Berlin operation commanders in chief. Berlin offensive operation

By the beginning of April 1945, Soviet troops reached the central regions of Germany in a wide area and were located 60-70 km from its capital, Berlin. Attaching exceptional importance to the Berlin direction, the Wehrmacht High Command deployed there the 3rd Panzer and 9th Armies of the Vistula Army Group, the 4th Panzer and 17th Armies of the Center Army Group, aviation of the 6th Air Fleet and Air Force 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 armed forces and branches of the armed forces - a total of about 1 million people, 8 thousand guns and mortars, over 1,200 tanks and assault guns, 3,330 aircraft.

The area of ​​the upcoming hostilities was replete with a large number of rivers, lakes, canals and large forests, which were widely used by the enemy to create a system of defensive zones and lines. The Oder-Neissen defensive line, 20-40 km deep, included three stripes. The first strip, running 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 Kustrin bridgehead. The front line was covered with minefields, barbed wire and subtle obstacles. The average mining density in the most important directions reached 2 thousand mines per 1 km.

At a distance of 10-20 km from the front edge there was a second strip, equipped along the western banks of numerous rivers. Within its boundaries were also the Zelovsky Heights, which towered above the river valley. Oder at 40-60 m. The basis of the third zone were settlements, turned into strong centers of resistance. Further inland was the Berlin defensive region, which consisted of three rings and the city itself, prepared for long-term resistance. The external defensive contour was located at a distance of 25-40 km from the center, and the internal one ran along the outskirts of the Berlin suburbs.

The purpose of the operation was to defeat German troops in the Berlin direction, capture the capital of Germany and, with access to the river. Elbe will come into contact with the Allied armies. Its plan was to deliver several strikes in a wide area, encircle and at the same time cut the enemy group into pieces and destroy them individually. To carry out the operation, the Supreme High Command Headquarters attracted the 2nd and 1st Belorussian, 1st Ukrainian fronts, part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, the 18th Air Army, the Dnieper military flotilla - 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 Küstrin bridgehead on the Oder with the forces of seven armies, of which two tank armies, to capture Berlin and reach the river no later than 12-15 days of the operation. Elbe. The 1st Ukrainian Front had to break through the enemy’s defenses on the river. Neisse, with part of the forces to assist the 1st Belorussian Front in capturing the capital of Germany, and with the main forces, developing an offensive in the northern and northwestern directions, to capture the line along the river no later than 10-12 days. Elbe to Dresden. The encirclement of Berlin was achieved by bypassing it from the north and north-west by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, and from the south and south-west 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 enemy group and continue the offensive in the direction of Rostock.

The transition to the offensive by the 1st Belorussian Front was preceded by reconnaissance in force, carried out on April 14 and 15 by the forward battalions. Using their success in individual sectors, regiments of the first echelons of divisions were brought into battle, which overcame the most dense minefields. But the measures taken did not allow the German command to be misled. Having determined that the Soviet troops planned to deliver the main blow from the Küstrin bridgehead, the commander of the Vistula Army Group, Colonel General G. Heinrici, on the evening of April 15, ordered the withdrawal of the infantry units and artillery of the 9th Army from the front line into the depths of the defense.

At 5 a.m. on April 16, even before dawn, artillery preparation began, during which the heaviest fire was directed at the first position abandoned by the enemy. After its completion, 143 powerful spotlights were turned on. Without encountering organized resistance, the rifle formations, with the support of aviation, covered 1.5-2 km. However, as they reached third position, the fighting became fierce. To increase the force of the strike, the Marshal of the Soviet Union introduced the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, Colonel General M.E., into the battle. Katukova and S.I. Bogdanov. Unlike the plan, this entry was carried out even before the capture of the Zelovsky Heights. But only by the end of the next day the 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’s defenses on the second line and advance to a depth of 11-13 km.

