January 1945

Eastern Front

The 3rd Belorussian Front captures Schlossberg (now Pillkallen) with its 11th Guards Army. Meanwhile the 5th Guards Tank Army (2nd Belorussian Front) takes Mlawa and the 70th Army captures Wloclawek. Tilsit also falls to the 43rd Army of the 1st Baltic Front as it breaks the line of the Niemen. Farther south the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts advance rapidly, Lodz falling to the 8th Guards Army and Tarnow to the 59th Army. Krakow also falls relatively unscathed as the 17th Army hastily abandons its positions. The 3rd Guards Tank Army penetrates the German frontier between Breslau and Czestochowa.

In the fighting in Budapest, Soviet troops land on Margit Island. A German counterattack fails to dislodge them.

The IV SS Panzer Corps brushes aside a counterattack by the 26th Army and reaches the Danube at Dunapentele, effectively severing the Soviet combat units from their second echelon. The main thrust of the German attack immediately swings to the north to drive toward the garrison of Budapest but encounter increasingly stubborn Soveit resistance. In an effort to slow the German drive the 27th Army is transferred from its positions north of Budapest with the 2nd Ukrainian Front, to the southern wing to support the 26th Army.