April 16, 1945 began the last, decisive military operation of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War. The final destination is Berlin. It turned into a race of fronts, illuminated by Georgy Zhukov's searchlights.
When did the war end?
The Red Army could start the operation to capture Berlin as early as the beginning of February 1945, at least the Allies thought so. Western experts believe that the Kremlin has postponed the attack on Berlin in order to delay hostilities. Many Soviet commanders spoke about the possibility of the Berlin operation in February 1945. Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov writes:
“As for risk, in war it is often necessary to take it. But in this case, the risk was well justified.”
The Soviet leadership deliberately delayed the attack on Berlin. There were objective reasons for this. The position of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts after the Vistula-Oder operation was complicated by the lack of ammunition and fuel. The artillery and aviation of both fronts was so weakened that the troops were not able to advance. Having postponed the Berlin operation, the headquarters concentrated the main efforts of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts on defeating the East Pomeranian and Silesian enemy groupings. At the same time, it was supposed to carry out the necessary regrouping of troops and restore the dominance of Soviet aviation in the air. It took two months.
Trap for Stalin
At the end of March, Joseph Stalin decided to speed up the attack on Berlin. What prompted him to force things? Fears grew in the Soviet leadership that the Western powers were ready to start separate negotiations with Germany and end the war "by political means". Rumors reached Moscow that Heinrich Himmler was seeking, through the vice-president of the Red Cross, Folke Bernadotte, to establish contacts with representatives of the allies, and SS-Oberstgruppenführer Karl Wolf began negotiations in Switzerland with Allen Dulles on a possible partial surrender of German troops in Italy.
Stalin was even more alarmed by the message from the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Western powers, Dwight Eisenhower, dated March 28, 1945, that he was not going to take Berlin. Previously, Eisenhower had never informed Moscow about his strategic plans, but here he went out in the open. Stalin, who expected a possible betrayal by the Western powers, in his response message indicated that the areas of Erfurt-Leipzig-Dresden and Vienna-Linz-Regensburg should become the junction of the Western and Soviet troops. Berlin, according to Stalin, has lost its former strategic importance. He assured Eisenhower that the Kremlin was sending secondary forces to the Berlin direction. The second half of May was called the potential date for the start of the main blow of the Soviet troops to the Western powers.
Whoever came first, that and Berlin
According to Stalin's estimates, the Berlin operation should have begun no later than April 16 and completed within 12-15 days. The question remained open as to who should capture the Nazi capital: Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and the 1st Belorussian Front or Ivan Stepanovich Konev and the 1st Ukrainian Front.
“Whoever breaks through first, let him take Berlin,” Stalin told his generals. The third commander of the Soviet armed forces, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky and his 2nd Belorussian Front, were to advance north of Berlin, reach the sea coast and defeat the enemy grouping there. Rokossovsky, like the rest of the officers of his regiment, was annoyed that he could not take part in the capture of Berlin. But there were objective reasons for this, their front was not ready for an offensive operation.
Zhukov's optical "wonder weapon"
The operation began at five in the morning (three in the morning Berlin time) with artillery preparation. Twenty minutes later, searchlights were turned on, and the infantry, supported by tanks and self-propelled guns, went on the attack. With their powerful light, more than 100 anti-aircraft searchlights were supposed to blind the enemy and provide a night attack until dawn. But in practice they had the opposite effect. Colonel General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov later recalled that it was impossible to observe the battlefield from his observation post.
The reason was the unfavorable foggy weather and the cloud of smoke and dust formed after the artillery preparation, which even the light of searchlights could not break through. Some of them were faulty, the rest turned on and off. This greatly interfered with the Soviet soldiers. Many of them stopped at the first natural obstacle, waiting for dawn to cross some stream or canal. The "inventions" of Georgy Zhukov, successfully used earlier in the defense of Moscow, near Berlin, instead of benefit, brought only harm.
"Mistake" of the commander
The commander of the 1st Belorussian Army, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, believed that during the first days of the operation, he did not make a single mistake at all. The only oversight, in his opinion, was the underestimation of the complex nature of the terrain in the area of the Seelow Heights, where the main defensive forces and equipment of the enemy were located. The battles for these heights cost Zhukov one or two days of battle. These heights slowed down the advance of the 1st Belorussian Front, increasing Konev's chances for the right to be the first to enter Berlin. But, as Zhukov expected, the Zeelovsky heights were soon taken by the morning of April 18, and it became possible to use all the tank formations of the 1st Belorussian formation on a wide front. The way to Berlin was open and a week later Soviet soldiers stormed the capital of the Third Reich.
Exit of Soviet troops to Berlin. Actions of the 1st Belorussian Front
On April 19, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front continued to rush towards Berlin. The command of the 1st Belorussian Front, concerned about the delay in the offensive, which was caused by overcoming the deep, well-equipped and dense enemy defenses, sought to speed up the advance of the armies. Zhukov demanded from the command of the armies a more precise organization of the offensive. Taking into account the success on the right flank of the shock grouping of the front in the bands of the 47th and 3rd shock armies, the front command changed the direction of the offensive of the right wing troops in order to bypass Berlin from the north and northwest.
Belov's right-flank 61st Army was to advance along the Hohenzollern Canal in order to secure the right flank of the front from possible enemy attacks from the north. The 1st Army of the Polish Army, the 47th, 3rd and 5th shock armies were instructed to advance not directly to the west, but to the southwest, in order to bypass Berlin and capture its northern part. In the course of the day, the right wing of the strike group of the front broke through the enemy's third line of defense in a sector of 14 kilometers. Soviet troops were breaking through irresistibly to Berlin.
On the night and day of April 20, our troops developed the offensive. Parts of the 47th Army of Perkhorovich and the 3rd Shock Army of Kuznetsov immediately broke through the third line of defense and the outer defensive line of Berlin, to which the German command did not have time to withdraw the troops of the 9th Army. The 2nd Guards Tank Army of Bogdanov broke away from the infantry and reached the Ladeburg-Tsepernik line, bypassing the German capital from the north. In the afternoon, long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army opened fire on the German capital for the first time. At the same time, the 1st Battalion of the 30th Guards Cannon Brigade of the 47th Army, commanded by Major A.I. Zyukin, also fired a salvo at Berlin. After that, a systematic artillery shelling of the German capital had already begun. The next day, April 21, 1945, units of the armies of Perkhorovich, Kuznetsov and Bogdanov intercepted the Berlin ring road and began a battle for the northern outskirts of Berlin. Thus began the battle for Berlin.
“In order to accelerate the destruction of the enemy’s defenses in Berlin itself in every way,” recalled G.K. Zhukov, “it was decided to abandon the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies along with the 8th Guards, 47th armies into battle for the city. With powerful artillery fire, strikes and a tank avalanche, they had to quickly suppress the enemy defenses in Berlin.
Meanwhile, the troops of the 61st Army and the 1st Army of the Polish Army continued their offensive in a westerly direction, moving towards the Elbe. However, they lagged behind the 47th Army, which endangered the right flank of the front's shock group. To solve this problem and close the gap, by decision of Zhukov, the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps of General Konstantinov was thrown into battle. As a result, the right wing of the front's main strike force was securely covered.
The troops of Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army found themselves in more difficult conditions. On April 19-20, they were still fighting hard to break through the enemy's third line of defense. The German command, fearing the communications of the 9th Army, transferred the 23rd SS Motorized Division and other reserves to this direction. German troops continued to put up fierce resistance. In the Fürstenwalde area, the Germans launched counterattacks more than once. This seriously slowed down the advance of the left flank of the shock group of the 1st Belorussian Front. Only by the end of April 21, part of our troops were able to wedge into the outer defensive bypass of the Berlin region in the area of Petershagen and Erkner.
