Agony of the Third Reich. 75 years ago, on May 2, 1945, Soviet troops took the Reichstag. A red banner was hoisted on the building, which was named the "Victory Banner". On the same day, the Berlin garrison surrendered. The Red Army took the German capital Berlin by storm.
The beginning of the assault
On April 20, 1945, the troops of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st BF in the northeast reached the distant approaches to Berlin. At 13 o'clock. 50 minutes long-range artillery of Major General Perevertkin's 79th Rifle Corps opened fire on the German capital. So the storming of Berlin began. On April 21, the troops of the 3rd Shock, 2nd Guards Tank and 47th Armies broke through to the outskirts of the German capital and started a battle for the city. By the end of the day, the 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army also began to break through the city defensive line.
Meanwhile, the troops of the 1st UV were also rapidly rushing to the den of the beast. On April 20, Konev's tank armies reached the southern approaches to Berlin. On April 21, Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army broke into the southern outskirts of the city. Lelyushenko's 4th Guards Tank Army reached Potsdam. On April 25, the troops of Zhukov and Konev linked up west of Berlin in the Ketzin area. All Berlin was in a ring.
Battle of Berlin
The battle on the streets of the German capital was extremely fierce. The German High Command, trying to delay its end, threw all its forces into battle. The Germans fought desperately and stubbornly. Berlin was prepared in a fierce battle. The defense was built on strong strongholds and nodes of resistance, into which all powerful and strong buildings were turned, on a well-organized system of fire. The system of communications, including underground, made it possible to transfer reinforcements and reserves to dangerous places, to deliver unexpected strikes, including already in the rear cleared by Soviet troops. There was ammunition and provisions for a month. However, almost all of the reserves were located on the outskirts of the city. Therefore, as the encirclement ring narrowed, the ammunition situation deteriorated sharply.
Berlin had a large garrison - about 200 thousand soldiers were blockaded in the area of the city. The remnants of the defeated units defending in the Berlin direction (56th Panzer Corps) retreated here. They were replenished in the city. Also, for the defense of the city, the police, the civilian population, all auxiliary and logistical services, the Hitler Youth were mobilized, and numerous militia battalions were formed. As a result, the total number of the Berlin garrison exceeded 300 thousand people. On April 24, 1945, General Weidling, who had previously commanded the 56th Panzer Corps, headed the defense of the city instead of Reimann.
Soviet troops were solving a difficult task. Large city. Many strong multi-storey buildings with massive walls, bomb shelters and casemates, connected by underground communications. There were many channels that had to be forced under enemy fire. Numerous, desperate, skillful garrison. The Spree River cut the German capital in two, covering ministerial buildings in the center of Berlin. Every house in the center of Berlin was defended by a strong garrison, often up to a battalion in size.
The Red Army used the rich experience of street fighting in Stalingrad, Budapest, Königsberg and other cities. German positions were stormed day and night. All efforts were aimed at preventing the enemy from organizing a solid defense in the new position. The Soviet armies were echeloned: during the day they attacked the first echelon, at night - the second. Each army had its own sector of the offensive, units and subunits had to occupy specific streets, squares and objects. The main objects of the capital (large strongholds) were subjected to powerful artillery and air strikes. From April 21 to May 2, 1945, 1,800 thousand artillery shots were fired at the German capital. On the third day of the assault, fortress guns arrived from the Silesian railway station, which fired on the central part of Berlin. Each shell weighed up to half a ton and destroyed the enemy's defenses. On April 25 alone, the city was bombed by 2,000 bombers.
However, the main role in the storming of Berlin was played by assault groups and detachments, which included infantry, sappers, tanks and self-propelled guns, artillery. Almost all artillery (including 152-mm and 203-mm guns) was transferred to the infantry and conducted direct fire, destroying firing positions and enemy fortifications. Assault units also supported tanks and self-propelled guns. Another part of the armored vehicles operated as part of tank corps and armies, which were operatively subordinate to the command of the combined arms armies or had their own offensive zone. However, the decision on the participation of large mobile formations in the assault on a huge city in order to accelerate the development of the operation led to large losses of tanks from the fire of enemy artillery and faust cartridges (anti-tank grenade launcher).
