Lower Silesian Offensive

Significance

The Lower Silesian Offensive extended Soviet momentum on the Eastern Front following the Vistula–Oder Offensive, in which Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front had expelled German Army Group A from Poland, liberated Kraków, and seized bridgeheads over the Oder. Launching on February 8, 1945, the offensive cleared German forces from much of Lower Silesia and encircled a substantial German garrison in Breslau, the provincial capital. By the time operations ceased on February 24, Soviet forces had secured a small but operationally significant bridgehead across the Neisse River near Forst. That crossing point positioned the 1st Ukrainian Front for subsequent offensive action westward into Germany, making the offensive a direct link between the liberation of Poland and the final drive toward Berlin. The siege of Breslau, a consequence of the encirclement achieved during the operation, tied down German forces that could not be redeployed to contest the front elsewhere.

Commanders (2)