Defense of Berlin: French SS and Dutch military. Battle for Berlin. Summary of the last operation of the Great Patriotic War Soviet troops in Berlin 1945

Disputes continue between Russian and foreign historians about when the war with Nazi Germany ended de jure and de facto. On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops took Berlin. This was a major success in military and ideological terms, but the fall of the German capital did not mean the final destruction of the Nazis and their accomplices.

Achieve surrender

In early May, the leadership of the USSR set out to achieve the adoption of the act of surrender of Germany. To do this, it was necessary to negotiate with the Anglo-American command and deliver an ultimatum to representatives of the Nazi government, which from April 30, 1945 (after the suicide of Adolf Hitler) was headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.

The positions of Moscow and the West diverged quite strongly. Stalin insisted on the unconditional surrender of all German troops and pro-Nazi formations. The Soviet leader was aware of the desire of the allies to keep part of the Wehrmacht military machine in a combat-ready state. Such a scenario was absolutely unacceptable for the USSR.

In the spring of 1945, the Nazis and collaborators massively left their positions on the Eastern Front in order to surrender to the Anglo-American troops. The war criminals were counting on leniency, and the allies were considering using the Nazis in a potential confrontation with the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA). The USSR made concessions, but in the end achieved its goal.

On May 7, in the French Reims, where the headquarters of Army General Dwight Eisenhower was located, the first act of surrender was concluded. Alfred Jodl, chief of the operational headquarters of the Wehrmacht, put his signature under the document. Moscow's representative was Major General Ivan Susloparov. The document came into force on May 8 at 23:01 (May 9 at 01:01 Moscow time).

The act was drawn up in English and assumed the unconditional surrender of only the German armies. On May 7, Susloparov, without receiving instructions from the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, signed a document with the proviso that any ally country could demand another similar act.

• Signing of the act of surrender of Germany in Reims

After signing the act, Karl Dönitz ordered all German formations to break through to the west with a fight. Moscow took advantage of this and demanded the immediate conclusion of a new act of comprehensive surrender.

On the night of May 8-9, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the second act of surrender was signed in a solemn atmosphere. The signatories agreed that the Reims document was of a preliminary nature, while the Berlin document was final. The representative of the USSR in Karlshorst was Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal Georgy Zhukov.

Act proactively

Some historians consider the liberation of Europe by Soviet troops from the Nazi invaders to be a "light walk" compared to the battles that were fought on the territory of the USSR.

In 1943, the Soviet Union solved all the main problems in the field of the military-industrial complex, received thousands of modern tanks, aircraft and artillery pieces. The command staff of the army gained the necessary experience and already knew how to outmaneuver the Nazi generals.

In mid-1944, the Red Army, which was part of Europe, was perhaps the most effective land military vehicle in the world. However, politics began to actively interfere in the campaign for the liberation of the European peoples.

The Anglo-American troops that landed in Normandy sought not so much to help the USSR defeat Nazism as to prevent the "communist occupation" of the Old World. Moscow could no longer trust its allies with its plans and therefore acted ahead of schedule.

In the summer of 1944, the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief determined two strategic directions for the offensive against the Nazis: northern (Warsaw-Berlin) and southern (Bucharest-Budapest-Vienna). The regions between the main wedges remained under Nazi control until mid-May 1945.

In particular, Czechoslovakia turned out to be such a territory. The liberation of the eastern part of the country - Slovakia - began with the Red Army crossing the Carpathians in September 1944 and ended only eight months later.

In Moravia (the historical part of the Czech Republic), Soviet soldiers appeared on May 2-3, 1945, and on May 6, the Prague strategic operation began, as a result of which the capital of the state and almost the entire territory of Czechoslovakia was liberated. Large-scale hostilities continued until May 11-12.

• Soviet troops cross the border of Austria during the Great Patriotic War
• RIA News

Rush to Prague

Prague was liberated later than Budapest (February 13), Vienna (April 13) and Berlin. The Soviet command was in a hurry to capture the key cities of Eastern Europe and the German capital and thus move as deep as possible to the west, realizing that the current allies could soon turn into ill-wishers.

The advance in Czechoslovakia was of no strategic importance until May 1945. In addition, the offensive of the Red Army was hampered by two factors. The first is mountainous terrain, which sometimes nullified the effect of the use of artillery, aircraft and tanks. The second is that the partisan movement in the republic was less massive than, for example, in neighboring Poland.

At the end of April 1945, the Red Army needed to finish off the Nazis in the Czech Republic as soon as possible. Near Prague, the Germans took care of the Army Groups "Center" and "Austria" in the amount of 62 divisions (more than 900 thousand people, 9700 guns and mortars, over 2200 tanks).

The German government, headed by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, hoped to save the "Center" and "Austria" by surrendering to the Anglo-American troops. In Moscow, they were aware of the preparation by the allies of a secret plan for a war with the USSR in the summer of 1945 called "Unthinkable".

To this end, Britain and the United States hoped to spare as many Nazi formations as possible. Naturally, in the interests of the Soviet Union was the lightning defeat of the enemy grouping. After the regrouping of forces and means, which was not without difficulty, the Red Army launched several massive attacks on the "Center" and "Austria".

In the early morning of May 9, the 10th Guards Tank Corps of the 4th Guards Tank Army was the first to enter Prague. On May 10-11, Soviet troops completed the destruction of the main centers of resistance. In total, for almost a year of fighting in Czechoslovakia, 858 thousand enemy soldiers surrendered to the Red Army. The losses of the USSR amounted to 144 thousand people.

• A Soviet tank is fighting in Prague. 1st Belorussian Front. 1945
• RIA News

"Defense against the Russians"

Czechoslovakia was not the only country where hostilities continued after 9 May. In April 1945, Soviet and Yugoslav troops were able to clear most of the territory of Yugoslavia from the Nazis and collaborators. However, the remnants of Army Group E (part of the Wehrmacht) managed to escape from the Balkan Peninsula.

The liquidation of Nazi formations on the territory of Slovenia and Austria was carried out by the Red Army from May 8 to 15. In Yugoslavia itself, battles with Hitler's accomplices took place until about the end of May. The scattered resistance of the Germans and collaborators in liberated Eastern Europe continued for about a month after the surrender.

The Nazis offered stubborn resistance to the Red Army on the Danish island of Bornholm, where infantrymen of the 2nd Belorussian Front landed on May 9 with fire support from the Baltic Fleet. The garrison, which, according to various sources, numbered from 15 thousand to 25 thousand people, hoped to hold out and surrender to the Allies.

The commandant of the garrison, Captain 1st Rank Gerhard von Kampz, sent a letter to the British command, which was stationed in Hamburg, with a request to land on Bornholm. Von Kampz stressed that "until that time, he is ready to hold the line against the Russians."

On May 11, almost all Germans capitulated, but 4,000 people fought with the Red Army until May 19. The exact number of dead Soviet soldiers on the Danish island is unknown. You can find data on tens and hundreds of those killed. Some historians say that the British nevertheless landed on the island and fought with the Red Army.

This was not the first time the Allies had conducted joint operations with the Nazis. On May 9, 1945, the German units stationed in Greece, under the leadership of Major General Georg Bentak, surrendered to the 28th Infantry Brigade of General Preston, without waiting for the approach of the main British forces.

The British were stuck in battles with the Greek communists, who united in the people's liberation army ELAS. On May 12, the Nazis and the British launched an offensive against the positions of the partisans. It is known that German soldiers participated in the battles until June 28, 1945.

• British soldiers in Athens. December 1944

Pockets of resistance

Thus, Moscow had every reason to doubt that the allies would not support the Wehrmacht fighters, who ended up both on the front line and in the rear of the Red Army.

Military publicist, historian Yuri Melkonov noted that powerful Nazi groups in May 1945 were concentrated not only in the Prague region. A certain danger was represented by 300,000-strong German troops in Courland (western Latvia and part of East Prussia).

“Groups of Germans were scattered throughout Eastern Europe. In particular, large formations were located in Pomerania, Königsberg, Courland. They tried to unite, taking advantage of the fact that the USSR sent the main forces to Berlin. However, despite the supply difficulties, the Soviet troops defeated them one by one, ”RT Melkonov told RT.

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in the period from May 9 to May 17, the Red Army captured about 1.5 million enemy soldiers and officers and 101 generals.

Of these, 200 thousand people were Hitler's accomplices - mostly Cossack formations and soldiers of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) of the former Soviet military leader Andrei Vlasov. However, not all collaborators were captured or destroyed in May 1945.

Sufficiently intense fighting in the Baltic States went on until 1948. The resistance of the Red Army was not provided by the Nazis, but by the Forest Brothers, an anti-Soviet partisan movement that arose in 1940.

Another large-scale center of resistance was Western Ukraine, where anti-Soviet sentiments were strong. From February 1944, when the liberation of Ukraine was completed, and until the end of 1945, the nationalists carried out about 7,000 attacks and sabotage against the Red Army.

The combat experience gained while serving in various German formations allowed the Ukrainian militants to actively resist the Soviet troops until 1953.

The war was ending. Everyone understood this - both the generals of the Wehrmacht and their opponents. Only one person - Adolf Hitler - in spite of everything, continued to hope for the strength of the German spirit, for a "miracle", and most importantly - for a split between his enemies. There were reasons for this - despite the agreements reached at Yalta, England and the United States did not particularly want to cede Berlin to the Soviet troops. Their armies advanced almost unhindered. In April 1945, they broke through into the center of Germany, depriving the Wehrmacht of its "forge" - the Ruhr Basin - and gaining the opportunity to attack Berlin. At the same time, the 1st Belorussian Front of Marshal Zhukov and the 1st Ukrainian Front of Konev froze in front of the powerful German defense line on the Oder. The 2nd Belorussian Front of Rokossovsky finished off the remnants of enemy troops in Pomerania, and the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts advanced towards Vienna.

On April 1, Stalin called a meeting of the State Defense Committee in the Kremlin. The audience was asked one question: "Who will take Berlin - we or the Anglo-Americans?" “Berlin will be taken by the Soviet Army,” Konev was the first to respond. He, Zhukov's constant rival, was also not taken by surprise by the question of the Supreme Commander - he showed the members of the GKO a huge model of Berlin, where the targets of future strikes were precisely indicated. The Reichstag, the Imperial Chancellery, the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - all these were powerful centers of defense with a network of bomb shelters and secret passages. The capital of the Third Reich was surrounded by three lines of fortifications. The first passed 10 km from the city, the second - on its outskirts, the third - in the center. Berlin was defended by the elite units of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, to whose aid the last reserves were urgently mobilized - 15-year-old members of the Hitler Youth, women and old men from the Volkssturm (people's militia). Around Berlin in the army groups "Vistula" and "Center" there were up to 1 million people, 10.4 thousand guns and mortars, 1.5 thousand.

For the first time since the beginning of the war, the superiority of the Soviet troops in manpower and equipment was not only significant, but overwhelming. Berlin was to be attacked by 2.5 million soldiers and officers, 41.6 thousand guns, more than 6.3 thousand tanks, 7.5 thousand aircraft. The main role in the offensive plan approved by Stalin was assigned to the 1st Belorussian Front. Zhukov was supposed to storm the line of defense on the Zelov heights from the Kustrinsky bridgehead, which towered over the Oder, blocking the road to Berlin. The Konev front was to cross the Neisse and hit the Reich capital with the forces of the tank armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko. It was planned that in the west it would reach the Elbe and, together with the Rokossovsky front, would join the Anglo-American troops. The Allies were informed of the Soviet plans and agreed to stop their armies on the Elbe. The Yalta agreements had to be fulfilled, besides, this made it possible to avoid unnecessary losses.

The offensive was scheduled for 16 April. To make it unexpected for the enemy, Zhukov ordered to advance early in the morning, in the dark, blinding the Germans with the light of powerful searchlights. At five in the morning, three red rockets gave the signal to attack, and a second later, thousands of guns and Katyushas opened a hurricane of fire of such force that the eight-kilometer space turned out to be plowed overnight. "Hitler's troops were literally sunk in a continuous sea of ​​fire and metal," Zhukov wrote in his memoirs. Alas, on the eve of the captured Soviet soldier, he revealed to the Germans the date of the future offensive, and they managed to withdraw the troops to the Zelov Heights. From there, aimed shooting began at Soviet tanks, which, wave after wave, went to break through and died in a field that was being shot through. While the enemy's attention was riveted on them, the soldiers of Chuikov's 8th Guards Army managed to move forward and take up lines near the outskirts of the village of Zelov. By evening, it became clear that the planned pace of the offensive was frustrated.

At the same time, Hitler turned to the Germans with an appeal, promising them: "Berlin will remain in German hands", and the Russian offensive "will choke in blood." But few believed in it. People listened with fear to the sounds of cannon fire, which were added to the already familiar bomb explosions. The remaining residents - there were at least 2.5 million - were forbidden to leave the city. The Fuhrer, losing his sense of reality, decided: if the Third Reich dies, all Germans should share his fate. Goebbels' propaganda intimidated the inhabitants of Berlin with the atrocities of the "Bolshevik hordes", urging them to fight to the end. The headquarters of the defense of Berlin was created, which ordered the population to prepare for fierce battles in the streets, in houses and underground communications. Each house was planned to be turned into a fortress, for which all the remaining residents were forced to dig trenches and equip firing positions.

At the end of the day on April 16, the Supreme Commander called Zhukov. He dryly reported that Konev overcame Neisse "happened without difficulty." Two tank armies broke through the front at Cottbus and rushed forward, not stopping the offensive even at night. Zhukov had to promise that during April 17 he would take the ill-fated heights. In the morning, General Katukov's 1st Tank Army moved forward again. And again, the “thirty-fours”, which passed from Kursk to Berlin, burned out like candles from the fire of the “faustpatrons”. By evening, Zhukov's units advanced only a couple of kilometers. Meanwhile, Konev reported to Stalin on new successes, announcing his readiness to take part in the storming of Berlin. Silence on the phone - and the deaf voice of the Supreme: “I agree. Turn the tank armies to Berlin." On the morning of April 18, the armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko rushed north to Teltow and Potsdam. Zhukov, whose pride suffered severely, threw his units into a last desperate attack. In the morning, the 9th German Army, which received the main blow, could not stand it and began to roll back to the west. The Germans still tried to go on the counterattack, but the next day they retreated along the entire front. From that moment on, nothing could delay the denouement.

Friedrich Hitzer, German writer, translator:

My answer regarding the storming of Berlin is purely personal, not of a military strategist. In 1945 I was 10 years old, and as a child of the war, I remember how it ended, what the defeated people felt. Both my father and the closest relative participated in this war. The latter was a German officer. Returning from captivity in 1948, he resolutely told me that if this happened again, he would go to war again. And on January 9, 1945, on my birthday, I received a letter from the front from my father, who also wrote with determination that we must “fight, fight and fight the terrible enemy in the east, otherwise we will be taken to Siberia.” Having read these lines as a child, I was proud of the courage of my father - "liberator from the Bolshevik yoke." But very little time passed, and my uncle, that same German officer, told me many times: “We were deceived. Make sure this doesn't happen to you." The soldiers realized that this was the wrong war. Of course, not all of us were "deceived". One of his father's best friends warned him back in the 1930s: Hitler is terrible. You know, any political ideology of the superiority of some over others, absorbed by society, is akin to drugs ...

The meaning of the assault, and the finale of the war in general, became clear to me later. The storming of Berlin was necessary - it saved me from the fate of being a German conqueror. If Hitler had won, I would probably have become a very unhappy person. His goal of world domination is alien and incomprehensible to me. As an action, the capture of Berlin was terrible for the Germans. But really, it was a blessing. After the war, I worked in a military commission dealing with the issues of German prisoners of war, and once again I was convinced of this.

I recently met with Daniil Granin, and we talked for a long time about what kind of people they were who surrounded Leningrad ...

And then, during the war, I was afraid, yes, I hated the Americans and the British, who almost completely bombed my hometown of Ulm. This feeling of hatred and fear lived in me until I visited America.

I remember well how, evacuated from the city, we lived in a small German village on the banks of the Danube, which was the "American zone". Our girls and women then inked themselves with pencils so as not to be raped ... Every war is a terrible tragedy, and this war was especially terrible: today they talk about 30 million Soviet and 6 million German victims, as well as millions of dead people of other nations.

last birthday

On April 19, another participant appeared in the race for Berlin. Rokossovsky reported to Stalin that the 2nd Belorussian Front was ready to storm the city from the north. On the morning of that day, the 65th Army of General Batov crossed the wide channel of the Western Oder and moved to Prenzlau, cutting into parts the German Army Group Vistula. At this time, Konev's tanks moved north easily, as if in a parade, meeting almost no resistance and leaving the main forces far behind. Marshal deliberately took risks, hurrying to approach Berlin before Zhukov. But the troops of the 1st Belorussian were already approaching the city. His formidable commander issued an order: "No later than 4 o'clock in the morning on April 21, at any cost, break through to the suburbs of Berlin and immediately convey a message to Stalin and the press about this."

On April 20, Hitler celebrated his last birthday. In a bunker submerged 15 meters into the ground under the imperial office, selected guests gathered: Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, the top of the army and, of course, Eva Braun, who was listed as the Fuhrer's "secretary". The comrades-in-arms offered their leader to leave the doomed Berlin and move to the Alps, where a secret refuge had already been prepared. Hitler refused: "I am destined to win or die with the Reich." However, he agreed to withdraw the command of the troops from the capital, dividing it into two parts. The north was under the control of Grand Admiral Dönitz, to whom Himmler went to help with his headquarters. The south of Germany was to be defended by Goering. At the same time, a plan arose to defeat the Soviet offensive by the forces of the armies of Steiner from the north and Wenck from the west. However, this plan was doomed from the start. Both the 12th Army of Wenck and the remnants of SS General Steiner's units were exhausted in battle and incapable of action. Army Group Center, on which hopes were also pinned, fought hard battles in the Czech Republic. Zhukov prepared a "gift" for the German leader - in the evening his armies approached the city border of Berlin. The first shells of long-range guns hit the city center. On the morning of the next day, General Kuznetsov's 3rd Army entered Berlin from the northeast, and Berzarin's 5th Army from the north. Katukov and Chuikov advanced from the east. The streets of the dull Berlin suburbs were blocked by barricades, "faustniks" fired at the attackers from the gates and windows of the houses.

