Prelude to Berlin: The Red Army's Offensive Operations in Poland and Eastern Germany, 1945
- ISBN-10
- 1910777161
- ISBN-13
- 9781910777169
- Category
- History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
- Pages
- 635
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016
- Publisher
- Helion, published
- Author
- Richard W. Harrison
Description
Prelude to Berlin: The Red Army's Offensive Operations in Poland and Eastern Germany, 1945, offers a panoramic view of the Soviet strategic offensives north of the Carpathians in the winter of 1945. During the course of this offensive the Red Army broke through the German defenses in Poland and East Prussia and eventually occupied all of Germany east of the Oder River.
The book consists primarily of articles that appeared in various military journals during the first decade after the war. The General Staff's directorate charged with studying the war experience published these studies, although there are other sources as well. A particular highlight of these is a personal memoir that offers a rare insight into Soviet strategic planning for the winter-spring 1945 campaign. Also featured are documents relating to the operational-strategic conduct of the various operations, which were compiled and published after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The book is divided into several parts, corresponding to the operations conducted. These include the Vistula-Oder operation by the First Belorussian and First Ukrainian Fronts out of their respective Vistula bridgeheads. This gigantic operation, involving over a million men and several thousand tanks, artillery and other weapons sliced through the German defenses and, in a single leap, advanced the front to the Oder River, less than 100 kilometres from Berlin, from which they launched their final assault on the Reich in April.
Equally impressive was the Second and Third Belorussian Fronts' offensive into Germany's East Prussian citadel. This operation helped to clear the flank further to the south and exacted a long-awaited revenge for the Russian Army's defeat here in 1914. This effort cut off the German forces in East Prussia and concluded with an effort to clear the flanks in Pomerania and the storming of the East Prussian capital of Konigsberg in April.
The study also examines in considerable detail the First Ukrainian Front's Upper and Lower Silesian operations of February-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.
Get the book
Similar books
-
1939: Countdown to War
By Richard Overy, R. J. OveryIn this dramatic account of the last days of peace in 1939, Richard Overy re-creates hour by hour the unfolding story in the capitals of Europe as politicians and the public braced themselves for a war that they feared might spell the end ...
-
The Basis and Making of British Grand Strategy, 1940-1943: Was There a Plan?
By Brian Padair FarrellCAB70 / 5 , DC ( S ) ( 42 ) 89 , 5/10 , DC ( S ) ( 42 ) 6 , MAP Report , 26/1 , DC ( S ) ( 42 ) 98 , MAP Report , 16/11/42 ; CAB65 / 28 , War Cabinet minutes ... LHCMA , Brooke Papers , 3 / A / V , 18/5/42 retrospective ; Butler , vol.
-
Concise Historical Atlas of World War Two: The Geography of Conflict
By Ronald StoryThe collection will cover both conventional and non-conventional areas.
-
Hell's Highway: U.S. 101st Airborne -1944
By Tim SaundersCaptain Phillips was leading us. The platoons were well deployed. We pushed our way through whatever Germans were in front of us to a drawbridge at the canal and anchored ourselves in position.' Radio operator Private Haller, ...
-
World War II on the Air: Edward R. Murrow and the Broadcasts that Riveted a Nation
By Alex Lubertozzi, Mark BernsteinThe journalists and the reports that brought World War II to life share accounts of the London Blitz, Eric Sevareid's parachuting over Burma from a crippled aircraft, Howard K. Smith's narrow escape from Nazi Germany on December 6, 1941, ...
-
Film Propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany: World War II Cinema
By Jo FoxAlso reproduced in K. Jackson ( ed . ) , The Humphrey Jennings Film Reader ( Carcanet , Manchester , 1993 ) , p . 7 . 137. Ibid . , 20 October 1940. K. Jackson ( ed . ) , The Humphrey Jennings Film Reader , p . 8 . 138.
-
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
By David M. KennedyWho touches these books touches a profession.
-
The Curtain: Witness and Memory in Wartime Holland
By Henry G. SchogtSeven stories reveal how two families - one Jewish, one non-Jewish - fared in the Netherlands during the German occupation of World War II. Each story highlights a specific aspect of life; and emphasizes the difference between the options ...
-
1941: The America That Went to War
By William M. ChristieBurman, Red, 172 Burma-Shave, 191 Burns, Bob, 202,301 Burns, George, 203 Bush, Douglas, 70 Butts, Wally, 167 Byrd, Harry F., 12ff., 17 Caldwell, Harmon, 67 Calloway, Cab, 44 Campanella, Roy, 165 Cantor, Eddie, 52 Carle, Frankie, ...
-
绞杀世界：二战各国未实施的绝密军事计划
By 迈克尔·克里根“毫无疑问的是,”海军中将路易斯·蒙巴顿勋爵注意到,“敌人已经完全认识到了海峡群岛的价值,认识到一旦我们的军队重新占领它们所带来的潜在威胁。”由蒙巴顿起草的“星座行动”是针对海峡群岛各岛屿而进行的一系列独立行动的统称。“天鹰行动”“六角琴行动” ...