The Vistula-Oder offensive was a massive Soviet Army operation on the Eastern Front which was launched on 12 January 1945 and paved the way for the Battle of Berlin. Its main objective was a major advance from the River Vistula to the River Oder, bringing Soviet forces within fifty miles of the gates of Berlin. The offensive faced a German defensive line east of Warsaw. These 450,000 German troops were outmatched three to one by the Soviet forces. The Red Army assault began what would be a devastating three weeks for the German forces of Army Group A. German attempts to hold their lines and avoid being sucked into a maelstrom of destruction were unsuccessful. Army Group A would collapse almost all the way back to Berlin, ending the Third Reich’s desperate efforts to cling onto land captured in Poland five years earlier, and stem enemy forces spilling over into Germany and threatening Berlin. The battle saw some 295,000 soldiers killed and 147,000 captured, as well as thousands of tanks, artillery, and machine guns destroyed. Within two months of the offensive the battle of Berlin was launched. This fully illustrated book relates this story of defeat and survival, offering a detailed visual record of Nazi Germany’s demise between two main rivers in Poland and Germany.

This is a compelling account of the German defense of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Against overwhelming Soviet forces the book shows how the German Army Group North was driven across the Baltics from Leningrad and fought a number isolated battles including the defense of Narva, Memel and the Kurland pocket. The book outlines in dramatic detail how Hitler forbade his troops to withdraw, ordering them to follow his Halt Order Decree and fight to the death. However, exhausted and demoralized by continuous Soviet assaults, Army Group North became cut-off and isolated, fighting fanatically to hold the capital cities of Tallin, Vilnius and Riga. What followed were German forces fighting to the death in the last few small pockets of land surrounding three ports: Libau in Kurland, Pillau in East Prussia and Danzig at the mouth of the River Vistula. In the Kurland, German divisions became surrounded and fought a vicious defense until May 1945. Drawing on a host of rare and unpublished photographs accompanied by in-depth captions and text, the book provides an absorbing read of the Red Army's conquering of the Baltics.

Following the destruction of Sixth Army at Stalingrad in February 1943, Army Group South slowly withdrew westwards, using the Dnieper as a fortified position. In late 1943, the Soviet 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Front launched a strategic offensive against the German Army Group South A – one of the largest operations of the war. In May 1944, Red Army troops defeated Army Group South and Army Group A on the Dnieper. Many thousands of German troops evacuated across the Black Sea. In July, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an operation into the Crimea. The offensive coincided with other Red Army operations further north, including the Lublin-Brest Offensive – part of Operation Bagration. Slowly and inexorably, the powerful Russian attacks forced the tattered German army group to retreat hundreds of miles west, into Eastern Poland and Romania. Here German forces defended their positions and built defences in Hungary and Austria to try and slow down the overwhelming might of the Red Army. There, the Germans would fight a series of desperate battles until the remnants surrendered in early May 1945. Drawing on rare and previously unpublished images accompanied by detailed captions and text, the book gives a fascinating analysis of the destruction of Army Group South in southern Russia between 1944 and 1945.

In late 1944 under extreme pressure on both the Eastern and Western fronts, Hitler realized he needed to force the Allies into negotiating a truce thereby saving Germany from total defeat. Using the Christmas period to enhance the vital element of surprise, he ordered a devastating attack through the rugged and mountainous Ardenne region with the key Allied port of Antwerp as the objective. This book, with its extensive text and rare and unpublished photographs with detailed captions, tells the story of the Waffen-SS offensive, known as `Wacht am Rhein` (Watch on the Rhine). These formidable SS armoured units with supporting Wehrmacht divisions initially achieved dramatic success making full use of the harsh winter conditions and terrain. Gradually the Allies regained the upper hand on the attackers who were increasingly suffering from lack of reinforcements and resupplies. After defeat at the pivotal battle of Bastonge, remaining Waffen-SS units withdrew and were transferred back to the Eastern Front. As described in this classic Images of War book, the Fuhrer's gamble so nearly paid off and the ruthless fighting spirit of the elite Waffen-SS divisions caused the Allied command serious concern.

