The Battle in Berlin was an end phase of the
Battle of BerlinThe Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
. While the Battle
of Berlin encompassed the attack by three Soviet Army Groups to capture not only Berlin but the territory of Germany east of the River Elbe still under German control, the Battle in Berlin details the fighting, and German capitulation, that took place within the German capital.
The outcome of the Battle in Berlin was decided during the initial phases of the Battle of Berlin that took place outside the city. As the Soviets
investedInvestment is the military tactic of surrounding an enemy fort with armed forces to prevent entry or escape.A circumvallation is a line of fortifications, built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards the enemy fort...
Berlin and the German forces placed to stop them were destroyed or forced back, the city's fate was sealed. Nevertheless, there was much heavy fighting within the city of Berlin as the Red Army fought its way, street by street, through to the centre of the city.
On 23 April 1945, the first Soviet ground forces started to penetrate the outer suburbs of Berlin. By 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the outside world. The battle in the city continued until 2 May 1945. On that date, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, General
Helmuth WeidlingHelmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was an officer in the German Army before and during World War II...
, surrendered to the commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, Lieutenant-General
Vasily ChuikovVasily Ivanovich Chuikov was a Russian lieutenant general in the Red Army during World War II, twice Hero of the Soviet Union , who after the war became a Marshal of the Soviet Union.-Early life and career:Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy, he joined the Red Army during...
. Chuikov was a constituent of Marshal Georgiy Zhukov's
1st Belorussian FrontThe 1st Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II...
.
Battle of the Oder-Neisse
The sector in which most of the fighting in the overall battle took place was the
Seelow HeightsThe Seelow Heights are situated around the town Seelow, about 90 kilometres east of Berlin and overlook the Oderbruch, the western flood plain of the River Oder which is a further 20 km to the east....
, the last major defensive line outside Berlin. The
Battle of the Seelow HeightsThe Battle of the Seelow Heights , was a part of the Seelow-Berlin Offensive Operation ; one of the last assaults on large entrenched defensive positions of World War II. It was fought over three days, from 16–19 April 1945...
was one of the last
pitched battleA pitched battle is a battle where both sides choose to fight at a chosen location and time and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges....
s of World War II. It was fought over four days, from 16 April until 19 April 1945. Close to one million Soviet soldiers and more than 20,000 tanks and artillery pieces were in action to break through the "Gates to Berlin" which was defended by about 100,000 German soldiers and 1,200 tanks and guns.
On 19 April, the fourth day, the 1st Belorussian Front broke through the final line of the Seelow Heights and nothing but broken German formations lay between them and Berlin.
MarshalMarshal of the Soviet Union was the de facto highest military rank of the Soviet Union. ....
Ivan Konev'sIvan Stepanovich Konev , was a Soviet military commander, who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, retook much of Eastern Europe from occupation by the Axis Powers, and helped in the capture of Germany's capital, Berlin....
1st Ukrainian FrontThe 1st Ukrainian Front was a front—a force the size of a Western Army group—of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War.-Wartime:...
having captured Forst the day before was fanning out into open country. One powerful thrust was heading north east towards Berlin while other armies headed west towards a section of United States Army front line south west of Berlin on the
ElbeThe Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
.
By the end of 19 April the German eastern front line north of
FrankfurtFrankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
around Seelow and to the south around Frost had ceased to exist. These breakthroughs allowed the two Soviet fronts to envelop the German IX Army in a large pocket east of Frankfurt. Attempts by the IX Army to break out to the west would result in the
Battle of HalbeThe Battle of Halbe lasted from April 24 - May 1, 1945 was a battle in which the German Ninth Army, under the command of Colonel General Theodor Busse was destroyed as a fighting force by the Red Army during the Battle for Berlin....
. The cost to the Soviet forces had been very high between 1 April and 19 April, with over 2,807 tanks lost, including at least 727 at the Seelow Heights.
Encirclement of Berlin
- Main article Battle of Berlin: Encirclement of Berlin
On 20 April, Hitler's birthday, Soviet artillery of the 1st Belorussian Front began to shell the centre of Berlin and did not stop until the city surrendered. After the war the Soviets pointed out that the weight of explosives delivered by their artillery during the battle was greater than the tonnage dropped by the Western Allied bombers on the city. The 1st Belorussian Front advanced towards the east and north-east of the city.
The 1st Ukrainian Front had pushed through the last formations of the northern wing of General
Ferdinand Schörner'sFerdinand Schörner was a General and later Field Marshal in the German Army during World War II.-Early life:Schörner was born in Munich, Bavaria...
Army Group CentreArmy Group Centre was the name of two distinct German strategic army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union...
and had passed north of
JuterbogJüterbog is a historic town in north-eastern Germany, located in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is located on the Nuthe river at the northern slope of the Fläming hill range, about southwest of Berlin.-History:...
well over halfway to the American front lines on the river
ElbeThe Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
at
MagdeburgMagdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
. To the north between Stettin and
SchwedtSchwedt is a city in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the largest city of the district Uckermark near the Oder river on the border with Poland.-Overview:...
,
Konstantin Rokossovsky'sKonstantin Rokossovskiy was a Polish-origin Soviet career officer who was a Marshal of the Soviet Union, as well as Marshal of Poland and Polish Defence Minister, who was famously known for his service in the Eastern Front, where he received high esteem for his outstanding military skill...
2nd Belorussian FrontThe 2nd Belorussian Front was a military formation of Army group size of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
attacked the northern flank of General
Gotthard Heinrici'sGotthard Heinrici was a general in the German Army during World War II.-Personal life:Heinrici's was born in Gumbinnen , East Prussia, on Christmas Day, 1886, to Paul Heinrici, a local Lutheran minister of the Prussian Church, and his wife Gisela, née von Rauchhaupt, who was of recent Jewish descent...
Army Group VistulaArmy Group Vistula was an Army Group of the Wehrmacht, formed on January 24, 1945. It was put together from elements of Army Group A , Army Group Centre , and a variety of new or ad-hoc formations...
, held by
Hasso von Manteuffel'sHasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel was a German soldier and liberal politician of the 20th century.He served in both world wars, and during World War II was a distinguished general...
III Panzer ArmyThe 3rd Panzer Army was a German army that saw action during World War II. It was formed from Panzergruppe 3, which had been formed on November 16, 1940....
.
By 24 April, elements of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front had completed the
encirclementEncirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The German term for this is Kesselschlacht ; a comparable English term might be "in the bag"....
of the city.
The next day, 25 April, the 2nd Belorussian Front broke through III Panzer Army's line around the bridgehead south of Stettin and crossed the Rando Swamp. They were now free to move west towards the
British 21st Army GroupThe 21st Army Group was a British headquarters formation consisting primarily of British and Canadian forces. The Army Group was an important Allied force in the European Theatre of World War II. It was established in London during July 1943 under the command of Supreme Headquarters Allied...
and north towards the Baltic port of
Stralsund- Main sights :* The Brick Gothic historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.* The heart of the old town is the Old Market Square , with the Gothic Town Hall . Behind the town hall stands the imposing Nikolaikirche , built in 1270-1360...
. The Soviet 58th Guards Division of Zhadov's 5th Guards Army made contact with the US 69th Infantry Division of the
First ArmyThe First United States Army is a field army of the United States Army. It now serves a mobilization, readiness and training command.- Establishment and World War I :...
near
TorgauTorgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.Outside Germany, the town is most well known as the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met with forces of the Soviet Union...
, Germany on the
ElbeThe Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
River. The Soviet
investmentInvestment is the military tactic of surrounding an enemy fort with armed forces to prevent entry or escape.A circumvallation is a line of fortifications, built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards the enemy fort...
of Berlin was consolidated with leading Soviet units probing and penetrating the S-Bahn defensive ring. By the end of 25 April, there was no prospect that the German defence of the city could do anything but temporally delay the capture of the city by the Soviets as the decisive stages of the battle had already been fought and lost by the Germans outside the city.