Zhukov ordered not to waste time suppressing individual firing points and to rush forward. Meanwhile, Rybalko's tanks approached the headquarters of the German command in Zossen. Most of the officers fled to Potsdam, and the chief of staff, General Krebs, went to Berlin, where on April 22 at 15.00 Hitler's last military conference took place. Only then did they dare to tell the Fuhrer that no one was able to save the besieged capital. The reaction was violent: the leader burst into threats against the "traitors", then collapsed into a chair and moaned: "It's all over ... the war is lost ..."

And yet the Nazi elite was not going to give up. It was decided to completely stop the resistance to the Anglo-American troops and throw all their forces against the Russians. All military capable of holding weapons were to be sent to Berlin. The Führer still pinned his hopes on Wenck's 12th Army, which was to link up with Busse's 9th Army. To coordinate their actions, the command led by Keitel and Jodl was withdrawn from Berlin to the town of Kramnitz. In the capital, besides Hitler himself, only General Krebs, Bormann and Goebbels, who was appointed head of defense, remained among the leaders of the Reich.

Nikolai Sergeevich Leonov, Lieutenant General of the Foreign Intelligence Service:

The Berlin operation is the penultimate operation of the Second World War. It was carried out by the forces of three fronts from April 16 to April 30, 1945 - from the raising of the flag over the Reichstag and the end of resistance - on the evening of May 2. Pros and cons of this operation. Plus - the operation was completed quickly enough. After all, the attempt to take Berlin was actively promoted by the leaders of the allied armies. This is reliably known from Churchill's letters.

Cons - almost everyone who participated recalls that there were too many victims and, perhaps, without an objective need. The first reproaches to Zhukov - he was at the shortest distance from Berlin. His attempt to enter frontally from the east is regarded by many participants in the war as a mistaken decision. It was necessary to cover Berlin from the north and from the south with a ring and force the enemy to capitulate. But the marshal went straight ahead. Regarding the artillery operation on April 16, we can say the following: Zhukov brought the idea of ​​​​using searchlights from Khalkhin Gol. It was there that the Japanese launched a similar attack. Zhukov repeated the same technique: but many military strategists argue that the searchlights had no effect. As a result of their application, a mess of fire and dust was obtained. This frontal attack was unsuccessful and poorly thought out: when our soldiers passed through the trenches, there were few German corpses in them. So the advancing units shot more than 1,000 wagons of ammunition in vain. Stalin specifically arranged competition between the marshals. After all, Berlin was finally surrounded on April 25. It would be possible not to resort to such sacrifices.

City on fire

On April 22, 1945, Zhukov appeared in Berlin. His armies - five infantry and four armored - destroyed the capital of Germany from all types of weapons. Meanwhile, Rybalko's tanks approached the city limits, occupying a bridgehead in the Teltow area. Zhukov gave his vanguard - the armies of Chuikov and Katukov - the order to cross the Spree, no later than the 24th to be in Tempelhof and Marienfeld - the central regions of the city. For street fighting, assault detachments were hastily formed from fighters from different units. In the north, the 47th Army of General Perkhorovich crossed the Havel River along a bridge that had accidentally survived and headed west, preparing to join Konev's units there and close the encirclement. Having occupied the northern districts of the city, Zhukov finally excluded Rokossovsky from the number of participants in the operation. From that moment until the end of the war, the 2nd Belorussian Front was engaged in the defeat of the Germans in the north, pulling over a significant part of the Berlin group.

The glory of the winner of Berlin passed Rokossovsky, she also passed Konev. Stalin's directive, received on the morning of April 23, ordered the troops of the 1st Ukrainian to stop at the Anhalter station - literally a hundred meters from the Reichstag. The Supreme Commander entrusted Zhukov with occupying the center of the enemy capital, thus noting his invaluable contribution to the victory. But Anhalter still had to be reached. Rybalko with his tanks froze on the banks of the deep Teltow Canal. Only with the approach of artillery, which suppressed German firing points, were the vehicles able to cross the water barrier. On April 24, Chuikov's scouts made their way to the west through the Schönefeld airfield and met Rybalko's tankers there. This meeting divided the German forces in half - about 200 thousand soldiers were surrounded in a wooded area southeast of Berlin. Until May 1, this grouping tried to break through to the west, but was cut into pieces and almost completely destroyed.

And Zhukov's shock forces continued to rush towards the city center. Many fighters and commanders had no experience of fighting in a big city, which led to huge losses. The tanks moved in columns, and as soon as the front one was knocked out, the entire column became easy prey for the German "faustniks". I had to resort to merciless, but effective tactics of military operations: at first, artillery fired at the target of a future offensive, then volleys of Katyushas drove everyone alive into shelters. After that, the tanks went forward, destroying the barricades and smashing the houses, from where the shots were heard. Only then did the infantry come into play. During the battle, almost two million gun shots fell on the city - 36 thousand tons of deadly metal. Fortress guns were delivered from Pomerania by rail, firing at the center of Berlin with shells weighing half a ton.

But even this firepower did not always cope with the thick walls of buildings built in the 18th century. Chuikov recalled: "Our guns sometimes fired up to a thousand shots at one square, at a group of houses, even at a small garden." It is clear that at the same time, no one thought about the civilian population, trembling with fear in bomb shelters and flimsy basements. However, the main blame for his suffering lay not with the Soviet troops, but with Hitler and his entourage, who, with the help of propaganda and violence, did not allow residents to leave the city, which had turned into a sea of ​​fire. Already after the victory, it was estimated that 20% of the houses in Berlin were completely destroyed, and another 30% - partially. On April 22, the city telegraph office closed for the first time, having received the last message from the Japanese allies - "we wish you good luck." Water and gas were turned off, transport stopped running, food distribution stopped. Starving Berliners, ignoring the continuous shelling, robbed freight trains and shops. They were more afraid not of Russian shells, but of SS patrols, who grabbed men and hung them on trees as deserters.

The police and Nazi officials began to flee. Many tried to make their way to the west to surrender to the Anglo-Americans. But the Soviet units were already there. April 25 at 13.30 they went to the Elbe and met near the town of Torgau with the tankers of the 1st American Army.

On this day, Hitler entrusted the defense of Berlin to Panzer General Weidling. Under his command were 60 thousand soldiers, who were opposed by 464 thousand Soviet troops. The armies of Zhukov and Konev met not only in the east, but also in the west of Berlin, in the Ketzin area, and now they were only 7-8 kilometers from the city center. On April 26, the Germans made a last desperate attempt to stop the attackers. Fulfilling the order of the Fuhrer, the 12th Army of Wenck, which included up to 200 thousand people, attacked the 3rd and 28th armies of Konev from the west. Unprecedentedly fierce even for this fierce battle, the fighting continued for two days, and by the evening of the 27th, Venck had to retreat to his previous positions.

The day before, Chuikov's soldiers occupied the Gatov and Tempelhof airfields, fulfilling Stalin's order to prevent Hitler from leaving Berlin at any cost. The Supreme Commander was not going to let the one who treacherously deceived him in 1941 slip away or surrender to the allies. Corresponding orders were also given to other Nazi leaders. There was another category of Germans who were intensively searched for - specialists in nuclear research. Stalin knew about the work of the Americans on the atomic bomb and was going to create "his own" as soon as possible. It was already necessary to think about the world after the war, where the Soviet Union was to take a worthy, blood-paid place.

Meanwhile, Berlin continued to suffocate in the smoke of fires. Volkssturmovets Edmund Heckscher recalled: “There were so many fires that the night turned into day. You could read the newspaper, but there were no more newspapers in Berlin.” The roar of guns, shooting, explosions of bombs and shells did not stop for a minute. Clouds of smoke and brick dust filled the center of the city, where, deep under the ruins of the Imperial Chancellery, Hitler again and again tormented his subordinates with the question: “Where is Wenck?”

On April 27, three-quarters of Berlin was in Soviet hands. In the evening, Chuikov's strike forces reached the Landwehr Canal, one and a half kilometers from the Reichstag. However, their path was blocked by elite units of the SS, who fought with special fanaticism. Bogdanov's 2nd Panzer Army was stuck in the Tiergarten area, whose parks were dotted with German trenches. Each step here was given with difficulty and considerable bloodshed. Rybalko's tankers had chances again, who on that day made an unprecedented rush from the west to the center of Berlin through Wilmersdorf.

By nightfall, a strip 2–3 kilometers wide and up to 16 kilometers long remained in the hands of the Germans. The first batches of prisoners stretched to the rear - still small ones, leaving with raised hands from the basements and entrances of houses. Many were deafened by the incessant roar, others, who had gone mad, laughed wildly. The civilian population continued to hide, fearing the revenge of the victors. The Avengers, of course, were - they could not help but be after what the Nazis did on Soviet soil. But there were also those who, risking their lives, pulled German old people and children out of the fire, who shared their soldier's rations with them. The feat of Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, who saved a three-year-old German girl from a destroyed house on the Landwehr Canal, went down in history. It is he who is depicted by the famous statue in Treptow Park - the memory of Soviet soldiers who kept their humanity in the fire of the most terrible of wars.

Even before the end of the fighting, the Soviet command took measures to restore normal life in the city. On April 28, General Berzarin, appointed commandant of Berlin, issued an order to dissolve the National Socialist Party and all its organizations and transfer all power to the military commandant's office. In areas cleared of the enemy, soldiers were already beginning to put out fires, clear buildings, and bury numerous corpses. However, it was possible to establish a normal life only with the assistance of the local population. Therefore, on April 20, the Headquarters demanded that the commanders of the troops change their attitude towards German prisoners of war and the civilian population. The directive put forward a simple justification for such a step: "A more humane attitude towards the Germans will reduce their stubbornness in defense."

Former foreman of the 2nd article, member of the international PEN club (International Organization of Writers), Germanist writer, translator Evgeny Katseva:

The greatest of our holidays is approaching, and the cats scratch my soul. Recently (in February) of this year, I was at a conference in Berlin, supposedly dedicated to this great date, I think not only for our people, and I became convinced that many have forgotten who started the war and who won it. No, this stable phrase "win the war" is completely inappropriate: you can win and lose in the game - in the same war, you either win or lose. For many Germans, the war is only the horrors of those few weeks when it was on their territory, as if our soldiers came there of their own free will, and did not fight their way to the west for 4 long years on their native scorched and trampled land. So, Konstantin Simonov was not so right, he believed that there was no such thing as someone else's grief. It happens, how it happens. And if you forgot who put an end to one of the most terrible wars, defeated German fascism, where can you remember who took the capital of the German Reich - Berlin. Our Soviet Army, our Soviet soldiers and officers took it. Entirely, fighting for every district, quarter, house, from the windows and doors of which shots rang out until the last moment.

It was only later, after a whole bloody week after the capture of Berlin, on May 2, our allies appeared, and the main trophy, as a symbol of the joint Victory, was divided into four parts. Into four sectors: Soviet, American, English, French. With four military commandant's offices. Four or four, even more or less equal, but in general, Berlin was divided into two completely different parts. For the three sectors soon connected, and the fourth - the eastern - and, as usual, the poorest - turned out to be isolated. It remained so, although it later acquired the status of the capital of the GDR. To us, the Americans, in return, “generously” rolled off the Thuringia they occupied. The land is good, but for a long time the disappointed residents harbored resentment for some reason not against the apostate Americans, but against us, the new occupiers. Here's an aberration...

As for looting, our soldiers did not come there on their own. And now, 60 years later, all sorts of myths are spreading, growing into ancient dimensions ...

Reich Convulsions

The fascist empire was disintegrating before our eyes. On April 28, Italian partisans caught dictator Mussolini trying to escape and shot him. The next day, General von Wietinghoff signed the act of surrender of the Germans in Italy. Hitler learned about the execution of the Duce at the same time as another bad one: his closest associates Himmler and Goering started separate negotiations with the Western allies, bargaining for their lives. The Fuhrer was beside himself with rage: he demanded the immediate arrest and execution of traitors, but this was no longer in his power. It was possible to recoup on Himmler's deputy, General Fegelein, who fled from the bunker - a detachment of SS men grabbed him and shot him. The general was not saved even by the fact that he was the husband of Eva Braun's sister. In the evening of the same day, Commandant Weidling reported that there was only two days of ammunition left in the city, and there was no fuel at all.

General Chuikov received the task from Zhukov - to connect from the east with the forces advancing from the west through the Tiergarten. The Potsdamer Bridge, leading to the Anhalter station and Wilhelmstrasse, became an obstacle to the soldiers. The sappers managed to save him from the explosion, but the tanks that entered the bridge were hit by well-aimed shots of faustpatrons. Then the tankers tied sandbags around one of the tanks, doused it with diesel fuel and let it go forward. From the first shots, the fuel flared up, but the tank continued to move forward. A few minutes of enemy confusion was enough for the rest to follow the first tank. By the evening of the 28th, Chuikov approached the Tiergarten from the southeast, while Rybalko's tanks entered the area from the south. In the north of the Tiergarten, Perepelkin's 3rd Army liberated the Moabit prison, from where 7,000 prisoners were released.

The city center has turned into a real hell. There was nothing to breathe from the heat, the stones of buildings cracked, water boiled in ponds and canals. There was no front line - a desperate battle went on for every street, every house. Hand-to-hand fights broke out in the dark rooms and on the stairs - the electricity in Berlin had long gone out. Early in the morning of April 29, soldiers of the 79th rifle corps of General Perevertkin approached the huge building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - "Himmler's house". Having shot the barricades at the entrance with cannons, they managed to break into the building and capture it, which made it possible to come close to the Reichstag.

Meanwhile, nearby, in his bunker, Hitler was dictating a political testament. He expelled the "traitors" Göring and Himmler from the Nazi party and accused the entire German army of failing to maintain "commitment to duty to death." Power over Germany was transferred to "President" Dönitz and "Chancellor" Goebbels, and command of the army to Field Marshal Scherner. Toward evening, the official Wagner, brought by the SS from the city, performed the ceremony of the civil marriage of the Fuhrer and Eva Braun. The witnesses were Goebbels and Bormann, who stayed for breakfast. During the meal, Hitler was depressed, muttering something about the death of Germany and the triumph of the "Jewish Bolsheviks." During breakfast, he presented two secretaries with ampoules of poison and ordered them to poison his beloved shepherd Blondie. Outside the walls of his office, the wedding quickly turned into a drinking bout. One of the few sober employees was Hitler's personal pilot Hans Bauer, who offered to take his boss to any part of the world. The Fuhrer once again refused.

On the evening of April 29, General Weidling reported the situation to Hitler for the last time. The old warrior was frank - tomorrow the Russians will be at the entrance to the office. Ammunition is running out, there is nowhere to wait for reinforcements. Wenck's army was driven back to the Elbe, and nothing is known about most of the other units. We need to capitulate. This opinion was also confirmed by SS Colonel Monke, who had previously fanatically carried out all the orders of the Fuhrer. Hitler forbade surrender, but allowed the soldiers to “small groups” leave the encirclement and make their way to the west.

Meanwhile, Soviet troops occupied one building after another in the center of the city. The commanders had difficulty orienting themselves on the maps - that heap of stones and twisted metal, which was previously called Berlin, was not indicated there. After taking the “Himmler’s house” and the town hall, the attackers had two main goals left - the imperial chancellery and the Reichstag. If the first was the real center of power, then the second was its symbol, the tallest building in the German capital, where the banner of Victory was to be hoisted. The banner was already ready - it was handed over to one of the best units of the 3rd Army, the battalion of Captain Neustroev. On the morning of April 30, units approached the Reichstag. As for the office, they decided to break through the zoo in the Tiergarten to it. In the devastated park, the soldiers rescued several animals, including a mountain goat, which was hung around the neck of the German "Iron Cross" for bravery. Only in the evening the center of defense was taken - a seven-story reinforced concrete bunker.

Near the zoo, Soviet assault troops were attacked by SS men from the wrecked subway tunnels. Pursuing them, the fighters penetrated underground and found passages leading towards the office. On the move, a plan arose to "finish off the fascist beast in its lair." The scouts went deep into the tunnels, but after a couple of hours water rushed towards them. According to one version, having learned about the approach of the Russians to the office, Hitler ordered to open the floodgates and let the Spree water into the metro, where, in addition to Soviet soldiers, there were tens of thousands of wounded, women and children. Berliners who survived the war recalled that they heard an order to urgently leave the subway, but due to the ensuing crush, few were able to get out. Another version refutes the existence of the order: water could break into the subway due to continuous bombing that destroyed the walls of the tunnels.

If the Führer ordered the flooding of his fellow citizens, this was the last of his criminal orders. On the afternoon of April 30, he was informed that the Russians were at Potsdamerplatz, a block from the bunker. Shortly thereafter, Hitler and Eva Braun said goodbye to their comrades-in-arms and retired to their room. At 15.30 a shot rang out from there, after which Goebbels, Bormann and several other people entered the room. The Fuhrer, with a pistol in his hand, was lying on the couch with his face covered in blood. Eva Braun did not mutilate herself - she took poison. Their corpses were carried out into the garden, where they were placed in a shell crater, doused with gasoline and set on fire. The funeral ceremony did not last long - the Soviet artillery opened fire, and the Nazis hid in the bunker. Later, the charred bodies of Hitler and his girlfriend were discovered and transported to Moscow. For some reason, Stalin did not show the world evidence of the death of his worst enemy, which gave rise to many versions of his salvation. Only in 1991, Hitler's skull and his dress uniform were discovered in the archive and shown to everyone who wanted to see these gloomy evidence of the past.

