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 kilometers 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.
