Eastern Front (Russian Front) Second World War: 1945: The Last Months Of the War

The Russians dismissed the much hyped allied landings on Normandy on D-Day as of little consequence. Which is true to a great extent. If the Russians had not dug in at Moscow in the winter of 1941 and stubbornly stopped all German assaults, there would have been no D-Day. If the Russians had not taken heavy losses at Stalingrad and defeated the Germans there would have been Britain from where the Americans launched D-Day.

The Eastern Front in WW2 was a harsh place which saw some of the most brutal and inhuman fighting between two great proud peoples, the world has ever seen.


Below are some images of the last months of the war on the Ostfront. The Russians with lot of men and arms are moving inexorably towards Germany... to Berlin. A desperate Nazi regime is exhorting its men to fight till the end. The German defence was fierce, born out of desperation. They knew the Russians would take no prisoners. And deservedly, after what the Germans did in Russia...

Old men from the Volkssturm being taught how to use the panzerfaust, the weapon of choice of the Germans in the last days of the war

Russians examine the guillotine at the death cell in Poznan, Poland. March 1945

The Soviet forces move towards Warsaw. January 1945

The Russian-backed Polish army enters Warsaw in January 1945

Parade by Polish soldiers after they enter their homeland again

Polish people in Krakow welcome Soviet soldiers

Russian guns fire at Poznan Fortress. February 1945

Soviet soldiers pour in towards the front

"Dragon's Teeth". German defences to deter the approaching Soviet army

Russians fire rockets at German defences

Soviet heavy artillery fires at Danzig

Street fighting in Koenigsburg

The Russians cross the border into Austria. April 1945

Street fighting in Vienna. April 1945

Russian bombers over the skies of Berlin. April 1945

Soviet soldiers storm the Reichstag

The war is over for these German soldiers. They file past triumphant Russians in silence.

German defenders of Berlin lay down arms

The end of the Third Reich

The victorious march. Russian soldiers march past the reichstag, once the symbol of the might of Hitlerite germany

Berliners return home after the guns fell silent

Russian soldiers feed the people of Berlin. May 1945

Berliners rebuild their life from the ruins