Zhukov Yuri Nikolaevich, historian, writer:

Winners are not judged. And that's it. In 1944, it turned out to be quite possible to withdraw Finland, Romania, and Bulgaria from the war without serious battles, primarily through the efforts of diplomacy. An even more favorable situation for us developed on April 25, 1945. On that day, on the Elbe, near the city of Torgau, the troops of the USSR and the USA met, and the complete encirclement of Berlin was completed. From that moment on, the fate of Nazi Germany was sealed. Victory became inevitable. Only one thing remained unclear: exactly when the complete and unconditional surrender of the agonizing Wehrmacht would follow. Zhukov, having removed Rokossovsky, took over the leadership of the storming of Berlin. Could just squeeze the blockade ring hourly.

Force Hitler and his henchmen to commit suicide not on April 30, but a few days later. But Zhukov acted differently. For a week, he ruthlessly sacrificed thousands of soldiers' lives. He forced units of the 1st Belorussian Front to conduct bloody battles for every quarter of the German capital. For every street, every house. Achieved the surrender of the Berlin garrison on May 2. But if this capitulation had followed not on May 2, but, say, on the 6th or 7th, tens of thousands of our soldiers could have been saved. Well, Zhukov would have gained the glory of the winner anyway.

Molchanov Ivan Gavrilovich, participant in the storming of Berlin, veteran of the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front:

After the battles at Stalingrad, our army under the command of General Chuikov passed through the whole of Ukraine, the south of Belarus, and then through Poland went to Berlin, on the outskirts of which, as you know, the very difficult Kyustrinsky operation took place. I, a scout of an artillery unit, was then 18 years old. I still remember how the earth trembled and a flurry of shells plowed it up and down ... How, after powerful artillery preparation on the Zelov Heights, the infantry went into battle. The soldiers who drove the Germans from the first line of defense later said that after being blinded by the searchlights that were used in this operation, the Germans fled clutching their heads. Many years later, during a meeting in Berlin, German veterans who participated in this operation told me that they then thought that the Russians had used a new secret weapon.

After the Zelov Heights, we moved directly to the German capital. Due to the high water, the roads were so muddy that both equipment and people could hardly move. It was impossible to dig trenches: at a depth, water came out from the bayonet of a shovel. We reached the ring road by the twentieth of April and soon found ourselves on the outskirts of Berlin, where incessant battles for the city began. The SS men had nothing to lose: they strengthened residential buildings, metro stations, and various institutions thoroughly and in advance. When we entered the city, we were horrified: its center turned out to be completely bombed by the Anglo-American, and the streets were littered so that the vehicles could barely move along them. We moved with a map of the city - the streets and quarters marked on it were difficult to find. On the same map, in addition to objects - firing targets, museums, book depositories, medical institutions were indicated, at which it was forbidden to shoot.

In the battles for the center, our tank units also suffered losses: they became easy prey for the German faustpatrons. And then the command applied a new tactic: first, artillery and flamethrowers destroyed enemy firing points, and after that the tanks cleared the way for the infantry. By this time, only one gun remained in our unit. But we kept going. When approaching the Brandenburg Gate and the Anhalt railway station, they received an order “not to shoot” - the accuracy of the battle here turned out to be such that our shells could hit their own. By the end of the operation, the remnants of the German army were cut into four parts, which began to be squeezed by rings.

Shooting ended on May 2nd. And suddenly there was such a silence that it was impossible to believe. Residents of the city began to leave the shelters, they looked at us frowningly. And here, in establishing contacts with them, their own children helped. The ubiquitous guys, 10-12 years old, came up to us, we treated them to cookies, bread, sugar, and when we opened the kitchen, we began to feed them cabbage soup, porridge. It was a strange spectacle: shootings resumed somewhere, volleys of guns were heard, and there was a line for porridge near our kitchen ...

And soon a squadron of our horsemen appeared on the streets of the city. They were so clean and festive that we decided: “Probably somewhere near Berlin they were specially dressed, prepared ...” This is an impression, as well as a visit to the destroyed Reichstag G.K. Zhukov - he drove up in an unbuttoned overcoat, smiling - crashed into my memory forever. There were, of course, other memorable moments. In the battles for the city, our battery had to be redeployed to another firing point. And then we came under German artillery attack. Two of my comrades jumped into the hole that had been torn apart by the shell. And I, not knowing why, lay down under the truck, where after a few seconds I realized that the car above me was full of shells. When the shelling ended, I got out from under the truck and saw that my comrades were killed ... Well, it turns out that I was born that day for the second time ...

last fight

The assault on the Reichstag was led by the 79th Rifle Corps of General Perevertkin, reinforced by strike groups of other units. The first onslaught on the morning of the 30th was repulsed - up to one and a half thousand SS men dug in in a huge building. At 18.00 a new assault followed. For five hours, the fighters moved forward and up, meter by meter, to the roof, decorated with giant bronze horses. Sergeants Yegorov and Kantaria were instructed to hoist the flag - they decided that Stalin would be pleased to participate in this symbolic act of his fellow countryman. Only at 22.50 two sergeants reached the roof and, risking their lives, inserted the flagpole into the hole from the projectile at the very horse's hooves. This was immediately reported to the headquarters of the front, and Zhukov called the Supreme Commander in Moscow.

A little later, other news came - Hitler's heirs decided to negotiate. This was announced by General Krebs, who appeared at Chuikov's headquarters at 3.50 am on May 1. He began by saying, "Today is the first of May, a great holiday for both our nations." To which Chuikov, without too much diplomacy, replied: “Today is our holiday. It's hard to say how things are going for you." Krebs spoke about Hitler's suicide and the desire of his successor Goebbels to conclude a truce. A number of historians believe that these negotiations should have stretched out while waiting for a separate agreement between the "government" of Dönitz and the Western powers. But they did not achieve their goal - Chuikov immediately reported to Zhukov, who called Moscow, waking Stalin up on the eve of the May Day parade. The reaction to Hitler's death was predictable: “Finished, scoundrel! Too bad we didn't take him alive." The answer to the proposal for a truce came: only complete surrender. This was passed on to Krebs, who objected: "Then you will have to destroy all the Germans." The response silence was more eloquent than words.

At 10.30 Krebs left the headquarters, having managed to drink cognac with Chuikov and exchange memories - both commanded units near Stalingrad. Having received the final "no" of the Soviet side, the German general returned to his troops. In pursuit of him, Zhukov sent an ultimatum: if Goebbels and Bormann's consent to unconditional surrender is not given before 10 o'clock, the Soviet troops will strike such a blow, from which "nothing but ruins will remain" in Berlin. The leadership of the Reich did not give an answer, and at 10.40 Soviet artillery opened heavy fire on the center of the capital.

The shooting did not stop all day - the Soviet units suppressed pockets of German resistance, which weakened a little, but was still fierce. In different parts of the vast city, tens of thousands of soldiers and Volkssturm men were still fighting. Others, throwing down their weapons and tearing off their insignia, tried to escape to the west. Among the latter was Martin Bormann. Upon learning of Chuikov's refusal to negotiate, he, along with a group of SS men, fled from the office through an underground tunnel leading to the Friedrichstrasse metro station. There he got out into the street and tried to hide from the fire behind a German tank, but he was hit. Axman, the leader of the Hitler Youth, who turned out to be there, who shamefully abandoned his young pets, later stated that he had seen the dead body of Nazi No. 2 under the railway bridge.

At 18.30, the soldiers of the 5th army of General Berzarin went to storm the last stronghold of Nazism - the imperial office. Prior to this, they managed to storm the post office, several ministries and the heavily fortified building of the Gestapo. Two hours later, when the first groups of attackers had already approached the building, Goebbels and his wife Magda followed their idol, taking poison. Before that, they asked a doctor to administer a lethal injection to their six children - they were told that they would give an injection from which they would never get sick. The children were left in the room, and the corpses of Goebbels and his wife were taken out into the garden and burned. Soon everyone who remained below - about 600 adjutants and SS men - rushed out: the bunker began to burn. Somewhere in its bowels, only General Krebs, who fired a bullet in the forehead, remained. Another Nazi commander, General Weidling, took charge and radioed Chuikov to agree to an unconditional surrender. At one in the morning on May 2, German officers with white flags appeared on the Potsdam Bridge. Their request was reported to Zhukov, who gave his consent. At 0600, Weidling signed an order to surrender to all German troops, and he himself set an example for his subordinates. After that, the shooting in the city began to subside. From the cellars of the Reichstag, from under the ruins of houses and shelters, the Germans came out, who silently laid down their weapons on the ground and lined up in columns. They were observed by the writer Vasily Grossman, who accompanied the Soviet commandant Berzarin. Among the prisoners, he saw old men, boys and women who did not want to part with their husbands. The day was cold, light rain pouring down on the smoldering ruins. Hundreds of corpses lay on the streets, crushed by tanks. Flags with a swastika and party cards were also lying there - Hitler's adherents were in a hurry to get rid of the evidence. In the Tiergarten, Grossman saw a German soldier with a nurse on a bench - they were sitting embracing and not paying any attention to what was going on around.

In the afternoon, Soviet tanks began to roll through the streets, transmitting an order to surrender through loudspeakers. Around 15.00, the fighting finally stopped, and only in the western regions did explosions rumble - there they pursued the SS men who tried to escape. An unusual, tense silence hung over Berlin. And then she was torn apart by a new flurry of shots. Soviet soldiers crowded on the steps of the Reichstag, on the ruins of the imperial office and fired again and again - this time in the air. Strangers threw themselves into each other's arms, danced right on the pavement. They couldn't believe the war was over. Ahead, many of them had new wars, hard work, difficult problems, but they had already done the main thing in their lives.

In the last battle of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army crushed 95 enemy divisions. Up to 150 thousand German soldiers and officers were killed, 300 thousand were captured. The victory came at a heavy price - in two weeks of the offensive, three Soviet fronts lost from 100 thousand to 200 thousand people killed. Senseless resistance claimed the lives of approximately 150 thousand civilians in Berlin, a significant part of the city was destroyed.

Chronicle of the operation
April 16, 5.00.
The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (Zhukov), after a powerful artillery preparation, begin an offensive on the Zelov Heights near the Oder.
April 16, 8.00.
Parts of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Konev) force the Neisse River and move west.
April 18, morning.
The tank armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko are turning north towards Berlin.
April 18, evening.
The German defenses on the Zelov Heights have been broken through. Parts of Zhukov begin to advance towards Berlin.
April 19, morning.
Troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) cross the Oder, slicing apart the German defenses north of Berlin.
April 20, evening.
Zhukov's armies approach Berlin from the west and northwest.
April 21, day.
Rybalko's tanks occupy the headquarters of the German troops in Zossen, south of Berlin.
April 22, morning.
Rybalko's army occupies the southern outskirts of Berlin, and Perkhorovich's army occupies the northern districts of the city.
April 24, day.
Meeting of the advancing troops of Zhukov and Konev in the south of Berlin. The Frankfurt-Gubenskaya group of Germans is surrounded by Soviet units, its destruction has begun.
April 25, 13.30.
Parts of Konev went to the Elbe near the city of Torgau and met there with the 1st American Army.
April 26, morning.
The German army of Wenck launches a counterattack on the advancing Soviet units.
April 27, evening.
After stubborn fighting, Wenck's army was driven back.
April 28th.
Soviet units surround the city center.
April 29, day.
The building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the town hall were taken by storm.
April 30, day.
Busy Tiergarten area with a zoo.
April 30, 15.30.
Hitler committed suicide in a bunker under the Imperial Chancellery.
April 30, 22.50.
The assault on the Reichstag, which had lasted since morning, was completed.
May 1, 3.50.
The beginning of unsuccessful negotiations between the German General Krebs and the Soviet command.
May 1, 10.40.
After the failure of the negotiations, the Soviet troops begin to storm the buildings of the ministries and the imperial chancellery.
May 1, 22.00.
The Imperial Chancellery is taken by storm.
May 2, 6.00.
General Weidling gives the order to surrender.
May 2, 15.00.
The fighting in the city finally stopped.

Before the start of the operation, reconnaissance in force was carried out in the bands of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. To this end, on April 14, after a 15-20-minute fire raid on the direction of the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front, reinforced rifle battalions from divisions of the first echelon of combined arms armies began to operate. 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. In addition, in a number of places, the troops of the front overcame the zone of the most dense minefields, which should have facilitated the subsequent offensive of the main forces. Based on an assessment of the results of the battle, the front command decided to reduce the duration of the artillery preparation for the attack of the main forces from 30 to 20 - 25 minutes.

In the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front, reconnaissance in force was carried out on the night of April 16 by reinforced rifle companies. It was established that the enemy firmly occupied defensive positions directly on the left bank of the Neisse. The front commander decided not to make changes to the developed plan.

On the morning of April 16, the main forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts went on the offensive. At 5 o'clock Moscow time, two hours before dawn, artillery preparation began in the 1st Belorussian Front. In the zone of the 5th shock army, ships and floating batteries of the Dnieper flotilla participated in it. The force of the artillery fire was enormous. If for the entire first day of the operation the artillery of the 1st Belorussian Front used up 1,236 thousand shells, which amounted to almost 2.5 thousand railway cars, then during the artillery preparation - 500 thousand shells and mines, or 1 thousand cars. Night bombers of the 16th and 4th air armies attacked enemy headquarters, artillery firing positions, as well as the third and fourth trenches of the main line of defense.

After the final volley of rocket artillery, the troops of the 3rd and 5th shock, 8th guards, and also the 69th armies, commanded by generals V. I. Kuznetsov, N. E. Berzarin, V. I. Chuikov, moved forward, V. Ya. Kolpakchi. With the beginning of the attack, powerful searchlights located in the zone of these armies directed their beams towards the enemy. The 1st Army of the Polish Army, the 47th and 33rd armies of Generals S. G. Poplavsky, F. I. Perkhorovich, V. D. Tsvetaev went on the offensive at 6 hours and 15 minutes. Bombers of the 18th Air Army under the command of Air Chief Marshal A.E. Golovanov attacked the second line of defense. With dawn, the aviation of the 16th Air Army of General S. I. Rudenko intensified the fighting, which on the first day of the operation made 5342 combat sorties and shot down 165 German aircraft. In total, during the first day, the pilots of the 16th, 4th and 18th air armies made over 6550 sorties, dropped over 1500 tons of bombs on command posts, resistance centers and enemy reserves.

As a result of powerful artillery preparation and air strikes, heavy damage was inflicted on the enemy. Therefore, for the first one and a half to two hours, the offensive of the Soviet troops developed successfully. However, soon the Nazis, relying on a strong, engineered second line of defense, put up fierce resistance. Intense battles unfolded along the entire front. Soviet troops strove to overcome the stubbornness of the enemy at all costs, acting assertively and energetically. In the center of the 3rd Shock Army, the 32nd Rifle Corps under the command of General D.S. Zherebin achieved the greatest success. He advanced 8 km and went to the second line of defense. On the left flank of the army, the 301st Rifle Division, commanded by Colonel V.S. Antonov, took an important enemy stronghold and the Verbig railway station. In the battles for her, the soldiers of the 1054th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel H. H. Radaev, distinguished themselves. The Komsomol organizer of the 1st battalion, Lieutenant G. A. Avakyan, with one submachine gunner, made his way to the building where the Nazis sat down. Throwing them with grenades, the brave soldiers destroyed 56 Nazis and captured 14. Lieutenant Avakyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

To increase the pace of the offensive in the zone of the 3rd shock army, the 9th tank corps of General I.F. Kirichenko was brought into battle at 10 o'clock. Although this increased the force of the blow, the advance of the troops was still slow. It became clear to the front command that the combined-arms armies were not able to quickly break through the enemy defenses to the depth planned for bringing tank armies into battle. Especially dangerous was the fact that the infantry could not capture the tactically very important Zelov heights, along which the front edge of the second defensive line passed. This natural boundary dominated the whole area, had steep slopes and in every respect was a serious obstacle on the way to the capital of Germany. The Zelov heights were considered by the Wehrmacht command as the key to the entire defense in the Berlin direction. “By 13 o’clock,” Marshal G.K. Zhukov recalled, “I clearly understood that the enemy’s fire defense system had basically survived here, and in the battle formation in which we launched the attack and were advancing, we couldn’t take the Zelov Heights” (624) . Therefore, Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov decided to bring tank armies into battle and, by joint efforts, complete the breakthrough of the tactical defense zone.

In the afternoon, the 1st Guards Tank Army of General M. E. Katukov was the first to enter the battle. By the end of the day, all three of its corps were fighting in the zone of the 8th Guards Army. However, on this day, it was not possible to break through the defenses at the Zelov Heights. The first day of the operation was also difficult for General S.I. Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army. In the afternoon, the army received an order from the commander to overtake the infantry battle formations and strike at Bernau. By 19 o'clock, its formations reached the line of the advanced units of the 3rd and 5th shock armies, but, having met fierce resistance from the enemy, they could not advance further.

The course of the struggle on the first day of the operation showed that the Nazis were striving to keep the Zelov Heights at any cost: by the end of the day, the fascist command advanced the reserves of the Vistula Army Group to strengthen the troops defending the second line of defense. The fighting was exceptionally stubborn. During the second day of the battle, the Nazis repeatedly launched violent counterattacks. However, the 8th Guards Army of General V.I. Chuikov, who fought here, persistently moved forward. Warriors of all branches of the military showed mass heroism. The 172nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 57th Guards Rifle Division fought courageously. During the assault on the heights covering Zelov, the 3rd battalion under the command of Captain N. N. Chusovsky especially distinguished himself. Having repulsed the enemy counterattack, the battalion broke into the Zelov heights, and then, after a heavy street battle, cleared the southeastern outskirts of the city of Zelov. The battalion commander in these battles not only led the units, but also, dragging the fighters with him, personally destroyed four Nazis in hand-to-hand combat. Many soldiers and officers of the battalion were awarded orders and medals, and Captain Chusovskoy was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Zelov was taken by the troops of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps of General V.A. Glazunov in cooperation with part of the forces of the 11th Guards Tank Corps of Colonel A.Kh. Babadzhanyan.

