The Vistula-Oder Offensive was a Soviet campaign on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1945 which carried the Red Army across Poland to the River Oder, only about 70 kilometres from Berlin. It was launched by the First Belorussian Front under Georgy Zhukov and the First Ukrainian Front under Ivan Konev, with Polish units taking part. German defences, weakened by the transfer of forces to the Ardennes and elsewhere, collapsed quickly. Warsaw was liberated, then Krakow and Lodz, and Soviet troops reached the Auschwitz camp complex in late January. The speed of the advance stretched supply lines, and it halted at the Oder, where it prepared for the final assault on Berlin.
Before and after
- 1945Invention of computer
- 1945Founding of International Court of Justice
- 1945Founding of Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
- from 9 January 1945 to 15 August 1945Battle of Luzon
- from 12 January 1945 to 2 February 1945Vistula–Oder Offensive
- 15 January 1945Founding of Narodowy Bank Polski
- from 23 January 1945 to 6 May 1945Siege of Breslau
- February 1945Death of Anne Frank
- 1 February 1945Founding of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 5 June 1967 to 10 June 1967Six-Day War
- 11 February 1990Nelson Mandela is released from prison
- from 2 August 1990 to 28 February 1991Gulf War
- from 18 December 2010 to 1 December 2012Arab Spring
- 31 January 2020Brexit
- 7 October 2023Gaza War
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.