During April 18 and 19, the main strike group of the 1st Belorussian Front, successively overcoming echeloned positions, stripes 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 over 30 separate battalions to its zone. Soviet troops inflicted significant damage on the enemy: nine of its divisions lost up to 80% of people and almost all military equipment. Another seven divisions lost more than half of their strength. But their own losses were also significant. In tanks and self-propelled guns alone 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, the reinforced battalions began crossing the river under the cover of a smoke screen. Neisse. Having captured the bridgeheads, they ensured the construction of pontoon bridges, along which formations of the first echelon of 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 group broke through the main defense line of German troops in a 26 km wide area 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, who broke through the second line of enemy defense and advanced 18 km in two days. Attempts by the German command to delay their advance with numerous counterattacks from their reserves were unsuccessful, and they were forced to begin retreating to the third line of defense, which ran along the river. Spree. In order to forestall the enemy from occupying an advantageous defensive line, the commander of the front forces ordered the pace of advance to be increased as much as possible. Fulfilling the assigned task, the rifle divisions of the 13th Army (Colonel General N.P. Pukhov), tank corps of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies by the end of April 18 reached the Spree, crossed it on the move and captured a bridgehead.

In general, in three days the front’s strike group 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 west 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 with the aim of encircling Berlin. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov decided to bypass the German capital from the northeast by 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 supposed to continue the attack on the city from the east and isolate the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group from it.

According to the plan of 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 unite west of the city with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and encircle the enemy’s Berlin grouping itself.

During April 20-22, the nature of the fighting in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front did not change. His armies were forced, as before, to overcome fierce resistance from German troops in numerous strongholds, each time carrying out artillery and air preparation. The tank corps were never able to break away from the rifle units and operated on the same line with them. However, 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. During the breakthrough of defensive lines on the Neisse and Spree rivers, he defeated the enemy's operational reserves, which allowed mobile formations to develop an offensive in individual directions at a high pace. On April 20, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the approaches to Berlin. Having destroyed the enemy in the areas of Zossen, Luckenwalde and Jüterbog over the next two days, they overcame the outer Berlin defensive contour, broke into the southern outskirts of the city and cut off the retreat of the German 9th Army to the west. To carry out 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 enemy's Frakfurt-Guben group. The next day, when the 2nd and 4th Guards Tank Armies united west of Potsdam, the same fate befell his Berlin group. At the same time, units of the 5th Guards Army under Colonel General A.S. Zhadov met on the Elbe in the Torgau region with soldiers of the American 1st Army.

Starting from April 20, the 2nd Belorussian Front of Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. also 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. Popov and I.T. Grishin crossed the river. West Oder and captured bridgeheads on its western bank. Overcoming enemy fire resistance and repelling counterattacks from its reserves, formations of the 65th and 70th armies combined the captured bridgeheads into one up to 30 km wide and up to 6 km deep. Developing an offensive from there, by the end of April 25 they had completed the breakthrough of the main defense line of the German 3rd Tank Army.

The final stage of the Berlin offensive operation began on April 26. Its content was to destroy the surrounded enemy groups and capture the capital of Germany. Having decided to hold Berlin until the last possible opportunity, Hitler on April 22 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 make a breakthrough in the same direction. After connecting, they had to strike at the Soviet troops that had bypassed Berlin from the south. It was planned to launch an offensive against them from the north by Steiner's army group.

Anticipating the possibility of a breakthrough of the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group to the west, Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev ordered four rifle divisions of the 28th and 13th armies, reinforced with tanks, self-propelled guns and anti-tank artillery, to go on the defensive and thwart the plans of the Wehrmacht high command. 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, six armies were brought in from two fronts, part of the forces of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, the main forces of the 2nd Air Army, Colonel General S.A. Krasovsky.

By delivering simultaneous frontal strikes and strikes in converging directions, Soviet troops constantly reduced the area of ​​the encirclement area, cut the enemy group into pieces, disrupted interaction between them and destroyed them individually. At the same time, they stopped the ongoing attempts of the German command to make a breakthrough to connect with the 12th Army. To do this, it was necessary to constantly increase forces and means in the threatened directions, to increase the depth of the combat formations of troops in 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 delivering counter attacks was only 3-4 km. However, by the beginning of May the Frankfurt-Guben group ceased to exist. During heavy fighting, up to 60 thousand people were killed, 120 thousand 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 amount 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 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 carried out the offensive with the support of aviation from the 16th (Colonel General of Aviation K.A. Vershinin) and 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 began fighting in the central (ninth) defensive sector of Berlin, where the highest state and military authorities in Germany were located.