As a result of fierce and stubborn fighting, the troops of the shock group of the front by the end of April 17 broke through the second defensive zone and two intermediate positions. The attempts of the fascist German command to stop the advance of the Soviet troops by bringing four divisions from the reserve into battle were not successful. Bombers of the 16th and 18th air armies attacked enemy reserves day and night, delaying their advance to the line of combat operations. On April 16 and 17, the offensive was supported by the ships of the Dnieper military flotilla. They fired until the ground forces went beyond the firing range of naval artillery. Soviet troops persistently rushed to Berlin.

Stubborn resistance also had to be overcome by the troops of the front, who attacked on the flanks. The troops of the 61st Army of General P. A. Belov, who launched an offensive on April 17, crossed the Oder by the end of the day and captured a bridgehead on its left bank. By this time, formations of the 1st Army of the Polish Army crossed the Oder and broke through the first position of the main line of defense. In the Frankfurt area, the troops of the 69th and 33rd armies advanced from 2 to 6 km.

On the third day, heavy fighting continued in the depths of the enemy defenses. The Nazis committed almost all of their operational reserves to the battle. The exceptionally fierce nature of the struggle affected the pace of advance of the Soviet troops. By the end of the day, they covered another 3-6 km with their main forces and reached the approaches to the third defensive line. Formations of both tank armies, together with infantrymen, artillerymen and sappers, continuously stormed enemy positions for three days. The difficult terrain and the strong anti-tank defense of the enemy did not allow the tankers to break away from the infantry. The mobile troops of the front have not yet received operational scope for conducting swift maneuvering operations in the Berlin direction.

In the zone of the 8th Guards Army, the Nazis put up the most stubborn resistance along the highway running west from Zelov, on both sides of which they installed about 200 anti-aircraft guns.

The slow advance of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, in the opinion of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, jeopardized the implementation of the plan to encircle the enemy's Berlin grouping. As early as April 17, the Headquarters demanded that the front commander ensure a more energetic offensive by his subordinate troops. At the same time, she instructed the commanders of the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian fronts to facilitate the advance of the 1st Belorussian Front. The 2nd Belorussian Front (after forcing the Oder) received, in addition, the task of developing the offensive to the southwest with the main forces no later than April 22, striking around Berlin from the north (625), so that in cooperation with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front to complete the encirclement of the Berlin group.

In pursuance of the instructions of the Headquarters, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front demanded that the troops increase the pace of the offensive, artillery, including high power, be pulled up to the first echelon of troops at a distance of 2-3 km, which should have contributed to closer interaction with infantry and tanks. Particular attention was paid to the massing of artillery in decisive directions. To support the advancing armies, the front commander ordered more resolute use of aviation.

As a result of the measures taken, by the end of April 19, the troops of the shock group had broken through the third defensive zone and in four days advanced to a depth of 30 km, having the opportunity to develop an offensive against Berlin and bypassing it from the north. The aircraft of the 16th Air Army provided great assistance to the ground troops in breaking through the enemy defenses. Despite unfavorable meteorological conditions, during this time she made about 14.7 thousand sorties and shot down 474 enemy aircraft. In the battles near Berlin, Major I.N. Kozhedub increased the number of enemy aircraft shot down to 62. The famous pilot was awarded a high award - the third Golden Star. In just four days, Soviet aviation made up to 17 thousand sorties (626) in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front.

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front spent four days to break through the Oder defensive line. During this time, the enemy suffered great damage: 9 divisions from the first operational echelon and a division: the second echelon lost up to 80 percent of the personnel and almost all military equipment, and 6 divisions advanced from the reserve, and up to 80 different battalions sent from the depths, - more than 50 percent. However, the troops of the front also suffered significant losses and advanced more slowly than planned. This was primarily due to the difficult conditions of the situation. The deep formation of the enemy's defense, which was occupied in advance by troops, its large saturation with anti-tank weapons, the high density of artillery fire, especially anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, continuous counterattacks and reinforcement of troops with reserves - all this required the maximum effort from the Soviet troops.

Due to the fact that the strike force of the front launched an offensive from a small bridgehead and in a relatively narrow zone limited by water barriers and wooded and swampy areas, the Soviet troops were constrained in maneuver and could not quickly expand the breakthrough zone. In addition, the crossings and rear roads were extremely overloaded, which made it extremely difficult to bring new forces into battle from the depths. The fact that the enemy defense was not reliably suppressed during artillery preparation had a significant effect on the pace of the offensive of the combined arms armies. This was especially true of the second defensive line, which ran along the Zelovsky Heights, where the enemy withdrew part of his forces from the first line and advanced reserves from the depths. It did not have a special effect on the pace of the offensive and the introduction of tank armies into battle to complete the breakthrough of the defense. Such use of tank armies was not provided for by the operation plan, so their interaction with combined arms formations, aviation and artillery had to be organized already in the course of hostilities.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front was successfully developing. On April 16, at 0615, artillery preparation began, during which the reinforced battalions of the divisions of the first echelon advanced directly to the Neisse River and, after shifting artillery fire under the cover of a smoke screen placed on a 390-kilometer front, began crossing the river. The personnel of the advanced units were transported along the assault bridges, induced during the period of artillery preparation, and on improvised means. A small number of escort guns and mortars were transported along with the infantry. Since the bridges were not yet ready, part of the field artillery had to be dragged through the ford with the help of ropes. At 7:05 a.m., the first echelons of bombers of the 2nd Air Army attacked enemy resistance centers and command posts.

The battalions of the first echelon, quickly seizing bridgeheads on the left bank of the river, provided the conditions for building bridges and crossing the main forces. The sappers of one of the units of the 15th Guards Separate Motor Assault Engineer Battalion showed exceptional dedication. Overcoming barriers on the left bank of the Neisse River, they discovered property for an assault bridge, guarded by enemy soldiers. Having killed the guards, the sappers quickly built an assault bridge, along which the infantry of the 15th Guards Rifle Division began to cross. For the courage and courage shown, the commander of the 34th Guards Rifle Corps, General G.V. Baklanov, awarded the entire personnel of the unit (22 people) with the Order of Glory (627). Pontoon bridges on light inflatable boats were built after 50 minutes, bridges for loads up to 30 tons - after 2 hours, and bridges on rigid supports for loads up to 60 tons - within 4 - 5 hours. In addition to them, ferries were used to transport tanks of direct infantry support. In total, 133 crossings were equipped in the direction of the main attack. The first echelon of the main strike force finished crossing the Neisse in an hour, during which the artillery fired continuously at the enemy's defenses. Then she concentrated blows on the strongholds of the enemy, preparing an attack on the opposite bank.

At 08:40, the troops of the 13th Army, as well as the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies, began to break through the main defensive line. The fighting on the left bank of the Neisse took on a fierce character. The Nazis launched furious counterattacks, trying to eliminate the bridgeheads captured by the Soviet troops. Already on the first day of the operation, the fascist command threw into battle from its reserve up to three tank divisions and a tank destroyer brigade.

In order to quickly complete the breakthrough of the enemy's defense, the front commander used the 25th and 4th Guards Tank Corps of Generals E.I. Fominykh and P.P. armies (628) . Working closely together, by the end of the day, combined-arms and tank formations broke through the main line of defense on a front of 26 km and advanced to a depth of 13 km.

The next day, the main forces of both tank armies 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. Part of the enemy forces began to retreat across the Spree River. To ensure the combat operations of the tank armies, most of the forces of the 2nd Air Army were involved. Attack aircraft destroyed the firepower and manpower of the enemy, and bomber aircraft struck at his reserves.

In the Dresden direction, the troops of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army under the command of General K.K. Sverchevsky and the 52nd Army of General K.A. K. Kimbara and I.P. Korchagina also completed the breakthrough of the tactical defense zone and in two days of hostilities advanced in some areas up to 20 km.

The successful offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front created for the enemy the threat of a deep bypass of his Berlin grouping from the south. The Nazis concentrated their efforts in order to delay the advance of the Soviet troops at the turn of the Spree River. They also sent the reserves of Army Group Center and the retreating troops of the 4th Panzer Army here. However, the enemy's attempts to change the course of the battle were not successful.

In pursuance of the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, on the night of April 18, the front commander assigned the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies under the command of Generals P. S. Rybalko and D. D. Lelyushenko the task of reaching the Spree, forcing it on the move and developing the offensive directly to Berlin from the south. The combined arms armies were ordered to carry out the tasks assigned earlier. The military council of the front drew special attention of the commanders of tank armies to the need for swift and maneuverable actions. In the directive, the front commander emphasized: “In the main direction with a tank fist, it is bolder and more resolute to break forward. Bypass cities and large settlements and not get involved in protracted frontal battles. I demand a firm understanding that the success of tank armies depends on bold maneuver and swiftness in action” (629). On the morning of April 18, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the Spree. They, together with the 13th Army, crossed it on the move, broke through the third defensive line in a 10-kilometer section and captured a bridgehead north and south of Spremberg, where their main forces were concentrated. On April 18, the troops of the 5th Guards Army with the 4th Guards Tank Corps and in cooperation with the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps crossed the Spree south of the city. On this day, the planes of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division three times Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel A. I. Pokryshkin, covered the troops of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank, 13th and 5th Guards Armies, crossing the Spree. During the day, in 13 air battles, the pilots of the division shot down 18 enemy aircraft (630). Thus, favorable conditions for a successful offensive were created in the zone of operations of the front's shock grouping.

The troops of the front, operating in the Dresden direction, repulsed strong enemy counterattacks. On this day, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps under the command of General V.K. Baranov was brought into battle here.

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 ground troops was provided by the 2nd Air Army of General S. A. Krasovsky, who during these days made 7517 sorties and shot down 155 enemy aircraft (631) in 138 air battles.

While the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts were conducting intense combat operations to break through the Oder-Neissen defensive line, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front were completing preparations for forcing the Oder. In the lower reaches, the channel of this river is divided into two branches (Ost- and West-Oder), therefore, the troops of the front had to overcome two water barriers in succession. In order to create the best conditions for the main forces for the offensive, which was planned for April 20, the front commander decided on April 18 and 19 to cross the Ost-Oder River with advanced units, destroy the enemy’s outposts in the interfluve area and ensure that the formations of the front’s shock group occupy an advantageous starting position.

On April 18, simultaneously in the bands of the 65th, 70th and 49th armies under the command of generals P.I. Batov, V.S. Popov and I.T. smoke screens crossed the Ost-Oder, in a number of areas they overcame the enemy defenses in the interfluve and reached the banks of the West-Oder River. On April 19, the units that crossed over continued to destroy enemy units in the interfluve, concentrating on dams on the right bank of this river. The aircraft of the 4th Air Army of General K. A. Vershinin provided significant assistance to the ground forces. It suppressed and destroyed strongholds and firing points of the enemy.

By active actions in the interfluve of the Oder, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front had a significant impact on the course of the Berlin operation. Having overcome the swampy floodplain of the Oder, they took an advantageous starting position for forcing the West Oder, as well as breaking through the enemy defenses along its left bank, in the sector from Stettin to Schwedt, which did not allow the fascist command to transfer formations of the 3rd Panzer Army to the zone of the 1st Belorussian front.

Thus, by April 20, generally favorable conditions had developed in the zones of all three fronts for the continuation of the operation. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed the offensive most successfully. In the course of breaking through the defenses along the Neisse and Spree, they defeated the enemy’s reserves, entered the operational space and rushed to Berlin, covering the right wing of the Frankfurt-Guben group of Nazi troops, which included part of the 4th tank and the main forces of the 9th field armies. In solving this problem, the main role was assigned to tank armies. On April 19, they advanced 30-50 km in a north-westerly direction, reached the Lübbenau, Luckau area and cut the communications of the 9th Army. All enemy attempts to break through from the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg to the crossings over the Spree and reach the rear of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front were unsuccessful. Troops of the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies under the command of Generals V.N. 45 - 60 km and reach the approaches to Berlin; The 13th Army of General N.P. Pukhov advanced 30 km.

The rapid offensive of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank, as well as the 13th Armies, by the end of April 20, 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. In the highest circles of the Wehrmacht, a commotion began when they learned that Soviet tanks had entered the Wünsdorf area (10 km south of Zossen). The headquarters of the operational leadership of the armed forces and the general staff of the ground forces hastily left Zossen and moved to Wanse (Potsdam region), and part of the departments and services on airplanes was transferred to South Germany. The following entry was made in the diary of the Wehrmacht Supreme High Command for April 20: “For the highest command authorities, the last act of the dramatic death of the German armed forces begins ... Everything is done in a hurry, because you can already hear Russian tanks firing from cannons in the distance ... Depressed mood "(632) .

The rapid development of the operation made a quick meeting of Soviet and American-British troops real. At the end of April 20, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command sent a directive to the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, as well as the commander of the Air Force, armored and mechanized troops of the Soviet Army. It indicated that it was necessary to install signs and signals for mutual identification. By agreement with the allied command, the commanders of the tank and combined arms armies were ordered to determine a temporary tactical dividing line between the Soviet and American-British units in order to avoid mixing troops (633) .

Continuing the offensive in a northwestern direction, by the end of April 21, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front overcame enemy resistance in separate strongholds and came close to the outer contour of the Berlin defensive area. Given the upcoming nature of hostilities in such a large city as Berlin, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front decided to reinforce the 3rd Guards Tank Army of General P.S. artillery division and the 2nd Fighter Aviation Corps. In addition, two rifle divisions of the 28th army of General A. A. Luchinsky, brought into battle from the second echelon of the front, were transferred by motor transport.

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.

By the end of April 22, the 4th Guards Tank Army of General D. D. Lelyushenko, which was operating to the left, also broke through the outer defensive bypass and, having reached the Zarmund-Belitz line, took an advantageous position to connect with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and complete the encirclement together with them the entire Berlin grouping of the enemy. Its 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, together with the troops of the 13th and 5th Guards Armies, by this time had reached the Belitz, Treyenbritzen, Tsana line. As a result, the path to Berlin was closed to enemy reserves from the west and southwest. In Treuenbritzen, tankers of the 4th Guards Tank Army rescued from fascist captivity about 1600 prisoners of war of various nationalities: British, Americans and Norwegians, including the former commander of the Norwegian army, General O. Ryge. A few days later, the soldiers of the same army released from the concentration camp (in the suburbs of Berlin) the former French Prime Minister E. Herriot, a well-known statesman who back in the 20s advocated Franco-Soviet rapprochement.

Using the success of the tankers, the troops of the 13th and 5th Guards armies quickly advanced westward. In an effort to slow down the offensive of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front on Berlin, on April 18, the fascist command launched a counterattack from the Gorlitsa area against the troops of the 52nd Army. Having created a significant superiority in forces in this direction, the enemy tried to reach the rear of the strike group of the front. On April 19 - 23, fierce battles unfolded here. The enemy managed to wedge into the location of the Soviet, and then the Polish troops to a depth of 20 km. To help the troops of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army, part of the forces of the 5th Guards Army, the 4th Guards Tank Corps were transferred and up to four aviation corps were redirected. As a result, heavy damage was inflicted on the enemy, and by the end of April 24, his advance was suspended.

While the formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a swift maneuver to bypass the German capital from the south, the shock group of the 1st Belorussian Front was advancing 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. On April 20, at 13:50, the long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army fired the first two volleys at the fascist capital, and then systematic shelling began. By the end of April 21, the 3rd and 5th shock, as well as the 2nd Guards Tank Armies, had already overcome resistance on the outer contour of the Berlin defensive area and reached the northeastern outskirts of the city. By the morning of April 22, the 9th Guards Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army reached the Havel River, which is on the northwestern outskirts of the capital, and, in cooperation with units of the 47th Army, began to force it. The 1st Guards Tank and 8th Guards Armies also successfully advanced, which by April 21 reached the outer defensive contour. On the morning of the next day, the main forces of the strike force of the front were already fighting the enemy directly in Berlin.

By the end of April 22, Soviet troops created the conditions for completing the encirclement and dissection of the entire Berlin enemy grouping. The distance between the forward units of the 47th, 2nd Guards Tank Armies, advancing from the northeast, and the 4th Guards Tank Army was 40 km, and between the left flank of the 8th Guards and the right flank of the 3rd Guards Tank Army - no more than 12 km. The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, assessing the current situation, demanded that the front commanders complete the encirclement of the main forces of the 9th Field Army by the end of April 24 and prevent its retreat to Berlin or to the west. In order to ensure the timely and accurate implementation of the instructions of the Headquarters, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front brought into battle his second echelon - the 3rd Army under the command of General A.V. Gorbatov and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps of General V.V. Kryukov. In cooperation with the troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front, they were supposed to cut off the main forces of the enemy's 9th Army from the capital and surround them southeast of the city. The troops of the 47th Army and the 9th Guards Tank Corps were ordered to accelerate the offensive and complete the encirclement of the entire enemy grouping in the Berlin direction no later than April 24-25. In connection with the withdrawal of troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front to the southern outskirts of Berlin, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on the night of April 23 established a new demarcation line with the 1st Belorussian Front: from Lübben to the northwest to the Anhalt station in Berlin.

The Nazis made desperate efforts to prevent the encirclement of their capital. On April 22, in the afternoon, the last operational meeting was held in the Imperial Chancellery, which was attended by V. Keitel, A. Jodl, M. Bormann, G. Krebs and others. Hitler agreed to Jodl's proposal to withdraw all troops from the western front and throw them into the battle for Berlin. In this regard, the 12th Army of General W. Wenck, which occupied defensive positions on the Elbe, was ordered to turn around to the east and advance to Potsdam, Berlin to join the 9th Army. At the same time, an army group under the command of SS General F. Steiner, which operated north of the capital, was supposed to strike at the flank of the grouping of Soviet troops that were bypassing it from the north and northwest (634) .

