The Red Army at the Oder River: February - April 1945

Soviet River Crossing Sites

Evidence of flooding could be seen at Gross Neuendorf on 18 March, when a bridge/causeway had been built across the flooded plain on the east side of the river. Work appeared to be in progress on the west end of the bridge and a bridge landing could be seen on the river bank nearby. It is not clear if this bridge had been completed before the flooding occurred, since there was evidence of roads immediately south of the bridge site.

As seen on an 11 March target graphic another crossing was located at Kalenzig (Kalensko), 12 km to the south (Graphic). By that time, the bridge there had been damaged. A ferry crossing probably was operational. The main crossing site was defended by five occupied anti-aircraft sites. Three kilometers to the southeast, another bridge was under construction at Alt Schaumberg (Szumilowo) on 8 April.

Further south, the fortress at Küstrin (Kostrzyn; see article) was nearly encircled by Soviet bridgeheads by early February. On the 20th bridges had yet been constructed, but there was evidence of fighting on at Blyen, on the west bank of the river (Graphic).

By April German photo interpreters identified bridge crossings north and south of Küstrin. By 15 April, two crossings had been established north of the fortress between Alt Drewitz and Blyen. One bridge (under construction 4 April) spanned the Oder while the other, a bridge/causeway crossed the adjacent Warta River, and possibly the Oder (Graphic).

A single bridge had been erected At Kietz, immediately south of Küstrin. Coverages of the area showed that bridge was damaged 10 April, but repaired by the 12th (Graphic)

A crossing point at Goritz (Górzyca, Poland), seven kilometers south of Kietz, was partially covered on 18 March. Although there was no coverage of the bridges, bridging pontoons and construction material were identified along a track leading to the river (Graphic).

A large truck park with hundreds of vehicles dispersed in revetments in and around a quarry showed that Goritz was an important logistics hub. (Graphic) More vehicles and anti-aircraft positions at a rail siding north of the town suggested impending deliveries by rail.

Aurith, 28 km south of Göritz, was the southernmost bridgehead in the 1st Belorussian Front’s area of responsibility. A target graphic from 18 February shows the crossing site early in the offensive; one large bridge had been erected and a ferry was in operation (Graphic). Notably the river was flooded in the area of the crossing. The bridgehead was already well defended, with five occupied AAA sites on the east bank and three on the west.

Unfortunately, there is almost no available imagery west of the Oder. The 18 March USAAF sortie did overfly the area west and south of Seelow --the center of the German defenses-- but the coverage was intermittent and heavily cloud-covered. A section of the Soviet front lines at the Aurith bridgehead could be seen at Wiesenau; German defenses probably lay behind a nearby Oder-Spree canal (Graphic).

Some German defenses could be seen at Frankfurt/Oder, which like Küstrin remained in German hands (Graphic).

The most interesting activity noted was a train with vehicles or supplies at a rail siding near Müncheberg, 17 km west of Seelow (Graphic). The train was possibly associated with Panzer-Division Müncheberg that formed at the town beginning on 8 March. On 27 March, Müncheberg was sent on an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the Soviets from cutting off the resupply corridor to Küstrin.

Airfields
Compared to other frontal areas surveyed, there was very little coverage found of Soviet airfields behind the lines. On 19 February 1945 the former German base at Chojna, Poland had already been occupied by a Soviet ground attack unit. No airfields were seen in the vicinity of the bridgeheads except for two strips at Kalenzig identified by German interpreters on 8 March (see Graphic