Photos of Berlin in the spring of 1945. Chronicle of the fall of Berlin in the last weeks of the Third Reich day by day
The final operation of the Soviet troops during the war with Germany. At the cost of huge losses, ahead of the allies, the Soviet troops took Berlin on May 2, 1945.
The capture of Berlin is another controversial page in the history of World War II. In a swift operation to finally defeat the Wehrmacht and the entire Third Reich, Soviet troops suffered enormous losses. Stalin sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to politics. The goals of the Soviet leadership were obvious: to take Berlin as soon as possible - before the Western allies began to storm the German capital. In the spring of 1945, the German rulers were engaged in lively negotiations with the United States and Great Britain, hoping for a separate peace that could save the leadership of the Reich from physical destruction, and Germany from a pro-communist government. The danger of such an agreement was great, and Stalin spared no expense in order to dictate terms to the West himself after the end of the war. The fact that the Germans would be defeated in it was clear even without the capture of Berlin, but what Germany would be like then depended largely on the key in which they last days war.
As a result of the winter offensive of 1945, troops of the 2nd, 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts liberated all of Poland, reached the Oder and Neisse rivers, capturing several bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder, of which highest value had a bridgehead occupied by the 1st Belorussian Front in the Kustrin area. Berlin was only 60 km away.
Despite a serious industrial and military crisis, Germany was still a strong adversary. The Nazi command took the most serious measures to defend the capital. By the beginning of the operation, the defense consisted of the Oder-Neissen defensive line and the Berlin defensive area. The total depth of defense reached 100–120 km. The Oder-Neisen defensive line with a depth of 20-40 km consisted of three lanes. The strongest defense sector on the second lane was the Seelow Heights (40–60 m high). The strongest sections on the third lane were Eberswalde, Furstenwalde and a section on the western bank of the river. Spree. The Berlin defensive area relied on several obstacles in the form of rivers, canals, lakes and forests surrounding the city. The streets of Berlin were blocked by barricades and minefields. Hundreds of concrete defensive structures were erected in the city center.
In the Berlin direction, the German command concentrated a large grouping as part of the Vistula Army Group (3rd Panzer and 9th Armies) of Colonel General Heinrici (since April 30, Infantry General Tippelskirch) and the 4th Panzer and 17th Army of the Army Group "Center" of Field Marshal Scherner (only about 1 million people, 10,400 guns and mortars, 1,530 tanks and assault guns, over 3,300 aircraft).
The walls of the houses were covered with Goebbels' propaganda slogans: "We will never surrender!", "Every German will defend his capital!", "Let's stop the red hordes at the walls of our Berlin!", "Victory or Siberia!" Loudspeakers in the streets urged residents to fight to the death.
The Soviet command planned to encircle the entire enemy Berlin grouping with the support of the Baltic Fleet by the forces of three fronts, at the same time dismember it into parts and destroy each of them separately.
The 1st Belorussian Front (commander G.K. Zhukov) was supposed to go on the offensive in the Schwedt, Gross-Gastrose sector, defeat the Berlin grouping of the Nazis, capture Berlin and, developing a blow to the west, no later than the 12-15th day of the operation go to Elba. To ensure the main strike force of the front from the north and south, it was ordered to deliver two auxiliary strikes by the forces of two armies each: from the Zeden region in the direction of Fehrbellin and from bridgeheads north and south of Frankfurt an der Oder - in the direction of Brandenburg, bypassing Berlin from the south.
The 1st Ukrainian Front (commander I.S. Konev) received the task of defeating the enemy grouping in the area of Cottbus and south of Berlin and, no later than the 10-12th day of the operation, reach the line of Beelitz, Wittenberg and further along the Elbe to Dresden. Part of the forces in the event of a change in the situation, the front was supposed to assist the 1st Belorussian Front in capturing Berlin.
The 2nd Belorussian Front (commander K.K. Rokossovsky) received the task of defeating the enemy’s Stettin grouping and, no later than the 12th-15th day of the operation, to capture the Anklam, Wittenberg line, ensuring the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front from the enemy’s counterattack from the north.
As a mobile group, the fronts had: 1st Belorussian Front - 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, 1st Ukrainian Front - 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, 2nd Belorussian Front - three tank corps , one mechanized and one cavalry. Tank armies were planned to enter the breakthrough on the first day of the operation after the capture of the first line of defense on the 1st Belorussian Front by rifle subunits and on the second day from the turn of the river. Spree on the 1st Ukrainian Front. Then they had to operate in the city itself. The two-echelon formation of troops made it possible to build up efforts from the depths. On the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, superiority over the enemy was created by more than three times, on the sector of the 1st Ukrainian - by 8-10 times. The use of artillery preparation was carefully planned - a double fire shaft, a single fire shaft, a consistent concentration of fire. Aviation also received clear tasks. In particular, she had to prevent the approach to the enemy of reserves from Berlin and Dresden.
All three fronts by the beginning of the operation consisted of 2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and mortars, 7,500 combat aircraft, and 6,250 tanks. So a large number of forces and means have not yet been used in any operation.
At 5 o'clock on April 16, 1945, it was still dark, artillery and aviation preparation began, and 20 minutes later - a general offensive. With the start of the offensive, 143 searchlights were turned on, the rays of which were directed towards the enemy. This innovation had a short psychological impact.
Conducting artillery preparation only to the depth of the first position complicated the position of the attackers. When the Soviet troops reached the second, and in some areas - to the third position, the enemy's fire resistance increased, he went on to counterattacks. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front sharply slowed down the offensive. In this regard, on the same day, Zhukov brought the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies into battle to complete the breakthrough of the main strip. As a result, by the end of the first day of the operation, it was possible to complete the breakthrough of the main line of enemy defenses and reach the second line. Attempts to break through the second lane on the move were unsuccessful. It was necessary to operate in the conditions of a continuous enemy defensive foothold, with many rivers, canals and lakes. It was much more difficult than it seemed to the Soviet command before the start of the operation to take the Seelow Heights. A huge number of Soviet soldiers died here.
On the morning of April 17, after a 20-30-minute artillery preparation, the troops of the shock group of the front began to break through the second line of defense and, after fierce fighting, broke through it by the end of the day, advancing 6-13 km in a day. In the next two days, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, repelling numerous enemy counterattacks, completed the breakthrough of the third line of enemy defenses, that is, the entire Oder defensive line of the enemy, to a depth of 30 km.
