The Vistula-Oder Offensive puts the Red Army 40 miles from Berlin
Zhukov and Konev drive 300 miles in two weeks and liberate Auschwitz along the way
Quick facts
- Location
- Poland to eastern Germany
- Dates
- January 12 to February 2, 1945
- Soviet commanders
- Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Marshal Ivan Konev
- Distance advanced
- About 300 miles in roughly two weeks
- Result
- Soviet forces reach the Oder, 40 miles from Berlin
What happened
On January 12, 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front and Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front launched a massed assault from Vistula River bridgeheads in Poland, opposed by a heavily outnumbered German Army Group A. Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated Kraków and reached the Auschwitz camp complex by late January. The offensive advanced roughly 300 miles in a little over two weeks, capturing Warsaw and Poznan along the way, and by early February Soviet spearheads had reached the Oder River, only about 40 miles from Berlin, which lay essentially undefended at that moment.
Why it matters
The scale and speed of the advance left German high command with no coherent line to rebuild in the east, and the proximity to Berlin meant the Reich's capital faced a direct Soviet threat months before the war in Europe ended. The Kraków liberation on the offensive's path also brought Soviet troops to the gates of Auschwitz within days.
How we know
Imperial War Museums holds contemporary photographs documenting Red Army troops in liberated Kraków on January 18, 1945, dating the offensive's progress against the historical record.
Sources
- Imperial War Museums. The Vistula-Oder Offensive, January-February 1945 · Reputable sourceiwm.org.uk · The domain "iwm.org.uk" is on our Reputable source registry.
- Imperial War Museums. THE OPERATION BAGRATION, JUNE-AUGUST 1944 (context on the Eastern Front's 1944-45 collapse) · Reputable sourceiwm.org.uk · The domain "iwm.org.uk" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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