This country is at war with Germany.

We shall go on to the end.

I remember the sheets of flame which came up and almost blinded us from our guns.

Hello and welcome to the World War II podcast. I'm Angus Wallace. By January 1945, the war in Europe was entering its final phase. In the West, the Allies had repelled

the German Ardennes Offensive, and in the east the Red Army was preparing a massive blow that

would carry them out of Poland and onto the very doorstep of Berlin. The Vistula-Oda

offensive would not only liberate large swathes of occupied territory, including Auschwitz,

but also opened the way for the final drive into Germany.

Yet, there was more at stake than just military progress.

Stalin sought to push the Soviet Union's borders westwards,

regaining former imperial lands and securing Poland's fate before the war had even ended.

Against this backdrop, the Vermak fought a desperate

rearguard action, including their final major armour defensive on the Eastern Front.

So to discuss this pivotal campaign, I'm joined once more by Prit Bata, author of Into the Reich,

the Red Army's advance to the Order in 1945.

Prit, welcome back. I think we need to start with some context of where we are on the Eastern

Front at the start of 1945. What was the overall situation like? The Germans managed to

rebuild their front line after the disasters of 1944 on the Eastern Front,

but although there is a continuous line with units marked on the map,

this is really a paper-thin line.

It no longer has any real strength.

The clue is so many of these units have eponymous names. They're just named after the commander.

...