To organize the offensive of the 12th Army, Field Marshal Keitel was sent to its headquarters. Completely ignoring the actual state of affairs, the German command counted on the offensive of this army from the west, and the Steiner army group from the north, to prevent the complete encirclement of the city. The 12th Army, having turned its front to the east, began operations on April 24 against the troops of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies, which occupied the defenses at the Belitz-Treuenbritzen line. The German 9th Army was ordered to withdraw to the west to join the 12th Army south of Berlin.

On April 23 and 24, hostilities in all directions took on a particularly fierce character. Although the pace of advance of the Soviet troops slowed down somewhat, the Nazis failed to stop them. The intention of the fascist command to prevent the encirclement and dismemberment of their group was thwarted. Already on April 24, the troops of the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front joined with the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front southeast of Berlin. As a result, the main forces of the 9th and part of the forces of the 4th tank armies of the enemy were cut off from the city and surrounded. The next day, after joining west of Berlin, in the area of ​​​​Ketzin, the 4th Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front with the troops of the 2nd Guards Tank and 47th Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front was surrounded by the Berlin enemy group itself.

On April 25, a meeting of Soviet and American troops took place. On this day, 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 American Army that had approached here. Germany was divided into two parts.

The situation in the Dresden direction has also changed significantly. By April 25, the counterattack of the Görlitz grouping of the enemy was finally thwarted by the stubborn and active defense of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army. To reinforce them, the defense zone of the 52nd Army was narrowed, and to the left of it, formations of the 31st Army, which arrived at the front, under the command of General P. G. Shafranov, deployed. The released rifle corps of the 52nd Army was used in the sector of its active operations.

Thus, in just ten days, Soviet troops overcame the powerful enemy defenses along the Oder and Neisse, surrounded and dismembered his grouping in the Berlin direction and created conditions for its complete liquidation.

In connection with the successful maneuver to encircle the Berlin grouping by the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, there was no need to bypass Berlin from the north by the forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front. As a result, already on April 23, the Stavka ordered him to develop the offensive in accordance with the original plan of the operation, that is, in the western and northwestern directions, and with part of the forces to strike around Stettin from the west (635) .

The offensive of the main forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front began on April 20 with the crossing of the West Oder River. Thick morning fog and smoke sharply limited the actions of Soviet aviation. However, after 09:00, visibility improved somewhat, and aviation increased support for ground troops. The greatest success during the first day of the operation was achieved in the zone of the 65th Army under the command of General P.I. Batov. By evening, she captured several small bridgeheads on the left bank of the river, transporting 31 rifle battalions, part of the artillery and 15 self-propelled artillery installations there. The troops of the 70th Army under the command of General V. S. Popov also operated successfully. 12 rifle battalions were transferred to the bridgehead they captured. The crossing of the West-Oder by the troops of the 49th Army of General I. T. Grishin turned out to be less successful: only on the second day did they manage to capture a small bridgehead (636).

In the following days, the troops of the front fought intense battles to expand their bridgeheads, repulsed enemy counterattacks, and also continued to cross their troops to the left bank of the Oder. By the end of April 25, formations of the 65th and 70th armies had completed the breakthrough of the main line of defense. In six days of hostilities, they advanced 20-22 km. The 49th Army, using the success of its neighbors, on the morning of April 26 crossed the main forces across the West-Oder along the crossings of the 70th Army and by the end of the day advanced 10-12 km. On the same day, in the zone of the 65th Army on the left bank of the West Oder, the troops of the 2nd shock army of General I.I. Fedyuninsky began to cross. As a result of the actions of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, the 3rd German Panzer Army was pinned down, which deprived the Nazi command of the opportunity to use its forces for operations directly in the Berlin direction.

At the end of April, the Soviet command focused all its attention on Berlin. Before its assault, party-political work unfolded with renewed vigor in the troops. As early as April 23, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front addressed an appeal to the soldiers, which said: “Before you, Soviet heroes, is Berlin. You must take Berlin, and take it as quickly as possible so as not to let the enemy come to their senses. For the honor of our Motherland forward! To Berlin!" (637) In conclusion, the Military Council expressed full confidence that the glorious warriors will honorably fulfill the task entrusted to them. Political workers, party and Komsomol organizations used any respite in the fighting to familiarize everyone with this document. Army newspapers called on the soldiers: “Forward, for a complete victory over the enemy!”, “Let's hoist the banner of our victory over Berlin!”.

During the operation, employees of the Main Political Directorate negotiated almost daily with members of the military councils and heads of political directorates of the fronts, heard their reports, and gave specific instructions and advice. The Main Political Directorate demanded that the soldiers be made aware that in Berlin they were fighting for the future of their homeland, of all peace-loving mankind.

In the newspapers, on the billboards installed along the path of the movement of Soviet troops, on guns, vehicles were inscriptions: “Comrades! The defenses of Berlin have been breached! The longed-for hour of victory is near. Forward, comrades, forward!”, “One more effort, and victory has been won!”, “The long-awaited hour has come! We are at the walls of Berlin!

And the Soviet soldiers stepped up their blows. Even the wounded soldiers did not leave the battlefield. So, in the 65th Army, more than two thousand soldiers refused to be evacuated to the rear (638). Soldiers and commanders daily applied for admission to the party. For example, in the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, in April alone, 11,776 soldiers (639) were accepted into the party.

In this situation, special care was shown to further increase the sense of responsibility in the command staff for the performance of combat missions, so that the officers would not lose control of the battle for a minute. All available forms, methods and means of party political work supported the initiative of the soldiers, their resourcefulness and audacity in battle. Party and Komsomol organizations helped the commanders to concentrate their efforts in a timely manner where success was expected, and the Communists were the first to launch attacks and drag along non-Party comrades. “What strength of mind and desire to win was necessary to reach the goal through a smashing barrage of fire, stone and reinforced concrete barriers, overcoming numerous “surprises”, fire bags and traps, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, - recalls a member of the Military Council 1- th Belorussian Front, General K. F. Telegin. - But everyone wanted to live. But this is how the Soviet man was brought up - the common good, the happiness of his people, the glory of the Motherland is dearer to him than everything personal, dearer than life itself ”(640) .

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command issued a directive that demanded a humane attitude towards those rank and file members of the National Socialist Party who are loyal to the Soviet Army, to create local administration everywhere, and to appoint burgomasters in cities.

Solving the problem of capturing Berlin, the Soviet command understood that the Frankfurt-Guben grouping, which Hitler intended to use to deblockade his capital, should not be underestimated. As a result, along with stepping up efforts to defeat the Berlin garrison, the Headquarters considered it necessary to immediately begin the liquidation of the troops surrounded southeast of Berlin.

The Frankfurt-Guben group consisted of up to 200 thousand people. It was armed with over 2 thousand guns, more than 300 tanks and assault guns. It occupies a wooded and swampy area of ​​​​about 1500 square meters. km was very convenient for defense. Given the composition of the enemy grouping, the Soviet command involved in its liquidation the 3rd, 69th and 33rd armies and the 2nd guards cavalry corps of the 1st Belorussian Front, the 3rd guards and 28th armies, as well as the rifle corps of the 13th army 1st Ukrainian Front. The actions of the ground troops were supported by seven aviation corps, the Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in people by 1.4 times, artillery - by 3.7 times. Since the bulk of Soviet tanks at that time fought directly in Berlin, the forces of the parties were equal in their number.

In order to prevent a breakthrough of the blockaded enemy grouping in the western direction, the troops of the 28th and part of the forces of the 3rd Guards Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front went on the defensive. On the paths of a probable enemy offensive, they prepared three defensive lines, laid mines and made blockages.

On the morning of April 26, Soviet troops launched an offensive against the encircled group, trying to cut and destroy it piece by piece. The enemy not only offered stubborn resistance, but also made repeated attempts to break through to the west. So, parts of two infantry, two motorized and tank divisions struck at the junction of the 28th and 3rd Guards armies. Having created a significant superiority in forces, the Nazis broke through the defenses in a narrow area and began to move west. During fierce battles, Soviet troops closed the neck of the breakthrough, and the part that had broken through was surrounded in the Barut region and almost completely eliminated. The ground forces were greatly assisted by aviation, which made about 500 sorties during the day, destroying the enemy's manpower and equipment.

In the following days, the fascist German troops again tried to connect with the 12th Army, which, in turn, sought to overcome the defenses of the troops of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies, operating on the outer front of the encirclement. However, all enemy attacks during April 27-28 were repelled. Given the likelihood of new attempts by the enemy to break through to the west, the command of the 1st Ukrainian Front strengthened the defenses of the 28th and 3rd Guards armies and concentrated their reserves in the areas of Zossen, Luckenwalde, Yuterbog.

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front at the same time (April 26 - 28) were pushing the encircled enemy grouping from the east. Fearing complete elimination, the Nazis on the night of April 29 again tried to break out of the encirclement. By dawn, at the cost of heavy losses, they managed to break through the main defensive zone of the Soviet troops at the junction of two fronts - in the area west of Wendisch Buchholz. On the second line of defense, their advance was stopped. But the enemy, despite heavy losses, stubbornly rushed to the west. In the second half of April 29, up to 45 thousand fascist soldiers resumed their attacks on the sector of the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps of the 28th Army, broke through its defenses and formed a corridor up to 2 km wide. Through it they began to retreat to Luckenwalde. The German 12th Army attacked in the same direction from the west. There was a threat of a connection between two enemy groups. By the end of April 29, the Soviet troops by decisive actions stopped the advance of the enemy at the line of Shperenberg, Kummersdorf (12 km east of Luckenwalde). His troops were dismembered and surrounded in three separate areas. Nevertheless, the breakthrough of large enemy forces into the Kummersdorf area led to the fact that the communications of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank, as well as the 28th Army, were cut. The distance between the forward units of the group that had broken through and the troops of the enemy's 12th Army advancing from the west was reduced to 30 km.

Especially intense battles unfolded on April 30. Regardless of the losses, the Nazis continued the offensive and advanced 10 km to the west in a day. By the end of the day, a significant part of the troops that had broken through had been eliminated. However, one of the groups (numbering up to 20 thousand people) on the night of May 1 managed to break through at the junction of the 13th and 4th Guards Tank Armies and reach the Belitsa area, now only 3-4 km separated it from the 12th Army . To prevent further advance of these troops to the west, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army advanced two tank, mechanized and light artillery brigades, as well as a motorcycle regiment. During fierce battles, the 1st Guards Assault Aviation Corps rendered great assistance to the ground forces.

By the end of the day, the main part of the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy was liquidated. All hopes of the fascist command to unblock Berlin collapsed. Soviet troops captured 120,000 soldiers and officers, captured more than 300 tanks and assault guns, over 1,500 field guns, 17,600 vehicles and a lot of various military equipment. Only the killed enemy lost 60 thousand people (641). Only insignificant scattered groups of the enemy managed to seep through the forest and go to the west. Part of the troops of the 12th Army who survived the defeat retreated to the left bank of the Elbe along the bridges built by the American troops and surrendered to them.

In the Dresden direction, the fascist German command did not abandon its intention to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops in the Bautzen area and go to the rear of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Having regrouped their troops, the Nazis launched an offensive on the morning of April 26 with the forces of four divisions. Despite heavy losses, the enemy did not reach the goal, his offensive was stopped. Until April 30, stubborn battles continued here, but there was no significant change in the position of the parties. The Nazis, having exhausted their offensive capabilities, went over to the defensive in this direction.

Thus, thanks to the stubborn and active defense, the Soviet troops not only thwarted the enemy’s plan to go behind the lines of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front, but also captured bridgeheads on the Elbe in the Meissen and Riesa area, which later served as a favorable starting area for an attack on Prague.

Meanwhile, the struggle in Berlin reached its climax. The garrison, continuously increasing by attracting the population of the city and the retreating military units, already numbered 300 thousand people (642). It was armed with 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks. By the end of April 25, the enemy occupied the territory of the capital, together with the suburbs with a total area of ​​325 square meters. km. Most of all, the eastern and southeastern outskirts of Berlin were fortified. Strong barricades crossed the streets and lanes. Everything adapted to the defense, even the destroyed buildings. The underground structures of the city were widely used: bomb shelters, metro stations and tunnels, sewers and other objects. Reinforced concrete bunkers were built, the largest for 300 - 1000 people each, as well as a large number of reinforced concrete caps.

By April 26, the troops of the 47th Army, the 3rd and 5th shock, the 8th Guards Combined Arms, the 2nd and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, as well as 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies and part of the forces of the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. In total, they included about 464 thousand people, over 12.7 thousand guns and mortars of all calibers, up to 2.1 thousand rocket artillery installations, about 1500 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations.

The Soviet command abandoned the offensive along the entire circumference of the city, as this could lead to excessive dispersal of forces and a decrease in the pace of advancement, and concentrated its efforts on separate directions. Thanks to this peculiar tactic of "driving" deep wedges into the enemy's position, his defense was divided into separate parts, and command and control was paralyzed. This mode of action increased the pace of the offensive and ultimately led to effective results.

Taking into account the experience of previous battles for large settlements, the Soviet command ordered the creation of assault detachments in each division as part of reinforced battalions or companies. Each such detachment, in addition to infantry, included artillery, tanks, self-propelled artillery mounts, sappers, and often flamethrowers. It was intended for action in any one direction, which usually included one street, or the assault on a large object. To capture smaller objects from the same detachments, assault groups were allocated from a rifle squad to a platoon, reinforced with 2-4 guns, 1-2 tanks or self-propelled artillery mounts, as well as sappers and flamethrowers.

The beginning of the actions of assault detachments and groups, as a rule, was preceded by a short but powerful artillery preparation. Before attacking a fortified building, the assault detachment was usually divided into two groups. One of them, under the cover of tank and artillery fire, broke into the building, blocked the exits from the basements, which served as shelter for the Nazis during the artillery preparation, and then destroyed them with grenades and bottles of flammable liquid. The second group cleared the upper floors of submachine gunners and snipers.

The specific conditions of warfare in a large city led to a number of features in the use of combat arms. Thus, artillery destruction groups were created in divisions and corps, and long-range groups in combined arms armies. A significant part of the artillery was used for direct fire. The experience of previous battles has shown that tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts can only advance if they cooperate closely with the infantry and under its cover. 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. Therefore, the main forces of bomber and attack aircraft were used to destroy the Frankfurt-Guben grouping, and fighter aircraft carried out an air blockade of the Nazi capital. The most powerful strikes on military targets in the city were delivered by aviation on the 25th and on the night of April 26th. The 16th and 18th air armies carried out three massive strikes, in which 2049 aircraft took part.

After the Soviet troops captured the airfields in Tempelhof and Gatow, the Nazis tried to use Charlottenburgstrasse for landing their planes. However, these enemy calculations were thwarted by the actions of the pilots of the 16th Air Army, who continuously patrolled over this area. Attempts by the Nazis to parachute cargo to the encircled troops were also unsuccessful. Most of the enemy transport aircraft were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery and aviation while they were still approaching Berlin. Thus, after April 28, the Berlin garrison could no longer receive any effective outside help. 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 strip (from east to west it reached 16 km). Due to the fact that its width was only 2 - 3 km, the entire territory occupied by the enemy was under the continuous influence of the fire weapons of the Soviet troops. The fascist German command tried by all means to help the Berlin grouping. “Our troops on the Elbe,” the OKB diary noted, “turned their backs on the Americans in order to alleviate the position of the defenders of Berlin with their offensive from the outside” (643). However, by the end of April 28, the encircled grouping was divided into three parts. By this time, attempts by the Wehrmacht command to help the Berlin garrison with strikes from outside had finally failed. The political and moral state of the fascist troops fell sharply.

On this day, Hitler subordinated the General Staff of the Ground Forces to the Chief of Staff of the Operational Command, hoping to restore the integrity of command and control. Instead of General G. Heinrici, accused of unwillingness to help encircled Berlin, General K. Student was appointed commander of the Vistula Army Group.

After April 28, the struggle continued with unrelenting force. Now it has flared up in the Reichstag area, for which the troops of the 3rd Shock Army began fighting on April 29. The Reichstag garrison, consisting of 1 thousand soldiers and officers, was armed with a large number of guns, machine guns and faustpatrons. Deep ditches were dug around the building, various barriers were set up, machine-gun and artillery firing points were equipped.

The task of taking over the Reichstag building was assigned to the 79th Rifle Corps of General S. N. Perevertkin. Having captured the Moltke Bridge on the night of April 29, by 4 o’clock on April 30, parts of the corps captured a large resistance center - the house where the Ministry of the Interior of Nazi Germany and the Swiss Embassy were located, and went directly to the Reichstag. Only in the evening, after repeated attacks by the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of General V.M. Shatilov and Colonel A.I. D. Plekhodanov and the chief of staff of the regiment, Major VD Shatalin, broke into the building. Soldiers, sergeants and officers of the battalions of captains S. A. Neustroev and V. I. Davydov, senior lieutenant K. Ya. Samsonov, as well as separate groups of Major M. M. covered themselves with unfading glory. Bondar, Captain V.N. Makov and others.

Together with the infantry units, the Reichstag was stormed by the valiant tankmen of the 23rd Tank Brigade. The commanders of tank battalions, Major I. L. Yartsev and Captain S. V. Krasovsky, the commander of a tank company, Senior Lieutenant P. E. Nuzhdin, the commander of a tank platoon, Lieutenant A. K. Romanov, and the assistant commander of a reconnaissance platoon, Senior Sergeant N. V. glorified their names. Kapustin, tank commander senior lieutenant A. G. Gaganov, drivers senior sergeant P. E. Lavrov and foreman I. N. Kletnay, gunner senior sergeant M. G. Lukyanov and many others.

The Nazis offered fierce resistance. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued on the stairs and in the corridors. The assault units meter by meter, room by room cleared the Reichstag building from the Nazis. The fighting 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.