The historic 872 day siege of Leningrad by German Army Group North began in earnest on 8 September 1941 and was not lifted until 27 January 1944\. During this period the Red Army made numerous desperate attempts to break the blockade, which the Nazis and their Spanish and Finnish allies doggedly resisted. Eventually, due to overwhelming enemy pressure, Hitler's forces were compelled to retreat, but not before looting and destroying numerous historic palaces and landmarks and looting their priceless art collections. The bitter and prolonged fighting often under appalling climatic conditions resulted in many thousands of casualties for both sides from direct action and constant indirect artillery and air attack. Arguably most shocking was the loss of life due to the systematic starvation of the civilian population trapped inside and the intentional destruction of its buildings. Drawing on a superb collection of rare and unpublished photographs with detailed captions and explanatory text, this dramatic book vividly portrays every aspect of the siege which has the dubious claim of being arguably the most costly in human and material terms of any in recent military history.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, numerous Dutchmen, Belgians and Danes volunteered for the Waffen-SS. The largest division, SS Volunteer Legion Netherlands operated in Yugoslavia and then Northern Russia. It was later re-designated 23rd SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nederland. Fighting alongside the Nederland formation was the SS Volunteer Legion Flanders, manned mainly with Dutch speaking recruits from occupied Belgium. After being disbanded it was later reformed as the SS Assault Brigade Langemarck (SS-Sturmbrigade Langemarck). The SS Volunteer Legion Walloon, recruited from French-speaking volunteers from German occupied Belgium, was sent to Russia and later integrated with the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien). Finally some 6,000 Danes served in Free Corps Denmark which went to the Eastern Front in May 1942. Within a year the formation was disbanded into Division Nordland, known as `Regiment 24 Danemark` Drawing on a superb collection of rare and often unpublished photographs, this fine Images of War book describes the fighting history of each formation, notably the 1944 battle of Narva, which was known as the battle of the European SS. As its forces were pushed further back across a scarred and burning wasteland it describes how these Dutch, Belgian and Danish units became cut off in the Kurland Pocket until some were evacuated by sea. The remainder were killed or captured in front of Berlin in April 1945.

Despite the German Panzerwaffe's ability to engage its foes rapidly with concentrated force, additional fire power was often required to break through enemy lines. Initially this was with towed artillery but, as the war developed, converting tanks into fast-moving self-propelled artillery carrying vehicles proved far more effective. As a result a number of weapon systems came into service including the Pz.Kpfw.I and II. Other conversions followed including the Pz.Kpfw.II Wespe with its 10.5cm gun, the Pz.Kpfw.III/IV Hummel armed with a 15cm howitzer, the Sturmpanzer Brummbar with its powerful 15cm gun and the Grille series based on the Czech Pz.Kpfw 38(t) tank chassis. These and other armoured vehicles were capable of providing both close firesupport for infantry and acting as anti-tank weapons. This highly illustrated book describes the key role played by German self-propelled artillery from its introduction in 1940 in France, to North Africa, Italy, Russia and North-West Europe. It analyses the development of the numerous variants that came into service as these formidable weapon systems were adapted and up-gunned to face the ever-increasing enemy threat. With rare and often published photographs this book provides a unique insight into German self-propelled artillery from its early triumphant war years to final defeat in 1945.

