Martyn, the History Channel is well-known for it's appalling inaccuracies. They are simply presenting 'History as Entertainment' - their job is to produce a commercially succesful channel without inconviences such as accuracy getting in the way of its entertainment 'value'

Thats news to me thanks for the heads up

The problem is not so much that the History Channel presentations are poorly made, I am sure the vets they found were real vets, but they often do poor research to find out if they cross-section of vets they found are indicative of special cases or general trends.

My biggest example of "populist" history is when they do "top 10" lists...entertaining, but extreemly subjective and not good history.

(However, I have *occasionally* seen a very good, very accurate History Channel presentation, from time to time. But shhhh.)

Update: I was watching the DVDs of "The World at War," and though it's TV, the show's research is supposed to be pretty good. In any case, in discussing the final assault on Berlin, the narrative spoke about the Soviets supplying their units by rail with the lines modified to accept the wider Russain gauge. The implication was the lines went as far as the Oder.

While not definitive, it seems to indicate the Soviets were not using captured locos and rolling stock, but were modifying the rails. It also would seem to indicate that replacement tanks may have had to "hoof it" from the Oder to Berlin, but that's speculation on the kind I have discouraged in others, so I'll take my own advice!

from this source; http://worldatwar.net/biography/z/zhukov/

some exerpts, tomorrow i am going to walk over to a friends office at the war college and ask him. but reading alot of stuff tonight, it seems they drove from poland to berlin. since the allies stepped up the bombing raids on the railheads at Mardsburg(sp?) and dresden prior to the russian push into berlin.

"....Zhukov pushed on and advanced his army 300miles (480km) in 20days, sometimes managing 30-40 miles (48-64km) a day, and his tanks upwards of 60 miles, to reach the Oder River. He was poised to strike at Hitler's capital but Stalin playing the politik game at Yalta, negotiating the future of Europe with Churchill & Roosevelt, didn't want to be seen rushing towards Berlin. The window of opportunity had been lost and Zhukov felt it was too late for a successful thrust all the way into Hitler's liar and ordered the operation postponed...."

this is a crap load of tanks.........."The Germans were well dug in on, and behind, Seelow Heights, many Soviet vehicles were destroyed by anti-tank defences, 700 Russian tanks lost in 4 days, and Zhukov bitter at the result blamed himself for this setback....."