By the end of April 25, 1945, the German garrison occupied an area of about 325 square meters. km. The total area of the Soviet front in Berlin was about 100 kilometers. More than 450 thousand Soviet soldiers, more than 12.5 thousand guns and mortars, over 2 thousand rocket launchers, up to 1.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns took part in the storming of the capital.
Breakthrough to the city center
On April 26, 1945, Soviet troops divided the German troops into two groups: in the city itself and a smaller group in the area of the islands of Vanise and Potsdam. The commander of the Vistula Army Group, General Heinrici, asked the Stavka's permission to stop the offensive of the Steiner Army group from the Oranienburg region to Berlin, since there was no hope of success. The army group had to be transferred to save the front of the 3rd Panzer Army, which was falling apart under the blows of Rokossovsky's armies. The German High Command did not accept this proposal. Hitler ordered to continue the offensive in order to release the capital. The Fuhrer still hoped for a "miracle", ordered the 9th Army from the Halb "cauldron" to break through to the north, and the 12th Army to go west to save Berlin.
However, furious attempts by the encircled German 9th Army to break out of the "cauldron" were unsuccessful. Only a few thousand German encircled people were able to make their way through the forests to the Elbe, where they surrendered to the Allies. The 200,000-strong German group was completely destroyed by the troops of Konev and Zhukov during fierce battles. And the attempts of Wenck's 12th army to break through to meet the 9th army were unsuccessful. As a result, the combat potential of the 12th Army was exhausted.
On April 27, Soviet troops destroyed an enemy group in the Potsdam area. Our troops took the central railway junction. The battles were fought for the central (9th) sector of the capital. On April 28, the Red Army broke into the defenses of the central sector of the German capital in a number of sectors. The 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of Kuznetsov (it was advancing from the northern direction), occupied the Moabit area, reached the Spree north of the central part of Tiergarten Park. Thousands of prisoners from the allied armies were released from the Moabit prison. Parts of Berzarin's 5th Shock Army, advancing from the east, took Karlhorst, crossed the Spree, occupied the Anhalt railway station and the building of the state printing house. Soviet soldiers made their way to Alexanderplatz, to the palace of Emperor Wilhelm, the town hall and the imperial chancellery. Chuikov's 8th Guards Army broke through along the southern bank of the Landwehr Canal and approached the southern part of the Tiergarten. Troops of other Soviet armies also advanced successfully.
The Nazis were still fighting fiercely. However, the hopelessness of the situation for the command was obvious. At 22 o'clock. On April 28, General Weidling proposed to Hitler a plan to break through from the capital. He reported that the ammunition remained for only two days (the main depots were located on the outskirts of the city). The Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, General Hans Krebs, supported this idea, saying that from a military point of view, a breakthrough from Berlin is possible. As Weidling recalled, the Fuhrer thought for a long time. He understood that the situation was hopeless, but he believed that when trying to break through, they would only get from one "cauldron" to another. Field Marshal Keitel, who was at the headquarters of the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW), removed General Heinrici and his chief of staff, General von Trot, from the command of Army Group Vistula. They did not carry out Hitler's order to break through to Berlin. However, the new commander of the Vistula Army Group (of which little was left), General Kurt von Tippelskirch, was powerless to help the capital.
On April 29, Jodl received the last telegram from Hitler. In it, the Fuhrer demanded to report to him about the situation of the 12th and 9th armies, the 41st Panzer Corps of General Holste (as part of the 12th Army), which was supposed to break through the encirclement of Berlin. On April 30, Keitel replied to the Fuehrer's headquarters that the advanced units of Wenck's 12th Army were stopped by the Russians in the area south of Lake Shvilov-See, Holste's corps went on the defensive, and the army could not continue the offensive against Berlin. The 9th Army is still surrounded.
Storming of the Reichstag. Victory
At this time, the 3rd and 5th shock armies of Kuznetsov and Berzarin, the 2nd and 1st Guards Tank Armies of Bogdanov and Katukov, the Chuikov 8th Guards Army of the 1st BF, units of the 28th Army of Luchinsky and the 3rd 1st Guards Tank Army Rybalko 1st UV completed the assault on Berlin.
