Vistula Lagoon arguments. This was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel, and other territories of East Prussia which would be later dropped. From January until March 1945 throughout the Evacuation of East Prussia, refugees from East Prussia crossed the frozen lagoon on their way to the west after the Red Army had reached the coast of the lagoon near Elbing on January 26. Attacked by Soviet fighter aircraft thousands of them were killed or broke through the ice. Vistula Lagoon The Vistula Lagoon (; or "Kaliningradskiy Zaliv"; ; ) is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea
Battle of Vistula Lagoon which were staffed with five hundred men armed with crossbows and arquebuses. To delay the enemy, they sank a galley at a narrow part of the Vistula, which blocked the entrance from the lagoon to the river. Coming upon the obstacle, von Erlichshausen stalled long enough for the Elbing ships to join up with those of Danzig. Together, the two cities had around 30 ships of various types, 600 to 700 armed men, and a similar number of sailors manning the ships themselves. Von Erlichshausen ordered a withdrawal into the lagoon where his ships bunched up close to the shore.