Twilight

As the war was drawing to a close the Soviet Army raced to the gates of Berlin before the approaching Western Forces could snatch that prize from their grasp. The German Army, now nothing more than a paper force, threw …

1945-02-08

13

As the war was drawing to a close the Soviet Army raced to the gates of Berlin before the approaching Western Forces could snatch that prize from their grasp. The German Army, now nothing more than a paper force, threw together adhoc formations from anything that could still move or anyone that could carry a weapon. This included the Volkssturm, the German equivalent of the British Home Guard. Made up of young boys, old men, and the crawling wounded. skill and training were not high on list of priorities. Uncomplicated weapons and one Objective to just hold ground. it was simply a matter of quantity over quality. Remnants of the once glorious forces were at hand and units were into mixed panzer formations. While still possessing a hint of the élan that once made them the scourge of all they faced, it was not to prevent the evitable fall of the Third Reich.

Silesia, Poland

The Lower Silesian Offensive was a Soviet offensive on the Eastern Front of World War II in 1945, involving forces of theist Ukrainian Front under Marshal Ivan Konev. It cleared German troops from much of Lower Silesia and besieged a large German force in the provincial capital, Breslau. The offensive began on February 8 and continued until February 24, when the Soviets ceased their offensive having captured a small bridgehead across the Neisse River near Forst. The offensive directly succeeded the Vistula–Oder Offensive, in which Konev's troops had driven the German Army Group A from Poland, liberating Kraków and taking bridgeheads over the Oder River.

Wikipedia: Lower Silesian Offensive

German

Russian