April 1945

Eastern Front

The fighting in Samland intensifies as the German line of resistance crumbles. The survivors fall back upon Pillau in the hope of evacuation by the Navy.

Folowing correspondence with Gen Eisenhower at the end of March, Stalin orders the start date for the Berlin Operation to be brought forward but typically, judging everyone by his own devious standards, informs the Western Allies that he does not intend to begin the offensive until May at the earliest. The 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts have spent the first half of April feverishly preparing for the offensive, teh 2nd Belorussian being particularly hard pressed to meet the start date as it redeploys across 200 miles of ravaged Pomeranian countryside to the line of the Oder. By mid-April the Soviets have largely completed their redeployment, massing a force of 2,500,000 men, 41,000 arty pieces, 6,200 tanks and Su's and 7,200 aircraft between the 3 fronts. The armies are well provided with over 100,000 motor vehicles to keep the infantry moving forward.

The Soviet plan intends for the 1st Belorussian Front, with 908,000 men and 1st Ukrainian front with 550,900, is to destroy the German 9th and 4th Panzer Armies on the line of the Oder and Niesse Rivers and then push rapidly forward to envelop Berlin. To give the attack a competitive edge, Stalin draws the front boundary line short, leaving it a few miles east of Berlin and declaring that the first front to reach the city will have the glory of conquering it. The competition is not as one sided as it may at first appear, as the 1st Belorussian Front, despite being only 50 miles from the city at Kustrin, is faced with lines of formidable German defenses. To overcome the German forces Zhukov aims to use a novel technique. Placing searchlights close to the front line, he orders his tanks to attack with lights blazing, hoping to reflect the light back off the low clouds over the battlefield and illuminate the German positions. The 1st Belorussian Front deploys for the offensive the 61st Army on its northern wing, 1st Polish Army, 47th and 3rd Shock Armies, 5th Shock Army north of Kustrin, 8th Guards Army south of the town, 69th Army opposite Frankfurt and 33rd Army on teh southern wing. Behind the 5th Shock Army is the 2nd Guards Tank and behind the 8th Guards the 1st Guards Tank. The 3rd Army is held in front reserve.

Koniev's 1st Ukrainian Front, despite being deployed to the south along the Niesse, is not faced with the extensive defenses that have been erected before Berlin. It aims to tear the 4th Panzer Army in two and push rapidly northwest. The main obstacle in his line of advance is the Niesse but Koniev plans to cross under the cover of a smoke barrage. On his northern flank, opposite Forst, Koniev has the 3rd Guards Army, followed on a line running south by the 13th, 5th Guards, 2nd Polish and 52nd Armies, the latter deployed north of Gorlitz. Behind the 3rd Guards and 13th Armies are the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies. The 28th Army is held in front reserve.

To the north the 2nd Belorussian Front, with 441,000 men, is to begin its offensive a few days later and pin down the 3rd Panzer Army. The 3rd aims to reach the Baltic and cut the Allied line of advance into Denmark. The British are already racing for this region, trying to do the reverse to the Russians. For this task Rokossovsky has the 2nd Shock Army on its right wint, 65th and 70th Armies in the center and south of Stettin and the 49th Army opposite Schwedt.

While the bulk of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts destroy the Germans in Berlin the outer pincers are to push to the Elbe River and link up with the Western Allies. Each of the Soviet fronts is provided with massive air support, the 2nd Belorussian Front having the 4th Air Army, the 1st Belorussiand the 16th and 18th Air Armies and the 1st Ukrainian Front the 2nd Air Army.

Facing this mighty array is Henrici's Army Group Vistula and the northern wing of Schorner's Army Group Center. Group Vistula has the 3rd Panzer and 9th Armies, Manteuffel's 3rd Panzer having 10 divisions between the XXXII, LI, XLVI Panzer and X SS Corps while Busse's 9th Army has the V SS Mountain, XI SS and CI Corps with 15 divisions. In army group reserve, situated immediately behind the 9th Army is Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps with 3 panzer and 3 panzer grenadier divisions. To the south Graeser's 4th Panzer. Army of Army Group Center deploys 14 divisions between the LVII Panzer, Grossdeutschland Panzer and V Corps and Corps Group Moser. In support the Lufwaffe had 300 aircraft but many are grounded due to lack of fuel.

The comparative strengths of the German and Soviet combat forces concentrate for the battle of Berlin show just how much the Red Army has grown and how the Ostheer has wasted away after 4 years of brutal and costly fighting. The 3rd Panzer and 9th Armies total barely 200,000 men with 750 panzers and assault guns and 1,500 arty pieces, while the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts have 1,400,000 men, 4,100 tanks and Su's and 23,600 arty pieces. On the Niesse the 4th Panzer has another 100,000 men and 200 panzers but the 1st Ukrainian opposing it with 1,100,000 ment and 2,150 tanks and Su's.

By the eveny of April 15,1945, with the ruins of Vienna in Soviet hands, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts are ready to begin the offensive against Hitler's own city. The 2nd Belorussian, still redeploying from Pomerania, will begin its attack on the 20th.

In the middle of the combat line the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts have been reinforced and prepare to crush the German forces in Slovakia, the 2 fronts having a combined strength fo 750,000 men, 8,300 arty pieces, 580 tanks and Su's and 1,400 aircraft. Facing this concentration of armies are the weakened 17th and 1st Panzer Armies of Army Group Center.

The loss of both Konigsberg and Vienna proved beyond doubt that the end of Nazi Germany was in sight. The trapped armies in East Prussian had been wiped out, the Kurland forces contained and prevented from influencing the battles to the west and the Hungarian forces finally swept from the field. With these victories behind him, Stalin had turned his attention to the capture of Berlin, to influence the post-war settlement of European frontiers. Western armies were already on the Elbe at Magdeburg while the Soviets faced the Germans across the Oder to the east of the city. Yet again, ovewhelming forc would be brought to bear to annihilate the Germans before their capital.

Hitler's Thousand Year Reich lay in ruins. East Prussia had fallen to Soviet armies, Hungary was conquered and Austria invaded. Vienna was no longer German, the might of the Waffen SS lying broken in its streets. In a final cycle of violence the Stavka inflicted the coup de grace upon the mortally wounded German armies, first aiming to destroy those around Berlin, before annihilating the remnants of the once mighty Ostheer in a final battle of encirclement in Bohemia.