Bagration was the code word that the Soviet Army gave for their summer offensive in 1944. This massive offensive led to the destruction of the German Army Group Center and was the greatest military defeat ever experienced by the German Army during World War Two. This book provides an absorbing insight into the German defeat and the Russian offensive using a wide variety of rare and previously unpublished photographs. With detailed captions and text together with 20 artist profiles and maps, the book shows the compelling story of how German Army Group Center tried to counter the overwhelming might of the Soviet Army as it poured thousands of men, weapons and armor across the German lines, smashing its way through. What ensued was a swift and bloody battle of attrition as the German Army tried to contain the might of its unstoppable enemy. In the days and weeks that followed German units fought and gradually retreated under the constant hammer blows of Russian ground and aerial bombardments, and endless armored and infantry attacks. Many German units fighting to the grim death were duty-bound not to withdraw, and what followed was a disaster of a colossal magnitude. As the Soviet might punched a massive hole in the German lines it sent huge shock waves through Army Group Center forcing them to retreat or face total annihilation. However, the Russian offensive was so quick that many of the German units with their precious panzer and infantry divisions quickly became encircled and destroyed - its remnants retreating west in order to save itself. By the end of the battle this cataclysm was bigger than that experienced at Stalingrad. It saw the German Army being pushed out of Russia towards Poland with the loss of over 300,000 men and most of its weaponry lost. The story of the destruction of Army Group Center during the summer of 1944 has been completely overshadowed by the D-Day campaign in Normandy three weeks earlier. Yet, the battle in which the German forces endured on the Eastern Front that fateful summer was more catastrophic than that experienced by the Allies on the Western Front, but little is known of the operation. This book reveals the lesser-known battle in the East and shows how the German forces fought and lost against overwhelming odds.

The murderous activities of Himmler's Einsatzgruppen - or death squads - rank high among the horrors of the Nazi regime during the Second World War. These hand-picked groups followed in the wake of Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht units advancing intro Eastern Europe and Soviet Russia. Their mass murder of civilians in the occupied territories will never be accurately quantified but is likely to have exceeded two million people, including some 1.3 million of the 6,000,00 Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The graphic and shocking photographs in this Images of War book not only show the hunt for and rounding up of civilians, communists, Jews and Romani people but the active support given to the Einsatzgruppen by SS units and Wehrmacht units. The latter strenuously denied any collusion but the photographic evidence here refutes this.

Operation Hoss or Aktion Hoss was the codename for the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews and their murder in the gas chambers of Birkenau extermination camp. Between 14 May and 9 July 1944, 420,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from Hungary, or about 12,000 per day. On arrival some twenty-five percent were selected for forced labour while the remainder were immediately gassed. The name of this atrocity came from Rudolf Hoss, who returned as the commandant of Auschwitz to increase the killing capacity and ensure the smooth running of the operation. The specially built railway line into Birkenau from Auschwitz made transports to the camp more efficient enabling the SS to increase the daily killing capacity. After the war, SS Adolf Eichmann, who had organized the deportations from Hungary, boasted that Operation Hoss was `an achievement never matched before or since`. This shocking book tells the story of this inhuman venture from its conception and planning, and though to the bitter, tragic end.

Drawing on a superb collection of rare and unpublished photographs SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia 1942 - 1945 describes how the occupying Nazis recruited Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian conscripts into the Waffen-SS. Unlike her Latvian neighbour, Lithuania had no plans to provide Germany with a National Legion. Although volunteers came forward, the majority did not. This was not the case for Latvia and Estonia, which undertook huge recruitment programmes, and thousands of men were drafted into their own foreign legion of Waffen-SS Grenadier divisions. After intensive training, these divisions saw action on the Eastern front, around Leningrad, in the Ukraine, before vicious defensive operations as the Red Army smashed its way through the Baltic States in 1944\. Even in the last dying weeks of the war, what was left of the Baltic soldiers of the 15th, 19th and 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Divisions, continued to fight alongside their Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS counterparts until they were either destroyed or surrendered. The story of these divisions is graphically told with detailed captions and text together with many contemporary images in true Images of War style.

