Enriched by extraordinary first-hand accounts, this is a fascinating history of the dying days of the Third Reich as the Stalin sought to consolidate his own empire. In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful offensive across the Vistula River to drive the Wehrmacht out of Poland, with the intention of securing a start line for an operation that would ultimately result in the capture of Berlin and the end of the war. But, as Prit Buttar expertly reveals, there were other issues at play. Stalin was determined to push the boundaries of the Soviet Union further west, restoring land lost by the tsars and securing vast industrial and mineral wealth. While negotiations took place between the Allied powers regarding the fate of Poland, the Red Army burst through the German lines liberating Auschwitz even as the SS drove concentration camp inmates onto frozen roads in a series of death marches. The Wehrmacht staged a desperate fight back with their last major armoured offensive on the Eastern Front. Launched in February 1945 from the German-Polish border, it forced a halt to the Soviet forces on the banks of the Oder before the rush to Berlin. Written by an acknowledged expert on the Eastern Front and packed with first-hand accounts, this is the definitive account of the strategic goals, both military and political, of Stalin, his generals, and their armies as they raced into the Reich and of the German forces who stood in the way.

Autorentext

Prit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he worked as a GP. He is extensively involved in medical politics, both at local and national level.

An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history, his previous books include the critically acclaimed two-volume series on the siege of Leningrad: To Besiege A City (Osprey 2023) and Hero City (Osprey 2024). He now lives in Kirkcudbright in Scotland.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Dramatis Personae
Introduction: Towards a Grim Winter

Chapter 1: Preparing for Armageddon: The Wehrmacht
Chapter 2: The Red Army: 'Forward, forward at any cost!'
Chapter 3: Konev's Hammer Blow: 12-13 January
Chapter 4: Zhukov Joins the Offensive: 14-16 January
Chapter 5: Warsaw-Kraków-Lódz: 17-19 January
Chapter 6: Roads of Suffering and Death
Chapter 7: Draconian Punishment, Fanatical Defence
Chapter 8: Poznan and the Northern Sector
Chapter 9: The Wandering Cauldron: Konev Turns South, 20-31 January
Chapter 10: 1st Belarusian Front: The Advance to the Lower Oder
Chapter 11: 1st Ukrainian Front: The Conquest of Silesia
Chapter 12: Sonnenwende and Pomerania
Chapter 13: Lauban
Chapter 14: Conclusion: Defiance and Despair

Notes
Bibliography
Index