Harrison, Richard W. Prelude to Berlin

The Red Army's Offensive Operations in Poland and Eastern Germany 1945

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the Soviet Union's strategic offensives north of the Carpathian Mountains in the winter of 1945. During this offensive, the Red Army broke through German defensive lines in Poland and East Prussia and ultimately occupied all of Germany east of the Oder River. The book consists mainly of articles that appeared in various military journals during the first ten years after the war. The General Staff Directorate, which was tasked with investigating the war experience, published these studies, although other sources are also available. A particular highlight are personal memoirs that offer a rare insight into the Soviet Union's strategic planning for the winter-spring campaign of 1945. Also included are documents on the operational-strategic execution of the various operations, which were compiled and published after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book is divided into several parts according to the operations carried out. These include the Vistula-Oder operation of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts from their respective bridgeheads on the Vistula. This gigantic operation, involving over a million men and several thousand tanks, artillery and other weapons, broke through the German defensive lines and advanced in a single leap to the Oder, less than 100 kilometres from Berlin, from where they launched their final attack on the Reich in April. Equally impressive was the offensive by the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts against the German stronghold of East Prussia. This operation helped to clear the flank further south and take long-awaited revenge for the defeat of the Russian army in 1914. These efforts cut off German forces in East Prussia and culminated in an operation to clear the flanks in Pomerania and storm the East Prussian capital of Königsberg in April. The study also examines in great detail the operations of the 1st Ukrainian Front in Upper and Lower Silesia in February and March 1945. These operations cleared the army's flanks in the south and deprived Germany of one of its last major industrial and agricultural areas.