On the left flank, the 69th and 33rd armies continued fighting to break through the Oder defensive line. In the course of stubborn battles, our troops bypassed the Frankfurt defensive area and created a threat to its encirclement.
As they approached Berlin, the offensive of the Soviet troops slowed down again. The Germans fought desperately. The density of stone structures increased, it was necessary to bring up large-caliber artillery in order to destroy the thick walls of houses, basements, ceilings. The trump cards of the tank troops - speed and maneuver, were lost. Engineering troops came to the fore, sappers undermined obstacles, destroyed barriers, removed mines, etc. In the conditions of street fighting, fires and smoke, it was difficult for aviation to make out where their own, so the intensity of its actions fell. In addition, the Germans defended their land, knew all the intricacies of the terrain, buildings, underground utilities. In Berlin, there were many water barriers (rivers, canals) with sheer granite or concrete banks.
However, step by step, our troops rushed to the city center. The 47th Army, supported by the 9th Tank Corps and the 2nd Guards Tank Army, broke through to the Havel River. On April 22, our troops crossed the Havel near Hennigsdorf. The 3rd shock army fought on the city defensive bypass. The 5th shock army and part of the forces of the 8th guards army broke through the internal defensive bypass. On April 23, units of the 47th, 3rd and 5th shock armies broke through the city defensive bypass and wedged into the central part of the Reich capital from the northeast, north and west. The 8th Guards Army entered the Adlershof, Bonsdorf area and advanced on the southeastern part of the German capital.
The shock grouping on the left wing of the front (3rd, 69th and 33rd armies) slowly advanced to the south and southwest, surrounding the troops of the 9th army (the Frankfurt-Guben grouping). With great difficulty, the 69th Army took a large enemy resistance center Furstenwalde. The strike force on the right wing (61st Army, 1st Army of the Polish Army and 7th Guards Cavalry Corps) advanced 20-30 km to the west and provided troops storming Berlin from the north.
On April 24, the troops of the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front joined in the southeastern part of Berlin with the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front. As a result, the main forces of the 9th Army and part of the forces of the 4th Panzer Army were surrounded. On April 25, Berlin was completely surrounded. German troops fell into two large "cauldrons".
Destroyed German Fw.190 fighters at Jüterborg airfield near Berlin
A killed German soldier and a T-34-85 tank of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade on a Berlin street
Soviet tank T-34-85, accompanied by infantry, moves down the street on the outskirts of Berlin
Actions of the 1st Ukrainian Front
The 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko, who successfully crossed the Spree on April 18, launched an offensive against the capital of the Reich. Each tank army was supported by assault and fighter corps. As Konev noted, “... in a number of cases, there were no new defensive lines in front of our troops. And those that met were located with the front to the east, and our units calmly walked north past them and between them, but only to the outer contour encircling the whole of Berlin.
On April 19, Rybalko's guards took the important communications center of Fetschau, destroying the rear and the headquarters of the 21st German Panzer Division. German troops tried to thwart the advance of the Soviet mobile formations with counterattacks from the Cottbus area. However, the German attacks were successfully repulsed by the 16th self-propelled artillery brigade. By the end of the day, the advanced units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army started a battle for Lübbenau. Meanwhile, Lelyushenko's 4th Guards Tank Army approached Luccau. Having advanced 50 kilometers to the north-west, the mobile formations broke away from the infantry.
However, approaching Berlin, our tankers met with increasingly strong enemy resistance. On April 20, tank units reached the Tsossensky defensive area, where the headquarters of the general staff of the ground forces was located in deep underground bunkers. Here the Germans built a whole underground city, which housed various departments and services of the headquarters. Back in 1936, the German command decided to build a new, secure communication center, which was code-named "Zeppelin" (Zepellin) - a secret command and control center for troops and communications. By 1939 the object was ready. The center was put into operation on August 26, 1939, five days before the start of the Polish campaign.
The facility combined an underground headquarters complex and the most modern telecommunications center in Western Europe at that time, codenamed "AMT500". The telecommunications network of the center closed on the ring highway of secure communications, which encircled Berlin. Also in the center, there was a powerful radio center. The entire complex, which was located on two underground levels, had a total area of 4881 square meters. m.
The secret headquarters complex of the German ground forces was called the Maybachlager and consisted of three zones-segments. The ground part of the headquarters complex consisted of 12 concrete bunkers (on the map A 1 - A 12), disguised as residential buildings. All of them were connected by an annular underground gallery, and their ground part was lockable, had protection against gas attack, independent water supply and two fortified underground levels. In this headquarters center, the fate of millions was decided, plans for a war with France and the USSR were developed. Interestingly, the location of the Maybach headquarters was a secret until 1944.
One of the entrances to the Zeppelin
Entrance to one of 12 Maybach concrete bunkers disguised as a residential building
Therefore, Zossen was defended by four defensive lines. The depth of the Tsossensky defensive region reached 15 kilometers. In addition, the terrain itself was difficult to access and contributed to the anti-tank defense equipment. The area was wooded and swampy, with numerous lakes and reservoirs. This made it difficult to maneuver mobile units. Blockages were arranged on the roads and inter-lake defiles, long-term firing points were built, buried in the ground. Settlements were prepared for all-round defense. The Zossen defensive area had its own garrison up to an infantry division.
By 12 o'clock on April 20, the troops of the 6th Guards Tank Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army reached the city of Barut. An attempt by forward detachments to take the city on the move was not successful. Then the 53rd and 52nd Guards Tank Brigades were sent to storm Barut: the first was to attack the city from the southeast, the second from the west, bypassing the enemy. After a short artillery strike, the guards attacked the enemy. The German garrison could not stand it, and by 13 o'clock the city was taken.
When advancing to Zossen, our troops again met with strong resistance. The tankers had to consistently break through the enemy's defensive lines, which slowed down the advance of the Soviet troops. The wooded and swampy terrain limited the maneuver of tank units. Only by the end of April 21, our troops cleared the Zossen defensive area from the Nazis. On the night of April 22, Zossen was taken. The German General Staff fled to Berlin, which was 30 km away. Underground bunkers were abandoned with such haste that only part of this underground structure was flooded and blown up. After the war, the territory of the headquarters of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSVG) was located here, which at that time was called Wünsdorf.
Meanwhile, the 4th Guards Army reached the Luckenwalde - Yuterbog line, where stubborn battles also unfolded. In general, on April 21, the tankers Rybalko and Lelyushenko reached the southern section of the outer defensive bypass of Berlin.
At this time, the combined arms armies continued their offensive to the west, fought against the Cottbus and Spremberg enemy groups. Pukhov's 13th Army, having ensured the introduction of tank armies into the breakthrough, deeply wedged into the enemy's defensive formations in the center of the breakthrough. However, strong enemy groupings hung over its flanks in the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg.
Gordov's 3rd Guards Army moved west and northwest and fought heavy battles with German troops in the Cottbus area. German troops, relying on strongholds on the outskirts of the city, put up fierce resistance. Therefore, our troops advanced slowly. Only by the end of April 19, Soviet troops reached the eastern outskirts of Cottbus and part of the forces bypassed the city from the southeast. However, the entire right flank of the strike force of the 1st Ukrainian Front from Cottbus to Zossen remained open. This made it possible for the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben grouping (parts of the German 9th Army, cut off in the area southeast of Berlin) to flee to Berlin or to the west. The panzer armies were aimed at Berlin, and in order for them to close this gap, they had to be recalled back. Therefore, Konev decided to bring into the battle the second echelon of the front - the 28th army of Luchinsky, which had just approached the battle area from the rear. Part of its forces was directed to reinforce the 3rd Guards Tank Army, the main forces were sent to complete the encirclement of the German Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy.