On April 29, the rifle corps of the 3rd Shock Army reached 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 weapons. 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, and troop control at all levels was disrupted. Despite this, individual enemy units and units continued futile resistance for several days. Only by the end of May 5 was it 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 zone to the river. Elbe. The 2nd Belorussian Front, operating to the north, had by that time completed the defeat of the German 3rd Tank Army and reached the coast of the Baltic Sea and the Elbe line. On May 4, in the Wismar-Grabov sector, his formations established 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 1,550 tanks, 8,600 guns, 4,150 aircraft. At the same time, the losses of Soviet troops amounted to 274,184 people, of which 78,291 were irrecoverable, 2,108 guns and mortars, 1,997 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, 917 combat aircraft.

A distinctive feature of the operation compared to 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 Soviet and allied troops along the river line. Elbe. Nevertheless, the Berlin operation is an instructive example of an offensive aimed at encircling a large enemy group while simultaneously cutting it into pieces and destroying each of them separately. It also fully reflected the issues of consistent breakthrough of echeloned defensive zones and lines, timely increase in strike force, the use of tank armies and corps as mobile groups of fronts and armies, and the conduct of 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 name “Berlin”. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 9, 1945, the medal “For the Capture of Berlin” was established, which was awarded to about 1,082 thousand Soviet soldiers.

Sergey Aptreikin,
Leading Researcher at the Scientific Research Institute
Institute (military history) of the Military Academy
General Staff of the RF Armed Forces

Berlin strategic offensive operation (Berlin operation, Capture of Berlin) - an offensive operation of Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War, which ended with the capture of Berlin and victory in the war.

The military operation was carried out in Europe from April 16 to May 9, 1945, during which the territories captured by the Germans were liberated and Berlin was taken under control. The Berlin operation was the last in the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.

The following smaller operations were carried out as part of the Berlin Operation:

• Stettin-Rostock;
• Seelovsko-Berlinskaya;
• Cottbus-Potsdam;
• Stremberg-Torgauskaya;
• Brandenburg-Ratenow.

The goal of the operation was to capture Berlin, which would allow Soviet troops to open the way to join the Allies on the Elbe River and thus prevent Hitler from prolonging World War II for a longer period.

Progress of the Berlin operation

In November 1944, the General Staff of the Soviet Forces began planning an offensive operation on the approaches to the German capital. During the operation it was supposed to defeat the German Army Group “A” and finally liberate the occupied territories of Poland.

At the end of the same month, the German army launched a counteroffensive in the Ardennes and was able to push back the Allied forces, thereby putting them almost on the brink of defeat. To continue the war, the Allies needed the support of the USSR - for this, the leadership of the United States and Great Britain turned to the Soviet Union with a request to send their troops and conduct offensive operations in order to distract Hitler and give the Allies the opportunity to recover.

The Soviet command agreed, and the USSR army launched an offensive, but the operation began almost a week earlier, which resulted in insufficient preparation and, as a result, large losses.

By mid-February, Soviet troops were able to cross the Oder, the last obstacle on the way to Berlin. There were a little more than seventy kilometers left to the capital of Germany. From that moment on, the battles took on a more protracted and fierce character - Germany did not want to give up and tried with all its might to hold back the Soviet offensive, but it was quite difficult to stop the Red Army.

At the same time, preparations began on the territory of East Prussia for the assault on the Konigsberg fortress, which was extremely well fortified and seemed almost impregnable. For the assault, the Soviet troops carried out thorough artillery preparation, which ultimately bore fruit - the fortress was taken unusually quickly.

In April 1945, the Soviet army began preparations for the long-awaited assault on Berlin. The leadership of the USSR was of the opinion that in order to achieve the success of the entire operation, it was necessary to urgently carry out the assault, without delaying it, since prolonging the war itself could lead to the fact that the Germans could open another front in the West and conclude a separate peace. In addition, the leadership of the USSR did not want to give Berlin to the Allied forces.

The Berlin offensive operation was prepared very carefully. Huge reserves of military equipment and ammunition were transferred to the outskirts of the city, and the forces of three fronts were pulled together. The operation was commanded by Marshals G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky and I.S. Konev. In total, more than 3 million people took part in the battle on both sides.

Storm of Berlin

The assault on the city began on April 16 at 3 am. Under the light of searchlights, one and a half hundred tanks and infantry attacked the German defensive positions. A fierce battle lasted for four days, after which the forces of three Soviet fronts and troops of the Polish army managed to encircle the city. On the same day, Soviet troops met with the Allies on the Elbe. As a result of four days of fighting, several hundred thousand people were captured and dozens of armored vehicles were destroyed.

