On January 12, 1945, the Soviet Red Army unleashed its winter offensive, launching strong forces on either side of Warsaw, and within a couple of days crushed the German forces defending the line of the river Vistula and began streaming westwards. The Russian Army began a great dash across Poland, leaving behind a few small pockets of enemy resistance and cities proclaimed fortresses by Adolf Hitler. Within a little over two weeks the Soviet forces reached the river Oder and established several bridgeheads on its western bank. The Oder was the last great river crossing barring the way to Berlin, just 60 kilometres away, and the Germans mobilised everything in a desperate effort to defend the river line and prevent a Soviet march on the capital. This book brings together three After the Battle articles by Tomasz Zgoda, documenting the advance on the Oder and the long-draw-out struggles for the bridgeheads over it. It has been re-edited and enhanced by Daniel Taylor and features 152 pages lavishly illustrated with maps, wartime photographs and their modern equivalents.