On April 16, in the morning, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the river. Neisse, captured a bridgehead on the opposite bank and by the end of the day broke through the enemy's main line of defense. The next day, April 17, the troops of the strike force, including the tank armies, repulsed the counterattacks of the enemy reserves, broke through the second line of defense, advancing in two days to a depth of 18 km. The Germans began to retreat to the third line of defense beyond the river. Spree. On April 18, Soviet troops crossed the Spree and broke into the enemy's third line of defense. Tank armies began to encircle the Berlin group. On the fourth day of the offensive, the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through the Neissen defensive line on the entire front and wedged into the enemy defenses up to 50 km.
April 18 began fighting troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. For two days, the troops of the front crossed the Eastern Oder, cleared the interfluve of the enemy, and took up their starting position for an offensive on the eastern bank of the Western Oder. With these actions, the 2nd Belorussian Front fettered the forces of the 3rd Panzer Army of the Nazis, which could not help the neighboring 9th Army, which was suffering defeat under the blows of the 1st Belorussian Front.
Having completed the breakthrough of the Oder-Neissen defensive line, the troops of the shock group of the 1st Belorussian Front continued to advance on Berlin from the northeast and east, and the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front - from the south and southeast. On April 20 and 21, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the outskirts of the city from the north and northeast.
On April 21-22, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front also reached Berlin from the south. On April 24, troops of the 8th Guards, 3rd and 69th Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front joined southeast of Berlin with the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front. By doing this, they cut the enemy's Berlin grouping into two parts and at the same time surrounded his Frankfurt-Guben grouping (9th Army).
On April 25, the troops of the 47th and 2nd Guards Tank Armies in the area northwest of Potsdam connected with the troops of the 4th Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, thereby completing the encirclement of the entire Berlin group.
On the same day, the main forces of the 5th Guards Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the Torgau region on the eastern bank of the Elbe and met with the troops of the 1st American Army. The territory of Germany and its armed forces were divided.
On April 20, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Western Oder and until April 25 continued stubborn battles with the Nazis for the expansion of the bridgehead.
The enemy grouping southeast of Berlin was surrounded and destroyed. True, 45 thousand Germans managed to break through the encirclement here and on April 30 go to the Luckenwalde area, and part of the forces to the area east of Beelitz. However, in these areas, on May 1, both groups were surrounded and taken prisoner by the forces of the reserves. Attempts by the German 12th Army, hastily formed west of Berlin, to go on the offensive in an easterly direction and break through the Soviet encirclement from the outside, did not lead to anything.
The total losses of the enemy grouping, surrounded southeast of Berlin, were more than 60 thousand soldiers and officers killed, and up to 120 thousand captured.
The liquidation of the Berlin garrison under the command of General Weidling, numbering more than 200 thousand people, took place in fierce street battles. The Nazis offered stubborn resistance. They fought fiercely for every quarter, for every house. Starting on April 26 to dismember the enemy, on April 28, Soviet troops reached the central sector of Berlin and launched battles for it. The next day, the German grouping in Berlin was divided into three isolated units, the command of which was actually violated.
If in Budapest the Soviet command avoided the use of artillery and aircraft, then during the assault on the capital of Nazi Germany they did not spare fire. According to Marshal Zhukov, from April 21 to May 2, almost 1.8 million artillery shots were fired at Berlin. More than 36 thousand tons of metal were brought down on the city.
A feature of the Berlin operation can also be called the widespread use of large tank masses in the zone of continuous defense of German troops, including in Berlin itself. In such conditions, Soviet armored vehicles were not able to use a wide maneuver and became a convenient target for German anti-tank weapons. This resulted in high losses. Suffice it to say that in two weeks of fighting, the Red Army lost a third of the tanks and self-propelled artillery units that participated in the Berlin operation.
On the eve of the surrender, the city was a terrible sight. Tongues of flame escaped from the damaged gas pipeline, illuminating the sooty walls of houses. The streets were impassable due to rubble. Suicide bombers with Molotov cocktails jumped out of the basements of houses and rushed at Soviet tanks that had become easy prey in urban areas. Hand-to-hand fighting went on everywhere - on the streets, on the roofs of houses, in basements, in tunnels, in the Berlin subway.
During April 30, fierce battles unfolded for the Reichstag, the building of which was one of the most important nodes of resistance in the central defense sector of Berlin. The approaches to it were covered by the river. Spree, numerous large stone buildings and were shot through by anti-aircraft artillery fire. The Reichstag building was adapted for all-round defense: window and door openings were sealed with bricks, holes were left only for loopholes and embrasures. A few meters from the building there were reinforced concrete lots, and 200 m there were trenches with machine-gun platforms and communication passages connecting the trenches with the basement of the building. The Reichstag was defended by a garrison of several thousand officers and soldiers, including 1 thousand sailors from the naval school in Rostock, parachuted into the area.
The capture of the Reichstag was carried out by the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, under the command of Major General S. N. Perevertkin. Artillery of large calibers, guards mortars were brought up. The fighting for the Reichstag began in the early hours of 30 April after a short but heavy artillery preparation. They took a protracted and stubborn character. In many areas, the fighting turned into hand-to-hand combat.
At 1830, under the cover of artillery fire, three rifle battalions rushed to the last swift attack. Soviet soldiers burst into the Reichstag building through gaps in the walls, and a few minutes later a lot of red flags turned red on it. Many Soviet sources claimed that the red banner on the very dome of the Reichstag was hoisted by Yegorov and Kantaria. But it has long been proven that this is just a legend, which emphasizes the friendship of representatives of different peoples in the Soviet army.
In the battles for the Reichstag alone, more than 2,000 enemy German soldiers and officers were killed and wounded, 28 guns were destroyed, 2,604 prisoners were captured, 1,800 rifles and machine guns, 59 guns, 15 tanks and assault guns.
On the night of April 30 to May 1, Hitler committed suicide. By the morning of May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison were divided into separate groups, which capitulated by 15 o'clock. The surrender of the Berlin garrison was accepted by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General V. I. Chuikov.
During the Berlin operation, only about 480 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured. The losses of the Red Army amounted to 352 thousand people. In terms of daily losses personnel and equipment (over 15 thousand people, 87 tanks and self-propelled guns, 40 aircraft), the battle for Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army. Losses were incurred, first of all, during the battle, in contrast to the battles of the first period of the war, when the daily losses of the Soviet troops were determined to a large extent by a significant number of captured Red Army soldiers.