However, despite the offensive, Hitler had no intention of surrendering Berlin; he insisted that the city must be held at all costs. Hitler refused to surrender even after Soviet troops approached the city; he threw all available human resources, including children and the elderly, onto the battlefield.

On April 21, the Soviet army was able to reach the outskirts of Berlin and start street battles there - German soldiers fought to the last, following Hitler's order not to surrender.

On April 29, Soviet soldiers began storming the Reichstag building. On April 30, the Soviet flag was hoisted on the building - the war ended, Germany was defeated.

Results of the Berlin operation

The Berlin operation put an end to the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. As a result of the rapid advance of Soviet troops, Germany was forced to surrender, all chances of opening a second front and concluding peace with the Allies were severed. Hitler, having learned about the defeat of his army and the entire fascist regime, committed suicide.

During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet troops carried out the Berlin strategic offensive operation, the purpose of which was to defeat the main forces of the German army groups Vistula and Center, capture Berlin, reach the Elbe River and unite with the Allied forces.

The Red Army troops, having defeated large groups of Nazi troops in East Prussia, Poland and Eastern Pomerania during January - March 1945, reached the end of March on a wide front to the Oder and Neisse rivers. After the liberation of Hungary and the occupation of Vienna by Soviet troops in mid-April, Nazi Germany was under attack from the Red Army from the east and south. At the same time, from the west, without encountering any organized German resistance, Allied troops advanced in the Hamburg, Leipzig and Prague directions.

The main forces of the Nazi troops acted against the Red Army. By April 16, there were 214 divisions (of which 34 tank and 15 motorized) and 14 brigades were on the Soviet-German front, and against the American-British troops the German command held only 60 poorly equipped divisions, of which five were tank. The Berlin direction was defended by 48 infantry, six tank and nine motorized divisions and many other units and formations (a total of one million people, 10.4 thousand guns and mortars, 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns). From the air, ground troops covered 3.3 thousand combat aircraft.

The defense of the Nazi troops in the Berlin direction included the Oder-Neissen line 20-40 kilometers deep, which had three defensive lines, and the Berlin defensive area, which consisted of three ring contours - external, internal and urban. In total, the depth of defense with Berlin reached 100 kilometers; it was intersected by numerous canals and rivers, which served as serious obstacles for tank forces.

During the Berlin offensive operation, the Soviet Supreme High Command envisaged breaking through the enemy's defenses along the Oder and Neisse and, developing an offensive in depth, encircling the main group of fascist German troops, dismembering it and subsequently destroying it piece by piece, and then reaching the Elbe. For this, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev were brought in. The operation was attended by the Dnieper military flotilla, part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, and the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army. In total, the Red Army troops advancing on Berlin numbered over two million people, about 42 thousand guns and mortars, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, and 7.5 thousand combat aircraft.

According to the plan of the operation, the 1st Belorussian Front was supposed to capture Berlin and reach the Elbe no later than 12-15 days later. The 1st Ukrainian Front had the task of defeating the enemy in the Cottbus area and south of Berlin and on the 10-12th day of the operation to capture the line of Belitz, Wittenberg and further the Elbe River to Dresden. The 2nd Belorussian Front had to cross the Oder River, defeat the enemy's Stettin group and cut off the main forces of the German 3rd Tank Army from Berlin.

On April 16, 1945, after powerful aviation and artillery preparation, a decisive attack by troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts of the Oder-Neissen defensive line began. In the area of ​​the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front, where the offensive was launched before dawn, infantry and tanks, in order to demoralize the enemy, launched an attack in a zone illuminated by 140 powerful searchlights. The troops of the front's strike group had to successively break through several lines of deeply echeloned defense. By the end of April 17, they managed to break through the enemy’s defenses in the main areas near the Seelow Heights. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front completed the breakthrough of the third line of the Oder defense line by the end of April 19. On the right wing of the front's shock group, the 47th Army and the 3rd Shock Army successfully advanced to cover Berlin from the north and northwest. On the left wing, conditions were created to bypass the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group from the north and cut it off from the Berlin area.

The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse River, broke through the enemy’s main defense line on the first day, and wedged 1-1.5 kilometers into the second. By the end of April 18, front troops completed the breakthrough of the Niessen defense line, crossed the Spree River and provided conditions for encircling Berlin from the south. In the Dresden direction, formations of the 52nd Army repelled an enemy counterattack from the area north of Görlitz.

