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Enriched by extraordinary first-hand accounts, this is a fascinating history of the dying days of the Third Reich as 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.
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Dramatis Personae
Introduction: Towards a Grim Winter
Chapter 1: Preparing for Armageddon: The WehrmachtChapter 2: The Red Army: 'Forward, forward at any cost!'Chapter 3: Konev's Hammer Blow: 12–13 JanuaryChapter 4: Zhukov Joins the Offensive: 14–16 JanuaryChapter 5: Warsaw–Kraków–Lódz: 17–19 JanuaryChapter 6: Roads of Suffering and DeathChapter 7: Draconian Punishment, Fanatical DefenceChapter 8: Poznan and the Northern SectorChapter 9: The Wandering Cauldron: Konev Turns South, 20–31 JanuaryChapter 10: 1st Belarusian Front: The Advance to the Lower OderChapter 11: 1st Ukrainian Front: The Conquest of SilesiaChapter 12: Sonnenwende and PomeraniaChapter 13: LaubanChapter 14: Conclusion: Defiance and DespairNotesBibliographyIndex
Description
Enriched by extraordinary first-hand accounts, this is a fascinating history of the dying days of the Third Reich as 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.
