February 1945

Eastern Front

The 5th Shock Army attacks the 9th Army around Kustrin, crossing the Oder near Furstenberg and Kustrin. Other elements of the 1st Belorussian Front tackle Army Group Vistula in Pomerania. Heavy fighting erupts at Arnswalde (now Choszno) and Deutsch Krone (now Walcz) as the Russians break through the flimsy defenses of Himmler's ragged armies. Both towns are isolated as the Russians push into the German rear. Zhukov is throwing the 3rd Shock, 1st and 2nd Guards Tank, 47th and 61st Armies (some 359,000 men of the 1st Belorussian Front) and the entire 2nd Belorussian (560,000 men) against the depleted, overextended and badly equipped German units. In Silesia a counterattack by the German 17th Army regains Grottkau.

After heavy fighting in Buda the southern railway station falls to Soviet forces. In Yugoslavia the German begin to evacuate Visegrad and Mostar.