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Berliner Ring
Ring motorway (autobahn 10), encircling the capital of Germany. The total length is 196 km. The symbolic border of Greater Berlin.
The first Soviet troops crossed the Berliner Ring on April 21, 1945, on its northeastern section.
Teltow Canal
A canal in the southern part of Berlin connecting the river Havel with the river Dahme. Length 38 km. It was dug in 1900-1906.
On April 23, 1945, the Teltow Canal became a kind of southern front for Berlin, separating Soviet and German troops. However, the very next day it was forced by units of Pavel Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army along pontoon bridges built during the night.
Dahlem, Berlin area
In April 1945, the headquarters of the German high command was located here. When the threat of encirclement of the city arose, the staff generals, led by Wilhelm Keitel, left Berlin.
Also in Dahlem, on a street called Boltzmannstrasse, were the research institutes of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society involved in the German atomic project. And next door - on Till Alley - the Institute of Chemistry is still located, where on December 17, 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, for the first time in the world, achieved artificial fission of the uranium nucleus. In January-February 1945, the main part of the equipment, including an experimental nuclear reactor, was taken from Dahlem to southern Germany. And on April 26, the area was occupied by units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, Colonel General Pavel Rybalko. In the first days of May, special groups of the NKVD began to work in Dahlem under the general leadership of General Zavenyagin. They included not only state security officers, but also Soviet scientists. We had to act quickly, because according to the Yalta agreements, Dalem was supposed to enter the American zone of occupation of Berlin.
As one of the participants in the Soviet nuclear program, physicist Isaac Kikoin, recalled, “We started our survey with the Kaiser Institute. Among the secret documents, we found a uranium project. We were not mistaken, indeed, the Kaiser Institute was the main one in this problem. that the Germans did not overtake us, on the contrary, they were at a very low scientific and technical level in the questions we are interested in. True, they experimentally observed the beginning of a chain reaction (neutron multiplication).<…>There we also found some metallic uranium and several kilograms of uranium oxide. We dismantled some of the equipment that remained at the Kaiser Institute and sent it to Moscow (electrical panels, appliances). We also sent several very naive isotope separation facilities to Moscow."
From July 25, 1945, the Inter-Allied Commandant's Office was located in Dahlem - the collective governing body of Berlin, established by the victorious countries.
Siemensstadt, district of Berlin
The area was named from German company Siemens, which at the beginning of the 20th century. built production buildings here, as well as residential buildings for workers and employees of the company. During the Second World War, Siemens used not only hired labor, but also forced labor. Concentration camp prisoners, prisoners of war, and Ostarbeiters worked at its factories. According to the company itself, by the autumn of 1944, about 50 thousand forced laborers worked at Siemens (20% of the total staff).
On April 26, 1945, units of the 3rd shock army of Vasily Kuznetsov captured Siemensstadt. And in the same area they were after the end of urban fighting.
Spandau, district of Berlin
Until the administrative reform of 1920, when Greater Berlin came into existence, Spanadu had the status of a city.
The area is known mainly for two monuments of the same name: the citadel and the prison.
Spandau Citadel was built at the end of the 16th century. Since 1935, it housed a secret research center engaged in the development of chemical weapons (including the nerve gases tabun, sarin, soman). On April 30, 1945, the fortress, inside which not only the garrison was hiding, but also the civilian population, was surrounded by units of the 47th army of Franz Perkhorovich. On 1 May Perkhorovich sent to the citadel and she capitulated without a fight. Colonel Gerhard Jung and Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Koch, who led the garrison, were at the same time chemical scientists, specialists in the creation of chemical warfare agents. Once in Soviet captivity, on the same day they were taken by the NKVD from the headquarters of the 47th Army to Moscow and sent to a special camp located in Krasnogorsk. For nine years, Jung and Koch constantly refused all offers of cooperation coming from the Soviet side, and in 1954 they were repatriated to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Spandau prison, located a few kilometers from the citadel, was used by the Nazis from 1933 to hold political prisoners. After the end of the war, the Spandau area became part of the British occupation sector of West Berlin. And the prison began to be used to hold the leaders of the Reich, sentenced at the Nuremberg trials to various terms of imprisonment (Karl Doenitz, Erich Raeder, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess, Baldur von Schirach, Konstantin von Neurath, Walter Funk). For 40 years, the prison was managed jointly by the four victorious powers. Change of administrations happened every month. After the death in 1987 of the last prisoner - Rudolf Hess (who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Nuremberg), the prison building was completely demolished.
Lichtenberg, district of Berlin
On July 4, 1945, the territory of the airport was transferred to the control of the American occupation authorities. In 1948, during the international crisis and the blockade of West Berlin by the Soviet Union, Tempelhof, like other Berlin airfields, was used to deliver food, fuel and medicines to the city. On some days planes took off and landed at intervals of 3 minutes.
In 2008, the airport, which by that time had become unprofitable, was closed.
Potsdam
From the beginning of the XVIII century. until the revolution of 1918, Potsdam served as the residence of the kings of Prussia, because of which he received a reputation as a city symbolizing "Prussian militarism."
It was here in March 1933 that the famous handshake between President Hindenburg and the new Chancellor of the Weimar Republic, Adolf Hitler, took place. For many Germans, this event was a good sign, heralding the return of the country to its former greatness.
On April 14, 1945, Potsdam was bombed by the RAF. The city center was almost completely destroyed. About 4 thousand people died. Shortly thereafter, Potsdam was proclaimed a fortress city by the German command and prepared for defense against the approaching units of the Red Army. The most important bridges across the river Havel were blown up. However, already on April 27, the city was occupied by the forces of the 4th Guards Tank Army of Dmitry Lelyushenko. On the outskirts of Potsdam, Lelyushenko's troops repelled a counterattack by Walter Wenck, who was trying to break through to Berlin with the forces of his 12th Army.
From July 17 to August 2, 1945, the Potsdam Conference was held in the city, at which Stalin, Churchill and Truman, who arrived in Germany, discussed post-war device Europe.
Government quarter (defensive area "Citadel")
The district in the center of Berlin, where various government agencies Nazi Germany, the main of which was (Vosstrasse, 6). In the garden of the Reich Chancellery was. The Reichstag building, which became a symbol of Berlin for many Soviet people, had no strategic significance. In April 1945, it was just a well-fortified point in the city center, along with two neighboring buildings: the Ministry of the Interior and.