Early in the morning of May 1, on the pediment of the Reichstag, near the sculptural group, the Red Banner was already fluttering, handed over to the commander of the 150th Infantry Division by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army. It was hoisted by scouts of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, headed by Lieutenant A.P. Berest, deputy battalion commander for political affairs, with the support of machine gunners of the company I. Ya. Syanov. This Banner symbolically embodied all the banners and flags, which during the most fierce battles were hoisted by groups of Captain V.N. Makov, Lieutenant R. Koshkarbaev, Major M.M. Bondar and many other soldiers. From the main entrance of the Reichstag to the roof, their heroic path was marked by red banners, flags and flags, as if now merged into a single Banner of Victory. It was the triumph of the victory won, the triumph of the courage and heroism of the Soviet soldiers, the greatness of the feat of the Soviet Armed Forces and the entire Soviet people.

“And when a red banner hoisted by the hands of Soviet soldiers hoisted over the Reichstag,” said L. I. Brezhnev, “it was not only the banner of our military victory. It was the immortal banner of October; it was the great banner of Lenin; it was the invincible banner of socialism - a bright symbol of hope, a symbol of freedom and happiness of all peoples! (644)

On April 30, the Nazi troops in Berlin were actually divided into four isolated units of different composition, and command and control of the troops was paralyzed. The last hopes of the fascist German command for the liberation of the Berlin garrison by the forces of Wenck, Steiner and Busse were dispelled. Panic began among the fascist leadership. To avoid responsibility for the atrocities committed, on April 30, Hitler committed suicide. In order to hide this from the army, the fascist radio reported that the Fuhrer had been killed at the front near Berlin. On the same day in Schleswig-Holstein, Hitler's successor, Grand Admiral Doenitz, appointed a "provisional imperial government", which, as subsequent events showed, was trying to reach contact with the United States and England on an anti-Soviet basis (645) .

However, the days of Nazi Germany were already numbered. By the end of April 30, the position of the Berlin grouping had become catastrophic. At 3 o'clock on May 1, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, General Krebs, by agreement with the Soviet command, crossed the front line in Berlin and was received by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General V. I. Chuikov. Krebs announced Hitler's suicide, and also handed over a list of members of the new imperial government and the proposal of Goebbels and Bormann for a temporary cessation of hostilities in the capital in order to prepare the conditions for peace negotiations between Germany and the USSR. However, this document did not say anything about surrender. This was the last attempt by the fascist leaders to split the anti-Hitler coalition. But the Soviet command unraveled this plan of the enemy.

Krebs' message was reported through Marshal G.K. Zhukov to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. The answer was extremely brief: to force the Berlin garrison to surrender immediately and unconditionally. The negotiations did not affect the intensity of the fighting in Berlin. The Soviet troops continued to actively advance, striving for the complete capture of the enemy capital, and the Nazis - to put up stubborn resistance. At 18 o'clock it became known that the fascist leaders had rejected the demand for unconditional surrender. In this way, they once again demonstrated their complete indifference to the fate of millions of ordinary Germans.

The Soviet command ordered the troops to complete the liquidation of the enemy group in Berlin as soon as possible. Half an hour later, all the artillery hit the enemy. The fighting continued throughout the night. When the remnants of the garrison were divided into isolated groups, the Nazis realized that resistance was useless. On the night of May 2, the commander of the defense of Berlin, General G. Weidling, announced to the Soviet command that the 56th Panzer Corps, which was directly subordinate to him, had surrendered. At 6 o'clock, having crossed the front line in the band of the 8th Guards Army, he surrendered. At the suggestion of the Soviet command, Weidling signed an order for the Berlin garrison to cease resistance and lay down their arms. Somewhat later, a similar order on behalf of the "provisional imperial government" was signed by Goebbels' first deputy G. Fritsche. Due to the fact that the control of the Nazi troops in Berlin was paralyzed, the orders of Weidling and Fritsche could not be brought to all units and formations. Therefore, from the morning of May 2, separate groups of the enemy continued to resist and even tried to break out of the city to the west. Only after the announcement of the order on the radio did mass capitulation begin. By 15 o'clock the enemy had completely ceased resistance in Berlin. Only on this day, Soviet troops took prisoner in the city area up to 135 thousand people (646).

The figures cited convincingly testify that the Hitlerite leadership attracted considerable forces for the defense of its capital. The Soviet troops fought against a large enemy group, and not against the civilian population, as some bourgeois falsifiers claim. The battles for Berlin were fierce and, as Hitler's general E. Butlar wrote after the war, "cost heavy losses not only to the Germans, but also to the Russians ..." (647) .

During the operation, millions of Germans became convinced from their own experience of the humane attitude of the Soviet Army towards the civilian population. Fierce fighting continued on the streets of Berlin, and Soviet soldiers shared hot food with children, women and the elderly. By the end of May, ration cards were issued to the entire population of Berlin and food distribution was organized. Although these norms were still small, the inhabitants of the capital received more food than recently under Hitler. No sooner had the artillery salvos died down than work began on the establishment of the urban economy. Under the guidance of military engineers and technicians, Soviet soldiers, together with the population, restored the metro by the beginning of June, and trams were launched. The city received water, gas, electricity. Life was back to normal. The dope of Goebbels' propaganda about the monstrous atrocities that the Soviet Army allegedly brings to the Germans began to dissipate. “The innumerable noble deeds of the Soviet people will never be forgotten, who, while still holding a rifle in one hand, were already sharing a piece of bread with the other, helping our people overcome the terrible consequences of the war unleashed by the Hitlerite clique and take the fate of the country into their own hands, clearing the way for the enslaved and enslaved by imperialism and fascism to the German working class ... "- this is how, 30 years later, the Minister of National Defense of the GDR, General G. Hoffmann (648) assessed the actions of Soviet soldiers.

Simultaneously with the end of hostilities in Berlin, the troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to regroup in the Prague direction to complete the task of completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia, and the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced westward and by May 7 reached the Elbe on a broad front .

During the assault on Berlin in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg, a successful offensive was launched by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. By the end of May 2, they reached the coast of the Baltic Sea, and the next day, advancing to the line of Wismar, Schwerin, the Elbe River, they established contact with the 2nd British Army. The liberation of the islands of Wollin, Usedom and Rügen ended the offensive operation of the 2nd Belorussian Front. Even at the final stage of the operation, the troops of the front entered into operational-tactical cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet: the aviation of the fleet provided effective support to the ground troops advancing in the coastal direction, especially in the battles for the Swinemünde naval base. Landed on the Danish island of Bornholm, the amphibious assault disarmed and captured the Nazi troops stationed there.

The defeat of the Berlin enemy grouping by the Soviet Army and the capture of Berlin were the final act in the struggle against Nazi Germany. With the fall of the capital, she lost all possibility of conducting an organized armed struggle and soon capitulated.

The Soviet people and their Armed Forces, under the leadership of the Communist Party, won a world-historic victory.

During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 infantry, 12 tank, 11 motorized divisions and most of the Wehrmacht aviation. About 480 thousand soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, more than 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, as well as 4.5 thousand aircraft were captured as trophies.

Together with the Soviet soldiers, soldiers and officers of the Polish Army took an active part in the defeat of this group. Both Polish armies operated in the first operational echelon of the Soviet fronts, 12.5 thousand Polish soldiers participated in the storming of Berlin. Above the Brandenburg Gate, next to the victorious Soviet Red Banner, they hoisted their national banner. It was the triumph of the Soviet-Polish military commonwealth.

The Berlin operation is one of the largest operations of the Second World War. It was characterized by exceptionally high intensity of the struggle on both sides. Poisoned by false propaganda and intimidated by cruel repressions, the fascist troops resisted with extraordinary stubbornness. The heavy losses of the Soviet troops also testify to the degree of fierceness of the fighting. From April 16 to May 8, they lost more than 102 thousand people (649). Meanwhile, the American-British troops on the entire Western Front lost 260,000 men (650) during 1945.

As in previous battles, in the Berlin operation, Soviet soldiers showed high combat skill, courage and mass heroism. More than 600 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov was awarded the third, and Marshals of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev and K.K. Rokossovsky the second Gold Star medal. The second Gold Star medal was awarded to V. I. Andrianov, S. E. Artemenko, P. I. Batov, T. Ya. Begeldinov, D. A. Dragunsky, A. N. Efimov, S. I. Kretov, M. V. Kuznetsov, I. Kh. Mikhailichenko, M. P. Odintsov, V. S. Petrov, P. A. Plotnikov, V. I. Popkov, A. I. Rodimtsev, V. G. Ryazanov, E. Ya. Savitsky, V. V. Senko, Z. K. Slyusarenko, N. G. Stolyarov, E. P. Fedorov, M. G. Fomichev. 187 units and formations received the names of Berlin. Only from the composition of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, 1,141 thousand soldiers were awarded orders and medals, many units and formations were awarded orders of the Soviet Union, and 1 082 thousand participants in the assault were awarded the medal "For the Capture of Berlin", established in honor of this historic victory.

The Berlin operation made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of Soviet military art. It was prepared and carried out on the basis of comprehensive consideration and creative use of the richest experience of the Soviet Armed Forces accumulated during the war. At the same time, the military art of the Soviet troops in this operation has a number of features.

The operation was prepared in a short time, and its main goals - the encirclement and destruction of the main enemy grouping and the capture of Berlin - were achieved in 16-17 days. Noting this feature, Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky wrote: “The pace of preparation and implementation of the final operations indicates that the Soviet military economy and the Armed Forces had reached such a level by 1945 that it made it possible to do what would previously have seemed like a miracle” ( 651) .

The limited preparation time for such a major operation required commanders and staffs of all levels to adopt new, more efficient forms and methods of work. Not only in the fronts and armies, but also in the corps and divisions, the parallel method of work of commanders and staffs was usually used. In all command and staff instances, the rule worked out in previous operations was steadily observed to give the troops as much time as possible for their immediate preparation for combat operations.

The Berlin operation is distinguished by the clarity of the strategic plan, which fully corresponded to the tasks set and the specifics of the current situation. It is a classic example of an offensive by a group of fronts, carried out with such a decisive goal. During this operation, Soviet troops surrounded and eliminated the largest grouping of enemy troops in the history of wars.

The simultaneous offensive of three fronts in a 300-kilometer zone with six blows fettered the enemy's reserves, contributed to the disorganization of his command and in a number of cases made it possible to achieve operational-tactical surprise.

The Soviet art of war in the Berlin operation is characterized by a decisive massing of forces and assets in the directions of the main attacks, the creation of high densities of means of suppression and the deep echeloning of combat formations of troops, which ensured a relatively quick breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses, the subsequent encirclement and destruction of his main forces and the preservation of general superiority over enemy throughout the operation.

The Berlin operation is very instructive from the experience of the diverse combat use of armored and mechanized troops. It involved 4 tank armies, 10 separate tank and mechanized corps, 16 separate tank and self-propelled artillery brigades, as well as more than 80 separate tank and self-propelled artillery regiments. The operation once again clearly demonstrated the expediency of not only tactical, but also operational massing of armored and mechanized troops in the most important areas. The creation in the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts of powerful success development echelons (each consisting of two tank armies) is the most important prerequisite for the successful conduct of the entire operation, which once again confirmed that tank armies and corps, if used correctly, are the main means of developing success.

The combat use of artillery in the operation was characterized by its skillful massing in the directions of the main attacks, the creation of artillery groups at all organizational levels - from the regiment to the army, the central planning of the artillery offensive, the wide maneuver of artillery, including large artillery formations, and the steady fire superiority over the enemy. .

The art of the Soviet command in the use of aviation was manifested primarily in its massing and close cooperation with the ground forces, to support which the main efforts of all air armies, including long-range aviation, were directed. In the Berlin operation, Soviet aviation firmly held air supremacy. In 1317 air battles, 1132 enemy aircraft (652) were shot down. The defeat of the main forces of the 6th air fleet and the Reich air fleet was completed in the first five days of the operation, and subsequently the rest of the aviation was finished off. In the Berlin operation, Soviet aviation destroyed the enemy's defenses, destroyed and suppressed his firepower and manpower. Working closely with combined arms formations, it struck at the enemy day and night, bombarded his troops on the roads and on the battlefield, when they advanced from the depths and when leaving the encirclement, disrupted control. The use of the Air Force was characterized by the centralization of their control, the timeliness of redeployment, and the continuous buildup of efforts in solving the main tasks. Ultimately, the combat use of aviation in the Berlin operation most fully expressed the essence of the form of warfare that was called the air offensive during the war years.

In the operation under consideration, the art of organizing interaction was further improved. The foundations of strategic interaction were laid down during the development of its concept through careful coordination of the actions of the fronts and services of the Armed Forces in the interests of successfully accomplishing the main operational-strategic tasks. As a rule, the interaction of the fronts within the framework of a strategic operation was also stable.

The Berlin operation gave an interesting experience in the use of the Dnieper military flotilla. Noteworthy is its skillfully carried out maneuver from the Western Bug and Pripyat to the Oder. In difficult hydrographic conditions, the flotilla made more than 500-kilometer passage in 20 days. Part of the ships of the flotilla was transported by rail over distances exceeding 800 km. And this took place in conditions when there were 75 active and destroyed crossings, railway and highway bridges, locks and other hydraulic structures on the way of their movement, and in 48 places clearing of the ship's passage was required. In close operational-tactical cooperation with the ground forces, the ships of the flotilla solved various tasks. They participated in artillery preparation, assisted the advancing troops in forcing water barriers and actively participated in the battles for Berlin on the Spree River.

The political bodies showed great skill in ensuring the combat activity of the troops. The intense and purposeful work of the commanders, political agencies, party and Komsomol organizations ensured an exceptionally high morale and offensive impulse among all the soldiers and contributed to the solution of the historical task - the victorious end of the war against Nazi Germany.

The successful conduct of one of the last operations of the Second World War in Europe was also ensured by the high level of strategic leadership and the skill of the commanders of the fronts and armies. Unlike most previous strategic operations, where the coordination of the fronts was entrusted to representatives of the Headquarters, in the Berlin operation, the overall command of the troops was carried out directly by the Supreme High Command. The Headquarters and the General Staff have shown particularly high skill and flexibility in leading the Soviet Armed Forces. They timely set tasks for the fronts and services of the Armed Forces, refined them during the offensive depending on changes in the situation, organized and supported operational-strategic cooperation, skillfully used strategic reserves, continuously replenished the troops with personnel, weapons and military equipment.

Evidence of the high level of Soviet military art and the skill of military leaders in the Berlin operation was the successful solution of the complex problem of logistical support for the troops. The limited period of preparation for the operation and the high expenditure of material resources, due to the nature of the hostilities, required great tension in the work of the rear services of all levels. Suffice it to say that in the course of the operation the troops of the three fronts used up over 7,200 wagons of ammunition and from 2-2.5 (diesel fuel) to 7-10 (aviation gasoline) front-line refuellings. The successful solution of logistic support was achieved mainly due to the sharp approach of material reserves to the troops and the extensive use of road transport to bring in the necessary supplies. Even during the preparation of the operation, more materiel was brought by road than by rail. Thus, 238.4 thousand tons of ammunition, fuel and lubricants were delivered to the 1st Belorussian Front by rail, and 333.4 thousand tons by front and army vehicles.

Military topographers made a great contribution to ensuring the combat operations of the troops. In a timely and complete manner, the military topographic service provided the troops with topographic and special maps, prepared initial geodetic data for artillery fire, took an active part in deciphering aerial photographs, and determined the coordinates of targets. Only the troops and headquarters of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts were issued 6.1 million copies of maps, 15 thousand aerial photographs were deciphered, the coordinates of about 1.6 thousand support and artillery networks were determined, geodetic binding of 400 artillery batteries was made. In order to ensure the fighting in Berlin, the topographic service of the 1st Belorussian Front prepared a relief plan of the city, which proved to be of great help to the headquarters in preparing and conducting the operation.

The Berlin operation went down in history as a victorious crown of that difficult and glorious path that the Soviet Armed Forces, led by the Communist Party, traveled. The operation was carried out with the full satisfaction of the needs of the fronts with military equipment, weapons and material and technical means. The heroic rear supplied its soldiers with everything that was necessary for the final defeat of the enemy. This is one of the clearest and most convincing testimonies of the high organization and power of the economy of the Soviet socialist state.

The final battle in the Great Patriotic War was the battle for Berlin, or the Berlin strategic offensive operation, which was carried out from April 16 to May 8, 1945.

On April 16, at 03:00 local time, aviation and artillery preparation began on the sector of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. After its completion, 143 searchlights were turned on to blind the enemy, and the infantry, supported by tanks, went on the attack. Encountering no strong resistance, she advanced 1.5-2 kilometers. However, the further our troops advanced, the stronger the resistance of the enemy grew.

The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a swift maneuver to reach Berlin from the south and west. On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts joined up west of Berlin, completing the encirclement of the entire enemy Berlin grouping.

The liquidation of the Berlin enemy grouping directly in the city continued until May 2. The assault had to take every street and house. On April 29, fighting began for the Reichstag, the possession of which was entrusted to the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front.

Before the assault on the Reichstag, the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army presented its divisions with nine Red Banners, specially made according to the type of the State Flag of the USSR. One of these Red Banners, known under No. 5 as the Banner of Victory, was transferred to the 150th Rifle Division. Similar self-made red banners, flags and flags were in all advanced units, formations and subunits. They, as a rule, were handed over to assault groups, which were recruited from among volunteers and went into battle with the main task - to break into the Reichstag and install the Banner of Victory on it. The first - at 22:30 Moscow time on April 30, 1945, hoisted an assault red banner on the roof of the Reichstag on the sculptural figure "Goddess of Victory" - reconnaissance artillerymen of the 136th Army Cannon Artillery Brigade, senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov and Sergeant A.P. Minin from the assault group of the 79th Rifle Corps, commanded by Captain V.N. Makov, the assault group of artillerymen acted jointly with the battalion of captain S.A. Neustroeva. Two or three hours later, also on the roof of the Reichstag, on the sculpture of an equestrian knight - Kaiser Wilhelm - by order of the commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division, Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, the Red Banner No. 5 was installed, which then became famous as the Banner of Victory. Red Banner No. 5 was hoisted by scouts Sergeant M.A. Egorov and junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria, who were accompanied by Lieutenant A.P. Berest and machine gunners from the company of senior sergeant I.Ya. Syanov.