Preparation
On 20 April, Hitler ordered and the Wehrmacht initiated "
ClausewitzOperation Clausewitz was part of the defence of Berlin by Nazi Germany during the final stage of the European conflict of World War II. It started on 20 April 1945 and called for a number of thus far unknown actions but which included the evacuation of all Wehrmacht and SS offices in Berlin and...
", which called for the complete evacuation of all Wehrmacht and SS offices in Berlin; this essentially formalized Berlin's status as a frontline city.
The forces available to General der Artillerie
Helmuth WeidlingHelmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was an officer in the German Army before and during World War II...
for the city's defence included several severely depleted
WehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
and
Waffen-SSThe Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside...
divisions, in all about 45,000 men. These divisions were supplemented by the
policeThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
force, boys in the compulsory
Hitler YouthThe Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
, and the
Volkssturm.
Many of the 40,000 elderly men of the
Volkssturm had been in the army as young men and some were veterans of
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Hitler appointed
SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm MohnkeSS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke was one of the original 120 members of the SS-Staff Guard "Berlin" formed in March 1933. From those ranks, Mohnke rose to become one of Adolf Hitler's last remaining generals.Mohnke saw action with the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in France, Poland...
the commander of the central government quarter/district. Mohnke's command post was under the Reich Chancellery in the bunkers therein. The core group of his fighting men were the 800 of the Leibstandarte (LSSAH) Guard Battalion (assigned to guard the Führer). He had a total of over 2,000 men under his command.
Weidling organized the defences into eight sectors designated 'A' through 'H' each one commanded by a colonel or a general, but most had no combat experience. To the west of the city was the XX Infantry Division. To the north of the city was the IX Parachute Division. To the north east of the city was the
Panzer Division MünchebergPanzer-Division Müncheberg was a German panzer division which saw action on the Eastern Front around Berlin during World War II.- Formation :...
(
Werner MummertWerner Mummert was a German officer during both World War I and World War II. Mummert was born in Lüttewitz/Saxony. He first joined the German Army in August 1914 and became a Lieutenant of the Reserve , Sachs Karabiner Regiment in 1916...
). To the south east of the city and to the east of Tempelhof Airport was the
XI SS Panzergrenadier Division NordlandThe 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, also known as Kampfverband Waräger, Germanische-Freiwilligen-Division, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 or 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, was a Waffen SS, Panzergrenadier division recruited from foreign volunteers...
(
Joachim ZieglerJoachim Ziegler was a Brigadeführer and Major General in the Waffen SS during World War II and the commander of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves...
). The reserve, XVIII
Panzergrenadier Division, was in Berlin's central district.
Tactics
A Soviet combat group was a mixed arms unit of about eighty men in
assault groupA fireteam is a small military unit of infantry. It is the smallest unit in the militaries that use it and is the primary unit upon which infantry organization is based in the British Army, Royal Air Force Regiment, Royal Marines, United States Army, United States Marine Corps, United States Air...
s of six to eight men, closely supported by field artillery. These were tactical units which were able to apply the tactics of
house to house fightingUrban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level...
that the Soviets had been forced to develop and refine at each
Festungsstadt (
fortress cityGerman strongholds during World War II were the selected towns and cities so designated by Adolf Hitler to resist the Allied offensives where the defenders were ordered to defend them at all costs...
) they had encountered from Stalingrad to Berlin.
The German tactics used for the
urban warfareUrban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat is very different from combat in the open at both the operational and tactical level...
in Berlin were dictated by three considerations. These were: the experience that the Germans had gained during five years of war; the physical characteristics of Berlin; and the tactics used by the Soviets. Most of the central districts of Berlin consists of city blocks with straight wide roads with several waterways, parks and large railway marshalling yards. It is predominantly flat but there are some low hills like that of
Kreuzberg that is 66m above sea level. Much of the housing stock consisted of apartments blocks built in the second half of the 19th century. Most of those, thanks to housing regulations and few elevators, were five stories high and built around a courtyard that could be reached from the street through a corridor large enough to take a horse and cart or a small truck used to deliver coal. In many places, these apartment blocks were built around several courtyards one behind the other, each one reached through the outer courtyards by a similar ground level corridor like that between the first courtyard and the road. The larger more expensive
flatAn apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s faced the street and the smaller less expensive ones could be found around the inner courtyards.
Just as the Soviets had learned a lot about urban warfare, so had the Germans. The
Waffen SS did not use the makeshift barricades erected close to street corners, because these could be raked by artillery fire from guns firing over open sights further along the straight streets. Instead they put snipers and machine guns on the upper floors and roofs because the Soviet tanks could not elevate their guns that high, and simultaneously they put men armed with
panzerfaustThe Panzerfaust was an inexpensive, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War II. It consisted of a small, disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead, operated by a single soldier...
s in cellar windows to ambush tanks as they moved down the streets. These tactics were quickly adopted by the Hitler Youth and the First World War
VolkssturmThe Volkssturm was a German national militia of the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler's orders on October 18, 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard.-Origins and...
veterans.
To counter these tactics the Soviets mounted sub-machine gunners on the tanks who sprayed every doorway and window, but this meant the tank could not traverse its turret quickly. The other solution was to rely on heavy howitzers (152 mm and 203 mm) firing over open sights to blast defended buildings and to use anti-aircraft guns against the German gunners on the higher floors. Soviet combat groups started to move from house to house instead of directly down the streets. They moved through the apartments and cellars blasting holes through the walls of adjacent buildings (for which the Soviets found abandoned German
panzerfausts were very effective) while others fought across the roof tops and through the attics. These enfilading tactics took the Germans lying in ambush for tanks in the flanks. Flamethrowers and grenades proved to be very effective, but as the Berlin civilian population had not been evacuated these tactics inevitably killed many.
In the suburbs
With the decisive stages of the battle being fought outside the city, Berlin's fate was sealed, yet the resistance inside continued. On 23 April, Hitler appointed German General of the Artillery (
General der Artillerie)
Helmuth WeidlingHelmuth Otto Ludwig Weidling was an officer in the German Army before and during World War II...
as the commander of the Berlin Defence Area. Only a day earlier, Hitler had ordered that Weidling be executed by firing squad. This was due to a misunderstanding concerning a retreat order issued by Weidling as commander of the LVI Panzer Corps. On 20 April, Weidling had been appointed commander of the LVI Panzer Corps. Weidling replaced Lieutenant-Colonel (
Oberstleutnant)
Ernst KaetherErnst Kaether was an officer in the German Army during World War II.As a Lieutenant-Colonel , Kaether commanded the 14th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Jäger Division...
as commander of Berlin. Only one day earlier, Kaether had replaced Lieutenant-General (
Generalleutnant)
Helmuth ReymannHellmuth Reymann was an officer in the German Army during World War II. Reymann was one of the last commanders of the Berlin Defense Area during the final assault by Soviet forces on the city of Berlin.-Northern Russia:From 1 October 1942 to 1 October 1943, Lieutenant-General Reymann commanded...
, who had held the position for only about a month.
By 23 April some of Chuikov's rifle units had crossed the
SpreeThe Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
and Dahme rivers south of
KöpenickKöpenick is a historic town and locality that is situated at the confluence of the rivers Dahme and Spree in the south-east of the German capital city of Berlin. It was formerly known as Copanic and then Cöpenick, only officially adopting the current spelling in 1931...
and by 24 April were advancing towards
BritzBritz is a German locality within the Berlin borough of Neukölln.-History:The village of Britzig was first mentioned in 1273. It was incorporated by the 1920 Greater Berlin Act...
and
NeuköllnNeukölln is the eighth borough of Berlin, located in the southeastern part of the city and was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city...