The 1944 Arnhem airborne operation, immortalized by the film A Bridge Too Far, will forever be remembered as a great British feat of arms. British and Polish paratroopers displayed outstanding courage and tenacity in a desperate last stand situation. And yet, as this book describes, the plan was fatally flawed as the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions were recuperating and concealed nearby. What followed was a bloody battle of attrition the result of which was arguably inevitable. Drawing on rare and unpublished photographs, this Images of War series work reveals the historical combat record of the `Hohenstaufen` and `Frundsberg` divisions. It describes the intensity of the fighting in and around Arnhem between these elite SS and supporting units against a lightly armed yet equally determined enemy. In spite of the war being only months away from its end and the defeat increasingly certain, the SS soldier remained fanatically motivated. This superbly illustrated book with its well-researched text and full captions captures the drama of that historic battle for a bridge over the Rhine.

While much has been written about the Nazis' panzers, comparatively little is known about the armoured vehicles in service with the other Axis armies. This classic Images of War book redresses the balance by covering in detail the equipment operated by these nations supporting Hitler's war machine. Using rare and often unpublished photographs with full captions and authoritative text, it provides a comprehensive coverage of Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. In addition, it describes Yugoslavian, Serbian and Slovakian armour in addition to armour originating from the Fatherland. Examples of tanks and assault guns are the Romanian TCAM R-2 (Panzer 35t tank destroyer), TACAM T-38 (Panzer 38t), the Bulgarian Jadgpanzer 38(t), StuG40 Ausf.G, Pz.Kp.IV AusH and the Hungarian StuG.III Ausf.G, not forgetting Tigers & Panthers. As well as giving technical specifications, the book traces the fighting record of these vehicles between 1943 - 1945. It shows how armoured units fought bands of partisans, and were used to defend their frontiers against the overwhelming might of the Red Army, until they were either captured or destroyed.

By 1942 the Nazi leadership had decided that the Jewish ghettos across occupied Poland should be liquidated, with Warsaw's being the largest , processed in phases. In response the left-wing Jewish Combat Organisation (ZOB) and right-wing Jewish Military Union (ZZW) formed and began training, preparing defences and smuggling in arms and explosives. The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began in April 1943\. Although this was quelled at devastating cost to the Jewish community, resistance continued until the summer of 1944\. By this time the Red Army was closing on the city and with liberation apparently imminent the 40,000 resistance fighters of the Polish Home Army launched a second uprising. For sixty-three days the insurgents battled their oppressors on the streets, in ruined buildings and cellars. Rather than come to their aid the Russians waited and watched the inevitable slaughter. This gallant but tragic struggle is brought to life in this book by the superb collection of photographs drawn from the album compiled for none other than Heinrich Himmler entitled Warschauer Aufstand 1944.

The term Panzergrenadier was introduced in 1942 and applied equally to the infantry component of Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and later Waffen-SS Panzergrenadiere divisions. As this classic new Images of War book describes, these elite divisions fought as mechanized infantry and escort for and in close cooperation with panzers and other armoured fighting vehicles. Trained to fight both mounted and on foot, their priority was to maintain the fast momentum of armoured troops on the battlefield. Using a wealth of rare, often unpublished, photographs with detailed captions and text, the author charts the fighting record of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe Panzergrenadiertruppe units. This includes their initial successes on the Eastern Front. But as defeat approached, they were forced on the defensive on all fronts including the bitter fighting in Italy and the Western Front. As well as describing their many actions, the book details the vehicles and weapons used and main personalities.

Heinrich Himmler has a strong claim to be Adolf Hitler's most powerful subordinate. He was certainly the main architect of the Holocaust. Appointed Reichsfuhrer-SS in 1929 he built the SS into a million strong paramilitary force and took control of the Nazi concentration camps system. From 1943 he became Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior with command of the Gestapo as well as the Einsatzgruppen, who committed appalling atrocities and murder in occupied Eastern Europe and Russia. Despite his lack of military experience in the closing stages of the War he was appointed by Hitler as Commander of Army Group Vistula. Realising the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the Allies. Learning of this, Hitler dismissed him of all his posts in April 1945. Detained and arrested by British forces, he committed suicide on 22 May 1945. The wartime career of this cruel and capable man is captured brilliantly with contemporary fully captioned images in this Images of War series work.