The government district was defended by a battle group under the command of Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. It included various units of the SS troops (including formations), which were ready to the very end.
The troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, which engulfed Berlin from the north and south, squeezed the encirclement day after day. The forces of five Soviet armies broke through to the city center at once: the 1st Guards Tank Katukov, the 2nd Guards Tank Bogdanov, the 3rd Shock Kuznetsov, the 5th Shock Berzarin and the 8th Guards Chuikov. The government quarter and the adjacent Tiergarten remained the last districts of Berlin where serious fighting was still going on on May 1. After the surrender of the Berlin garrison ( ) the advanced units of all five armies met each other in the very center of the city.
Photo collection dedicated to the final part of the Berlin offensive operation of 1945, during which the Red Army captured the capital of Nazi Germany and victoriously completed the Great Patriotic War and Second world war in Europe. The operation lasted from April 25 to May 2.
1. A battery of 152-mm ML-20 howitzer guns of the 136th artillery brigade of the 313th rifle division is preparing to fire on Berlin.
2. Destroyed German Focke-Wulf Fw.190 fighters at the Uterborg airfield near Berlin.
3. Soviet soldiers at the window of the house during the storming of Berlin.
4. Civilians in line for food at the Soviet field kitchen in Berlin.
5. German prisoners of war on the streets of Berlin, captured by Soviet troops (1).
6. Broken German anti-aircraft gun on the streets of Berlin. In the foreground is the body of a killed member of the gun crew.
7. Broken German anti-aircraft gun on the streets of Berlin.
8. Soviet tank T-34-85 in a pine forest south of Berlin.
9. Soldiers and tanks T-34-85 of the 12th Guards Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army in Berlin.
10. Burnt German cars on the streets of Berlin.
11. A killed German soldier and a T-34-85 tank of the 55th Guards Tank Brigade on a Berlin street.
12. Soviet signalman at the radio during the fighting in Berlin.
13. Residents of Berlin, fleeing street fighting, go to the areas liberated by Soviet troops.
14. Battery of 152-mm howitzers ML-20 of the 1st Belorussian Front in position on the outskirts of Berlin.
15. A Soviet soldier runs near a burning house during a battle in Berlin.
16. Soviet soldiers in the trenches on the outskirts of Berlin.
17. Soviet soldiers on horse-drawn carts passing near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
18. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.
19. White flags on Berlin houses after the surrender.
20. Soviet soldiers listen to an accordionist, sitting on the bed of a 122-mm M-30 howitzer on a Berlin street.
21. The calculation of the Soviet 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun model 1939 (61-K) is monitoring the air situation in Berlin.
22. Destroyed German cars in front of a building in Berlin.
23. A picture of Soviet officers next to the bodies of the dead company commander and Volkssturm soldier.
24. The bodies of the dead company commander and Volkssturm soldier.
25. Soviet soldiers are walking along one of the streets of Berlin.
26. Battery of Soviet 152-mm ML-20 howitzer guns near Berlin. 1st Belorussian Front.
27. Soviet tank T-34-85, accompanied by infantry, moves down the street on the outskirts of Berlin.
28. Soviet artillerymen are firing on the street on the outskirts of Berlin.
29. Soviet tank gunner looks out of the hatch of his tank during the battle for Berlin.
30. Soviet self-propelled guns SU-76M on a street in Berlin.
31. The facade of the Berlin hotel "Adlon" after the battle.
32. The body of a killed German soldier next to a Horch 108 car on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.
33. Soldiers and commanders of the 7th Guards Tank Corps at the T-34-85 tank with a crew in Berlin.
34. The calculation of the 76-mm guns of Sergeant Trifonov at dinner on the outskirts of Berlin.
35. Soldiers and tanks T-34-85 of the 12th Guards Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army in Berlin.
36. Soviet soldiers cross the street during the battle in Berlin.
37. Tank T-34-85 on the square in Berlin.
39. Soviet gunners are preparing a BM-13 Katyusha rocket launcher for a salvo in Berlin.
40. Soviet 203-mm howitzer B-4 firing in Berlin at night.
41. A group of German prisoners under escort of Soviet soldiers on the streets of Berlin.
42. The calculation of the Soviet 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K model 1937 in the battle on the streets of Berlin near the T-34-85 tank.
43. The Soviet assault group with the banner is moving towards the Reichstag.
44. Soviet gunners write on the shells "Hitler", "To Berlin", "According to the Reichstag" (1).
45. Tanks T-34-85 of the 7th Guards Tank Corps in the suburbs of Berlin. In the foreground, the skeleton of a destroyed German car is burning.
46. A volley of rocket launchers BM-13 ("Katyusha") in Berlin.
47. Guards jet mortar BM-31-12 in Berlin.This is a modification of the famous Katyusha rocket launcher (by analogy it was called Andryusha).
48. Padded armored personnel carrier Sd.Kfz.250 from the 11th SS division "Nordland" on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.
49. Commander of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, three times Hero Soviet Union, Guards Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin at the airfield.
50. Killed German soldiers and a BM-31-12 rocket launcher (modification "Katyusha", nicknamed "Andryusha") on a Berlin street.
51. Soviet 152-mm howitzer-gun ML-20 on the streets of Berlin.
52. Soviet T-34-85 tank from the 7th Guards Tank Corps and captured Volkssturm militia on the streets of Berlin.
53. Soviet T-34-85 tank from the 7th Guards Tank Corps and captured Volkssturm militia on the streets of Berlin.
54. Soviet traffic controller in front of a burning building on a street in Berlin.
55. Soviet tanks T-34-76 after the battle on the streets of Berlin.
56. Heavy tank IS-2 near the walls of the defeated Reichstag.
57. The formation of the military personnel of the Soviet 88th separate heavy tank regiment in the Berlin Humboldt-Hein park in early May 1945. The formation is carried out by the political officer of the regiment, Major L.A. Glushkov and deputy regiment commander F.M. hot.
58. Soviet column heavy tanks IS-2 on the streets of Berlin.
59. Battery of Soviet 122-mm M-30 howitzers on the streets of Berlin.
60. The calculation is preparing a BM-31-12 rocket artillery installation (a modification of the Katyusha with M-31 shells, nicknamed Andryusha) on a Berlin street.