. Accompanying them were the leading tanks of Colonel-General
Mikhail Katukov'sMarshal of the Armored Troops Mikhail Efimovich Katukov served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.-Pre-War:...
1st Guards Tank Army. Sometime after midnight a corps of Colonel-General
Nikolai Berzarin'sNikolai Erastovich Berzarin was a Soviet Red Army General during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became commander of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin.-Family:Berzarin was born the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress...
5th Shock Army crossed the Spree close to
Treptow ParkTreptow is a former borough in the southeast of Berlin. It merged with Köpenick to form Treptow-Köpenick in 2001.-Geography:The district was composed by the localities of Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Niederschöneweide, Johannisthal, Adlershof, Altglienicke and Bohnsdorf....
. At dawn on the 24 April the
LVI Panzer CorpsLVI Panzer Corps was a tank corps in the German Army during World War II.This corps was activated in February 1941 for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which commenced on June 22, 1941...
still under Weidling's direct command counterattacked, but were severely mauled by the 5th Shock Army, which was able to continue its advance around mid day. Meanwhile the first large Soviet probe into the city was put into operation. Colonel-General
Mikhail Katukov'sMarshal of the Armored Troops Mikhail Efimovich Katukov served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.-Pre-War:...
1st Guards Tank Army attacked across the
Teltow CanalTeltow is a town in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:Teltow is part of the agglomeration of Berlin. The distance to the Berlin city centre is , while the distance to Potsdam is ....
. At 06:20 a bombardment by 3,000 guns and heavy mortars began (a staggering 650 pieces of artillery per one kilometer of front). At 07:00 hours the first Soviet battalions were across and they were followed by tanks around 12:00 shortly after the first of the pontoon bridges were completed. By the evening Treptow Park was in Soviet hands and they had reached the
Berlin S-BahnThe Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
ring railway.
While the fighting raged in the south east of the city, between 320 and 330 French volunteers commanded by
Brigadeführer Gustav KrukenbergDr Gustav Krukenberg was Brigadeführer of the Charlemagne Division of the Waffen-SS and further commander of its remains and the SS Division Nordland during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945....
and organized as
Sturmbataillon (assault battalion) "Charlemagne"The 33. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Charlemagne and Charlemagne Regiment are collective names used for units of French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and later Waffen-SS during World War II...
were attached to
XI SS Panzergrenadier Division NordlandThe 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, also known as Kampfverband Waräger, Germanische-Freiwilligen-Division, SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 or 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland, was a Waffen SS, Panzergrenadier division recruited from foreign volunteers...
. They moved from the SS training ground near
NeustrelitzNeustrelitz is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz...
to the centre of Berlin through the western suburbs which apart from unmanned barricades across the Havel and Spree were devoid of fortifications or defenders. Of all the reinforcements ordered to Berlin that day only this
Sturmbataillon arrived.
On 25 April, Krukenberg was appointed as the commander of Defence Sector C which included the
Nordland Division, whose previous commander
Joachim ZieglerJoachim Ziegler was a Brigadeführer and Major General in the Waffen SS during World War II and the commander of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, who was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves...
was relieved of his command the same day. The arrival of the French SS men bolstered the
Nordland Division whose
Norge and
Danmark regiments had been decimated in the fighting. Just midday as Krukenberg reached his command, the last German
bridgeheadA bridgehead is a High Middle Ages military term, which antedating the invention of cannons was in the original meaning expressly a referent term to the military fortification that protects the end of a bridge...
south of the Teltow Canal was being abandoned. During the night Krukenberg informed General
Hans KrebsHans Krebs was a German Army general of infantry who served during World War II.-Early life:Krebs was born in Helmstedt. He volunteered for service in the Imperial German Army in 1914, was promoted to lieutenant in 1915, and to first lieutenant in 1925...
Chief of the
General StaffThe German General Staff was an institution whose rise and development gave the German armed forces a decided advantage over its adversaries. The Staff amounted to its best "weapon" for nearly a century and a half....
of (
OKHThe Oberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
) that within 24 hours the
Nordland would have to fall back to the centre sector Z (for
ZentrumMitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. It was created in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by the merger of the former districts of Mitte proper, Tiergarten and Wedding; the resulting borough retained the name Mitte. It is one of the two boroughs which comprises former West and...
).
Soviet combat groups of the 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army fought their way through the southern suburbs of Neukölln towards Tempelhof Airport which was located just inside the S-Bahn defensive ring. Defending Sector D was Panzer Division
Müncheberg. This division, down to its last dozen tanks and thirty
APCAn armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...
s had been promised replacements for battle losses but only stragglers and
Volkssturm were available to fill the ranks. The Soviets advanced cautiously using
flamethrowerA flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s to overcome defensive positions. By dusk the Soviet T34 tanks had reached the airfield, only six kilometres (four miles) south of the Führerbunker, where they were checked by stiff German resistance. The
Müncheberg Division managed to hold the line until the afternoon of the next day, but this was the last time that they were able to check the Soviet advance for more than a few hours.
On 26 April, with Neukölln heavily penetrated by Soviet combat groups, Krukenberg prepared fallback positions for Sector C defenders around
HermannplatzHermannplatz is a station in the Neukölln district of Berlin which serves as an interchange between the lines and . Operated by the BVG, it is one of the busiest stations on the Berlin U-Bahn system.-History:...
. He moved his headquarters into the opera house. The two understrength German divisions defending the south east were now facing five Soviet armies. From east to west they were, the 5th Shock Army, advancing from Treptow Park, the 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army advancing through Neukölln north (temporarily checked at Tempelhof Airport) and Colonel-General
Rybalko'sMarshal of the Armoured Troops Pavel Semjonovich Rybalko was a commander of armoured troops in the Red Army during and following World War II.-Pre-war:Pavel Rybalko served in the Russian and then the Soviet Army from 1914...
3rd Guards Tank Army (part of Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front) advancing from
MariendorfMariendorf is a locality in the southern Tempelhof-Schöneberg borough of Berlin.- Geography :Mariendorf is situated between the localities of Tempelhof in the north and Marienfelde and Lichtenrade in the south...
. As the
Nordland Division fell back towards Hermannplatz the French SS and one-hundred Hitler Youth attached to their group destroyed 14 Soviet tanks with
panzerfausts, and one machine gun position by the Halensee bridge managed to hold up any Soviet advances in that area for 48 hours. The
Nordlands remaining armour, eight Tiger tanks and several assault guns, were ordered to take up positions in the
TiergartenTiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
, because although these two divisions of Weidling's LVI Panzer Corps could slow the Soviet advance they could not stop it.
OberscharführerOberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...
Schmidt recalled, "I was assigned as platoon leader of a 'dwindled company' which included a squad of Hungarian volunteers, Volkssturm men, Hitlerjungend, as well as members of the Heer...Daily, the Russians advanced closer to the govenment quarter, which we were to defend. It became more and more difficult to hold the line 'under all circumstances'..."
Hitler summoned Field Marshal
Robert Ritter von GreimRobert Ritter von Greim was a German Field Marshal, pilot, army officer, and the last commander of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.-Early years:...
from Munich to Berlin to take over command of the German Air Force (
LuftwaffeLuftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
) from Goering. While flying over Berlin in a Fieseler Storch, von Greim was seriously wounded by Soviet anti-aircraft fire.
Hanna ReitschHanna Reitsch was a German aviator and the only woman awarded the Iron Cross First Class and the Luftwaffe Combined Pilots-Observation Badge in Gold with Diamonds during World War II...
, his mistress and a crack test pilot, landed von Greim on an improvised air strip in the Tiergarten near the
Brandenburg GateThe Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
.