As the Allies closed in on Hitler's Germany the horror and scale of the Final Solution and concentration camps became all too apparent. This latest Images of War book provides the reader a truly disturbing insight into the Nazi's brutal regime of wholesale murder, torture and starvation. While the Germans attempted to hide the evidence by demolishing much of the camps' infrastructure, the pace of the Soviets' advance through Poland meant that the gas chambers at Majdenak near Lublin were captured intact. Auschwitz had received over a million deportees yet when liberated in January 1945 only a few thousand prisoners were there as the vast majority of surviving prisoners had been sent on forced death marches to more westerly camps such as Ravensbruch and Buchenwald. Condition in these camps deteriorated further due to overcrowding and the spread of deadly diseases. In every camp shocking scenes of death and starvation were encountered. When British troops reached Bergen-Belsen in April 1945, there were some 10,000 unburied dead in addition to the mass graves, in addition to 60,000 starving and sick inmates in utterly appalling conditions. The words and images in this disturbing book are a timely reminder of man's inhumanity to his fellows and that such behaviour should never be repeated.

Formed in 1942 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer was soon deployed to the Eastern Front where Hitler's ambition to conquer Russia was stalling badly. In common with other SS units the Division was responsible for razing towns and villages, poisoning wells and genocide often against unarmed civilians. This scorched earth policy was aimed at hindering the Red Army's advance. After moving South, the Division took part in the retreat from the Dnieper River before operating in Hungary and Croatia. The end came when trapped in Budapest by Soviet and Romanian forces, the Division was destroyed in December 1944\. By the end of the siege only 800 of the 30,000 men in the SS Corps reached German lines. Using many startling contemporary images, this latest book in the Author's SS Division series vividly illustrates the horror of warfare on the Eastern Front.

Auschwitz and Birkenau were separate from each other,by about a 45 minute walk. Auschwitz was adapted to hold political prisoners in 1940 and evolved into a killing machine in 1941. Later that year a new site called Birkenau was found to extend the Auschwitz complex. Here a vast complex of buildings were constructed to hold initially Russian POWs and later Jews as a labour pool for the surrounding industries including IG Farben. Following the January 1943 Wannsee Conference, Birkenau evolved into a murder factory using makeshift houses which were adapted to kill Jews and Russian POWs. Later due to sheer volume Birkenau evolved into a mass killing machine using gas chambers and crematoria, while Auschwitz, which still held prisoners, became the administrative centre. The images show first Auschwitz main camp and then Birkenau and are carefully chosen to illustrate specific areas, like the Women's Camp, Gypsy Camp, SS quarters, Commandant's House, railway disembarkation, the 'sauna', disinfection area and the Crematoria. Maps covering Auschwitz and Birkenau explain the layout. This book is shocking proof of the scale of the Holocaust.

Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, codename Operation Barbarossa, was arguably the pivotal moment of the Second World War. Initially the onslaught was staggeringly successful with, as the superb contemporary images in this book show, Waffen- SS armoured divisions leading the charge. But the Nazis had underestimated the Russians' determination to defend their homeland and the logistical problems compounded by the extreme winter weather conditions. After early victories such as the recapture of Kharkov in early 1943 and the Kursk offensive, commanders and crews of armoured vehicles such as Pz.Kpfw.I, II, III, IV, Panther, Tiger, King Tiger, assault and self-propelled guns had to adapt their tactics and equipment to what became a desperate defensive withdrawal eventually back across a scarred and devastated Eastern Front. Even during the last months of the war as the Panzers withdrew through Poland and into the Reich, these exhausted elite units, broken down into small battle groups or Kampfgruppen, fought to the bitter end. With authoritative text supported by a plethora of rare fully captioned photographs, this classic Images of War book informs and inspires the reader revealing the key role played by Waffen-SS Panzer units in this most bitter campaign.