61. A column of Soviet heavy tanks IS-2 on the streets of Berlin. In the background of the picture are visible trucks ZiS-5 from the logistic support.
62. A column of units of Soviet heavy tanks IS-2 on the streets of Berlin.
63. A battery of Soviet 122-mm howitzers of the 1938 model (M-30) is firing at Berlin.
64. Soviet tank IS-2 on a destroyed street in Berlin. Disguise elements are visible on the car.
65. French prisoners of war shake hands with their liberators - Soviet soldiers. Author's title: "Berlin. French prisoners of war released from Nazi camps.
66. Tankers of the 44th Guards Tank Brigade of the 11th Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army on vacation near the T-34-85 in Berlin.
67. Soviet gunners write on the shells "Hitler", "To Berlin", "According to the Reichstag" (2).
68. Loading wounded Soviet soldiers on a ZIS-5v military truck for evacuation.
69. Soviet self-propelled guns SU-76M with tail numbers "27" and "30" in Berlin in the Karlshorst area.
70. Soviet orderlies transfer a wounded soldier from a stretcher to a wagon.
71. View of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin taken. May 1945.
72. Soviet tank T-34-85, lined up on the streets of Berlin.
73. Soviet soldiers in battle on Moltke Strasse (now Rothko Street) in Berlin.
74. Soviet soldiers rest on the IS-2 tank. The author's title of the photo is "Tankers on vacation".
75. Soviet soldiers in Berlin at the end of the fighting. In the foreground and behind, behind the car, there are ZiS-3 guns of the 1943 model.
76. Participants of the "last Berlin call" on collection point prisoners of war in Berlin.
77. German soldiers in Berlin surrender to Soviet troops.
78. View of the Reichstag after the fighting. German anti-aircraft guns 8.8 cm FlaK 18 are visible. To the right lies the body of a dead German soldier. Author's name of the photo "Final".
79. Berlin women cleaning the streets. Early May 1945, even before the signing of the German Surrender Act.
80. Soviet soldiers in position in a street fight in Berlin. The street barricade built by the Germans is used as a shelter.
81. German prisoners of war on the streets of Berlin.
82. Soviet 122-mm howitzer M-30 horse-drawn in the center of Berlin. On the shield of the gun is the inscription: "We will avenge the atrocities." In the background is the Berlin Cathedral.
83. Soviet submachine gunner at a firing position in a Berlin tram car.
84. Soviet submachine gunners in a street battle in Berlin, who took up position behind a fallen clock tower.
85. A Soviet soldier walks past a murdered SS Hauptsturmfführer in Berlin at the crossroads of Shossestrasse and Oranienburger Strasse.
86. Burning building in Berlin.
87. Volkssturm militia killed on one of the streets of Berlin.
88. Soviet self-propelled guns ISU-122 in the suburbs of Berlin. Behind the self-propelled guns there is an inscription on the wall: "Berlin will remain German!" (Berlin bleibt deutsch!).
89. A column of Soviet self-propelled guns ISU-122 on a street in Berlin.
90. Former Estonian tanks of English construction Mk.V in Berlin's Lustgarten park. In the background you can see the building of the Old Museum (Altes Museum). These tanks, rearmed with Maxim machine guns, took part in the defense of Tallinn in 1941, were captured by the Germans and transported to Berlin for a trophy exhibition. In April 1945, they allegedly participated in the defense of Berlin.
91. Shot from the Soviet 152-mm howitzer ML-20 in Berlin. The caterpillar of the IS-2 tank is visible on the right.
92. Soviet soldier with a Faustpatron.
93. A Soviet officer checks the documents of German soldiers who have surrendered. Berlin, April-May 1945
94. The calculation of the Soviet 100-mm gun BS-3 is firing at the enemy in Berlin.
95. Infantrymen from the 3rd Guards Tank Army attack the enemy in Berlin with the support of the ZiS-3 gun.
96. Soviet soldiers hoist a banner over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. This is one of the banners installed on the Reystag in addition to the official hoisting of the banner by Yegorov and Kantaria.
97. Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft from the 4th Air Army (Colonel-General of Aviation K.A. Vershinin) in the sky over Berlin.
98. Soviet soldier Ivan Kichigin at the grave of a friend in Berlin. Ivan Alexandrovich Kichigin at the grave of his friend Grigory Afanasyevich Kozlov in Berlin in early May 1945. Signature on reverse side Photos: "Sasha! This is the grave of Grigory Kozlov. There were such graves all over Berlin - friends buried their comrades near the place of their death. Approximately six months later, reburial from such graves began at the memorial cemeteries in Treptow Park and Tiergarten Park. The first memorial in Berlin, inaugurated in November 1945, was the burial of 2,500 soldiers of the Soviet army in the Tiergarten park. At its opening, the allied forces of the anti-Hitler coalition held a solemn parade in front of the monument-memorial.
100. A Soviet soldier pulls a German soldier out of a hatch. Berlin.
101. Soviet soldiers flee to a new position in the battle in Berlin. The figure of a killed German sergeant from the RAD (Reichs Arbeit Dienst, pre-conscription labor service) in the foreground.
102. Units of the Soviet heavy self-propelled artillery regiment at the crossing over the river Spree. Right ACS ISU-152.
103. Calculations of the Soviet 76.2-mm divisional guns ZIS-3 on one of the streets of Berlin.
104. A battery of Soviet 122-mm howitzers of the 1938 model (M-30) is firing at Berlin.
105. A column of Soviet heavy tanks IS-2 on a street in Berlin.
106. A captured German soldier at the Reichstag. The famous photograph, often published in books and on posters in the USSR under the name "Ende" (German: "The End").
107. Soviet tanks and other equipment at the bridge over the Spree River in the Reichstag area. On this bridge, Soviet troops, under fire from the defending Germans, stormed the Reichstag. In the photo there are tanks IS-2 and T-34-85, self-propelled guns ISU-152, guns.
108. Column Soviet tanks IS-2 on the Berlin highway.
109. The dead German woman in an armored personnel carrier. Berlin, 1945
110. A T-34 tank from the 3rd Guards Tank Army stands in front of a paper and stationery store on a Berlin street. Vladimir Dmitrievich Serdyukov (born in 1920) sits at the driver's hatch.
The plan of the operation of the Soviet Supreme High Command was to inflict several powerful blows on a wide front, dismember the Berlin enemy grouping, surround and destroy it in parts. The operation began on April 16, 1945. After powerful artillery and aviation preparation, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked the enemy on the Oder River. At the same time, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to force the Neisse River. Despite the fierce resistance of the enemy, the Soviet troops broke through his defenses.
