Historical accuracy comes from exhaustive research and a deft writer’s hand. Hamilton’s The Oder Front, 1945 will prove to be the definitive work on the little-understood Nazi defense outside the gates of the German capital. - Doug McCabe, Curator of the Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers, Ohio University
Nazi Germany’s fall is regularly depicted through the dual images of Adolf Hitler directing the final battle for Berlin from his Fuhrerbunker, and the subsequent Soviet victory. This popular view, that Germany’s last battle was a deliberate yet fatalistic defence of Berlin planned and conducted by Hitler, is now declared largely a historically inaccurate depiction.
Germany’s final battle began when Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici took command of Heeresgruppe Weichsel on 20 March 1945. 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. He knew two things, that the war was lost and what remained of Germany was destined for postwar Soviet occupation. He believed a protracted defence along the Oder Front would force 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’.
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author A. Stephan Hamilton describes the planning and execution of the defence of the Oder Front, using previously unpublished personal diaries, post-war interviews, Heeresgruppe Weichsel’s war diary and daily command phone logs. In addition to a number of black and white photographs, this study features 64 pages of operational maps reproduced in full colour.
