The Oder Front 1945: Volume 1 - Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici, Heeresgruppe Weichsel and Germany's Final Defense in the East, 20 March-4 May 1945

The Oder Front 1945 #1

by Aaron Stephan Hamilton

Nazi Germany's fall is regularly depicted through the dual images of Adolf Hitler directing the final battle for Berlin from his claustrophobic Führerbunker, and the subsequent Soviet victory immortalized by the flying of the 'Hammer and Sickle' over the burnt-out Reichstag. This popular view, that Germany's last battle of World War II was a deliberate, yet fatalistic, defense of Berlin planned and conducted by Hitler, is largely a historically inaccurate depiction that fits a popularized characterization of the Third Reich's end.

Germany's final battle began when Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici took command of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Army Group Vistula) on 20 March 1945, not when the massive Soviet offensive intended to capture Berlin was launched on 16 April. Heinrici, not Hitler, decided that there was only one strategic course left for Germany-hold the Soviets back along the Oder Front long enough to entice the Western Allies across the Elbe River. Heinrici knew two the war was lost and what remained of Germany was destined for postwar Soviet occupation. His intent was that a protracted defense along the Oder Front would force General Eisenhower to order the Western Allies into the postwar Soviet Zone of Occupation outlined in the Top Secret Allied Plan known as 'Eclipse', thereby sparing millions of Germans in the east the dismal fate of Soviet vengeance everyone knew was at hand. Berlin, Heinrici ordered, would not be defended. The capital of Germany would not become another 'Stalingrad' as Heinrici told his subordinates. A decision by OKW on 23 April to defend Berlin in a final decisive battle forced Heinrici into direct conflict with his superiors over the conduct of operations along the Oder Front -a conflict that undermined his capability to defend against the Soviets and ultimately cost Heinrici his command.

In a companion volume to his successful and highly-regarded study of the Soviet assault on the city of Berlin, Bloody Streets, author A. Stephan Hamilton describes the planning and execution of the defense of the Oder Front, reconstructing it day-by-day using previously unpublished personal diaries, postwar interviews, Heeresgruppe Weichsel's war diary and daily command phone logs. Operations of the 3.Panzer Armee, 9.Armee, 12.Armee, and 21.Armee are covered in detail, with their unit movements depicted on over 60 wartime operational maps. The narrative is supported by an extensive selection of appendices, including translations of postwar narratives relating to Heeresgruppe Weichsel penned by senior German officers, biographical notes on notable officers of the Heeresgruppe, and highly detailed orders of battles. In addition to a number of b/w photographs, this study features 64 pages of operational maps reproduced in full color.

Genres: History, World War II

416 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Aaron Stephan Hamilton has spent the last twenty-five years researching and analyzing the final year of military conflict during World War II in Europe.

He is an academically trained historian who holds a Bachelors and Master's degree in History, as well as the Field Historian designator awarded by the U.S. Army's Combat Studies Institute.

The focus of his research has been the primary documents related to the last year of fighting along the Eastern Front. A time-period and geographic area often neglected by Western researchers due to a lack of easily availability primary sources. His multi-volume history The Oder Front 1945, became the basis for the U.S. Army Europe's (USAREUR) first Staff Ride and Battle Book about the Battle of the Seelow Heights.


Over the past five years he has transitioned his interests from land combat to naval operations, specifically the last year of Battle of the Atlantic that foreshadowed the evolution in undersea warfare. He has a number of books and articles on the topic of late war U-Boat operations and tactics forthcoming.

Reviews

[V. Péter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn’t a typical military history book—its format is closer to a notebook, which actually works in its favor. The abundance of photographs, documents and maps makes the narrative far more vivid and helps the reader form a clearer and more concise picture of the final German defensive efforts on the Oder in 1945.

One of the standout features is that, as far as I know, this is the only work in English that provides even a brief overview of the life and career of Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici, one of the Wehrmacht’s most skilled defensive commanders. That alone fills a significant gap in the literature.

I gave this book five stars because it succeeds both as a detailed operational study and as an accessible visual guide to a very complex campaign. Still, I can’t help but hope that Aaron Stephan Hamilton will one day write a full-length biography covering Heinrici’s life and military career in depth—an underrated figure who certainly deserves it.

[Paul Janiszewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its been more than 4 years since I began reading books dedicated to the order of battle re; the Battle Of Berlin and the Halbe Pocket, (Tony Le Tissier - Zhukov at the Oder/ Slaughter at Halbe/ Seige of Kustrin) being sidetracked by reading covering its socio political historical context. Ive come back to the original task; tracing the movements of my fathers division. Hamilton closely covers primary sources including Operational Reports, Telephone/Radio Logs, Daily Briefs, daily coloured maps and officers diaries are reproduced. Strikingly it illuminates the desperation that runs right through from soldier to commander:
ACCOUNT:
Radio/Telephone Log 23 April 1945 Busse (Commander 9th Army) to Heinrici (Commander Armygroup Vistula).
Busse: Got everybody out of Frankfurt. Heavy air raids.Will make first breach in direction of Baruth. Have run out of amunition. I cant get my people out only with weapons. Cant do it anymore, you must consider the state my people are in. One battery remained stationary, the battery commander is gone... No road to Berlin anymore... Need air supplies Storkow... Its getting worse from the north because Berlin can no longer be counted on for support.
Henrici: That was a crime. See to it that everything gets on the move to the west.
Busse: Please order 12th Army to take up positions.
Heinrici: Well do anything with all our heart to help you.
ACCOUNT:
Diary by Oberleutnant Arnold Fuhrer Begleit Division:
"Dead lay strewn all around. Wounded, staggered screaming; more and more vehicles were knocked out, human bodies whired through the air, shattered, burned. A frightful scene. And the breakout had only just begun...The entire meadow was littered with dead...An armoured troop carrier carrying women and children was hit. Bodies whirled through the air. I ran on. In front of me someone fell in the tracer fire from a burst of machine gun fire. He pulled his pistol from its holster, placed it against his forehead and collapsed..."
These type of memories and images haunt and remain. You and I can never understand its impact.