The advanced units of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Ost-Oder on April 18-19, crossed the interfluve of the Ost-Oder and West Oder, and then began crossing the West Oder.

On April 20, artillery fire from the 1st Belorussian Front on Berlin marked the beginning of its assault. On April 21, tanks of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke into the southern outskirts of Berlin. On April 24, troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts united in the Bonsdorf area (southeast of Berlin), completing the encirclement of the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group. On April 25, tank formations of the fronts, having reached the Potsdam area, completed the encirclement of the entire Berlin group (500 thousand people). On the same day, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Elbe River and linked up with American troops in the Torgau area.

During the offensive, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Oder and, having broken through the enemy’s defenses, advanced to a depth of 20 kilometers by April 25; they pinned down the German 3rd Panzer Army, preventing it from launching a counterattack from the north against the Soviet forces encircling Berlin.

The Frankfurt-Guben group was destroyed by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts in the period from April 26 to May 1. The destruction of the Berlin group directly in the city continued until May 2. By 15:00 on May 2, enemy resistance in the city had ceased. The fighting with individual groups breaking through from the outskirts of Berlin to the west ended on May 5.

Simultaneously with the defeat of the encircled groups, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Elbe River on a wide front on May 7.

At the same time, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, successfully advancing in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg, on April 26 captured the main strongholds of the enemy’s defense on the western bank of the Oder River - Poelitz, Stettin, Gatow and Schwedt and, launching a rapid pursuit of the remnants of the defeated 3rd tank army, on May 3 they reached the coast of the Baltic Sea, and on May 4 they advanced to the line of Wismar, Schwerin, and the Elde River, where they came into contact with British troops. On May 4-5, front troops cleared the islands of Wollin, Usedom and Rügen of the enemy, and on May 9 they landed on the Danish island of Bornholm.

The resistance of the Nazi troops was finally broken. On the night of May 9, the Act of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed in the Karlshorst district of Berlin.

The Berlin operation lasted 23 days, the width of the combat front reached 300 kilometers. The depth of front-line operations was 100-220 kilometers, the average daily rate of attack was 5-10 kilometers. As part of the Berlin operation, the Stettin-Rostok, Seelow-Berlin, Cottbus-Potsdam, Stremberg-Torgau and Brandenburg-Ratenow front-line offensive operations were carried out.

During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops surrounded and eliminated the largest group of enemy troops in the history of wars.

They defeated 70 enemy infantry, 23 tank and mechanized divisions and captured 480 thousand people.

The Berlin operation cost the Soviet troops dearly. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 78,291 people, and sanitary losses - 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

On the eve of the 70th anniversary portal offers its readers a chapter from the forthcoming book by M. I. Frolov and V. V. Vasilik “Battles and Victories. The Great Patriotic War" about the feat of the last days of the war and the courage, fortitude and mercy of Soviet soldiers shown during the capture of Berlin.

One of the final chords of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War was the Berlin operation. It led to the occupation of the capital the German Reich, the destruction and capture of almost a million enemy forces and, ultimately, the surrender of Nazi Germany.

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding it recently. The first is that the 1st Belorussian Front, under the command, supposedly could have taken Berlin in January - February 1945 after capturing bridgeheads on the Oder, 70 kilometers from Berlin, and this was prevented only by Stalin’s voluntaristic decision. In fact, there were no real opportunities to capture Berlin in the winter of 1945: the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front fought 500-600 km, suffering losses, and an attack on the German capital without preparation, with exposed flanks, could end in disaster.

Much in the post-war structure of the world depended on who would enter first Berlin

The operation to capture Berlin was prepared carefully and was carried out only after the destruction of the enemy Pomeranian group. The need to destroy the Berlin group was dictated by both military and political considerations. Much in the post-war structure of the world depended on who would enter first Berlin - us or the Americans. The successful offensive of Anglo-American troops in West Germany created the possibility that the Allies would be the first to capture Berlin, so Soviet military leaders had to hurry.

By the end of March, the Headquarters developed a plan for an attack on the German capital. The main role was given to the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of G.K. Zhukov. The 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of I. S. Konev was assigned a supporting role - “to defeat the enemy group (...) south of Berlin,” and then strike at Dresden and Leipzig. However, as the operation progressed, I. S. Konev, wanting to gain the glory of the winner, secretly made adjustments to the original plans and redirected part of his troops to Berlin. Thanks to this, a myth was created about a competition between two military leaders, Zhukov and Konev, which was allegedly arranged by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: the prize in it was supposedly the glory of the winner, and the bargaining chip was soldiers' lives. In fact, the Stavka plan was rational and provided for the fastest possible capture of Berlin with minimal losses.

