Into the Reich: The Red Army’s Advance from the Vistula to the Oder in 1945

Enriched by extraordinary first-hand accounts, this is a fascinating history of the dying days of the Third Reich as Stalin sought to consolidate his own empire.

In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful offensive across the Vistula River to drive the Wehrmacht out of Poland, with the intention of securing a start line for an operation that would ultimately result in the capture of Berlin and the end of the war. But, as Prit Buttar expertly reveals, there were other issues at play. Stalin was determined to push the boundaries of the Soviet Union further west, restoring land lost by the tsars and securing vast industrial and mineral wealth. While negotiations took place between the Allied powers regarding the fate of Poland, the Red Army burst through the German lines, liberating Auschwitz even as the SS drove concentration camp inmates onto frozen roads in a series of death marches.

The Wehrmacht staged a desperate fight back with their last major armoured offensive on the Eastern Front. Launched in February 1945 from the German-Polish border, it forced a halt to the Soviet forces on the banks of the Oder before the rush to Berlin. Written by an acknowledged expert on the Eastern Front and packed with first-hand accounts, this is the definitive account of the strategic goals, both military and political, of Stalin, his generals, and their armies as they raced into the Reich, and of the German forces who stood in the way.

Prit Buttar is a retired doctor who has written extensively on the Eastern Front in both World Wars. His books have been translated into Polish, Lithuanian, Estonian, Finnish, Italian, Hungarian, and Chinese. An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history, his most recent titles include a critically acclaimed two-volume series on the siege of Leningrad. He is a keen wildlife and astro-photographer and lives with his wife in Kirkcudbright, Scotland.