* Stalin was planning on moving very soon, having decided to jump off on 12 January 1945. His decision remains something of a lingering testimonial to Stalin's falsifications of facts. On 6 January 1945, Churchill sent him a letter to ask about Soviet offensive plans. According to persistent
mythology, apparently encouraged by Soviet historians, Churchill pleaded for the Red Army to help relieve the pressure in the Ardennes, and Stalin graciously agreed to move up the start date of the assault from 20 January.
This was a bogus scenario on the face of it, since the German offensive in the Ardennes had been broken by Christmas 1944, and the only pressure the Americans and British were under was to see how many Germans they could kill or capture before the survivors made it to relative safety. The Red Army's preparations were almost complete and they could have moved even sooner than 12 January if the order were given. Churchill's letter was simply a request for information, but Stalin used it as a pretext to show how he was "rescuing" the Western Allies. Given how long Stalin had complained about the failure of the British and Americans to shoulder their share of the burden of combat, it was not surprising that Koba expressed no gratitude over the fact that his allies had effectively destroyed the last substantial combat reserves of the Wehrmacht.
In any case, the Red Army offensive would be conducted over a 480 kilometer (300 mile) wide front, with the Third Belorussian Front on the northern end of the line, skirting the shores of the Baltic; the Second Belorussian Front next; the First Belorussion Front in the center; and the First Ukrainian Front in the south.
The Third Belorussian Front was still under Chernyakhovsky, but in November Rokossovsky had been moved to command of the Second Belorussian Front, with Zhukov taking his place in charge of the First Belorussian Front. This switch meant that Rokossovsky had been moved off center stage to a supporting role, and he suspected Zhukov, who had seemed friendly to him, had engineered it. In reality Stalin himself had made the decision: Rokossovsky was half-Polish and was not entitled to top
honors. The First Ukrainian Front remained under Konev. The entire operation was under the direct personal control of Stalin.
Although the weather was cold, icy, and foggy, rendering air power ineffective, the offensive went forward as Stalin promised. Indeed, the Red Army tended to like to fight in foul weather, believing with good reason that under such conditions Soviet troops had the advantage over the enemy. Before dawn on 12 January, the First Ukrainian Front began the assault from the Red Army's bridgehead across the Vistula at Sandonmierz, well south of Warsaw. The attack opened with the Red Army's traditional massive artillery bombardment, which lasted for three hours. A German officer on the receiving end compared it to "the heavens falling down on earth."
When the big guns ceased, waves of armor and infantry poured forward. The Germans were caught off guard and the entire 48th Panzer Corps, consisting of three divisions, was almost completely wiped out. The 24th Panzer Corps was supposed to be operating as a reserve, but the offensive slammed into it before a counterattack could be organized, with the Germans losing two more divisions.
To the north of Warsaw, Chernyakhovsky's Third Belorussian Front jumped off on 13 January, to be followed by Rokossovsky's Second Belorussian Front the next day, 14 January. These attacks initially bogged down in the face of stubborn German resistance, as well as marshy terrain, snowstorms, and thick fog that made fighting difficult. Zhukov was not happy with the weather, but his First
Belorussian Front also went forward on 14 January, the troops encouraged by loudspeakers blasting out inspiring music. The Germans had been expecting Zhukov's attack, having observed the buildup and Red Army sappers clearing minefields, and had sensibly abandoned their front lines before the artillery barrage fell on it. It did them little good, since Zhukov's tanks and troops quickly punched through the rear defenses, driving around Warsaw and into the ruins of the city.
On 15 January, Hitler returned from the Eagle's Roost headquarters to Berlin to deal with the crisis, taking up residence in a bunker built under the Reichs Chancellery. Those around him found him sickly, far from the domineering personality he had once been, aged and seemingly senile beyond his years. His breath was very foul, which made listening to his rants at close range even more
unpleasant.
The Fuehrer did little but issue useless orders and fume at the incompetence of the Wehrmacht as Soviet forces rushed forward. To spite the Army generals, on 24 January he ordered Himmler to take charge of Army Group Vistula, a newly-formed command in East Prussia made up of the remnants of units that had been chewed up on the front lines. Hitler felt that a true Nazi like Himmler would be able to accomplish the miracles that the German Army let slip from their fingers.
When Himmler arrived at Army Group Vistula, the staff he inherited found him appalling, uninspiring in manner and appearance -- if he was a Nazi superman, nobody could have told by looking him over -- and with not the least notion of how to fight a war. Himmler had of course a lot of experience in directing terror against unarmed civilians, but dealing with people who could shoot back and then some was an entirely different matter. He was oblivious to his limitations as a general and made it clear that he had no interest in taking advice from experienced professionals.
To no surprise of anyone but himself, Himmler's attempts over the next few weeks to stem the Red tide ranged from ineffectual to disastrous, though he was diligent in mouthing threats to keep the weak-willed in the fight, ordering a few executions to show the threats were serious: that was what he knew how to do, after all. He did everything he could to disguise the disastrous state of affairs at the front from the Fuehrer.
No doubt when Soviet intelligence got wind of Himmler's command, they thanked Hitler for being so helpful. One Soviet tank commander crowed: "Our tanks move faster than the trains to Berlin!" Tankers would often drive through the night, though the drivers would sometimes fall asleep and blunder into things. This usually did the tanks no great harm, but it would give the crews a nasty jolt. * The house of cards in the East was falling down as Guderian had predicted. As he probably also could have predicted, the Fuehrer blamed everyone for the disaster, railing about the "weaklings and traitors" around him. Hitler was particularly furious when the defenders of Warsaw pulled out on 16 January, with the city was completely in Soviet hands the next day. Hitler had demanded that the city
be held, even though German forces there were far too thin on the ground to have done more than inconvenienced the Red Army before being slaughtered. Hitler sacked General Joseph Harpe, commander of Army Group A, and replaced him by General Ferdinand Schoerner. Harpe might have been able to consider himself the luckier of the two.
Guderian had pleaded with the Fuehrer to transfer forces to the East, and was somewhat surprised when Hitler agreed and said that he would transfer the 6th SS Panzer Army. However, to Guderian's outrage, the Fuehrer then said that 6th SS Panzer would be sent to try to recapture oilfields near Budapest in Hungary, and not be thrown into the fight in Poland. The counteroffensive into Hungary would go ahead as ordered, and would come to nothing.
Guderian had approved the withdrawal from Warsaw and so he was the brunt of the Fuehrer's wrath. On 18 January, three of Guderian's staff officers were arrested by the Gestapo and interrogated. Guderian insisted that they had acted according to his instructions, and so he was interrogated as well. * By 26 January, Zhukov's First Belorussian Front had isolated the fortress city of Poznan. The Wehrmacht got a short breathing spell from a blizzard on 27 and 28 January. The snow melted quickly, bogging the Soviets down in mud. The Luftwaffe, operating off of hard-surfaced runways while the Red Air Force was trapped on muddy forward airfields, obtained temporary air superiority and hammered Soviet columns for two days, flying over 5,000 sorties and inflicting major damage. However, the Red Army had put up with worse and pushed on. By the first of February, the Red Army had bridgeheads over the Oder. Zhukov wanted to drive right on to Berlin, but the Red Army had overextended itself and was too far out on a limb with its lines of supply. German resistance had solidified on the Oder line as well. In fact, Zhukov's northern flank was dangerously exposed, and the Germans predictably took advantage of it, launching an attack with the 3rd Panzer Army in mid- February that pressed the Soviets hard for a few days until it ran out of steam. The Vistula offensive was over. Now the Red Army would regroup and resupply for the last push.