On the morning of May 10, 1945, the commander of the 150th rifle division, Vasily Shatilov, received a call from the commander of the 3rd shock army, Vasily Kuznetsov:
- Are you sniffing? He asked in an angry voice.
-So exactly comrade, commander! Victory after all …
- What is the victory? - Kuznetsov roared. - If the Reichstag is still holding out ?!
- How is it holding up? - Shatilov rubbed his eyes and looked out the window - the banner of Victory was flying over the Reichstag. - No, our Reichstag. It has long been ours …
“The British radio has just announced that the Reichstag is controlled by the SS Sonderkommando Cyborg, that an intense battle is underway and that Soviet losses have already amounted to three penalty battalions,” Kuznetsov shouted into the phone. - And what are you telling me?
Shatilov looked at the red flag over the Reichstag, at the telephone receiver, pinched his ear - it did not help.
- I'll check everything now! Allow me to execute?
Two minutes later, the general personally with the PPSh, accompanied by a company of fighters, began to comb the ruins of the Reichstag.
Three hours later, when drenched in sweat, but reassured, he returned to the command post, the phone rang again.
- What are you doing there? - shouted into the phone Kuznetsov. - British radio just reported that General Shatilov was killed during the next assault on the Reichstag. You were killed, do you even understand that?
- Completely killed? - Shatilov was completely confused.
“Yes!” Raged Kuznetsov. - Again this SS Sonderkommando "Cyborg". And together with you, the entire Buryat guard was laid down. Are your Buryat guards intact?
Shatilov did not remember whether there were Buryats in his division.
“I don’t know,” he admitted honestly.
- In general, sit, do not protrude, - ordered Kuznetsov. - And then they will kill a second time. I'll be right there.
After lunch, two generals Kuznetsov and Shatilov with a battalion of fighters went to comb the ruins of the Reichstag.
The SS men could not be found again. But a signalman came running, dragging a coil of wire and a telephone. Pale, he handed Kuznetsov the phone …
- Why is it happening there! - barked the receiver at Kuznetsov in the voice of Marshal Zhukov. - Why hasn't the Reichstag been taken yet? Do you want a tribunal?
- Comrade Zhukov, I just personally checked - the Reichstag is empty! - rapped out Kuznetsov.
But it did not help.
“British radio reports,” Zhukov said in an eerie voice. - That today after lunch General Kuznetsov was blocked by the SS Sonderkommando "Cyborg" on the first floor in the Reichstag building with a group of Yakut special forces. What do you say to that?
Only on the fourth day of the search, from the basement of a dilapidated house in the next block, Shatilov's fighters pulled the Hitler Youth radio operator in shredded pants. They found a bunch of encrypted messages to London from the radio operator. The latter read:
"The Reichstag is under our complete control!"
And the signature: "SS Sonderkommando" Cyborg"