Stubborn battles also took place on the left wing of the main strike force in the Spremberg area. Zhadov's 5th Guards Army fought for the expansion of the bridgehead on the Spree River. On April 19, its units, together with the troops of the 13th Army, blocked the Spremberg area. Here the Germans brought into battle the 344th Infantry Division, which was transferred here from the right flank of the 17th Army and, using the remnants of the units that had bypassed the Neisse line, organized a strong defense. The city was a strong defense center. To defeat this "hard nut", the Soviet command attracted a large number of artillery here - 14 artillery brigades (1104 guns and mortars, 143 guards mortars). At the same time, significant aviation forces were attracted here. On the night of April 20, Po-2 bombers of the 208th Night Bomber Aviation Division attacked the enemy's defense center. At 11 o'clock, after a 30-minute artillery preparation, the troops of the 33rd Guards Corps of the 5th Guards Army stormed Spremberg. The Germans desperately resisted, but could not withstand the onslaught of the Soviet soldiers. April 20 Spremberg fell. After capturing this powerful center of resistance, the troops of the 5th Guards Army accelerated their movement.
Map source: Isaev A. V. Berlin on the 45th
The 13th Army of Pukhov achieved significant success these days. Soviet troops reached Finsterwalde, advancing 50 km west of the Spree. The 5th Guards Army of Zhadov, having passed 30 kilometers west of Spremberg, reached the line west of Senftenberg - Hoyerswerd. April 25 at 13:00 30 minutes. in the zone of the 5th Guards Army, in the Strela area, on the Elbe River, units of the 58th Guards Division met with a reconnaissance group of the 1st American Army. On the same day, in the Torgau area on the Elbe River, the forward battalion of the same 58th Guards Division met with another American reconnaissance group.
The offensive of the left-flank shock grouping of the front in the Dresden direction developed slowly. The Germans stubbornly resisted and repeatedly launched counterattacks. To speed up the offensive of the 52nd Army, the front command narrowed its zone of responsibility, which made it possible to strengthen the shock fist. Units of the 31st Army were deployed near the 52nd Army. However, the German command also transferred new forces to the Dresden direction, the efforts of the Görlitz group. Therefore, the fighting in the Dresden direction remained fierce. German armored units inflicted a series of heavy blows on the left flank of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army. However, all attempts by the German troops to crush the left wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front failed. Our aviation played a major role in repulsing enemy attacks, which, despite the often unfavorable weather, delivered strikes against German battle formations. In the afternoon of April 21 alone, when weather conditions improved, ground attack aircraft made 265 sorties, striking German armored vehicles in the Görlitz area.
Part of the forces of the left wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front continued to develop the offensive in a southwestern direction. The 1st Guards Cavalry Corps advanced on Ortrand, fighting northwest of Kamenets. The 7th Guards Mechanized Corps, with the support of the infantry of the 52nd Army, took the city of Bautzen. Polish troops, overcoming the resistance of the enemy, reached the area of the city of Burkau. In the course of three days of fierce fighting, the front's left-flank strike force repulsed strong enemy counterattacks and part of its forces advanced 20 kilometers to the southwest (Dresden direction) and up to 45 kilometers to the west.
On April 23, in the direction of Dresden, the Görlitz grouping of the enemy received reinforcements and again launched a counteroffensive in the direction of Spremberg. The Germans formed two strike groups in the area of Bautzen and Weisenberg. The German infantry and tanks, supported by aviation, having created an advantage in the directions of strikes, were able to break through the front of the 52nd Army, went to the rear of the 2nd Polish Army. A fierce battle went on for several days. The Germans were able to advance in the direction of Spremberg for 33 km, but were stopped. The front command transferred part of the forces of the 5th Guards Army, the 2nd Army of the Polish Army to the dangerous sector, and the 2nd Air Army stepped up its operations.
On the night of April 22, units of Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army crossed the Notte Canal and, in the Mittenwalde and Zossen sections, broke through the outer defensive perimeter of Berlin. Having reached the Teltow Canal, Soviet tankers, supported by the infantry of the 28th Army, front-line artillery and aviation, broke through to the southern outskirts of the capital of the Third Reich. This water line was a serious obstacle: a width of 40-50 meters, high concrete banks, the northern coast was well equipped - trenches, long-term firing structures, tanks dug into the ground and assault guns. Above the canal was a chain of strong stone houses, each of which could be a small fortress. It was not possible to break through the channel on the move. Therefore, the Soviet command decided to carry out thorough preparations, to bring up artillery. On April 23, Rybalko's army was preparing to storm the enemy position.
Lelyushenko's 4th Guards Tank Army, advancing to the left, captured Yuterbog, Luckenwalde and quickly moved towards Potsdam and Brandenburg. In the Luckenwald area, on April 22, a prisoner of war camp was liberated, where more than 15,000 French, British, Americans, Italians, Serbs, Norwegians, and others received freedom. More than 3,000 Russians were among the prisoners. At 12 noon on April 25, west of Berlin, the advanced units of the 4th Guards Tank Army of Lelyushenko met with units of the 47th Army of Perkhorovich of the 1st Belorussian Front. The encirclement ring of Berlin closed.
On April 22, Gordov's 3rd Guards Army completed the defeat of the Cottbus enemy grouping. An important node of the enemy's defense Cottbus fell. The Soviet guards began to move north in order to defeat the encircled troops of the 9th Army and prevent it from breaking through to Berlin or west to the rear of the troops attacking the German capital.
Thus, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts completed the breakthrough of the Oder and Neissen defense lines and successfully carried out a maneuver to encircle the Berlin garrison and isolate most of the 9th Army from the capital in the forests southeast of the city. The left-flank armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, breaking through the outer defensive line of the Berlin region, broke into the suburbs of the German capital and started a battle for the city. The tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front made a brilliant breakthrough to the northwest, broke through the boundaries of the Zossen defensive area, overcame the southern section of the defensive bypass, and started a battle for the southern part of Berlin. Part of the forces advanced on Potsdam and Brandenburg, covering Berlin from the southwest.
Memorial sign erected at the meeting point on the Elbe
Meeting of Soviet and American soldiers on the Elbe
The actions of the German command
The German headquarters made desperate efforts to win time, to stop the Soviet offensive. On April 22, Adolf Hitler made the final decision to remain in the capital and personally lead the fight for Berlin, although he was offered to flee south to the location of Army Group Center. There were still opportunities for this. At the Imperial Chancellery at about 3 p.m. A large operational meeting was convened, where Hitler admitted for the first time that the war was lost. At the same time, the Fuhrer fell into hysterics and declared that the infidelity and betrayal of the generals led to defeat. Hitler ordered Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl and Martin Bormann to fly south to continue the resistance from there even if Berlin fell. But those, showing devotion to the Fuhrer, refused.
As a last desperate measure, the German high command decided to open the Western Front and throw the troops fighting against the Anglo-American armies into the battle for Berlin. For the decisive battle for Berlin, they planned to use the Steiner Army Group, the 9th Army and the newly created 12th Army of General Wenck. Army Group Steiner was to strike from north to south, from the Eberswald region. Wenck's 12th Army from the area southwest of Berlin advance east to link up with the 9th Army pushing its way to the west, then join forces, go on the counteroffensive and liberate Berlin. At the same time, the 4th Panzer Army was to launch a counterattack on the flank of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
Extraordinary measures were taken to strengthen the defense of Berlin. In the capital, the formation of Volkssturm detachments continued. In total, about 200 militia battalions were formed. On April 22, prisoners were released from civilian and military prisons, who were used in the defense of the city. The Berlin garrison consisted of about 80 thousand soldiers and officers who managed to break into the city of units and subunits and 32 thousand policemen. A favorable factor for the Red Army was that most of the 9th Army was surrounded southeast of Berlin and could not take part in the battle for the city. The assault on Berlin could take longer and with heavy losses.
