Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
ATTACKER'S CAPABILITIES
– The VVS on the brink of victory
– Overall Soviet organization
– Aircraft roles and capabilities
– VVS Order of Battle, January 1945
– VVS Order of Battle, April 1945
DEFENDER'S CAPABILITIES
– The last of the Luftwaffe
– Aircraft, roles, and capabilities
– Luftwaffe Order of Battle, January 1945
– Luftwaffe Order of Battle, April 1945
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
– The road to Berlin
THE CAMPAIGN
– Air war over Poland and Germany
– January 1945: The Vistula–Oder Offensive
– January 1945: The East Prussia Offensive
– The exploitation
– The halt on the Oder
– The fight for the Oder: March–April 1945
– Konigsberg: the fall of the fortress
– Berlin: The final offensive
– The end in the East
– The turn to the flanks – February–March 1945
AFTERMATH AND ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
INDEX

Promotional Information

A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones.

About the Author

William E. Hiestand was born in 1957, and has worked for over 30 years as a US Department of Defense analyst focusing on military issues. He has served in a wide variety of analytic, leadership, and representational roles. He holds an MA in History from Cornell University, and has a lifelong interest in military history, with a particular focus on 20th-century armored and mechanized operations and Soviet military history. He lives in Virginia near Washington DC.