The fighting for the Reichstag continued until the morning of May 1. At 6:30 am on May 2, the head of the defense of Berlin, General of Artillery G. Weidling, surrendered and ordered the remnants of the troops of the Berlin garrison to cease resistance. In the middle of the day, the resistance of the Nazis in the city ceased. On the same day, the encircled groupings of German troops southeast of Berlin were liquidated.

On May 9, at 0:43 Moscow time, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, as well as representatives of the German Navy, who had the appropriate authority from Doenitz, in the presence of Marshal G.K. Zhukov from the Soviet side signed the Act of unconditional surrender of Germany. A brilliant operation, coupled with the courage of Soviet soldiers and officers who fought to end the four-year nightmare of war, led to a logical outcome: Victory.

Capture of Berlin. 1945 Documentary

PROGRESS OF THE BATTLE

The Berlin operation of the Soviet troops began. Goal: complete the defeat of Germany, capture Berlin, connect with the allies

The infantry and tanks of the 1st Belorussian Front launched an attack before dawn under the illumination of anti-aircraft searchlights and advanced 1.5-2 km

With the onset of dawn on the Seelow Heights, the Germans came to their senses and fight with bitterness. Zhukov introduces tank armies into battle

16 Apr. 45g. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of Konev meet less resistance on the way of their offensive and immediately force the Neisse

Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front Konev orders the commanders of his tank armies Rybalko and Lelyushenko to advance on Berlin

Konev demands from Rybalko and Lelyushenko not to get involved in protracted and head-on battles, to boldly move forward towards Berlin

In the battles for Berlin, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of a tank battalion of Guards. Mr. S.Khokhryakov

The 2nd Belorussian Front of Rokossovsky joined the Berlin operation, covering the right flank.

By the end of the day, Konev's front had completed the breakthrough of the Neissen line of defense, crossed the river. Spree and provided the conditions for the encirclement of Berlin from the south

Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front Zhukov break the 3rd line of enemy defense on the Oderen-on the Seelow Heights all day

By the end of the day, Zhukov's troops completed the breakthrough of the 3rd lane of the Oder line at the Seelow Heights

On the left wing of Zhukov's front, conditions were created for cutting off the Frankfurt-Guben group of the enemy from the Berlin area

Directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command to the commanders of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts: "It is better to treat the Germans." , Antonov

Another directive of the Headquarters: on identification marks and signals at the meeting of Soviet armies and allied forces

At 13.50, long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army was the first to open fire on Berlin - the beginning of the assault on the city itself

20 Apr. 45g. Konev and Zhukov send almost identical orders to the troops of their fronts: “Be the first to break into Berlin!”

By evening, formations of the 2nd Guards Tank, 3rd and 5th Shock Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the northeastern outskirts of Berlin

The 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies wedged into the city defensive bypass of Berlin in the districts of Petershagen and Erkner

Hitler ordered the 12th Army, previously targeted against the Americans, to be turned against the 1st Ukrainian Front. She now has the goal of linking up with the remnants of the 9th and 4th Panzer Armies, making their way south of Berlin to the west.

Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army broke into the southern part of Berlin and is fighting for Teltow by 17.30 - Konev's telegram to Stalin

Hitler refused to leave Berlin for the last time while there was such an opportunity. Goebbels and his family moved to a bunker under the Reich Chancellery ("Fuhrer's bunker")

Assault flags were presented by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army to the divisions storming Berlin. Among them is the flag that became the banner of victory - the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division.

In the district of Spremberg, Soviet troops liquidated the encircled group of Germans. Among the destroyed units is the tank division "Protection of the Fuhrer"

Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front are fighting in the south of Berlin. At the same time, they reached the Elbe River northwest of Dresden

Goering, who had left Berlin, turned to Hitler on the radio, asking him to approve him at the head of the government. Received an order from Hitler removing him from the government. Bormann ordered Goering's arrest for treason

Himmler unsuccessfully tries through the Swedish diplomat Bernadotte to offer the allies surrender on the Western Front

Shock formations of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts in the Brandenburg region closed the encirclement ring of German troops in Berlin

Forces of the German 9th and 4th tanks. armies are surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. Parts of the 1st Ukrainian Front reflect the counterattack of the 12th German Army

Report: “In the suburbs of Berlin, Ransdorf, there are restaurants where they “willingly sell” beer to our fighters for occupation marks.” The head of the political department of the 28th Guards Rifle Regiment, Borodin, ordered the owners of Ransdorf's restaurants to close them for a while until the battle was over.

In the area of ​​Torgau on the Elbe, Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian fr. met with the troops of the 12th American Army Group General Bradley

Having crossed the Spree, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of Konev and the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of Zhukov are rushing towards the center of Berlin. The rush of Soviet soldiers in Berlin can no longer be stopped

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front in Berlin occupied Gartenstadt and Gerlitsky Station, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front - the district of Dahlem

Konev turned to Zhukov with a proposal to change the demarcation line between their fronts in Berlin - the city center to transfer it to the front

Zhukov asks Stalin to salute the capture of the center of Berlin to the troops of his front, replacing Konev's troops in the south of the city

The General Staff orders Konev's troops, who have already reached the Tiergarten, to transfer their offensive zone to Zhukov's troops

Order No. 1 of the military commandant of Berlin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General Berzarin, on the transfer of all power in Berlin into the hands of the Soviet military commandant's office. It was announced to the population of the city that the National Socialist Party of Germany and its organizations were disbanding and their activities were prohibited. The order established the order of behavior of the population and determined the main provisions necessary for the normalization of life in the city.

The battles for the Reichstag began, the mastery of which was entrusted to the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front

When breaking through the barriers on the Berlin Kaiserallee, the tank of N. Shendrikov received 2 holes, caught fire, the crew failed. The mortally wounded commander, having gathered his last strength, sat down at the controls and threw the flaming tank at the enemy cannon

Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun in a bunker under the Reich Chancellery. Witness - Goebbels. In his political testament, Hitler expelled Goering from the NSDAP and officially named Grand Admiral Dönitz as his successor.

Soviet units are fighting for the Berlin metro

The Soviet command rejected attempts by the German command to start negotiations on the time. ceasefire. There is only one demand - surrender!

The assault on the Reichstag building itself began, which was defended by more than 1000 Germans and SS men from different countries

In different places of the Reichstag, several red banners were fixed - from regimental and divisional to self-made

Scouts of the 150th division Egorov and Kantaria were ordered to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag around midnight

Lieutenant Berest from the Neustroev battalion led the combat mission of installing the Banner over the Reichstag. Established around 3.00, May 1

Hitler committed suicide in the Reich Chancellery bunker by taking poison and shooting him in the temple with a pistol. Hitler's corpse is burned in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery

At the post of Chancellor, Hitler leaves Goebbels, who will commit suicide the next day. Before his death, Hitler appointed Bormann Reich Minister for Party Affairs (previously such a post did not exist)

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured Bandenburg, cleared the areas of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and 100 quarters in Berlin

In Berlin, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide, after killing their 6 children

Beg. German General Staff Krebs, announced the suicide of Hitler, offered to conclude a truce. Stalin confirmed the categorical demand for unconditional surrender in Berlin. At 18 o'clock the Germans rejected him

At 18.30, in connection with the rejection of the surrender, the Berlin garrison received a fire attack. The mass surrender of the Germans began

At 01.00, the radios of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “Please cease fire. We are sending parliamentarians to the Potsdam Bridge"

A German officer, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance

At 0600, General Weidling surrendered and an hour later signed the surrender order for the Berlin garrison.

Enemy resistance in Berlin has completely ceased. The remnants of the garrison surrender en masse

In Berlin, Goebbels's deputy for propaganda and press, Dr. Fritsche, was taken prisoner. Fritsche testified during interrogation that Hitler, Goebbels and Chief of the General Staff General Krebs committed suicide

Stalin's order on the contribution of the Zhukov and Konev fronts to the defeat of the Berlin group. By 21.00, 70 thousand Germans had already surrendered

The irretrievable losses of the Red Army in the Berlin operation - 78 thousand people. Enemy losses - 1 million, incl. 150 thousand killed

Everywhere in Berlin, Soviet field kitchens are deployed, where "wild barbarians" feed hungry Berliners.

Map

Berlin strategic offensive operation (Battle of Berlin):

Berlin strategic offensive operation

Dates (beginning and end of the operation)

The operation continued 23 day - from April 16 By May 8, 1945, during which Soviet troops advanced westward at a distance of 100 to 220 km. The width of the combat front is 300 km.

The goals of the parties to the Berlin operation

Germany

The Nazi leadership tried to drag out the war in order to achieve a separate peace with England and the United States and split the anti-Hitler coalition. At the same time, holding the front against the Soviet Union acquired decisive importance.

USSR

The military-political situation that had developed by April 1945 required the Soviet command to prepare and carry out an operation to defeat the group of German troops in the Berlin direction, capture Berlin and reach the Elbe River to join the Allied forces as soon as possible. The successful fulfillment of this strategic task made it possible to thwart the plans of the Nazi leadership to prolong the war.

The forces of three fronts were involved in the operation: the 1st Belorussian, 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian, as well as the 18th air army of long-range aviation, the Dnieper military flotilla and part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet.

• Capture the capital of Germany, the city of Berlin
• After 12-15 days of operation, reach the Elbe River

• Deliver a cutting blow south of Berlin, isolate the main forces of Army Group Center from the Berlin grouping and thereby ensure the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front from the south
• Defeat the enemy grouping south of Berlin and operational reserves in the Cottbus area
• In 10-12 days, no later, reach the Belitz-Wittenberg line and further along the Elbe River to Dresden

• Deliver a cutting blow north of Berlin, securing the right flank of the 1st Belorussian Front from possible enemy counterattacks from the north
• Press to the sea and destroy the German troops north of Berlin

• Assist the troops of the 5th Shock and 8th Guards Armies with two brigades of river ships in crossing the Oder and breaking through the enemy defenses at the Kustra bridgehead
• The third brigade to assist the troops of the 33rd Army in the Furstenberg area
• Provide anti-mine defense of water transport routes.

• Support the coastal flank of the 2nd Belorussian Front, continuing the blockade of the Kurland Army Group pressed to the sea in Latvia (Kurland Cauldron)

The balance of power before the operation

Soviet troops:

• 1.9 million people
• 6250 tanks
• over 7500 aircraft
• Allies - Polish troops: 155,900 people

German troops:

• 1 million people
• 1500 tanks
• over 3300 aircraft

Photo gallery

Preparations for the Berlin operation



Commanders-in-Chief of the Allied Forces of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition



Soviet attack aircraft in the sky over Berlin



Soviet artillery on the outskirts of Berlin, April 1945



A volley of Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers in Berlin



Soviet soldier in Berlin



Fighting on the streets of Berlin



Hoisting the Banner of Victory on the Reichstag building



Soviet gunners write on the shells "Hitler", "To Berlin", "According to the Reichstag"



Gun crew of the guard senior sergeant Zhirnov M.A. fights on one of the streets of Berlin



Infantrymen are fighting for Berlin



Heavy artillery in one of the street fights



Street fight in Berlin



The crew of the tank unit of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Konstantinov N.P. knocks the Nazis out of the house on Leipzigerstrasse



Infantrymen fighting for Berlin 1945



The battery of the 136th Army Cannon Artillery Brigade is preparing to fire on Berlin, 1945.

Commanders of fronts, armies and other units

1st Belorussian Front: Commander Marshal - G.K. Zhukov M.S. Malinin

Front Composition:

• 1st Army of the Polish Army - Commander Lieutenant General Poplavsky S. G.

Zhukov G.K.

• 1st Guards Tank Army - Commander Colonel General of the Tank Forces Katukov M.E.
• 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps - Commander Lieutenant General Kryukov V.V.
• 2nd Guards Tank Army - Commander Colonel General of the Tank Forces Bogdanov S.I.
• 3rd Army - Commander Colonel General Gorbatov A.V.
• 3rd Shock Army - Commander Colonel General Kuznetsov V.I.
• 5th Shock Army - Commander Colonel General Berzarin N.E.
• 7th Guards Cavalry Corps - Commander Lieutenant General Konstantinov M.P.
• 8th Guards Army - Commander Colonel General Chuikov V.I.
• 9th Tank Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Kirichenko I.F.
• 11th Tank Corps - Commander Major General of the Tank Forces Yushchuk I.I.
• 16th Air Army - Commander Colonel General of Aviation S.I.
• 33rd Army - Commander Colonel General Tsvetaev V.D.
• 47th Army - Commander Lieutenant General Perkhorovich F.I.
• 61st Army - Commander Colonel-General Belov P.A.
• 69th Army - Commander Colonel General Kolpakchi V. Ya.

1st Ukrainian Front: Commander Marshal - I. S. Konev, Chief of Staff General of the Army I. E. Petrov

Konev I.S.

Front Composition:

• 1st Guards Cavalry Corps - Commander Lieutenant General Baranov V.K.
• 2nd Army of the Polish Army - Commander Lieutenant General Sverchevsky K.K.
• 2nd Air Army - Commander Colonel General of Aviation Krasovsky S.A.
• 3rd Guards Army - Commander Colonel General V. N. Gordov
• 3rd Guards Tank Army - Commander Colonel General Rybalko P.S.
• 4th Guards Tank Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Poluboyarov P.P.
• 4th Guards Tank Army - Commander Colonel General Lelyushenko D.D.
• 5th Guards Army - Commander Colonel General Zhadov A.S.
• 7th Guards Motorized Rifle Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Korchagin I.P.
• 13th Army - Commander Colonel General Pukhov N.P.
• 25th Tank Corps - Commander Major General of the Tank Forces Fominykh E.I.
• 28th Army - Commander Lieutenant General Luchinsky A.A.
• 52nd Army - Commander Colonel General Koroteev K.A.

2nd Belorussian Front: Commander Marshal - K. K. Rokossovsky, Chief of Staff Colonel General A. N. Bogolyubov

Rokossovsky K.K.

Front Composition:

• 1st Guards Tank Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Panov M.F.
• 2nd Shock Army - Commander Colonel General Fedyuninsky I.I.
• 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps - Commander Lieutenant General Oslikovsky N. S.
• 3rd Guards Tank Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Panfilov A.P.
• 4th Air Army - Commander Colonel General of Aviation Vershinin K.A.
• 8th Guards Tank Corps - Commander Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Popov A.F.
• 8th Mechanized Corps - Commander Major General of Tank Troops Firsovich A.N.
• 49th Army - Commander Colonel General Grishin I.T.
• 65th Army - Commander Colonel-General Batov P.I.
• 70th Army - Commander Colonel General Popov V.S.

18th Air Army- Commander Chief Marshal of Aviation Golovanov A.E.

Dnieper military flotilla- Commander Rear Admiral Grigoriev V.V.

Red Banner Baltic Fleet- Commander Admiral Tributs V.F.

The course of hostilities

At 5 o'clock in the morning Moscow time (2 hours before dawn) on April 16, artillery preparation began in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. 9000 guns and mortars, as well as more than 1500 installations of the BM-13 and BM-31 RS, for 25 minutes, grinded the first line of German defense on the 27-kilometer breakthrough section. With the start of the attack, artillery fire was moved deep into the defense, and 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on in the breakthrough areas. Their dazzling light stunned the enemy and at the same time illuminated

Soviet artillery on the outskirts of Berlin

way for advancing units. For the first one and a half to two hours, the offensive of the Soviet troops developed successfully, individual formations reached the second line of defense. However, soon the Nazis, relying on a strong and well-prepared second line of defense, began to offer fierce resistance. Intense fighting broke out along the entire front. Although in some sectors of the front the troops managed to capture individual strongholds, they did not succeed in achieving decisive success. The powerful knot of resistance, equipped on the Zelov heights, turned out to be insurmountable for rifle formations. This jeopardized the success of the entire operation. In such a situation, the front commander, Marshal Zhukov, decided to bring the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies into battle. This was not foreseen by the offensive plan, however, the stubborn resistance of the German troops required to increase the penetration ability of the attackers by bringing tank armies into battle. The course of the battle on the first day showed that the German command attaches decisive importance to the retention of the Zelov Heights. To strengthen the defense in this sector, by the end of April 16, the operational reserves of the Vistula Army Group were thrown. All day and all night on April 17, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front fought fierce battles with the enemy. By the morning of April 18, tank and rifle formations, with the support of aviation of the 16th and 18th air armies, took the Zelov Heights. Overcoming the stubborn defenses of the German troops and repulsing fierce counterattacks, by the end of April 19, the troops of the front had broken through the third defensive zone and were able to develop the offensive against Berlin.

The real threat of encirclement forced the commander of the 9th German Army T. Busse to come up with a proposal to withdraw the army to the suburbs of Berlin and take up a strong defense there. Such a plan was supported by the commander of the Vistula Army Group, Colonel General Heinrici, but Hitler rejected this proposal and ordered to hold the occupied lines at any cost.

April 20 was marked by an artillery raid on Berlin, inflicted by long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army. It was a kind of gift to Hitler for his birthday. On April 21, units of the 3rd shock, 2nd guards tank, 47th and 5th shock armies broke through the third line of defense, broke into the outskirts of Berlin and started fighting there. The first to break into Berlin from the east were troops that were part of the 26th Guards Corps of General P. A. Firsov and the 32nd Corps of General D. S. Zherebin of the 5th Shock Army. On the evening of April 21, advanced units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army of P.S. Rybalko approached the city from the south. On April 23 and 24, hostilities in all directions took on a particularly fierce character. On April 23, the 9th Rifle Corps under the command of Major General I.P. Rosly achieved the greatest success in the assault on Berlin. The soldiers of this corps captured Karlshorst, part of Kopenick, by a decisive assault and, having reached the Spree, crossed it on the move. Great assistance in forcing the Spree was provided by the ships of the Dnieper military flotilla, transferring rifle units to the opposite bank under enemy fire. Although by April 24 the pace of advance of the Soviet troops had decreased, the Nazis failed to stop them. On April 24, the 5th shock army, fighting fierce battles, continued to successfully advance towards the center of Berlin.