On April 20, long-range artillery fire of the 1st Belorussian Front on Berlin laid the foundation for its assault. By the evening of April 21, its strike units reached the northeastern outskirts of the city.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a swift maneuver to reach Berlin from the south and west. On April 21, having advanced 95 kilometers, the tank units of the front broke into the southern outskirts of the city. Using the success of tank formations, the combined arms armies of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front quickly moved west.
On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts joined up west of Berlin, completing the encirclement of the entire enemy Berlin grouping (500 thousand people).
The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Oder and, breaking through the enemy defenses, advanced to a depth of 20 kilometers by April 25. They firmly fettered the 3rd German Panzer Army, preventing its use on the outskirts of Berlin.
The German fascist group in Berlin, despite the obvious doom, continued stubborn resistance. In fierce street battles on April 26-28, it was cut by Soviet troops into three isolated parts.
The fighting went on day and night. Breaking through to the center of Berlin, Soviet soldiers stormed every street and every house. On some days they managed to clear up to 300 quarters of the enemy. Hand-to-hand fights took place in the subway tunnels, underground communication facilities and communication passages. During the fighting in the city, assault detachments and groups formed the basis of the combat formations of rifle and tank units. Most of the artillery (up to 152 mm and 203 mm guns) was attached to rifle units for direct fire. Tanks operated as part of both rifle formations and tank corps and armies, operationally subordinate to the command of combined arms armies or operating in their offensive zone. Attempts to use tanks on their own led to their heavy losses from artillery fire and faustpatrons. Due to the fact that Berlin was shrouded in smoke during the assault, the massive use bomber aviation often difficult. The most powerful strikes on military targets in the city were carried out by aviation on April 25 and on the night of April 26, 2049 aircraft participated in these strikes.
By April 28, only the central part remained in the hands of the defenders of Berlin, which was shot through from all sides. Soviet artillery, and by the evening of the same day, units of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag area.
The Reichstag garrison numbered up to one thousand soldiers and officers, but it continued to grow steadily. He was armed with a large number of machine guns and faustpatrons. There were also artillery pieces. Deep ditches were dug around the building, various barriers were set up, machine-gun and artillery firing points were equipped.
On April 30, the troops of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front began fighting for the Reichstag, which immediately took on an extremely fierce character. Only in the evening, after repeated attacks, Soviet soldiers broke into the building. The Nazis offered fierce resistance. Hand-to-hand fights broke out on the stairs and in the corridors. The assault units, step by step, room by room, floor by floor, cleared the Reichstag building of the enemy. All the way Soviet soldiers from the main entrance to the Reichstag and up to the roof was marked with red flags and flags. On the night of May 1, the Banner of Victory was hoisted over the building of the defeated Reichstag. The battles for the Reichstag continued until the morning of May 1, and individual groups of the enemy, who had settled in the compartments of the cellars, capitulated only on the night of May 2.
In the battles for the Reichstag, the enemy lost more than 2 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded. Soviet troops captured over 2.6 thousand Nazis, as well as 1.8 thousand rifles and machine guns as trophies, 59 artillery pieces, 15 tanks and assault guns.
On May 1, units of the 3rd Shock Army, advancing from the north, met south of the Reichstag with units of the 8th Guards Army, advancing from the south. On the same day, two important Berlin defense centers surrendered: the Spandau citadel and the Flakturm I ("Zoobunker") anti-aircraft concrete air defense tower.
By 3 p.m. on May 2, the enemy’s resistance had completely ceased, the remnants of the Berlin garrison surrendered in total more than 134 thousand people.
During the fighting, out of about 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died, a significant part of Berlin was destroyed. Of the 250 thousand buildings in the city, about 30 thousand were completely destroyed, more than 20 thousand buildings were in a dilapidated state, more than 150 thousand buildings had medium damage. More than a third of metro stations were flooded and destroyed, 225 bridges were blown up by Nazi troops.
Fighting with separate groups, breaking through from the outskirts of Berlin to the west, ended on May 5th. On the night of May 9, the Act of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops surrounded and liquidated the largest grouping of enemy troops in the history of wars. They defeated 70 infantry, 23 tank and mechanized divisions of the enemy, captured 480 thousand people.
The Berlin operation cost the Soviet troops dearly. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 78,291 people, and sanitary - 274,184 people.
More than 600 participants in the Berlin operation were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 13 people were awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
(Additional
By the beginning of April 1945, Soviet troops reached the central regions of Germany in a wide strip and were located 60-70 km from its capital, Berlin. Attaching exceptional importance to the Berlin direction, the main command of the Wehrmacht deployed the 3rd tank and 9th armies of the Vistula army group, the 4th tank and 17th armies of the Center army group, aviation of the 6th air fleet and air Fleet "Reich". This grouping included 48 infantry, four tank and ten motorized divisions, 37 separate regiments and 98 separate battalions, two separate tank regiments, other formations and units of the branches of the armed forces and combat arms - a total of about 1 million people, 8 thousand guns and mortars, over 1200 tanks and assault guns, 3330 aircraft.
The area of upcoming hostilities abounded big amount rivers, lakes, canals and large forests, which were widely used by the enemy when creating a system of defensive belts and lines. The Oder-Neisen defensive line with a depth of 20-40 km included three lanes. The first strip, which ran along the western banks of the Oder and Neisse rivers, consisted of two to three positions and had a depth of 5-10 km. It was especially strongly fortified in front of the Kyustrinsky bridgehead. The front line was covered by minefields, barbed wire and subtle obstacles. The average density of mining in the most important directions reached 2 thousand mines per 1 km.
At a distance of 10-20 km from the front line, a second lane ran along the western banks of numerous rivers. Within its limits were also Zelov heights, which towered over the valley of the river. Oder at 40-60 m. The basis of the third strip were settlements, turned into strong nodes of resistance. Further in the depths was the Berlin defensive area, which consisted of three ring contours and the city itself, prepared for long-term resistance. The outer defensive bypass was located at a distance of 25-40 km from the center, and the inner one ran along the outskirts of the Berlin suburbs.
