January 1945

Eastern Front

Heavy fighting rages along the Vistula as the 2nd Shock Army wrestles Marienberg away from the 2nd Army. After a bitter struggle the 5th Guards Tank Army finally overcomes German resistance in Elbing. The 48t Army attempts to follow the 5th Guards Tank but is held up by probing attacks launched by the German 4th Army. This is the result of Hossbach's redeployment and a first effort to link up with the 2nd Army.

The 2nd Belorussian Front also pushes west, its 70th Army encircling Thorn (now Torun). A little to the south already encircle Bromberg falls to the 3rd Shock Army. In Silesia the 1st Ukrainian Front taks Hindenburg as the 60th Army pushes back the 17th Army. Schulz, commanding the 17th, again asks for permission to pull back but is denied. Some 100,000 German troops are in immediate danger of encirclement as the 1st Ukrainian forces its way into the rear. Elements of the 3rd Guards Tank Army are already close to Rybnik but are ordered to turn on Ratibor. The 21st Army is to begin frontal attacks upon the 17th Army from around Oppeln.

Heavy fighting rages at Posen as the 8th Guards Army launches a fierce attack upon the German perimeter defenses. 2 divisions attack the southern defenses, capturing important fortifications after bloody fighting. Inside the city the Germans have 60,000 troops, mostly stragglers from retreating divisions and Volkssturm. Major Mattern commanded this mixed force.

Despite that fact that their armied in the field are in an advanced state of collapse, the German High Command redesignates its army groups. Army Group North, long isolated in Kurland, is renamed Army Group Kurland, Its 27 divisions are sorely needed but Hitler refuses to allow their evacuation. Army Group Center, some 26 division of which are incarcerated in East Prussia, is renamed Army Group North. This army group now only comprises the 3rd Panzer and 4th Armies, the 2nd Army having been separated in Pomerania. In Pomerania the Germans have raises Army Group Vistula around the 2nd Army and a new 11th Army. Commaned by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, Vistula is an army group in name only, numbering barely 50,000 men. To the south are the forces of the new Army Group Center, old Army Group A. Stretched on a massively over-extended line from Pomerania to Slovakia, it comprises the 9th, 4th Panzer, 17th and 1st Panzer Armies.