At Tempelhof Airport, the flak batteries conducted direct fire against advancing Soviet tanks until they were overrun. On the following day, 27 April, 2,000 German women were rounded up and ordered to help clear Tempelhof Airport of debris so that the Red Army Air Force could start to use it. Marshal Zhukov appointed Colonel-General Berzarin to start to organize the German civil administration in the areas that they had captured.
Bürgermeisters, like the directors of the Berlin utilities, were summoned to appear before Berzarin's staff.
As the Soviet armies of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front converged on the centre of the city there were many accidental friendly fire incidents involving artillery shellings because the spotter planes and the artillery of the different Soviet Fronts were not coordinated and they frequently mistook, assault groups in other armies as enemy troops. Indeed the rivalry between the Soviet armies to capture the city centre was becoming intense. A corps commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front joked with laconic humour "Now we should be scared not of the enemy, but of our neighbour ... There's nothing more depressing in Berlin than learning about the successes of your neighbour". The military historian
Antony BeevorAntony James Beevor, FRSL is a British historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. He studied under the famous military historian John Keegan. Beevor is a former officer with the 11th Hussars who served in England and Germany for five years before resigning his commission...
has suggested that the rivalry went further than just jokes and says that Chuikov deliberately ordered the left flank of the 8th Guards Army (of 1st Belorussian Front) across the front of the 3rd Guards Tank Army (of the 1st Ukrainian Front), blocking its direct path to the Reichstag. As Chuikov did not inform Rybako, commander of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, that the 8th was doing this, the troops ordered to carry out this manoeuvre suffered disproportionate casualties from
friendly fireFriendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
.
In the south west, Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army, (supported by Lieutenant-General Luchinsky's 28th Army) were advancing through the wooded park and suburbs of the
GrunewaldGrunewald is a locality within the Berliner borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.-Geography:The locality is situated in the western side of the city and is separated from...
attacking what remained of the XVIII Panzergrenadier Division on their eastern flank and were just entering
CharlottenburgCharlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
. In the south, Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army breached the Landwehr Canal on 27 April, the last major obstacle between them and the Führerbunker next to the
Reich ChancelleryThe Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945...
less than two kilometres away (a little over a mile). In the south east Berzarin's 5th Shock Army had bypassed the
FriedrichshainFriedrichshain is a part of Berlin's borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, and like Kreuzberg across the river it has its own distinct character, with the result that the new double name is hardly ever used outside government administration. From its creation in 1920 until Berlin's 2001...
flak tower and was now between Frankfurterallee and the south bank of the Spree where its IX Corps was fighting.
By 27 April the Soviet Armies had penetrated the German's S-Bahn outer defensive ring from all directions. The Germans had been forced back into a pocket about twenty-five kilometres (fifteen miles) long from west to east and about three kiliometres (one and a half miles) wide at its most narrow, just west of the old city centre, near the Tiergarten. In the north west, Lieutenant-General Gusev's 47th Army was now approaching
SpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
, and was also heavily involved in a battle to capture Gatow airfield which was defended by
Volkssturm and Luftwaffe cadets using the feared 88 mm anti-aircraft guns in their anti-tank role. In the north Colonel-General Semyon Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army was bogged down just south of
SiemensstadtThe Siemensstadt Housing Estate is a nonprofit residential community in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district of Berlin. It is one of the six Modernist Housing Estates in Berlin recognized in July 2008 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.-Geography:...
. Colonel-General
Kuznetsov'sVasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov was a Soviet General and a Hero of the Soviet Union.-Early life:...
3rd Shock Army had bypassed the Humboldthain
flak towerFlak towers were 8 complexes of large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed in the cities of Berlin , Hamburg , and Vienna from 1940 onwards....
, (leaving it to follow up forces) and had reached the north of the Tiergarten and
PrenzlauerbergPrenzlauer Berg is a locality of Berlin, in the borough of Pankow.Until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a borough of Berlin; in that year it was included in the borough of Pankow....
.
On the morning of 27 April, the Soviets continued the assault with a heavy bombardment of the inner city. The 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army were ordered to take Belle-Alliance-Platz (an alternative name for the
Battle of WaterlooThe Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
) that in a twist of history was defended by French SS soldiers of the
Nordland Division. That night Weidling gave a battle situation report to Hitler, and presented him with a detailed breakout plan which would be spearheaded with just under forty tanks (all the combat ready German tanks in Berlin). Hitler rejected the plan saying he would stay in the bunker and that Weidling would carry on with the defence.
In sector Z (centre) Krukenberg
Nordland divisional headquarters was now a carriage in the Stadtmitte U-Bahn station. The
Nordland's armour was reduced to four captured Soviet
APCsAn armoured personnel carrier is an armoured fighting vehicle designed to transport infantry to the battlefield.APCs are usually armed with only a machine gun although variants carry recoilless rifles, anti-tank guided missiles , or mortars...
and two half-tracks, so Krunebberg's men's chief weapon was now the
panzerfaust which were used for
close quarters battleClose quarters combat or close quarters battle is a type of fighting in which small units engage the enemy with personal weapons at very short range, potentially to the point of hand-to-hand combat or fighting with hand weapons such as swords or knives...
s against both Soviet armour and in house to house fighting against Soviet combat groups.
At dawn on 28 April, the youth divisions
ClausewitzPanzer-Division Clausewitz was a German panzer division during World War II, named for Carl von Clausewitz.It was formed in central Germany area at the beginning of April 1945 under the command of Martin Unrein, from the 233rd Panzergrenadier Division and also drawing Panzergrenadier troops from...
,
Scharnhorst and
Theodor Körner, attacked from the south west in the direction of Berlin. They were part of Wenck's XX Corps and were made up of men from the officer training schools, making them some of the best units the Germans had left. They covered a distance of about 24 kilometres (14.9 mi), before being halted at the tip of Lake Schwielow south-west of Potsdam and still 32 kilometres (19.9 mi) from Berlin. Later on 28 April, Hitler learned of
Heinrich HimmlerHeinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
's contacts with Count
Folke BernadotteFolke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945...
in Luebeck. Himmler had asked Bernadotte to convey a peace proposal to US General
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
. Enraged at Himmler's duplicity, Hitler ordered von Greim and Reitsch to fly to Dönitz's headquarters at Ploen. Von Greim was ordered to arrest the "traitor" Himmler.
By 28 April, the
Müncheberg Division had been driven back to the Anhalter railway station less than one kilometre (half a mile) south of the Führerbunker. To slow the advancing Soviets, allegedly on Hitler's orders the bulkheads under the Landwehr Canal were blown up. It caused a panic in the
Berlin U-BahnThe Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
tunnels under the Anhalter railway station in which some were trampled to death. But the water level only suddenly rose by about a metre (yard) and after that much more slowly. Initially it was thought that many thousands had drowned, but when the tunnels were pumped out in October 1945 it was found that most of the bodies were of people who had died of their wounds, not from drowning. In any event, the Soviets continued their advance with three T-34s making it as far as Wilhelmstrasse U-Bahn station before being ambushed and destroyed by the Frenchmen of the
Nordland Division.
In the city centre
During 27 April and 28 April, most formations attached to Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front that were engaged in the Battle in Berlin were ordered to disengage and proceed south to take part in the
Prague OffensiveThe Prague Offensive was the last major Soviet operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive, and the battle for Prague, was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. This battle for the city is particularly noteworthy in that it ended after the Third Reich capitulated on 8 May...
(the last great offensive of the European theatre). This did not mitigate their resentment at being denied the honour of capturing the centre of Berlin, but left the 1st Belorussian Front under Marshal Zhukov to claim that honour for themselves alone.
