief of the “East” defence section who was a devoted Nazi officer; he got also a nomination for a general. Headquaters of the Fortress created a new section called “the Middle” based on solid buildings embracing the city center, like the Imperial Castle, Soldier’s Home (a registered office of Gestapo those days) or the old Fort VIII. It made a German defence stronger. That was the reason why fights for the city centre lasted until 16th February, while the other districts on the west – Jeżyce or Sołacz – were seized by the Russians at the beginning of the month.
On the east of the city the Germans were still tenaciously resisting their enemy from the units of 312th and 117th Infantry division. While a very slowly retreat, they lost Żegrze, Starołęka, Rataje, Chartowo and Osiedle Warszawskie. The core of defence here were the Junkers from School V for Infantry officer cadets. The rest of the garrison from the “East” section was cut off from the Citadel and the west part of the city in the area of Główno and Zawady. This was the reason why only the night between 15th and 16th February they made a successful attempt to break Soviet ring of encirclement and headed north-west through the Puszcza Zielonka.