Thus, the Nazis were not going to give up. The Fuhrer announced that he was staying in Berlin and that the city would be defended to the last man. Goebbels urged soldiers and citizens to persevere, assuring that the battle for Berlin would bring victory to Germany.
On April 23, Keitel visited the headquarters of the 12th Army to prepare for the new task. Keitel discussed with Wenck a plan for a counteroffensive against Berlin towards Potsdam in order to link up with the 9th Army. Then Keitel and Jodl again went to Hitler in the Imperial Chancellery. The German military leaders spoke with Hitler for the last time. After a meeting in the Imperial Chancellery, Field Marshal Keitel again went to the headquarters of the 12th Army, which would influence the course of the operation.
Meanwhile, the position of Berlin worsened every day. With the loss of the city outskirts, the Germans lost a significant part of the warehouses, especially with food. By April 22, strict consumption norms were set: 800 grams of bread and potatoes, 150 grams of meat and 75 grams of fat per week per person. Since April 21, almost all enterprises have stopped working, as the supply of electricity, gas was cut off, coal reserves ran out. The metro stopped, trams, trolleybuses did not run, water supply and sewerage did not work. Panic gripped the city, many fled, especially party functionaries and their families. Among those who left Berlin were such top leaders as Göring and Himmler. The townspeople were dissatisfied and began to realize that the war was lost. However, propaganda, the habit of discipline, loyalty to the Fuhrer of the party and state apparatus and the army forced everyone to fight to the end.
To be continued…
The plan of the operation of the Soviet Supreme High Command was to inflict several powerful blows on a wide front, dismember the Berlin enemy grouping, surround and destroy it in parts. The operation began on April 16, 1945. After powerful artillery and aviation preparation, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked the enemy on the Oder River. At the same time, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to force the Neisse River. Despite the fierce resistance of the enemy, the Soviet troops broke through his defenses.
On April 20, long-range artillery fire of the 1st Belorussian Front on Berlin laid the foundation for its assault. By the evening of April 21, its strike units reached the northeastern outskirts of the city.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a swift maneuver to reach Berlin from the south and west. On April 21, having advanced 95 kilometers, the tank units of the front broke into the southern outskirts of the city. Using the success of tank formations, the combined arms armies of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front quickly moved west.
On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts united west of Berlin, completing the encirclement of the entire enemy Berlin grouping (500 thousand people).
The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Oder and, breaking through the enemy defenses, advanced to a depth of 20 kilometers by April 25. They firmly fettered the 3rd German Panzer Army, preventing its use on the outskirts of Berlin.
The German fascist group in Berlin, despite the obvious doom, continued stubborn resistance. In fierce street battles on April 26-28, it was cut by Soviet troops into three isolated parts.
The fighting went on day and night. Breaking through to the center of Berlin, Soviet soldiers stormed every street and every house. On some days they managed to clear up to 300 quarters of the enemy. Hand-to-hand fights took place in the subway tunnels, underground communication facilities and communication passages. During the fighting in the city, assault detachments and groups formed the basis of the combat formations of rifle and tank units. Most of the artillery (up to 152 mm and 203 mm guns) was attached to rifle units for direct fire. Tanks operated as part of both rifle formations and tank corps and armies, operationally subordinate to the command of combined arms armies or operating in their offensive zone. Attempts to use tanks on their own led to their heavy losses from artillery fire and faustpatrons. Due to the fact that Berlin was shrouded in smoke during the assault, the massive use of bomber aircraft was often difficult. The most powerful strikes on military targets in the city were carried out by aviation on April 25 and on the night of April 26, 2049 aircraft participated in these strikes.
By April 28, only the central part remained in the hands of the defenders of Berlin, which was shot through by Soviet artillery from all sides, and by the evening of the same day, units of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag area.
The Reichstag garrison numbered up to one thousand soldiers and officers, but it continued to grow steadily. He was armed with a large number of machine guns and faustpatrons. There were also artillery pieces. Deep ditches were dug around the building, various barriers were set up, machine-gun and artillery firing points were equipped.
On April 30, the troops of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front began fighting for the Reichstag, which immediately took on an extremely fierce character. Only in the evening, after repeated attacks, Soviet soldiers broke into the building. The Nazis offered fierce resistance. Hand-to-hand fights broke out on the stairs and in the corridors. The assault units, step by step, room by room, floor by floor, cleared the Reichstag building of the enemy. The entire path of the Soviet soldiers from the main entrance to the Reichstag and up to the roof was marked with red flags and flags. On the night of May 1, the Banner of Victory was hoisted over the building of the defeated Reichstag. The battles for the Reichstag continued until the morning of May 1, and individual groups of the enemy, who had settled in the compartments of the cellars, capitulated only on the night of May 2.
In the battles for the Reichstag, the enemy lost more than 2 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded. Soviet troops captured over 2.6 thousand Nazis, as well as 1.8 thousand rifles and machine guns, 59 artillery pieces, 15 tanks and assault guns as trophies.
On May 1, units of the 3rd Shock Army, advancing from the north, met south of the Reichstag with units of the 8th Guards Army, advancing from the south. On the same day, two important Berlin defense centers surrendered: the Spandau citadel and the Flakturm I ("Zoobunker") anti-aircraft concrete air defense tower.
By 3 p.m. on May 2, the enemy’s resistance had completely ceased, the remnants of the Berlin garrison surrendered in total more than 134 thousand people.
During the fighting, out of about 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died, a significant part of Berlin was destroyed. Of the 250 thousand buildings in the city, about 30 thousand were completely destroyed, more than 20 thousand buildings were in a dilapidated state, more than 150 thousand buildings had medium damage. More than a third of metro stations were flooded and destroyed, 225 bridges were blown up by Nazi troops.
Fighting with separate groups, breaking through from the outskirts of Berlin to the west, ended on May 5th. On the night of May 9, the Act of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops surrounded and liquidated the largest grouping of enemy troops in the history of wars. They defeated 70 infantry, 23 tank and mechanized divisions of the enemy, captured 480 thousand people.
The Berlin operation cost the Soviet troops dearly. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 78,291 people, and sanitary - 274,184 people.
More than 600 participants in the Berlin operation were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 13 people were awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
(Additional
I. S. Konev
Storming Berlin- the final part of the Berlin offensive operation of 1945, during which the Red Army captured the capital of Nazi Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and World War II in Europe. The operation lasted from April 25 to May 2.
Storming Berlin
"Zoobunker" - a huge reinforced concrete fortress with anti-aircraft batteries on the towers and an extensive underground shelter - served at the same time as the largest bomb shelter in the city.
Early in the morning of May 2, the Berlin metro was flooded - a group of sappers from the SS division "Nordland" blew up a tunnel passing under the Landwehr Canal in the Trebbiner Strasse area. The explosion led to the destruction of the tunnel and filling it with water at a 25-km section. Water rushed into the tunnels, where a large number of civilians and the wounded were hiding. The number of victims is still unknown.
Information about the number of victims ... is different - from fifty to fifteen thousand people ... The data that about a hundred people died under water look more reliable. Of course, there were many thousands of people in the tunnels, among whom were the wounded, children, women and the elderly, but the water did not spread through the underground communications too quickly. Moreover, it spread underground in various directions. Of course, the picture of the advancing water caused genuine horror in people. And some of the wounded, as well as drunken soldiers, as well as civilians, became its inevitable victims. But talking about thousands of dead would be a strong exaggeration. In most places, the water barely reached a depth of one and a half meters, and the inhabitants of the tunnels had enough time to evacuate themselves and save the many wounded who were in the "hospital cars" near the Stadtmitte station. It is likely that many of the dead, whose bodies were subsequently brought to the surface, actually died not from water, but from wounds and diseases even before the destruction of the tunnel.