By 28 April, the Germans were now reduced to a strip less than five kilometres wide and fifteen in length, from
AlexanderplatzAlexanderplatz is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin, near the Fernsehturm. Berliners often call it simply Alex, referring to a larger neighborhood stretching from Mollstraße in the northeast to Spandauer Straße and the City Hall in the southwest.-Early...
in the east to
CharlottenburgCharlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
and the area around the
Olympic StadiumThe Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March...
(
Reichssportfeld) in the west. Generally the Soviets avoided fighting their way into tunnels and bunkers (of which there were about 1,000 in the Berlin area), instead they sealed them off and continued the advance. However just over a kilometre to the north of the Reichstag building the 3rd Shock Army did use heavy guns at point blank range to blast a hole in the walls of
MoabitMoabit is an inner city locality of Berlin. Since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it belongs to the newly regrouped governmental borough of Mitte. Previously, from 1920 to 2001, it belonged to the borough of Tiergarten. Moabit's borders are defined by three watercourses, the Spree, the...
prison and after the breach was made, and the prison stormed, the garrison quickly surrendered. The 3rd Shock Army were in sight of the
Victory ColumnThe Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the...
in the Tiergarten and during the afternoon advanced down towards the Moltke bridge over the Spree, just north of the
Ministry of the InteriorThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and a mere 600 metres (660 yards) from the Reichstag. German demolition charges damaged the Moltke bridge but left it passable to infantry. As dusk fell and under heavy artillery bombardment the first Soviet troops crossed the bridge. By midnight, the Soviet 150th and 171st rifle divisions had secured the bridgehead against any counterattack the Germans could muster.
On 28 April, General Hans Krebs made his last telephone call from the
FührerbunkerThe Führerbunker was located beneath Hitler's New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex which was constructed in two major phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943...
. He called
Field MarshalField Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...
Wilhelm KeitelWilhelm Bodewin Gustav Keitel was a German field marshal . As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and de facto war minister, he was one of Germany's most senior military leaders during World War II...
Chief of OKW (German Armed Forces High Command) in
FürstenbergFürstenberg and can refer to the following.- Historical states :* Fürstenberg , county * Fürstenberg-Baar, county * Fürstenberg-Blumberg, county...
. Krebs told Keitel that, if relief did not arrive within 48 hours, all would be lost. Keitel promised to exert the utmost pressure on Generals
Walther Wenck-Captive, prisoner, and death:Wenck was captured and put in a prisoner of war camp. He was released in 1947. In 1982, Wenck died in a car accident in Bad Rothenfelde.-See also:* Battle of Berlin - 1945* Battle of Halbe - 1945* Hans Krebs, Chief of Staff...
, commander of XII Army, and
Theodor BusseErnst Hermann August Theodor Busse was a German officer during World War I and World War II.- Career :...
commander of the IX Army. Meanwhile,
Martin BormannMartin Ludwig Bormann was a prominent Nazi official. He became head of the Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler...
wired to German Admiral
Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
: "
Reich ChancelleryThe Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945...
(
Reichskanzlei) a heap of rubble." He went on to say that the foreign press was reporting fresh acts of treason and "that without exception Schörner, Wenck and the others must give evidence of their loyalty by the quickest relief of the Führer". Bormann was the head of the Nazi
Party ChancelleryParty Chancellery , until 1941 Staff of the Deputy Führer , was the name of the head office of the German Nazi Party .-Organization:...
(
Parteikanzlei) and Hitler's private secretary.
During the evening, Von Greim and Reitsch flew out from Berlin in an
Arado Ar 96-See also:-Bibliography:* Green, William. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1970 . ISBN 0-356-02382-6....
trainer. Von Greim was ordered to get the Luftwaffe to attack the Soviet forces that had just reached Potsdamerplatz and to make sure that Himmler was punished. Fearing that Hitler was escaping in the plane, troops of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army, which was fighting its way through the Tiergarten from the north, tried to shoot the Arado down. The Soviet troops failed in their efforts and the plane took off successfully.
During the night of 28 April, General Wenck reported to Keitel that his XII Army had been forced back along the entire front. This was particularly true of XX Corps that had been able to establish temporary contact with the Potsdam garrison. According to Wenck, no relief for Berlin by his army was now possible. This was even more so as support from the IX Army could no longer be expected. Keitel gave Wenck permission to break off his attempt to relieve Berlin.
At 0400 hours on 29 April, in the Führerbunker, General
Wilhelm BurgdorfWilhelm Burgdorf was a German general. Born in Fürstenwalde, Burgdorf served as a commander and staff officer in the German Army during World War II.- Military career :...
, Goebbels, Krebs, and Bormann witnessed and signed the
last will and testament of Adolf HitlerThe last will and testament of Adolf Hitler was dictated by Hitler to his secretary Traudl Junge in his Berlin Führerbunker on April 29, 1945, the day he and Eva Braun married. They committed suicide the next day , two days before the surrender of Berlin to the Soviets on May 2, and just over a...
. Hitler dictated the document to
Traudl JungeTraudl Junge was Adolf Hitler's youngest personal private secretary, from December 1942 to April 1945.-Early life:...
, shortly after he had married
Eva BraunEva Anna Paula Hitler was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. Braun met Hitler in Munich, when she was 17 years old, while working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer and began seeing him often about two years later...
.
After Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front had broken out of their bridgehead, General
Gotthard HeinriciGotthard Heinrici was a general in the German Army during World War II.-Personal life:Heinrici's was born in Gumbinnen , East Prussia, on Christmas Day, 1886, to Paul Heinrici, a local Lutheran minister of the Prussian Church, and his wife Gisela, née von Rauchhaupt, who was of recent Jewish descent...
disobeyed Hitler's direct orders and allowed
Hasso von ManteuffelHasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel was a German soldier and liberal politician of the 20th century.He served in both world wars, and during World War II was a distinguished general...
's request for a general withdrawal of the III Panzer Army. By 29 April,
Army Group VistulaArmy Group Vistula was an Army Group of the Wehrmacht, formed on January 24, 1945. It was put together from elements of Army Group A , Army Group Centre , and a variety of new or ad-hoc formations...
Headquarters staff could no longer contact the
IX ArmyThe 9th Army was a World War II field army.The 9th Army was activated on May 15, 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command.-1940:The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line when it was involved in the invasion of France...
, so there was little in the way of coordination that Heinrici's staff could still to do. As Heinrici had disobeyed a direct order from Hitler (in allowing Manteuffel to retreat), he was relieved of his command. However Manteuffel refused Keitel's request that he take over, and although ordered to report to OKW's headquarters, Heinrici dallied and never arrived. Keitel later recalled the incident in his memoirs and said that command passed to the senior army commander of the XXI Army, General
Kurt von TippelskirchKurt Oskar Heinrich Ludwig Wilhelm von Tippelskirch was a general in the German Army during World War II.-Personal life:Kurt von Tippelskirch was born on 9 October 1891 in Berlin...
. Other sources claim that von Tippelskirch appointment was a temporary appointment until the arrival of General Kurt Student, but that Student was captured by the British and never arrived. Whether von Tippelskirch or Student or both took command, the rapidly deteriorating situation that the Germans faced, meant that Army Group Vistula coordination of the armies under its nominal command during the last few days of the war were of little significance.
In the early hours of 29 April, the 150th and 171st Rifle divisions started to fan out from the Moltke bridgehead into the surrounding streets and buildings. Initially the Soviets were unable to bring forward artillery, as the combat engineers had not had time to strengthen the bridge or build an alternative. The only form of heavy weaponry available to the assault troops were individual 'Katyusha' rockets lashed to short sections of railway lines. Major-General Shatilov's 150th Rifle Division had a particularly hard fight capturing the heavily fortified Ministry of the Interior building. Lacking artillery they had to clear it room by room with grenades and sub-machine guns.
