Eastern Front
1945: From the Vistula to the Oder
January – May 1945 · 5 battles
On 12 January 1945 the Red Army broke out of its bridgeheads on the Vistula in the largest winter offensive of the war. In three weeks Zhukov’s and Konev’s fronts crossed Polish territory from the Vistula to the Oder: they took ruined Warsaw, Kraków, Łódź and Upper Silesia, entered Auschwitz, abandoned by the SS, and at the end of January seized bridgeheads on the Oder less than 70 kilometres from Berlin. At the same time two Belorussian fronts struck at East Prussia, cutting it off from the Reich; hundreds of thousands of civilians fled in the bitter cold across the frozen Vistula Lagoon and by ship across the Baltic. Besieged fortresses remained behind the front – Poznań, Breslau, Königsberg – and the fighting for Pomerania and Silesia went on into the spring. For Poles the end of German occupation also marked the beginning of rule imposed by Moscow.
- 12 January – 3 February 1945Key battleVistula–Oder offensiveBetween 12 January and 3 February 1945 Zhukov's and Konev's fronts drove from the Vistula to the Oder, smashed Army Group A and took Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź.
- 13 January – 25 April 1945Key battleEast Prussian offensiveFrom 13 January to 25 April 1945 the Red Army conquered East Prussia: it cut it off from the Reich, destroyed the trapped forces and took Königsberg and Pillau.
- 24 January – 23 February 1945Battle of PoznańFrom 24 January to 23 February 1945 the Red Army besieged and took Festung Posen. The fighting destroyed about 55% of Poznań; the Citadel fell last.
- 10 February – 4 April 1945East Pomeranian offensiveIn February–April 1945 two Soviet fronts and the Polish 1st Army routed the Germans in Pomerania, reached the Baltic and took Kołobrzeg, Gdynia and Gdańsk.
- 13 February – 6 May 1945Key battleSiege of BreslauFrom 13 February to 6 May 1945 the Red Army besieged Festung Breslau. The fortress capitulated on 6 May, with about 70% of the city destroyed.