In the first hour of the night on May 2, the radio stations of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “Please cease fire. We are sending parliamentarians to the Potsdam Bridge.” A German officer who arrived at the appointed place on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance. At 6 am on May 2, Artillery General Weidling, accompanied by three German generals, crossed the front line and surrendered. An hour later, while at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, he wrote a surrender order, which was reproduced and, using loud-speaking installations and radio, brought to the enemy units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was brought to the attention of the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Separate units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.
On May 2, at 10 o'clock in the morning, everything suddenly calmed down, the fire ceased. And everyone understood that something had happened. We saw white sheets that were “thrown away” in the Reichstag, the Chancellery building and the Royal Opera and cellars that had not yet been taken. Entire columns were toppled from there. Ahead of us was a column, where there were generals, colonels, then soldiers behind them. It must have been three hours.
Alexander Bessarab, participant in the Battle of Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag
Operation results
Soviet troops defeated the Berlin grouping of enemy troops and stormed the capital of Germany - Berlin. Developing a further offensive, they reached the Elbe River, where they joined up with American and British troops. With the fall of Berlin and the loss of vital areas, Germany lost the opportunity for organized resistance and soon capitulated. With the completion of the Berlin operation, favorable conditions were created for the encirclement and destruction of the last large enemy groupings on the territory of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
The losses of the German armed forces in killed and wounded are unknown. Of the approximately 2 million Berliners, about 125,000 perished. The city was badly damaged as a result of the bombing even before the arrival of Soviet troops. The bombing continued during the battles near Berlin - the last bombing of the Americans on April 20 (Adolf Hitler's birthday) led to food problems. The destruction intensified as a result of the actions of Soviet artillery.
Indeed, it is unthinkable that such a huge fortified city should be taken so quickly. We do not know of other such examples in the history of the Second World War.
Alexander Orlov, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
Two guards heavy tank brigades IS-2 and at least nine guards heavy self-propelled artillery regiments of self-propelled guns took part in the battles in Berlin, including:
- 1st Belorussian Front
- 7th Guards ttbr - 69th army
- 11th Guards ttbr - frontline submission
- 334 Guards. tsap - 47th army
- 351 Guards. tsap - 3rd shock army, front-line subordination
- 396 guards tsap - 5th shock army
- 394 guards tsap - 8th Guards Army
- 362, 399 guards. tsap - 1st Guards Tank Army
- 347 Guards. tsap - 2nd Guards Tank Army
- 1st Ukrainian Front
- 383, 384 guards. tsap - 3rd Guards Tank Army
The situation of the civilian population
Fear and despair
A significant part of Berlin, even before the assault, was destroyed as a result of Anglo-American air raids, from which the population hid in basements and bomb shelters. There were not enough bomb shelters and therefore they were constantly overcrowded. By that time, in Berlin, in addition to the three million local population (which consisted mainly of women, the elderly and children), there were up to three hundred thousand foreign workers, including Ostarbeiters, most of whom were forcibly deported to Germany. They were forbidden from entering bomb shelters and cellars.
Although the war for Germany had long been lost, Hitler ordered to resist to the last. Thousands of teenagers and old people were drafted into the Volkssturm. From the beginning of March, on the orders of Reichskommissar Goebbels, responsible for the defense of Berlin, tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women, were sent to dig anti-tank ditches around the German capital.
Civilians who violated the orders of the authorities, even in the last days of the war, were threatened with execution.
There is no exact information on the number of civilian casualties. Different sources indicate a different number of people who died directly during the Battle of Berlin. Even decades after the war, previously unknown mass graves are found during construction work.
Violence against civilians
In Western sources, especially in recent times, a significant number of materials have appeared concerning mass violence by Soviet troops against the civilian population of Berlin and Germany in general - a topic that practically did not come up for many decades after the end of the war.
There are two opposite approaches to this extremely painful problem. On the one hand, there are documentary works by two English-speaking researchers - The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan and The Fall of Berlin. 1945" by Anthony Beevor, which are, to a greater or lesser extent, a reconstruction of events half a century ago based on the testimonies of participants in the events (in the overwhelming majority - representatives of the German side) and the memoirs of Soviet commanders. The claims Ryan and Beevor make are regularly reproduced by the Western press, which presents them as scientifically proven truth.
On the other hand, the opinions of Russian representatives (officials and historians), who acknowledge the numerous facts of violence, but question the validity of the allegations of its extreme mass character, as well as the possibility, after so many years, of verifying the shocking digital data that are given in the West . Russian authors also draw attention to the fact that such publications, which focus on the over-emotional description of scenes of violence allegedly perpetrated by Soviet troops in Germany, follow the standards of Goebbels' propaganda of early 1945 and are aimed at belittling the role of the Red Army as the liberator of Eastern and Central Europe from fascism and denigrate the image of the Soviet soldier. In addition, the materials distributed in the West practically do not provide information about the measures taken by the Soviet command to combat violence and looting - crimes against the civilian population, which, as has been repeatedly pointed out, not only lead to tougher resistance of the defending enemy, but also undermine the combat effectiveness and discipline of the advancing army.
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April was the last year of the war. She was nearing completion. Nazi Germany agonized, but Hitler and his entourage were not going to stop fighting, hoping until the last minutes for a split in the Anti-Hitler coalition. They put up with the loss of the western regions of Germany and threw the main forces of the Wehrmacht against the Red Army, trying to prevent the capture of the central regions of the Reich, primarily Berlin, by the Red Army. The Nazi leadership put forward the slogan: "It is better to surrender Berlin to the Anglo-Saxons than to let the Russians into it."
By the beginning of the Berlin operation, 214 enemy divisions were operating on the Soviet-German front, including 34 tank and 15 motorized and 14 brigades. Against the Anglo-American troops, 60 divisions remained, including 5 tank divisions. At that time, the Nazis still had certain stocks of weapons and ammunition, which made it possible for the fascist command to put up stubborn resistance on the Soviet-German front in the last month of the war.
Stalin was well aware of the complexity of the military-political situation on the horseback of the end of the war and knew about the intention of the fascist elite to surrender Berlin to the Anglo-American troops, therefore, as soon as the preparations for the decisive blow were completed, he ordered the Berlin operation to begin.
Large forces were allocated for the attack on Berlin. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (Marshal G.K. Zhukov) numbered 2,500,000 people, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled guns, 41,600 guns and mortars, 7,500 combat aircraft.
They are at the front with a length of 385 km. the troops of Army Group Center (Field Marshal F. Scherner) opposed. It consisted of 48 infantry divisions, 9 tank divisions, 6 motorized divisions, 37 separate infantry regiments, 98 separate infantry battalions, as well as a large number of artillery and special units and formations, numbering 1,000,000 people, 1,519 tanks and self-propelled guns, 10,400 guns and mortars, 3,300 combat aircraft, including 120 Me.262 jet fighters. Of these, 2.000 in the Berlin area.
The Vistula Army Group, which defended Berlin from the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, who occupied the Kustrinsky bridgehead, was commanded by Colonel General G. Heintsiri. As part of the Kustrinsky grouping, which numbered 14 divisions, were: the 11th SS Panzer Corps, the 56th Panzer Corps, the 101st Army Corps, the 9th Parachute Division, the 169th, 286th, 303rd "Deberitz", 309 -I "Berlin", 712th Infantry Divisions, 606th Special Purpose Division, 391st Security Division, 5th Light Infantry Division, 18th, 20th Motorized Divisions, 11th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland", 23rd Panzer Grenadier Division of the SS "Netherlands", 25th Panzer Division, 5th and 408th artillery corps of the RGK, 292nd and 770th anti-tank artillery divisions, 3rd, 405th, 732nd artillery brigade, 909th brigade of assault guns, 303rd and 1170th divisions of assault guns, 18th engineer brigade, 22 spare artillery battalions (3117-3126th, 3134-33139th, 3177th, 3184- th, 3163-3166th), 3086th, 3087th artillery battalions and other units. At the front, 44 km. 512 tanks and 236 assault guns were concentrated, a total of 748 tanks and self-propelled guns, 744 field guns, 600 anti-aircraft guns, a total of 2,640 (or 2,753) guns and mortars.