In the south east at dawn of 29 April, Colonel Antonov's 301st Rifle Division pressed on with its assault. After very heavy fighting they managed to capture the Gestapo headquarters on Prinz-Albrechtstrasse, but a Waffen SS counter-attack forced the regiments of the division to withdraw from the building. Still imprisoned in the building were seven prisoners spared in the massacre of the other prisoners on 23 April. To the south west Chuikov's 8th Guards Army attacked north across the Landwehr canal into the Tiergarten.
The
Nordland Division was now under Mohnke's central command. All the men were exhausted from days and nights of continuous fighting. The Frenchmen of the
Nordland had proved particularly good at destroying tanks, of the 108 Soviet tanks destroyed in the central district, they had accounted for about half of them. That afternoon the last two
Knight's CrossThe Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
es of the Third Reich were awarded; one went to
Eugéne VaulôtEugène Vaulot was a Frenchman with the rank of Unterscharführer in the Waffen SS during World War II, who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.Eugene Vaulot was born in Paris in 1923...
, who had personally destroyed eight tanks, and
SturmbannführerSturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party equivalent to major, used both in the Sturmabteilung and the Schutzstaffel...
Friedrich HerzigFriedrich Herzig was a Sturmbannführer in the Waffen SS during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, which was awarded to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany during World War II.Friedrich started the war in the 3rd...
, the commander of the 503 SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. Two others received less prestigious awards for only knocking out five tanks each.
During the evening of 29 April, at Weidling's headquarters in the
BendlerblockThe Bendlerblock is a building in Berlin, located on the Stauffenbergstraße , south of the Tiergarten. The building was erected between 1911 and 1914 for the Imperial German Navy Offices. During the Weimar Republic it served as the seat of the Reichswehr command and the Ministry of Defence...
, now within metres of the front line, Weidling discussed with his divisional commanders, the possibility of breaking out to the south west to link up with the XII Army who's spearhead had reached the village of Ferch on the banks of the
SchwielowseeSchwielowsee is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Schwielowsee lake, through which the River Havel flows. The municipality was founded on December 31, 2002 in merger of the three villages Caputh, Geltow and Ferch. The...
near Potsdam. The breakout was planned to start the next night at 22:00. Late in the evening, Krebs contacted General
Alfred JodlAlfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
(Supreme Army Command) by radio: "Request immediate report. Firstly of the whereabouts of Wenck's spearheads. Secondly of time intended to attack. Thirdly of the location of the IX Army. Fourthly of the precise place in which the IX Army will break through. Fifthly of the whereabouts of General
Rudolf HolsteRudolf Holste was a German officer during World War I and World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
's spearhead." In the early morning of 30 April, Jodl replied to Krebs: "Firstly, Wenck's spearhead bogged down south of Schwielow Lake. Secondly, XII Army therefore unable to continue attack on Berlin. Thirdly, bulk of IX Army surrounded. Fourthly, Holste's Corps on the defensive."
By this time, several smaller Polish units had already taken part in the battle in Berlin (such as the 1st Polish Motorized Mortar Brigade, the 6th Polish Motorised Pontoon Battalion, and the 2nd Polish Howitzer Brigade) Soviet forces were lacking infantry support, and armored units, without infantry support, were taking heavy casualties. As of 30 April, the Soviet forces were joined by the
Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry DivisionThe Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division was an infantry division in the Soviet-organized Polish armed forces formed in 1943 and named for the Polish and American revolutionary Tadeusz Kościuszko...
after a request from the Soviet command for infantry reinforcements. Originally, one infantry regiment was to support the 1st Mechanised Corps, and two, the 12th Guards Tank Corps; contrary to the original plan, two regiments (1st and 2nd) ended up supporting the 1st Corps, and only one (3rd) the 12th Corps. The 3rd Polish Infantry Regiment was operating with the 66th Guards Tank Brigade of the 12th Guards Tank Corps. The 1st Polish Infantry Regiment was supporting the 19th and 35th Mechanized Brigades, and the 2nd Polish Infantry Regiment, the 219th Tank Brigade, all of them units of the Soviet 1st Mechanized Corps. Upon arrival, the Polish forces found that the Soviet units heave suffered tremendous casualties; the 19th and 35th Mechanized Brigades sustained over 90% casualties, and thus the Polish 1st Infantry Regiment assigned to support them had to, in effect, take over their tasks. The 66th Guards Tank Brigade of the 12th Corps that received the Polish infantry support has similarly taken heavy losses, having already lost 82 tanks due to insufficient infantry cover.
Battle for the Reichstag
At 06:00 on 30 April the 150th Rifle Division had still not captured the upper floors of the Ministry of the Interior, but while the fighting was still going on the 150th launched an attack from there across the 400 metres of Königsplatz towards the Reichstag. For the Soviets, the Reichstag was the symbol of the Third Reich (ironically, never restored by the Nazis after the
Reichstag fireThe Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
) and one that they wanted to capture before the
May DayMay Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
parade in Moscow. The assault was not an easy one. The Germans had dug a complicated network of trenches around the building and a collapsed tunnel had filled with water from the Spree forming a moat across Königsplatz. The initial infantry assault was decimated by cross fire from the Reichstag and the Kroll Opera House on the western side of Königsplatz. By now the Spree had been bridged and the Soviets were able to bring up tanks and artillery to support fresh assaults by the infantry, some of which were tasked with flanking the Opera House and attacking it from the north west. By 10:00 the soldiers of the 150th had reached the moat, but accurate fire from
12.8 cm gunsThe 12.8 cm FlaK 40, was a German World War II anti-aircraft gun built as the successor to the 88 mm gun. Although it was not produced in great numbers, it was one of the most effective heavy AA guns of its era....
two kilometres away on the Berlin Zoo
flak towerFlak towers were 8 complexes of large, above-ground, anti-aircraft gun blockhouse towers constructed in the cities of Berlin , Hamburg , and Vienna from 1940 onwards....
, prevented any further successful advance across the moat during daylight. Throughout the rest of the day, with ninety artillery pieces, some as large as 203 mm howitzers, as well as
Katyusha rockets launchers, bombarded the Reichstag and its defensive trenches, Colonel Negoda's 171st Rifle Division, on the left flank of the 150th, continued to capture the buildings of the diplomatic quarter to the north of Königsplatz.
As the perimeter shrank and the surviving defenders fell back on the centre they became concentrated. By now there were about 10,000 soldiers in the city centre, who were being assaulted from all sides. One of the other main thrusts was along Wilhelmstrasse on which the Air Ministry built of
reinforced concreteReinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
was pounded by large concentrations of Soviet artillery. The remaining German Tiger tanks of the
Hermann von SalzaHermann von Salza was the fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239...
battalion took up positions in the east of the Tiergarten to defend the centre against the 3rd Shock Army (which although heavily engaged around the Reichstag was also flanking the area by advancing through the northern Tiergarten) and the 8th Shock Army advancing through the south of the Tiergarten. These Soviet forces had effectively cut the sausage shaped area held by the Germans in half and made an escape to the west for those German troops in the centre much more difficult.
During the morning, Mohnke informed Hitler the centre would be able to hold for less than two days. Later that morning Weidling informed Hitler in person that the defenders, would probably exhaust their ammunition that night and again asked Hitler permission to break out. At about 13:00 Weidling who was back in his headquarters in the Bendlerblock, finally received Hitler's permission to attempt a breakout. During the afternoon Hitler shot himself and Braun took
cyanideA cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
. In accordance with Hitler's instructions, the bodies were burned in the garden of the
Reich ChancelleryThe Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945...
. In accordance with Hitler's last will and testament,
Joseph GoebbelsPaul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, became the new "
Head of GovernmentHead of government is the chief officer of the executive branch of a government, often presiding over a cabinet. In a parliamentary system, the head of government is often styled prime minister, chief minister, premier, etc...
