Vistula–Oder offensive
The Vistula–Oder offensive (Russian: Висло-Одерская операция, romanized: Vislo-Oderskaya operatsiya) was a Red Army operation on the Eastern Front in the European theatre of World War II in January 1945. The army made a major advance into German-held territory, capturing Kraków, Warsaw and Poznań. The Red Army had built up their strength around a number of key bridgeheads, with two fronts commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Marshal Ivan Konev. Against them, the German Army Group A, led by Colonel-General Josef Harpe (soon replaced by Colonel-General Ferdinand Schörner), was outnumbered five to one. Within days, German commandants evacuated the concentration camps, sending the prisoners on their death marches to the west, where ethnic Germans also started fleeing. In a little over two weeks, the Red Army had advanced 480 kilometres (300 mi) from the Vistula to the Oder, only 69 kilometres (43 mi) from Berlin, which was undefended. However, Zhukov called a halt, owing to continued German resistance on his northern flank (Pomerania), and the advance on Berlin had to be delayed until April.
| Vistula–Oder offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||||
Soviet troops enter Łódź, led by an ISU-122 self-propelled gun | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Germany |
Soviet Union Poland | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Ferdinand Schörner (Army Group A) (From 20 January) Josef Harpe (Army Group A) (Until 20 January) |
Georgy Zhukov (1st Belorussian Front) Ivan Konev (1st Ukrainian Front) Stanislav Poplavsky (1st Polish Army) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 450,000 men | 2,203,600 men | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Soviet claim: 295,000 killed 147,000 taken prisoner |
43,476 killed or missing 150,715 wounded and sick | ||||||||