There were 8 divisions in reserve in the Berlin direction: tank-grenadier divisions "Müncheberg", "Kurmark" infantry divisions 2nd "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn", "Theodor Kerner", "Scharnhorst", 1st training parachute division, 1st motorized division, the Hitler Youth tank destroyer brigade, the 243rd and 404th assault gun brigades.
Nearby, on the right flank, in the strip of the 1st Ukrainian Front, they occupied positions, the 21st Panzer Division, the Bohemia Panzer Division, the 10th SS Panzer Division "Frundsberg", the 13th Motorized Division, the 32nd SS Infantry Division " January 30th, 35th SS Police Division, 8th, 245th, 275th Infantry Divisions, Saxony Infantry Division, Burg Infantry Brigade.
In the Berlin direction, a defense in depth was prepared, the construction of which began as early as January 1945. It was based on the Oder-Neissen defensive line and the Berlin defensive area. The Oder-Neisen defensive line consisted of three lanes, between which there were intermediate and cut-off positions in the most important directions. The total depth of this boundary reached 20-40 km. The forward edge of the main line of defense ran along the left bank of the Oder and Neisse rivers, with the exception of the bridgeheads at Frankfurt, Guben, Forst and Muskau.
Settlements were turned into powerful strongholds. The Nazis prepared to open the floodgates on the Oder in order to flood a number of areas if necessary. A second line of defense was created 10-20 km from the front line. The most equipped in engineering terms, it was on the Seelow Heights - in front of the Kyustrinsky bridgehead. The third lane was located at a distance of 20-40 km from the leading edge of the main lane. Like the second, it consisted of powerful knots of resistance, interconnected by communication passages.
During the construction of defensive lines, the fascist command paid special attention to the organization of anti-tank defense, which was based on a combination of artillery fire, assault guns and tanks with engineering barriers, dense mining of tank-accessible areas and the mandatory use of rivers, canals and lakes. In addition, Berlin's anti-aircraft artillery was aimed to fight the tanks. In front of the first trench, and in the depths of defense at the intersection of roads and along their sides, there were tank destroyers armed with faustpatrons.
In Berlin itself, 200 Volkssturm battalions were formed, and the total strength of the garrison exceeded 200,000 people. The garrison included: 1st, 10th, 17th, 23rd anti-aircraft artillery divisions, 81st, 149th, 151st, 154th, 404th reserve infantry divisions, 458th I am a reserve grenadier brigade, the 687th sapper brigade, the SS motorized brigade "Fuhrerbegleit", the guard regiment "Grossdeutchland", the 62nd fortress regiment, the 503rd separate heavy tank battalion, the 123rd, 513th anti-aircraft artillery divisions, 116th fortress machine gun battalion, 301st, 303rd, 305th, 306th, 307th, 308th marine battalions, 539th security battalion, 630th, 968th engineer battalions, 103rd, 107th, 109th, 203rd, 205th, 207th, 301st, 308th, 313th, 318th, 320th, 509th, 617th 1st, 705th, 707th, 713th, 803rd, 811th Rolland, 911th Volkssturm battalions, 185th construction battalion, 4th Air Force training battalion, 74th Air Force marching battalion , 614th tank destroyer company, 76th communication training company, 778th assault company, 101st, 102nd companies of the Spanish Legion, 253rd, 255th police units and other units. (On the defense of the motherland, p. 148 (TsAMO, f. 1185, op. 1, d. 3, l. 221), 266th Artyomovsko-Berlinskaya st. 131, 139 (TsAMO, f. 1556, op. 1, d .8, l.160) (TsAMO, f.1556, op.1, d.33, l.219))
The Berlin defensive area included three ring bypass. The outer bypass passed along rivers, canals and lakes 25-40 km from the center of the capital. The internal defensive bypass ran along the outskirts of the suburbs. All strongholds and positions were interconnected in terms of fire. Numerous anti-tank obstacles and barbed wire were installed on the streets. Its total depth was 6 km. The third - the city bypass passed along the district railway. All streets leading to the center of Berlin were blocked by barricades, bridges were prepared to be blown up.
The city was divided into 9 defensive sectors, the central sector was the most fortified. The streets and squares were open to artillery and tanks. DOTs were built. All defensive positions were interconnected by a network of communication passages. For covert maneuvers, forces widely used the metro, the length of which reached 80 km. The Nazi leadership ordered: "hold Berlin to the last bullet."
Two days before the start of the operation, reconnaissance in force was carried out in the bands of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. On April 14, after a 15-20 minute fire raid, reinforced rifle battalions began to operate in the direction of the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front. Then, in a number of sectors, regiments of the first echelons were also brought into battle. During the two-day battles, they managed to penetrate the enemy defenses and capture certain sections of the first and second trenches, and advance up to 5 km in some directions. The integrity of the enemy defense was broken.
Reconnaissance in combat in the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front was carried out on the night of April 16 by reinforced rifle companies.
The Berlin offensive began on April 16, 1945. The attack of tanks and infantry began at night. At 05-00, Soviet artillery opened the most powerful fire in the entire war. 22,000 guns and mortars participated in the artillery preparation. The density of artillery reached 300 barrels per 1 km of the front. Immediately after this, the German positions were suddenly illuminated by 143 anti-aircraft searchlights. At the same time, hundreds of tanks with lit headlights and infantry of the 3rd, 5th shock, 8th guards, 69th armies moved towards the blinded Nazis. The advanced positions of the enemy were soon broken through. The enemy was heavily damaged, and therefore his resistance for the first two hours was disorganized. The advancing troops wedged by noon into the depth of the enemy defense for 5 km. The greatest success in the center was achieved by the 32nd Rifle Corps of General D.S. Zherebin of the 3rd shock army. He advanced 8 km and went to the second line of defense. On the left flank of the army, the 301st Rifle Division took an important stronghold - the Verbig railway station. The 1054th Infantry Regiment distinguished itself in battles for it. The 16th Air Army provided great assistance to the advancing troops. During the day, its aircraft made 5.342 sorties and shot down 165 German aircraft.
However, at the second line of defense, the key to which was the Seelow Heights, the enemy was able to delay the advance of our troops. The troops of the 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Army brought into battle suffered significant losses. The Germans, fighting off unprepared attacks, destroyed 150 tanks and 132 aircraft. The Seelow Heights dominated the area. They opened a view for many kilometers to the east. The slopes were very steep. The tanks could not climb them to the top and were forced to move along the only road, which was under fire from all sides. The Spreewald forest prevented the Seelow Heights from being bypassed.
The battles for the Seelow Heights were extremely stubborn. The 172nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 57th Guards Rifle Division was able to occupy the outskirts of the city of Zeelov after fierce battles, but the troops could not advance further.
The enemy hastily transferred reserves to the heights and during the second day several times launched strong counterattacks. The advance of the troops was insignificant. By the end of April 17, the troops reached the second line of defense, units of the 4th Rifle and 11th Tank Guards Corps took Zeelov in bloody battles, but failed to capture the heights.
Marshal Zhukov ordered the attacks to stop. The troops were regrouped. The artillery of the front was brought up, which began processing enemy positions. On the third day, heavy fighting continued in the depths of the enemy's defenses. The Nazis brought into battle almost all of their operational reserves. Soviet troops slowly, in bloody battles, moved forward. By the end of April 18, they had covered 3-6 km. and went to the approaches to the third defensive strip. Progress was still slow. In the strip of the 8th Guards Army along the highway going to the west, the Nazis installed 200 anti-aircraft guns. Here their resistance was most fierce.