" and Chancellor of Germany (
Reichskanzler). At 3:15 am,
Reichskanzler Goebbels and Bormann sent a radio message to Admiral
Karl DönitzKarl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
informing him of Hitler's death. Per Hitler's last wishes, Dönitz was appointed as the new "President of Germany" (
ReichspräsidentThe Reichspräsident was the German head of state under the Weimar constitution, which was officially in force from 1919 to 1945. In English he was usually simply referred to as the President of Germany...
).
Starting from 16:00 on April 30, the 1st Battalion of the Polish 1st Regiment (assigned to the region of 35h Mechanized Brigade) begun an assault on a barricade on Pestalozzistrasse, a major obstacle which made previous tank attacks in that direction suicidal. Polish 2nd and 3rd Regiments cleared the path through the barricades on Goethestrasse and Schilerstrasse for the tanks of the Soviet 19th Brigade.
Because of the smoke, dusk came early to the centre of Berlin. At 18:00 hours, while Weidling and his staff finalized their breakout plans in the Bendlerblock, under cover of a heavy artillery barrage, three regiments of the Soviet 150th Rifle Division, closely supported by tanks, assaulted the Reichstag. All the windows were bricked up, but they managed to force the main doors and entered the main hall. The German garrison, of about 1,000 defenders—a mixture of sailors, SS and Hitler Youth—fired down on the Soviets from above, turning the main hall into a medieval style
killing fieldA killing field, in military science, is an area in front of a defensive position that the enemy must cross during an assault and is specifically intended to allow the defending troops to incapacitate a large number of the enemy. Defensive emplacements such as anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire and...
. Suffering many casualties, the Soviets made it beyond the main hall and started to work their way up through the building. The fire and subsequent wartime damage had turned the building's interior into a maze of rubble and debris amongst which the German defenders were strongly dug in. The Soviet infantry were forced to clear them out. Fierce room-to-room fighting ensued. As May Day approached Soviet troops reached the roof of the Reichstag as fighting continued inside. Moscow claimed that they hoisted the Red Flag on the top of the Reichstag at 22:50, however Beevor points out that this may have been an exaggeration as "Soviet propaganda was fixated with the idea of the Reichstag being captured by 1 May". Whatever the truth, the fighting continued as there was still a large contingent of German soldiers down in the basement. The Germans were well stocked with food and ammunition and launched counter-attacks against the Red Army leading to close fighting in and around the Reichstag. Close combat raged throughout the night and the coming day of 1 May, until the evening when some German troops pulled out of the building and crossed the Friedrichstraße S-Bahn Station where they moved into the ruins hours before the main breakout across the Spree. About 300 of the last German combatants surrendered. A further 200 defenders were dead and another 500 were already
hors de combatHors de Combat, literally meaning "outside the fight," is a French term used in diplomacy and international law to refer to soldiers who are incapable of performing their military function. Examples include a downed fighter pilot, as well as the sick, wounded, detained, or otherwise disabled...
lying wounded in the basement, many before the final assault had started.
The barricade at Pestalozzistrasse was taken on the morning of May 1, allowing Soviet tanks of the 34th Brigade to advance and to reestablish contact with the 19th Mechanized Brigade supported by the 2nd and 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment, which pushed through the barricades at Goethestrasse and Schilerstrasse. Further, heavily fortified German positions in and around the church at the Karl August-Platz were taken, allowing the Polish and Soviet units to advance along the Goethestrasse and Schilerstrasse. In the meantime, the Polish 2nd Regiment, with its own artillery support, took the heavily fortified Berlin Institute of Technology that was situated in the triangle between Charlottenburgerstrasse, Hardenbergstrasse and Jebenstrasse. With support by the Polish 3rd Infantry Regiment, the Soviet 66th Guards Tank Brigade (which had only 15 tanks) broke through the Franklinstrasse, and advanced towards the Berlin-Tiergarten station. The stronghold of the Tiergarten (S-Baun) station was then secured by the 3rd Infantry Regiment. Thereafter, the Polish and Soviet units took control of the
Zoologischer Garten stationBerlin Zoologischer Garten station was the central transport facility in West Berlin during the division of the city, and thereafter for the western central area of Berlin until opening of the new Berlin Central Station on 28 May 2006...
and the railway line between them. By these actions, the Red Army had broken through the central Berlin west line of defences.
At about 04:00 on 1 May, Krebs talked to Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army. Krebs returned empty handed after refusing to agree to an unconditional surrender. Only
Reichskanzler Goebbels now had the authority to agree to an unconditional surrender. In the late afternoon, Goebbels had his children poisoned. At about 20:00, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, left the bunker and close to the entrance bit on a cyanide ampule and either shot themselves at the same time, or were given a
coup de grâceThe expression coup de grâce means a death blow intended to end the suffering of a wounded creature. The phrase can refer to the killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the consent of the sufferer...
immediately afterwards by the SS guard detailed to dispose of their bodies. As promised by the Soviets, at 10:45 on 1 May they unleashed a "hurricane of fire" on the German pocket in the centre to force the Germans to surrender unconditionally.
For a brief period after Hitler's suicide, Goebbels was Germany's
Reichskanzler. On 1 May, after Goebbels' own suicide,
Reichspräsident Admiral Karl Dönitz appointed Ludwig von Krosigk as
Reichskanzler. The headquarters of the Dönitz government were located around
FlensburgFlensburg is an independent town in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the region of Southern Schleswig...
, along with Mürwik, near the Danish border. Accordingly, the Dönitz administration was referred to as the
Flensburg governmentThe Flensburg Government , also known as the Flensburg Cabinet and the Dönitz Government , was the short-lived administration that attempted to rule the Third Reich during most of May 1945 at the end of World War II in Europe...
.
The commanders of two formidable Berlin fortresses agreed to surrender to the Soviets, so sparing both sides the losses involved in further bombardment and assault. The commander of the Zoo flak tower (that had proved impervious to direct hits from 203 mm howitzer shells) was asked to surrender on 30 April, after a long delay a message was sent back to the Soviets on the 1 May informing them that the garrison would surrender to the Soviets at midnight that night. The reason for the delay was because the garrison intended to join in the attempt at a breakout. The other fortress was the
Spandau CitadelThe Spandau Citadel is a fortress in Berlin, Germany, one of the best-preserved Renaissance military structures of Europe. Built from 1559–94 atop a medieval fort on an island created by the meeting of the Havel and the Spree, it was designed to protect the town of Spandau, which is now...
of
Trace italienne design which although several hundred years old presented a difficult structure to storm. After negotiations, the citadel's commander surrendered to the Lieutenant-General Perkhorovitch's 47th Army just after 15:00 on 1 May.
Breakout
Weildling had given the order for the survivors to break out to the north west starting at around 21:00 hours on 1 May. The breakout started later than planned at around 23:00 hours. The first group from the Reich Chancellery was led by Mohnke. Bormann,
Werner NaumannWerner Naumann was a State Secretary in Joseph Goebbels' Propagandaministerium during the Third Reich. He was appointed head of the Propaganda Ministry by Führer Adolf Hitler in his political testament after Dr. Goebbels was promoted to Reichskanzler.-Early life and political career:Naumann was...
, and remaining Führerbunker personnel followed. General Burgdorf, who played a key role in the death of
Erwin RommelErwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
, along with General Krebs committed suicide. Mohnke's group avoided the
Weidendammer BridgeThe Weidendammer Bridge is an long bridge where the Friedrichstrasse crosses the Spree river in the central Mitte district of Berlin, Germany...