On the night of April 29, the 171st and 150th Infantry Divisions of the 79th Corps captured the only bridge on the Spree (Moltke Bridge) that had not been destroyed by the Nazis. Having crossed the river along it, the Soviet infantry began to prepare for the assault on the Reichstag, the approaches to which were covered by powerful stone structures, machine-gun and artillery firing points. First, Soviet attack aircraft took the corner building southeast of the Moltke Bridge. In the morning, a battle began for the strongholds well fortified by the enemy on Königs-Platz - the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the so-called house of Himmler) and the imperial theater (Krol-opera). By the morning of April 30, Himmler's house was cleared of the Nazis. At the same time, stubborn battles were fought for houses that adjoined the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Also, heavy fighting went on for the theater building, from which the Germans could fire at the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the bridge.
On April 30, in the middle of the day, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a bunker under the Reich Chancellery. According to the will of the Fuehrer, the post of Reich Chancellor was taken by Goebbels. He only stayed in this position for one day. The post of Reich President was received by Admiral Doenitz, Minister of Party Affairs - Bormann, General Field Marshal Scherner was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, and General Jodl was appointed Chief of Staff of the Commander-in-Chief.
From 11 o'clock. On April 30, the assault on the Reichstag began. On the same day, the remnants of the Berlin garrison were cut into several parts. The Germans repelled the first attacks of units of the 79th Corps with heavy fire. Only at 14 o'clock. 25 minutes battalions of Neustroev, Samsonov and Davydov burst into the building. Lieutenant Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev and Private Grigory Bulatov set up a red banner at the main entrance. The fight was fierce. They fought for every floor, every room and corridor, basements and attics. The skirmishes turned into hand-to-hand combat. The building was on fire, but the battle did not subside. At 22 o'clock. 40 minutes the red banner was installed in the crown hole of the sculpture of the Goddess of Victory. However, the Germans were still fighting. They lost the upper floors of the Reichstag, but settled in basements. The battle continued on May 1. Only on the morning of May 2, 1945 did the remnants of the Reichstag garrison surrender. The red banner was hoisted by the soldiers of the 756th Infantry Regiment Sergeant Mikhail Yegorov and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria, led by the deputy battalion commander for political affairs, Lieutenant Alexei Berest. This banner became the "Banner of Victory".
At the same time, the battle was ending in other areas of the capital. On May 1, Goebbels instructed General Krebs to begin negotiations with the Soviet command. Krebs delivered a message about the death of the Fuhrer to the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army and asked for a ceasefire in order to create conditions for the beginning of peace negotiations between the Reich and the Soviet state. This was reported to Zhukov, and then to Stalin. Moscow insisted on unconditional surrender. Having received an answer and seeing no way out, Goebbels committed suicide. On the same day, General Krebs shot himself in the Fuehrer's bunker. Bormann committed suicide on May 2 during an attempted breakout from the city.
After the enemy refused to lay down their arms, the assault was continued. The battle continued day and night. At 6 o'clock. On the morning of May 2, General Weidling surrendered. He signed the surrender of the Berlin garrison and called on the troops to lay down their arms. By 15 o'clock. most of the German units laid down their arms. The 8th Guards Army has completed the cleanup of the central part of the German capital. Separate German units and divisions (mainly SS troops), which did not want to surrender, tried to break through to the west, through the Berlin suburb of Spandau. However, they were destroyed and scattered. In total, over 130 thousand people were taken prisoner.
The victory of the Red Army in the Berlin operation was a decisive factor in the fall of the Third Reich. Zhukov's armies, developing the offensive, went on a wide front to the Elbe, where they met with the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front under the command of Rokossovsky completed the destruction of the northern flank of the Berlin grouping of the Wehrmacht even earlier, reached the Baltic Sea, and met the British on the Wismar, Schwerin and Elbe line. With the fall of the Berlin area and other vital areas, the Reich lost its ability to resist. There are only a few days left until the end of the war.