In the end, the pulled up artillery and aviation crushed the enemy forces, and by the end of April 19, the troops of the shock group broke through the third defensive zone and advanced to a depth of 30 km in four days, having the opportunity to develop an offensive against Berlin and bypassing it from the north. The battles for the Seelow Heights were bloody for both sides. The Germans lost up to 15,000 killed and 7,000 captured on them.
The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed more successfully. On April 16, at 06:15, artillery preparation began, during which the reinforced battalions of the divisions of the first echelon advanced to the Neisse and, after shifting artillery fire under the cover of a smoke screen placed on a 390-kilometer front, began crossing the river. The first echelon of the attackers crossed Neisse for an hour, while artillery preparation was underway.
At 0840, the troops of the 3rd, 5th Guards and 13th armies began to break through the main defensive line. The fighting took on a fierce character. The Nazis launched powerful counterattacks, but by the end of the first day of the offensive, the troops of the shock group had broken through the main line of defense on the front of 26 km and advanced to a depth of 13 km.
The next day, the forces of both tank armies of the front were introduced into the battle. Soviet troops repulsed all enemy counterattacks and completed the breakthrough of the second line of his defense. In two days, the troops of the shock group of the front advanced 15-20 km. The enemy began to retreat behind the Spree.
In the Dresden direction, the troops of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army, after entering the battle of the 1st Polish and 7th Guards Mechanized Corps, also completed the breakthrough of the tactical defense zone and advanced in some areas up to 20 km in two days of hostilities.
On the morning of April 18, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the Spree and crossed it on the move, broke through the third defensive line on a 10-kilometer stretch and captured a bridgehead north and south of Spremberg.
In three days, the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced up to 30 km in the direction of the main attack. Significant assistance to the attackers was provided by the 2nd Air Army, which made 7,517 sorties during these days and shot down 155 enemy aircraft. Front troops bypassed Berlin from the south. The tank armies of the front broke into the operational space.
On April 18, units of the 65th, 70th, 49th armies of the 2nd Belorussian Front began forcing the Ost-Oder. Having overcome the resistance of the enemy, the troops captured bridgeheads on the opposite bank. On April 19, the units that crossed over continued to destroy enemy units in the interfluve, concentrating on dams on the right bank of the river. Having overcome the swampy floodplain of the Oder, the troops of the front occupied on April 20 an advantageous position for forcing the West-Oder.
On April 19, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced 30-50 km to the north-west, reached the Lübbenau, Luckau area and cut the communications of the 9th Field Army. All attempts by the enemy's 4th Panzer Army to break through to the crossings from the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg failed. Troops of the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies moving to the west reliably covered the communications of the tank armies, which allowed the tankmen to advance another 45-60 km the next day. And go to the approaches to Berlin. The 13th Army advanced 30 km.
The rapid advance of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies led to the cutting off of the Vistula Army Group from the Center Army Group, the enemy troops in the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg were in a semi-encirclement.
On the morning of April 22, the 3rd Guards Tank Army, having deployed all three corps in the first echelon, began an attack on enemy fortifications. Army troops broke through the outer defensive bypass of the Berlin region and by the end of the day started fighting on the southern outskirts of the German capital. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into its northeastern outskirts the day before.
On April 22, the 4th Guards Tank Army of General Lelyushenko, operating to the left, broke through the outer defenses of Berlin and reached the Zarmund-Belitz line.
While the formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front were rapidly bypassing the German capital from the south, the shock group of the 1st Belorussian Front was advancing on Berlin directly on Berlin from the east. After breaking through the Oder line, the troops of the front, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, moved forward. April 20 at 13-50 long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps opened fire on Berlin. By the end of April 21, the 3rd and 5th shock and 2nd guards tank armies overcame resistance on the outer contour of the Berlin defensive area and reached its northeastern outskirts. The first to break into Berlin were the 26th Guards and 32nd Rifle Corps, the 60th, 89th, 94th Guards, 266th, 295th, 416th Rifle Divisions. By the morning of April 22, the 9th Guards Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army reached the Havel River, on the northwestern outskirts of the capital, and, together with units of the 47th Army, began to force it.
The Nazis made desperate efforts to prevent the encirclement of Berlin. On April 22, at the last operational meeting, Hitler agreed with the proposal of General A. Jodl to remove all troops from the western front and throw them into the battle for Berlin. The 12th field army of General W. Wenck was ordered to leave their positions on the Elbe and break through to Berlin and join the 9th field army. At the same time, the army group of SS General F. Steiner received an order to strike at the flank of the grouping of Soviet troops, which bypassed Berlin from the north and northwest. The 9th Army was ordered to withdraw to the west to link up with the 12th Army.
The 12th Army, on April 24, turning its front to the east, attacked units of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies occupying the defenses at the Belitz-Treuenbritzen line.
On April 23 and 24, fighting in all directions took on a particularly fierce character. The pace of advancement of the Soviet troops slowed down, but the Germans did not succeed in stopping our troops. Already on April 24, the troops of the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front joined with units of the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front southeast of Berlin. As a result, the main forces of the 9th Field and part of the forces of the 4th Tank Army were cut off from the city and surrounded. The next day, after joining west of Berlin, in the Ketzin area, the 4th Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front with units of the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the 1st Belorussian Front was surrounded by the actual Berlin enemy grouping.
On April 25, Soviet and American troops met on the Elbe. In the Torgau area, units of the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army crossed the Elbe and established contact with the 69th Infantry Division of the 1st US Army. Germany was divided into two parts.
The counterattack of the Görlitz grouping of the enemy, launched on April 18, by April 25 was finally thwarted by the stubborn defense of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army.
The offensive of the main forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front began on the morning of April 20 with the crossing of the West Oder River. The 65th Army achieved the greatest success on the first day of the operation. By evening, she captured several small bridgeheads on the left bank of the river. By the end of April 25, the troops of the 65th and 70th armies completed the breakthrough of the main line of defense, advancing 20-22 km. Using the success of the neighbors on the crossings in the zone of the 65th Army, the 49th Army crossed and launched an offensive, followed by the 2nd Shock Army. As a result of the actions of the 2nd Belorussian Front, the 3rd German Panzer Army was pinned down and could not take part in the battles in the Berlin direction.
On the morning of April 26, Soviet troops launched an offensive against the encircled Frankfurt-Guben group, trying to cut and destroy it piece by piece. The enemy offered stubborn resistance and tried to break through to the west. Two infantry, two motorized and tank divisions of the enemy struck at the junction of the 28th and 3rd Guards armies. The Nazis broke through the defenses in a narrow area and began to move west. During fierce battles, our troops closed the neck of the breakthrough, and the group that broke through was surrounded in the Barut region and almost completely destroyed.
In the following days, the encircled units of the 9th Army again tried to connect with the 12th Army, which was breaking through the defenses of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies on the outer front of the encirclement. However, all enemy attacks were repelled on April 27-28.
The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front at the same time continued to push the encircled grouping from the east. On the night of April 29, the Nazis again attempted a breakthrough. At the cost of heavy losses, they managed to break through the main line of defense of the Soviet troops at the junction of two fronts in the area of Wendisch-Buchholz. In the second half of April 29, they managed to break through the second line of defense in the sector of the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps of the 28th Army. A corridor 2 km wide was formed. Through it, the encircled began to leave for Luckenwalde. By the end of April 29, Soviet troops stopped the Shperenberg and Kummersdorf who had broken through at the line and divided them into three groups.