Operating in an auxiliary direction, the 61st Army and the 1st Army of the Polish Army, having launched an offensive on April 17, overcoming the German defenses with stubborn battles, bypassed Berlin from the north and moved towards the Elbe.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed more successfully. On April 16, early in the morning, a smoke screen was placed along the entire 390-kilometer front, blinding the advanced observation posts of the enemy. At 0655, after a 40-minute artillery strike on the front line of the German defense, the reinforced battalions of the divisions of the first echelon began to cross the Neisse. Having quickly captured bridgeheads on the left bank of the river, they provided conditions for building bridges and crossing the main forces. During the first hours of the operation, 133 crossings were equipped by the engineering troops of the front in the main direction of attack. With every hour, the number of forces and means transferred to the bridgehead increased. In the middle of the day, the attackers reached the second lane of the German defense. Feeling the threat of a major breakthrough, the German command already on the first day of the operation threw into battle not only its tactical, but also operational reserves, setting them the task of throwing the advancing Soviet troops into the river. Nevertheless, by the end of the day, the troops of the front broke through the main line of defense on the 26 km front and advanced to a depth of 13 km.

Storming Berlin

By the morning of April 17, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies crossed the Neisse in full force. All day long, the troops of the front, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, continued to widen and deepen the gap in the German defenses. Air support for the advancing troops was provided by pilots of the 2nd Air Army. Assault aviation, acting at the request of ground commanders, destroyed the firepower and manpower of the enemy at the forefront. Bomber aircraft smashed suitable reserves. By mid-April 17, the following situation had developed in the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front: the tank armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko were moving west along a narrow corridor pierced by the troops of the 13th, 3rd and 5th Guards armies. By the end of the day, they approached the Spree and began crossing it.

Meanwhile, on the secondary, Dresden, direction, the troops of the 52nd Army of General K. A. Koroteev and the 2nd Army of the Polish General K. K. Sverchevsky broke through the enemy’s tactical defenses and advanced to a depth of 20 km in two days of hostilities.

Considering the slow advance of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, as well as the success achieved in the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front, on the night of April 18, the Stavka decided to turn the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front to Berlin. In his order to the army commanders Rybalko and Lelyushenko on the offensive, the front commander wrote: “In the main direction with a tank fist, it is bolder and more decisive to break forward. Bypass cities and large settlements and not get involved in protracted frontal battles. I demand to firmly understand that the success of tank armies depends on a bold maneuver and speed in action"

Fulfilling the order of the commander, on April 18 and 19, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front marched irresistibly towards Berlin. The pace of their offensive reached 35-50 km per day. At the same time, the combined-arms armies were preparing to liquidate large enemy groupings in the area of ​​Cottbus and Spremberg.

By the end of the day on April 20, the main strike force of the 1st Ukrainian Front had penetrated deeply into the enemy’s location, and completely cut off the German Army Group Vistula from the Army Group Center. Feeling the threat caused by the rapid actions of the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front, the German command took a number of measures to strengthen the approaches to Berlin. To strengthen the defense in the area of ​​​​the cities of Zossen, Luckenwalde, Jutterbog, infantry and tank units were urgently sent. Overcoming their stubborn resistance, on the night of April 21, Rybalko's tankers reached the outer Berlin defensive bypass. By the morning of April 22, Sukhov's 9th Mechanized Corps and Mitrofanov's 6th Guards Tank Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army crossed the Notte Canal, broke through the outer defensive bypass of Berlin, and reached the southern bank of the Teltowkanal at the end of the day. There, having met strong and well-organized enemy resistance, they were stopped.

On the afternoon of April 22, a meeting of the top military leadership was held at Hitler's headquarters, at which it was decided to withdraw W. Wenck's 12th Army from the western front and send it to join T. Busse's semi-encircled 9th Army. To organize the offensive of the 12th Army, Field Marshal Keitel was sent to its headquarters. This was the last serious attempt to influence the course of the battle, since by the end of the day on April 22, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts formed and almost closed two encirclement rings. One - around the 9th army of the enemy east and southeast of Berlin; the other - west of Berlin, around the units that were directly defending in the city.

The Teltow Canal was a rather serious obstacle: a moat filled with water with high concrete banks forty to fifty meters wide. In addition, its northern coast was very well prepared for defense: trenches, reinforced concrete pillboxes, tanks and self-propelled guns dug into the ground. Above the canal is an almost solid wall of houses, bristling with fire, with walls a meter or more thick. Having assessed the situation, the Soviet command decided to conduct thorough preparations for forcing the Teltow Canal. All day on April 23, the 3rd Guards Tank Army was preparing for the assault. By the morning of April 24, a powerful artillery grouping, with a density of up to 650 barrels per kilometer of front, was concentrated on the southern bank of the Teltow Canal, designed to destroy German fortifications on the opposite bank. Having suppressed the enemy defenses with a powerful artillery strike, the troops of the 6th Guards Tank Corps, Major General Mitrofanov, successfully crossed the Teltow Canal and captured a bridgehead on its northern bank. On the afternoon of April 24, the 12th Army of Wenck launched the first tank attacks on the positions of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps of General Ermakov (4th Guards Tank Army) and units of the 13th Army. All attacks were successfully repulsed with the support of Lieutenant General Ryazanov's 1st Assault Aviation Corps.

At 12 noon on April 25, west of Berlin, the advanced units of the 4th Guards Tank Army met with units of the 47th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. On the same day, another significant event took place. An hour and a half later, on the Elbe, the 34th Guards Corps of General Baklanov of the 5th Guards Army met with American troops.

From April 25 to May 2, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front fought fierce battles in three directions: units of the 28th Army, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies participated in the storming of Berlin; part of the forces of the 4th Guards Tank Army, together with the 13th Army, repulsed the counterattack of the 12th German Army; The 3rd Guards Army and part of the forces of the 28th Army blocked and destroyed the encircled 9th Army.

All the time from the beginning of the operation, the command of the Army Group "Center" sought to disrupt the offensive of the Soviet troops. On April 20, German troops delivered the first counterattack on the left flank of the 1st Ukrainian Front and pushed back the troops of the 52nd Army and the 2nd Army of the Polish Army. On April 23, a new powerful counterattack followed, as a result of which the defense at the junction of the 52nd Army and the 2nd Army of the Polish Army was broken through and the German troops advanced 20 km in the general direction of Spremberg, threatening to reach the rear of the front.

From April 17 to April 19, the troops of the 65th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front, under the command of Colonel-General Batov P.I., conducted reconnaissance in force and advanced detachments captured the Oder interfluve, thereby facilitating the subsequent forcing of the river. On the morning of April 20, the main forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front went on the offensive: the 65th, 70th and 49th armies. The crossing of the Oder took place under the cover of artillery fire and smoke screens. The offensive developed most successfully in the sector of the 65th Army, in which the engineering troops of the army had a considerable merit. Having built two 16-ton pontoon crossings by 13 o'clock, by the evening of April 20, the troops of this army captured a bridgehead 6 kilometers wide and 1.5 kilometers deep.

More modest success was achieved in the central sector of the front in the zone of the 70th Army. The left-flank 49th Army met stubborn resistance and was not successful. All day and all night on April 21, the troops of the front, repulsing numerous attacks by German troops, stubbornly expanded their bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder. In the current situation, the front commander K.K. Rokossovsky decided to send the 49th Army along the crossings of the right neighbor of the 70th Army, and then return it to its offensive zone. By April 25, as a result of fierce battles, the troops of the front expanded the captured bridgehead to 35 km along the front and up to 15 km in depth. To build up striking power, the 2nd shock army, as well as the 1st and 3rd guards tank corps, were transferred to the western bank of the Oder. At the first stage of the operation, the 2nd Belorussian Front, by its actions, fettered the main forces of the 3rd German tank army, depriving it of the opportunity to help those fighting near Berlin. On April 26, units of the 65th Army stormed Stettin. In the future, the armies of the 2nd Belorussian Front, breaking the resistance of the enemy and destroying the suitable reserves, stubbornly moved to the west. On May 3, Panfilov's 3rd Guards Tank Corps, southwest of Wismar, established contact with the advanced units of the 2nd British Army.

Liquidation of the Frankfurt-Guben group

By the end of April 24, formations of the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front came into contact with units of the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, thereby encircling the 9th Army of General Busse southeast of Berlin and cutting it off from the city. The encircled grouping of German troops became known as the Frankfurt-Gubenskaya. Now the Soviet command was faced with the task of eliminating the 200,000th enemy grouping and preventing its breakthrough to Berlin or to the west. To accomplish the latter task, the 3rd Guards Army and part of the forces of the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front took up active defense in the path of a possible breakthrough by German troops. On April 26, the 3rd, 69th, and 33rd armies of the 1st Belorussian Front began the final liquidation of the encircled units. However, the enemy not only offered stubborn resistance, but also made repeated attempts to break out of the encirclement. Skillfully maneuvering and skillfully creating superiority in forces in narrow sections of the front, the German troops twice managed to break through the encirclement. However, each time the Soviet command took decisive measures to eliminate the breakthrough. Until May 2, the encircled units of the 9th German Army made desperate attempts to break through the battle formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front to the west, to join General Wenck's 12th Army. Only separate small groups managed to seep through the forests and go west.

Capture of the Reichstag

At 12 noon on April 25, the ring around Berlin was closed, when the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps of the 4th Guards Tank Army crossed the Havel River and connected with units of the 328th Division of the 47th Army of General Perkhorovich. By that time, according to the Soviet command, the Berlin garrison numbered at least 200 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and 250 tanks. The defense of the city was carefully thought out and well prepared. It was based on a system of strong fire, strongholds and centers of resistance. The closer to the city center, the tighter the defense became. Massive stone buildings with thick walls gave it special strength. The windows and doors of many buildings were closed up and turned into loopholes for firing. The streets were blocked by powerful barricades up to four meters thick. The defenders had a large number of faustpatrons, which in the conditions of street fighting turned out to be a formidable anti-tank weapon. Of no small importance in the enemy's defense system were underground structures, which were widely used by the enemy for maneuvering troops, as well as for sheltering them from artillery and bomb attacks.

By April 26, six armies of the 1st Belorussian Front (47th, 3rd and 5th shock, 8th guards, 1st and 2nd guards tank armies) and three armies of the 1st Belorussian Front took part in the assault on Berlin. th Ukrainian Front (28th, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank). Taking into account the experience of capturing large cities, assault detachments were created for battles in the city as part of rifle battalions or companies, reinforced with tanks, artillery and sappers. The actions of the assault detachments, as a rule, were preceded by a short but powerful artillery preparation.

By April 27, as a result of the actions of the armies of the two fronts that had deeply advanced towards the center of Berlin, the enemy grouping in Berlin stretched out in a narrow strip from east to west - sixteen kilometers long and two or three, in some places five kilometers wide. The fighting in the city did not stop day or night. Block by block, Soviet troops "gnawed through" the enemy's defenses. So, by the evening of April 28, units of the 3rd shock army went to the Reichstag area. On the night of April 29, the actions of the forward battalions under the command of Captain S. A. Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant K. Ya. Samsonov captured the Moltke bridge. At dawn on April 30, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, adjacent to the parliament building, was stormed at the cost of considerable losses. The way to the Reichstag was open.

Banner of Victory over the Reichstag

April 30, 1945 at 21.30, units of the 150th Infantry Division under the command of Major General V. M. Shatilov and the 171st Infantry Division under the command of Colonel A. I. Negoda stormed the main part of the Reichstag building. The remaining Nazi units offered stubborn resistance. We had to fight for every room. In the early morning of May 1, the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division was raised over the Reichstag, but the battle for the Reichstag continued all day and only on the night of May 2 did the Reichstag garrison capitulate.

On May 1, only the Tiergarten and the government quarter remained in German hands. The imperial office was located here, in the courtyard of which there was a bunker at Hitler's headquarters. On the night of May 1, by prior arrangement, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Krebs, arrived at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army. He informed the commander of the army, General V. I. Chuikov, about Hitler's suicide and about the proposal of the new German government to conclude a truce. The message was immediately conveyed to G.K. Zhukov, who himself telephoned Moscow. Stalin confirmed the categorical demand for unconditional surrender. At 6 pm on May 1, the new German government rejected the demand for unconditional surrender, and the Soviet troops were forced to resume the assault with renewed vigor.

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, General of Artillery 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 duplicated and, using loud-speaking installations and radio, brought to 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. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.

Side losses

USSR

From April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 people were irretrievably lost. The losses of the Polish troops during the same period amounted to 8892 people, of which 2825 people were irretrievably lost. The loss of military equipment amounted to 1997 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2108 guns and mortars, 917 combat aircraft.

Germany

According to the combat reports of the Soviet fronts:

• Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front in the period from April 16 to May 13 killed 232,726 people, captured 250,675 people
• Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the period from April 15 to April 29 killed 114,349 people, captured 55,080 people
• Troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front in the period from April 5 to May 8: killed 49,770 people, captured 84,234 people

Thus, according to the reports of the Soviet command, the loss of German troops was about 400 thousand people killed, about 380 thousand people captured. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and capitulated to the Allied forces.

Also, according to the assessment of the Soviet command, the total number of troops that emerged from the encirclement in the Berlin area does not exceed 17,000 people with 80-90 armored vehicles.

Did Hitler have a chance?

Under the onslaught of the advancing armies, Hitler's feverish intentions to take refuge either in Berchtesgaden, or in Schleswig-Holstein, or in the South Tyrolean fortress advertised by Goebbels collapsed. At the suggestion of Gauleiter Tyrol to move to this fortress in the mountains, Hitler, according to Rattenhuber, "with a hopeless wave of his hand, said:" I see no more sense in this running around from place to place. "The situation in Berlin at the end of April left no doubt that that our last days had come. Events were unfolding faster than we expected."

Hitler's last plane was still at the ready at the airfield. When the plane was destroyed, hastily began to build a take-off site near the Reich Chancellery. The squadron intended for Hitler was burned by Soviet artillery. But his personal pilot was still with him. The new commander-in-chief of aviation Greim still sent planes, but not one of them could get through to Berlin. And, according to Greim's exact information, not a single plane from Berlin crossed the offensive rings either. There was literally nowhere to go. Armies were advancing from all sides. Escape from fallen Berlin to get caught by the Anglo-American troops, he considered a lost cause.

He chose a different plan. Enter from here, from Berlin, into negotiations with the British and Americans, who, in his opinion, should be interested in the Russians not taking possession of the capital of Germany, and stipulate some tolerable conditions for themselves. But negotiations, he believed, could only take place on the basis of an improved martial law in Berlin. The plan was unrealistic, unworkable. But he owned Hitler, and, figuring out the historical picture of the last days of the imperial office, he should not be bypassed. Hitler could not fail to understand that even a temporary improvement in the position of Berlin in the general catastrophic military situation in Germany would change little in general. But this was, according to his calculations, a necessary political prerequisite for the negotiations, on which he pinned his last hopes.

With manic frenzy, he therefore repeats about the army of Wenck. There is no doubt that Hitler was decidedly incapable of directing the defense of Berlin. But now we are talking only about his plans. There is a letter confirming Hitler's plan. It was sent to Wenck with a messenger on the night of April 29th. This letter reached our military commandant's office in Spandau on May 7, 1945, in the following way.

A certain Josef Brichzi, a seventeen-year-old boy who studied as an electrician and was drafted into the Volkssturm in February 1945, served in an anti-tank detachment defending the government quarter. On the night of April 29, he and another sixteen-year-old boy were called from the barracks in Wilhelmstrasse, and a soldier took them to the Reich Chancellery. Here they were led to Bormann. Bormann announced to them that they had been chosen to carry out the most important task. They have to break out of the encirclement and deliver a letter to General Wenck, commander of the 12th Army. With these words, he handed them a package.

The fate of the second guy is unknown. Brihzi managed to get out of encircled Berlin on a motorcycle at dawn on April 29. General Wenck, he was told, he would find in the village of Ferch, northwest of Potsdam. Upon reaching Potsdam, Brichzi discovered that none of the military knew or heard where Wenck's headquarters were actually located. Then Brichzi decided to go to Spandau, where his uncle lived. My uncle advised me not to go anywhere else, but to hand over the package to the military commandant's office. After a while, Brihtzi took him to the Soviet military commandant's office on May 7th.

Here is the text of the letter: "Dear General Wenck! As can be seen from the attached messages, Reichsführer SS Himmler made an offer to the Anglo-Americans, which unconditionally transfers our people to the plutocrats. The turn can only be made personally by the Führer, only by him! The precondition for this is the immediate establishment of communication armies of Wenck with us, in order to give the Fuhrer domestic and foreign political freedom of negotiations. Your Krebs, Heil Hitler! Chief of Staff Your M. Bormann"

All of the above suggests that, being in such a hopeless situation in April 1945, Hitler still hoped for something, and this last hope was placed on Wenck's army. Wenck's army, meanwhile, was moving from the west to Berlin. She was met on the outskirts of Berlin by our troops advancing on the Elbe and dispersed. Thus melted Hitler's last hope.

Operation results

The famous monument to the Soldier-Liberator in Treptow Park in Berlin

• The destruction of the largest grouping of German troops, the capture of the capital of Germany, the capture of the highest military and political leadership of Germany.

• The fall of Berlin and the loss of the German leadership's ability to govern led to the almost complete cessation of organized resistance on the part of the German armed forces.

• The Berlin operation demonstrated to the Allies the high combat capability of the Red Army and was one of the reasons for the cancellation of Operation Unthinkable, Britain's plan for a full-scale war against the Soviet Union. However, this decision did not further influence the development of the arms race and the beginning of the Cold War.

• Hundreds of thousands of people have been liberated from German captivity, including at least 200,000 citizens of foreign countries. Only in the zone of the 2nd Belorussian Front in the period from April 5 to May 8, 197,523 people were released from captivity, of which 68,467 were citizens of the allied states.