The purpose of the operation was to defeat the German troops in the Berlin direction, to capture the capital of Germany and with access to the river. Elba to get in touch with the Allied armies. Its plan was to inflict several blows in a wide band, surround and at the same time cut the enemy grouping into pieces and destroy them individually. The Supreme Command Headquarters involved the 2nd and 1st Belorussian, 1st Ukrainian fronts, part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, the 18th Air Army, the Dnieper military flotilla to carry out the operation - in total up to 2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and mortars, 6300 tanks and self-propelled guns, 8400 aircraft.
The task of the 1st Belorussian Front was to deliver the main blow from the Kustrinsky bridgehead on the Oder with the forces of seven armies, of which two were tank armies, to capture Berlin and, no later than 12-15 days of the operation, reach the river. Elbe. The 1st Ukrainian Front was to break through the enemy defenses on the river. Neisse, part of the forces to assist the 1st Belorussian Front in capturing the capital of Germany, and the main forces, developing the offensive in the northern and northwestern directions, no later than 10-12 days to capture the border along the river. Elbe to Dresden. The encirclement of Berlin was achieved by its detour from the north and northwest by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, and from the south and southwest by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The 2nd Belorussian Front received the task of crossing the river. Oder in the lower reaches, defeat the Stettin grouping of the enemy and continue the offensive in the direction of Rostock.
The transition to the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front was preceded by reconnaissance in force, carried out on April 14 and 15 by advanced battalions. Taking advantage of their success in separate sectors, regiments of the first echelons of divisions were brought into battle, which overcame the most dense minefields. But Taken measures not allowed to mislead the German command. Having determined that the Soviet troops planned to deliver the main blow from the Kustra bridgehead, the commander of the Vistula Army Group, Colonel-General G. Heinrici, on the evening of April 15, ordered the infantry units and artillery of the 9th Army to be withdrawn from the front line to the depth of defense.
At 5 am on April 16, before dawn, artillery preparation began, during which the most dense fire was fired at the first position left by the enemy. After its completion, 143 powerful searchlights were turned on. Encountering no organized resistance, infantry formations with the support of aviation overcame 1.5-2 km. However, with their access to the third position, the battles took on a fierce character. In order to increase the force of impact, the Marshal of the Soviet Union brought into battle the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies of Colonel General M.E. Katukov and S.I. Bogdanov. Unlike the plan, this input was carried out even before the Zelov heights were mastered. But only towards the end next day divisions of the 5th shock and 8th guards armies, Colonel General N.E. Berzarin and V.I. Chuikov, together with tank corps, with the support of bomber and attack aircraft, were able to break through the enemy defenses in the second lane and advance to a depth of 11-13 km.
During April 18 and 19, the main strike force of the 1st Belorussian Front, successively overcoming echeloned positions, lanes and lines, increased its penetration to 30 km and cut the German 9th Army into three parts. It attracted a significant part of the enemy's operational reserves. In four days, he transferred an additional seven divisions, two brigades of tank destroyers, and more than 30 separate battalions to its zone. Soviet troops inflicted significant damage on the enemy: nine of his divisions lost up to 80% of their people and almost all military equipment. Seven more divisions lost more than half of their composition. But their own losses were significant. Only in tanks and self-propelled guns they amounted to 727 units (23% of those available at the beginning of the operation).
In the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front, reconnaissance in force was carried out on the night of April 16. In the morning, after artillery and aviation preparation, reinforced battalions began crossing the river under the cover of a smoke screen. Neisse. Having seized the bridgeheads, they ensured the construction of pontoon bridges, along which formations of the first echelon of the armies, as well as the advanced units of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, the 25th and 4th Guards Tank Corps, crossed to the opposite bank. During the day, the strike force broke through the main line of defense of the German troops in a sector 26 km wide and advanced 13 km in depth, however, as on the 1st Belorussian Front, it did not complete the task of the day.
On April 17, the Marshal of the Soviet Union brought into battle the main forces of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, Colonel Generals and Colonels, who broke through the enemy's second line of defense and advanced 18 km in two days. Attempts by the German command to delay their offensive with numerous counterattacks from their reserves were not successful, and it was forced to begin a retreat to the third line of defense, which ran along the river. Spree. In order to pre-empt the enemy from occupying a profitable defensive line, the commander of the front troops ordered to increase the pace of advance to the maximum. Fulfilling the task, the rifle divisions of the 13th Army (Colonel General N.P. Pukhov), the tank corps of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the Spree by the end of April 18, crossed it on the move and captured the bridgehead.
On the whole, in three days, the front's shock grouping completed the breakthrough of the Neissen defensive line in the direction of the main attack to a depth of 30 km. At the same time, the 2nd Army of the Polish Army (Lieutenant General K. Sverchevsky), the 52nd Army (Colonel General K.A. Koroteev) and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant General V.K. Baranov) operating in the Dresden direction ) moved to the west by 25-30 km.
After breaking through the Oder-Neissen line, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts began to develop an offensive in order to encircle Berlin. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov decided to bypass the capital of Germany from the northeast to carry out the 47th (Lieutenant General F.I. Perkhorovich) and 3rd shock (Colonel General V.I. Kuznetsov) armies in cooperation with the corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army. The 5th shock, 8th guards and 1st guards tank armies were to continue the attack on the city from the east and isolate the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben grouping from it.
According to the plan of the Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev, the 3rd Guards and 13th Armies, as well as the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, were intended to cover Berlin from the south. At the same time, the 4th Guards Tank Army was to link up to the west of the city with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and encircle the enemy's Berlin grouping proper.
During April 20-22, the nature of hostilities in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front did not change. His armies were forced, as before, to overcome the fierce resistance of the German troops in numerous strongholds, each time carrying out artillery and aviation training. The tank corps were never able to break away from the rifle units and acted on the same line with them. Nevertheless, they consistently broke through the outer and inner defensive contours of the city and started fighting on its northeastern and northern outskirts.
The 1st Ukrainian Front operated under more favorable conditions. In the course of breaking through the defensive lines on the Neisse and Spree rivers, he defeated the enemy's operational reserves, which allowed mobile formations to develop the offensive in separate directions at a high pace. On April 20, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the approaches to Berlin. Destroying the enemy over the next two days in the areas of Zossen, Luckenwalde and Ueterbog, they overcame the outer Berlin defensive bypass, broke into the southern outskirts of the city and cut off the retreat of the German 9th Army to the west. To accomplish the same task, the 28th Army of Lieutenant General A.A. was also introduced into the battle from the second echelon. Luchinsky.