Especially intense battles unfolded on April 30. The Germans rushed to the west, regardless of the losses, but were defeated. Only one group of 20,000 people managed to break into the Belitsa area. It was separated from the 12th Army by 3-4 km. But during fierce battles, this group was defeated on the night of May 1. Separate small groups managed to seep to the west. By the end of the day on April 30, the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy was eliminated. 60,000 of its number were killed in battle, more than 120,000 people were taken prisoner. Among the prisoners were the deputy commander of the 9th Field Army, Lieutenant General Bernhardt, the commander of the 5th SS Corps, Lieutenant General Eckel, the commanders of the 21st SS Panzer Division, Lieutenant General Marks, the 169th Infantry Division, Lieutenant General Radchiy, commandant Fortress Frankfurt an der Oder, Major General Biel, Chief of Artillery of the 11th SS Panzer Corps Major General Strammer, Aviation General Zander. During the period from April 24 to May 2, 500 guns were destroyed. 304 tanks and self-propelled guns, more than 1,500 guns, 2,180 machine guns, 17,600 vehicles were captured as trophies. (Sovinformburo messages T / 8, p. 199).
Meanwhile, the fighting in Berlin reached its climax. The garrison, continuously increasing due to retreating units, already numbered more than 300,000 people. The 56th tank corps, the 11th and 23rd SS panzer-grenadier divisions, the Müncheberg and Kurmark panzer-grenadier divisions, the 18th, 20th, 25th motorized divisions, infantry divisions 303 retreated to the city -I "Deberitz", 2nd "Friedrich Ludwig Jahn" and many other parts. It was armed with 250 tanks and assault guns, 3,000 guns and mortars. By the end of April 25, the enemy occupied the territory of the capital with an area of 325 square meters. km.
By April 26, the troops of the 8th Guards, 3rd, 5th shock and 47th combined arms armies, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, the 3rd and 4th -Guards tank armies and part of the forces of the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. They consisted of 464,000 people, 1,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, 12,700 guns and mortars, 2,100 rocket launchers.
The troops conducted the assault as part of battalion and company assault detachments, which, in addition to infantry, had tanks, self-propelled guns, sappers, and often flamethrowers. Each detachment was intended to act in its own direction. Usually it was one or two streets. To capture individual objects from the detachment, a group was allocated as part of a platoon or squad, reinforced by 1-2 tanks, sappers and flamethrowers.
During the assault, Berlin was shrouded in smoke, so the use of attack aircraft and bombers was difficult, they acted mainly against the 9th Army surrounded in the Guben area, and fighters carried out an air blockade. The three most powerful air strikes were carried out by the 16th and 18th air armies on the night of April 25-26. 2,049 aircraft took part in them.
The fighting in the city did not stop day or night. By the end of April 26, Soviet troops had cut off the Potsdam grouping of the enemy from Berlin. The next day, formations of both fronts penetrated deeply into the enemy's defenses and began hostilities in the central sector of the capital. As a result of the concentric offensive of the Soviet troops, by the end of April 27, the enemy grouping was compressed in a narrow, completely shot through zone. From east to west, it was 16 km, and its width did not exceed 2-3 km. The Nazis fiercely resisted, but by the end of April 28, the encircled group was divided into three parts. By that time, all attempts by the Wehrmacht command to help the Berlin group had failed. After April 28, the struggle continued with unrelenting force. Now it has flared up in the Reichstag area.
The task of mastering the Reichstag was assigned to the 79th Rifle Corps, Major General S.N. Perevertkin of the 3rd shock army of General Gorbatov. Having captured the Moltke Bridge on the night of April 29, parts of the corps on April 30 by 4 o'clock captured a large resistance center - the house where the German Ministry of the Interior was located, and went directly to the Reichstag.
On this day, Hitler, who remained in an underground bunker near the Reich Chancellery, committed suicide. Following him, on May 1, his closest henchman J. Goebbels committed suicide. M. Bormann, who was trying to escape from Berlin with a detachment of tanks, was killed on the night of May 2 on one of the streets of the city.
On April 30, the 171st and 150th rifle divisions of Colonel A.I. Resentment and Major General V.M. Shatilova and the 23rd tank brigade began the assault on the Reichstag. To support the attackers for direct fire, 135 guns were allocated. Its garrison, numbering 5,000 soldiers and officers of the SS troops, put up desperate resistance, but by the evening of April 30, battalions of the 756th, 674th, 380th rifle regiments, commanded by captains S.A., broke into the Reichstag. Neustroev, V.I. Davydov and Senior Lieutenant K.Ya. Samsonov. In the fiercest battle, constantly turning into hand-to-hand combat, Soviet soldiers captured room after room. Early in the morning of May 1, 1945, the 171st and 150th rifle divisions broke his resistance and captured the Reichstag. A little earlier, on the night of May 1, scouts of the 756th Infantry Regiment, Sergeant M.A. Egorov, junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria hoisted the Banner of Victory on the dome of the Reichstag. Their group was headed by the political officer of the battalion, Lieutenant A.P. Berest, was supported by a company of machine gunners of Lieutenant I.Ya. Syanova.
Separate groups of SS men who were hiding in the cellars laid down their arms only on the night of May 2. In a fierce battle that lasted two days, 2,396 SS men were destroyed, 2,604 were taken prisoner. 28 guns destroyed. Captured 15 tanks, 59 guns, 1,800 rifles and machine guns.
On the evening of May 1, the 248th and 301st rifle divisions of the 5th shock army, after a long fierce battle, took the imperial office. This was the last major fight in Berlin. On the night of May 2, a group of 20 tanks broke out of the city. On the morning of May 2, she was intercepted 15 km northwest of Berlin and completely destroyed. It was assumed that one of the Nazi leaders was fleeing from the capital of the Reich, but none of the Reich bosses were among those killed.
At 15:00 on May 1, Colonel General Krebs, Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, crossed the front line. He was received by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General Chuikov, and announced Hitler's suicide, the formation of the government of Admiral Dönitz, and also handed over a list of the new government and a proposal for a temporary cessation of hostilities. The Soviet command demanded unconditional surrender. By 18 o'clock it became known that the proposal was rejected. The fighting in the city continued all this time. When the garrison was divided into isolated groups, the Nazis began to surrender. On the morning of May 2 at 6 o'clock, the commander of the defense of Berlin, the commander of the 56th tank corps, General G. Weidling surrendered and signed the order of surrender.
By 3 pm on May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison capitulated. During the assault, the garrison lost 150,000 soldiers and officers killed. On May 2, 134,700 people surrendered, including 33,000 officers and 12,000 wounded.
(IVMV, V.10, p.310-344; G.K. Zhukov Memories and reflections / M, 1971, p. 610-635)
In total, during the Berlin operation, only 218,691 soldiers and officers were killed and 250,534 prisoners were taken in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front, and a total of 480,000 people were captured. 1132 aircraft shot down. Captured as trophies were 4,510 aircraft, 1,550 tanks and self-propelled guns, 565 armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles, 8,613 guns, 2,304 mortars, 876 tractors and tractors (35,797 cars), 9,340 motorcycles, 25,289 bicycles, 19,393 machine guns, 189,26 rifles and , 363 steam locomotives, 22.659 wagons, 34.886 faustpatrons, 3.400.000 shells, 360.000.000 cartridges (TsAMO USSR f.67, op.23686, d.27, l.28).
According to the head of the logistics of the 1st Belorussian Front, Major General N.A. Antipenko captured even more trophies. The 1st Ukrainian, 1st and 2nd Belorussian fronts captured 5,995 aircraft, 4,183 tanks and assault guns, 1,856 armored personnel carriers, 15,069 guns, 5,607 mortars, 36,386 machine guns, 216,604 rifles and machine guns, 84,738 vehicles, 2,199 warehouses.
(On the main line, p.261)
The losses of the Soviet troops and the Polish Army amounted to 81.116 people killed and missing, 280.251 wounded (of which 2.825 Poles were killed and missing, 6.067 were wounded). 1,997 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2,108 guns and mortars, 917 combat aircraft, 215,900 small arms were lost (The classification was removed, p.219,220, 372).