Nearly 80 years on, the concept and scale of the Nazis' genocide programme remains an indelible, nay almost unbelievable, stain on the human race. Yet it was a dreadful reality of which, as this graphic book demonstrates, all too much proof exists. Between 1941 and 1945 an estimated three and a half million Jews and an unknown number of others, including Soviet POWs and gypsies, perished in six camps built in Poland; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdenak, Sobibor and Treblinka. Unpleasant as it may be, it does no harm for present generations to be reminded of man's inhumanity to man, if only to ensure such atrocities will never be repeated. This book aims to do just this by tracing the history of the so called Final Solution and the building and operation of the Operation Reinhard camps built for the sole purpose of mass murder and genocide.

Reinhard Heydrich along with Heinrich Himmler, whose deputy he was, will always be regarded as one of the most ruthless of the Nazi elite. Even Hitler described him as a man with an iron heart'. He established his fearsome reputation in the 1930s, as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence organisation which neutralised opposition to the Nazi Party by murder and deportation. He organised Kristalnacht and played a leading role in the Holocaust, chairing the 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the Final Solution'. In addition, as head of the Einsatzgruppen murder squads in Eastern Europe he was responsible for countless murders. Appointed Deputy Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, he died of wounds inflicted by British trained SOE operatives in Prague in May 1942. The reprisals that followed his assassination were extreme by even the terrible standards of Nazi ruthlessness. Heydrich's shocking and leading role in the Nazi regime is graphically portrayed in this Images of War book.

Hitler's shock decision to launch the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 was arguably the turning point of the Second World War. Spectacular early victories saw the Nazis close in on Moscow but the Soviet 1941/42 winter counter offensive changed the odds entirely. Without doubt Russian winter conditions were a major factor compounded by the Germans' woeful lack of preparedness. As this fascinating book reveals, Wehrmacht and SS units only began to be issued with winter clothing in late 1941 and many had to improvise well into 1942. In an attempt to restore morale adversely affected by the harsh conditions and military reversals 'The Winter Warfare Handbook' (Winter Buch) was produced in 1942 and extracts are quoted in this work. Commanders had to adapt to the snow, freezing conditions and, almost worse, the impassable roads during the melt. With customary thoroughness and drastic measures the Germans largely mastered the climatic challenges but nothing could mask the reality of the ruthless and numerically superior enemy that they faced.

The Crushing of Army Group North 1944-45 on the Eastern Front tells the story in words and images of the last bitter months fought on Russian soil and the battle of the Baltic States that ensued. Drawing on rare and unpublished photos it reveals in detail how remnants of Army Group North were driven back to the borders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In the battles that followed, the retreating German Panzer and infantry divisions were encircled and annihilated. With the remnants were pushed back into East Prussia, and then fought to the death in the last few small pockets of land surrounding three ports of Libau in Kurland, Pillau in East Prussia and Danzig at the mouth of the River Vistula. It was here that the final battle of Army Group North would take place after Hitler ordered his troops to 'stand and fight' and wage an unprecedented battle of attrition.

From July 1943 to the Nazis' final defeat in May 1945 the Panther main battle tank and its variants were the mainstay of Germany's armoured forces. This superbly engineered fighting vehicle offered a lethal combination of firepower, mobility and protection. As this classic Images of War series title reveals, the Panther saw non-stop fighting on the Eastern, Western and Italian fronts. Using rare and often unpublished contemporary photographs with full captions and authoritative text, it provides a comprehensive coverage of elite Panther battalions in action. The book traces the development of the Panther, for example into tank hunter (Panzerjager), and also covers the other supporting vehicles that formed part of the Panther battalions' establishment. These included armoured recovery, Bergepanther, halftracks, Sd.kfz.2 Kettenrad, gun tractors and communications vehicles.