In the course of further actions, units of the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front established cooperation in the Bonsdorf area on April 24, thereby completing the encirclement of the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy. The next day, when the 2nd and 4th Guards Tank Armies joined west of Potsdam, the same fate befell his Berlin grouping. At the same time, units of the 5th Guards Army, Colonel-General A.S. Zhadova met on the Elbe in the Torgau region with the American 1st Army.
Starting from April 20, the 2nd Belorussian Front of Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. began to implement the general plan of the operation. Rokossovsky. On that day, the formation of the 65th, 70th and 49th armies of Colonel General P.I. Batova, V.S. Popova and I.T. Grishin crossed the river. West Oder and captured bridgeheads on its western bank. Overcoming enemy fire resistance and repulsing counterattacks by his reserves, formations of the 65th and 70th armies united the captured bridgeheads into one up to 30 km wide and up to 6 km deep. Developing the offensive from it, by the end of April 25, they had completed the breakthrough of the main line of defense of the German 3rd Panzer Army.
The final stage of the Berlin offensive began on 26 April. Its content was to destroy the encircled enemy groups and capture the capital of Germany. Having decided to hold Berlin until last chance On April 22, Hitler ordered the 12th Army, which until then had been operating against American troops, to break through to the southern suburbs of the city. The encircled 9th Army was supposed to break through in the same direction. After the connection, they were to strike at the Soviet troops that had bypassed Berlin from the south. To meet them from the north, it was planned to launch an offensive by Steiner's army group.
Anticipating the possibility of a breakthrough of the Frankfurt-Guben enemy grouping to the west, Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev ordered four rifle divisions 28th and 13th armies, reinforced with tanks, self-propelled guns and anti-tank artillery, go on the defensive and disrupt the plans of the high command of the Wehrmacht. At the same time, the destruction of the encircled troops began. By that time, up to 15 divisions of the German 9th and 4th tank armies were blocked in the forests southeast of Berlin. They numbered 200 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 2 thousand guns and mortars, over 300 tanks and assault guns. To defeat the enemy from the two fronts, six armies were involved, part of the forces of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, the main forces of the 2nd Air Army of Colonel General Aviation S.A. Krasovsky.
Inflicting simultaneous frontal strikes and strikes in converging directions, the Soviet troops constantly reduced the area of the encirclement area, cut the enemy grouping into pieces, disrupted the interaction between them and destroyed them individually. At the same time, they stopped the unceasing attempts of the German command to make a breakthrough to connect with the 12th Army. To do this, it was necessary to constantly build up forces and means in threatened directions, to increase the depth of combat formations of troops on them to 15-20 km.
Despite heavy losses, the enemy persistently rushed to the west. Its maximum advance was more than 30 km, and the minimum distance between the formations of the 9th and 12th armies that delivered counter strikes was only 3-4 km. However, by the beginning of May, the Frankfurt-Guben group had ceased to exist. During heavy fighting, up to 60,000 people were killed, 120,000 soldiers and officers were captured, over 300 tanks and assault guns, 1,500 field and anti-aircraft artillery guns, 17,600 vehicles, and a large number of other equipment were captured.
The destruction of the Berlin group, which numbered over 200 thousand people, more than 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks, was carried out in the period from April 26 to May 2. At the same time, the main way to overcome enemy resistance was the widespread use of assault detachments as part of rifle units, reinforced with artillery, tanks, self-propelled guns and sappers. They attacked with the support of aviation of the 16th (Colonel-General of Aviation K.A. Vershinin) and the 18th (Chief Marshal of Aviation A.E. Golovanov) air armies in narrow areas and cut the German units into many isolated groups.
On April 26, formations of the 47th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 3rd Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front separated the enemy groups located in Potsdam and directly in Berlin. The next day, Soviet troops captured Potsdam and at the same time started fighting in the central (ninth) defensive sector of Berlin, where the highest state and military authorities of Germany were located.
On April 29, the rifle corps of the 3rd shock army entered the Reichstag area. The approaches to it were covered by the river. Spree and a number of fortified large buildings. At 13:30 on April 30, artillery preparation for the assault began, in which, in addition to artillery operating from closed positions, 152- and 203-mm howitzers took part as direct fire guns. After its completion, units of the 79th Rifle Corps attacked the enemy and broke into the Reichstag.
As a result of the fighting on April 30, the position of the Berlin group became hopeless. It was divided into isolated groups, command and control of troops at all levels was violated. Despite this, individual subunits and units of the enemy continued futile resistance for several days. Only by the end of May 5 it was finally broken. 134 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered.
In the period from May 3 to May 8, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced in a wide strip to the river. Elbe. The 2nd Belorussian Front, operating to the north, by that time had completed the defeat of the German 3rd Panzer Army, went to the coast Baltic Sea and to the Elbe. On May 4, in the Wismar-Grabov sector, his formations made contact with units of the British 2nd Army.
During the Berlin operation, the 2nd and 1st Belorussian, 1st Ukrainian fronts defeated 70 infantry, 12 tank and 11 motorized divisions, 3 battle groups, 10 separate brigades, 31 separate regiments, 12 separate battalions and 2 military schools. They captured about 480 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, captured 1550 tanks, 8600 guns, 4150 aircraft. At the same time, the losses of the Soviet troops amounted to 274,184 people, of which 78,291 were irretrievable, 2,108 guns and mortars, 1,997 tanks and self-propelled artillery, 917 combat aircraft.
A distinctive feature of the operation, compared with the largest offensive operations carried out in 1944-1945, was its shallow depth, which amounted to 160-200 km. This was due to the meeting line of the Soviet and allied troops along the line of the river. Elbe. Nevertheless, the Berlin operation is an instructive example of an offensive aimed at encircling a large enemy grouping while cutting it into pieces and destroying each of them separately. It also fully reflects the issues of successive breakthrough of echeloned defensive lines and lines, timely buildup of strike force, use of tank armies and corps as mobile groups of fronts and armies, and combat operations in a large city.
For courage, heroism and high military skill shown during the operation, 187 formations and units were awarded the honorary title "Berlin". By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 9, 1945, the medal "For the Capture of Berlin" was established, which was awarded to about 1082 thousand Soviet soldiers.
Sergei Aptreikin,
Leading Research Fellow of the Research
Institute (military history) of the Military Academy
General Staff of the RF Armed Forces
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