(over which the mass breakout took place) and crossed by a footbridge, but his group became split. A Tiger tank that spearheaded the first attempt to storm the Weidendammer Bridge was destroyed. There followed two more attempts and on the third attempt, made around 1:00,
Martin BormannMartin Ludwig Bormann was a prominent Nazi official. He became head of the Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler...
and SS doctor
Ludwig StumpfeggerSS-Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Stumpfegger was a German SS doctor in World War II and Adolf Hitler's personal surgeon from 1944....
in another group from the Reich Chancellery managed to cross the Spree. They were reported to have died a short distance from the bridge, their bodies seen and identified by Arthur Axmann who followed the same route.
Krukenberg and many of the survivors of the remnants of the
Nordland Division crossed the Spree shortly before dawn but could not break through and were forced back into the centre. There they split up, some discarded their uniforms and tried to pass themselves off as civilians, but most were either killed or like Krukenberg captured. An attempt to break out northward along the Schönhauser Allee by German troops on the eastern side of the central defence area failed because the Soviets were now aware that breakout attempts were being made and were hurriedly putting cordons in place to stop them. The remnants of the
Münchenberg Division (five tanks, four artillery pieces, and a handful of troops), and the remnants of the 18th Panzer Grenadier and
9th ParachuteThe German 9th Parachute Division was one of the final parachute divisions to be raised by Germany during World War II...
divisions broke out of the centre westward through the Tiergarten. They were followed by thousands of stragglers and civilians.
SpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
was still in the hands of a Hitler Youth detachment, so an attempt was made to force a passage across the Charlottenbrücke (
Charlotten bridge) over the
HavelThe Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
. Despite heavy shelling which killed many, German weight of numbers meant that they were able drive the Soviet infantry back and many thousands crossed into Spandau. The armoured vehicles that successfully crossed the bridge made for
StaakenStaaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
.
Mohnke (and what was left of his group) could not break through the Soviet rings. Most were taken prisoner and some committed suicide. General Mohnke and the others who had been in the
FührerbunkerThe Führerbunker was located beneath Hitler's New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex which was constructed in two major phases, one part in 1936 and the other in 1943...
were interrogated by
SMERSHSMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
. Only a handful of survivors reached the Elbe and surrendered to the
Western AlliesThe Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
. The majority were killed or captured by the Soviets. The numbers of German soldiers and civilians killed attempting the breakout is unknown.
Capitulation
On the morning of 2 May the Soviets stormed the Reich Chancellery. In the official Soviet version, the battle was similar to that of the battle for the Reichstag. There was an assault over
WilhelmplatzWilhelmplatz is a former square in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Voßstraße. The square also gave its name to a Berlin U-Bahn station which has since been renamed Mohrenstraße...
and into the building with a howitzer to blast open the front doors and several battles within the building. Major Anna Nikulina, a political officer with Lieutenant-General Rossly's 9th Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army carried and unfurled the red flag on the roof. However, Beevor suggests that the official Soviet description is probably an exaggeration, as most of the German combat troops had left in the breakouts the night before, the resistance must have been far less than that inside the Reichstag.
At 01:00 hours the Soviets picked up radio message from the German LVI Corps requesting a cease-fire and stating that emissaries would come under a white flag to Potsdamer bridge. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see Lieutenant-General Chuikov at 8:23 am. Chuikov (who had commanded the successful
defence of StalingradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
), asked: "You are the commander of the Berlin garrison?" Weidling replied: "Yes, I am the commander of the LVII Panzer Corps." Chuikov then asked: "Where is Krebs?" Weidling replied: "I saw him yesterday in the Reich Chancellery." Weidling then added: "I thought he would commit suicide." In the discussions that followed, Weidling agreed to an unconditional surrender of the city of Berlin. He agreed to order the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets. Under the direction of Chuikov and Soviet General
Vasily SokolovskyVasily Danilovich Sokolovsky was a Soviet military commander.Sokolovsky was born into a peasant family in Kozliki, a small town in the province of Grodno, near Białystok in Poland . He worked as a teacher in a rural school, where he took part in a number of protests and demonstrations against the...
(Chief of staff of the 1st Ukrainian Front), Weidling put his order to surrender in writing.
The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower finally left the building. There was sporadic fighting in a few isolated buildings where some SS still refused to surrender. The Soviets simply blasted any such building to rubble. Most Germans, soldiers and civilians, were grateful to receive food issued at Red Army soup kitchens. The Soviets went house to house and rounded up anyone in a uniform including firemen and railwaymen, a total of 180,000, and marched them eastwards as prisoners of war.
Aftermath
- Main article Battle of Berlin: Aftermath
The Red Army made a major effort to feed the residents of the city which began on Colonel-General
Nikolai BerzarinNikolai Erastovich Berzarin was a Soviet Red Army General during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became commander of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin.-Family:Berzarin was born the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress...
's orders. However, in many areas, vengeful Soviet troops (usually rear echelon units) looted, raped (an estimated 100,000), and murdered civilians for several weeks.
Commemoration
1,100,000 Soviet personnel who took part in the capture of Berlin from 22 April to 2 May 1945 were awarded with the Medal For the Capture of Berlin.
The
Victory BannerThe Soviet Banner of Victory is the banner raised by the Red Army soldiers on the Reichstag building in Berlin, on April 30, 1945. It was raised by three Soviet soldiers: Alexei Berest, Mikhail Yegorov, and Meliton Kantaria, from Ukraine, Russia, and Georgia respectively.The Victory Banner, made...
to be used for celebrations of the Soviet
Victory DayVictory Day or 9 May marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War...
was defined by a federal law of
RussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, on May 7, 2007, as a copy of the flag was raised on the Reichstag (with the hammer and sickle, and the inscription). This flag is not the first to be hoisted on the Reichstag, but is the first (and the only surviving) of the 'official' flags, explicitly prepared for that purpose, to be raised there.
See also
- End of World War II in Europe
The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union took place in late April and early May 1945.-Timeline of surrenders and deaths:...
- German Instrument of Surrender
- Race to Berlin
The Race to Berlin refers mainly to the competition between two Soviet Marshals to be the first to enter Berlin during the final months of World War II....
Further reading
- Antill, P. Battle for Berlin: April – May 1945 (website): Appendix 1: Appendix 1: Soviet Order of Battle for the Battle for Berlin (Le Tissier, pp. 196 – 207) and Appendix 2: German Order of Battle for Operation Berlin (Le Tissier, pp. 208 – 214) Citing Le Tissier, T. The Battle of Berlin 1945, Jonathan Cape, London, 1988.
- Hastings, Max; Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945, Macmillan, 2004, ISBN 0-333-90836-8
- Hillers, Marta; A Woman in Berlin: Six Weeks in the Conquered City Translated by Anthes Bell, ISBN 0-8050-7540-2
- Le Tissier, Tony. The Battle of Berlin 1945, Jonathan Cape, London, 1988, ISBN 0-224-02528-7. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 1988 ISBN 0-312-01604-2
- Le Tissier, Tony. Charlemagne – The 33rd Waffen-SS Grenadier Division of the SS. Pen & Sword, 2010, ISBN 1848842317
- Read, Anthony. The Fall of Berlin, London: Pimlico, 1993, ISBN 0-7126-0695-5
- Ryan, Cornelius
Cornelius Ryan, was an Irish journalist and author mainly known for his writings on popular military history, especially his World War II books: The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 D-Day , The Last Battle , and A Bridge Too Far .-Early life:Ryan was born in Dublin and educated at Synge Street CBS,...
. The Last Battle, ISBN 0-684-80329-1
- Sanders, Ian J. ; Photos of World War 2 Berlin Locations today
- Shepardson, Donald E. "The Fall of Berlin and the Rise of a Myth", The Journal of Military History, Vol. 62, No. 1. (1998), pp. 135–153.
- Remme, Tilman; The Battle for Berlin in World War Two BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
article
- White, Osmar By the eyes of a war correspondent Alternative account of crimes against civilians