The main thing in Zhukov’s plan was to prevent the creation of a strong group in the city and the long-term defense of Berlin

The components of this plan, developed by G.K. Zhukov, were a breakthrough of the front by tank armies. Then, when the tank armies manage to break out into operational space, they must go to the outskirts of Berlin and form a kind of “cocoon” around German capital. “Cocoon” would prevent the garrison from being strengthened by the 200,000-strong 9th Army or reserves from the west. It was not intended to enter the city at this stage. With the approach of the Soviet combined arms armies, the “cocoon” opened, and Berlin could already be stormed according to all the rules. The main thing in Zhukov’s plan was to prevent the creation of a strong group in the city itself and the long-term defense of Berlin following the example of Budapest (December 1944 - February 1945) or Poznan (January - February 1945). And this plan ultimately succeeded.

A group of one and a half million people from two fronts was concentrated against the German forces, which totaled about a million people. The 1st Belorussian Front alone consisted of 3059 tanks and self-propelled guns (self-propelled artillery units), 14038 guns. The forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front were more modest (about 1000 tanks, 2200 guns). The action of ground troops was supported by aviation of three air armies (4th, 16th, 2nd), with a total number of 6706 aircraft of all types. They were opposed by only 1950 aircraft of two air fleets (the 6th WF and the Reich WF). April 14 and 15 were spent in reconnaissance in force at the Kyustrin bridgehead. Careful probing of the enemy's defenses created the illusion among the Germans that the Soviet the offensive will begin only in a few days. However, at three o'clock in the morning Berlin time, artillery preparation began, lasting 2.5 hours. Of the 2,500 guns and 1,600 artillery installations, 450,000 rounds were fired.

The actual artillery preparation took 30 minutes, the rest of the time was occupied by the “barrage of fire” - fire support of the advancing troops of the 5th Shock Army (commander N.E. Berzarin) and the 8th Guards Army under the command of the hero V.I. Chuikov. In the afternoon, two tank guard armies were sent to the emerging breakthrough at once - the 1st and 2nd, under the command of M.E. Katukov and S.I. Bogdanov, for a total of 1237 tanks and self-propelled guns. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, including divisions of the Polish Army, crossed the Oder along the entire front line. The actions of the ground forces were supported by aviation, which on the first day alone made about 5,300 sorties, destroyed 165 enemy aircraft and hit a number of important ground targets.

Nevertheless, the advance of the Soviet troops was quite slow due to the stubborn resistance of the Germans and the presence of a large number of engineering and natural barriers, especially canals. By the end of April 16, Soviet troops had reached only the second line of defense. A particular difficulty was overcoming the seemingly impregnable Seelow Heights, which our troops “gnawed through” with great difficulty. Tank operations were limited due to the nature of the terrain, and artillery and infantry were often tasked with assaulting enemy positions. Due to unstable weather, aviation was at times unable to provide full support.

However, the German forces were no longer the same as in 1943, 1944, or even at the beginning of 1945. They turned out to be no longer capable of counterattacks, but only formed “traffic jams” that, with their resistance, tried to delay the advance of the Soviet troops.

Nevertheless, on April 19, under the attacks of the 2nd Tank Guards and 8th Guards Armies, the Wotan defensive line was broken through and a rapid breakthrough to Berlin began; On April 19 alone, Katukov’s army covered 30 kilometers. Thanks to the actions of the 69th and other armies, the “Halba cauldron” was created: the main forces of the German 9th Army stationed on the Oder under the command of Busse were surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. This was one of the major defeats of the Germans, according to A. Isaev, undeservedly remaining in the shadow of the actual assault on the city.

It is customary in the liberal press to exaggerate the losses on the Seelow Heights, mixing them with losses in the entire Berlin operation (irretrievable losses of Soviet troops in it amounted to 80 thousand people, and total losses - 360 thousand people). Real total losses of the 8th Guards and 69th Armies during the offensive in the Seelow Heights area amounted to about 20 thousand people. Irreversible losses amounted to approximately 5 thousand people.

During April 20-21, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, overcoming German resistance, moved to the suburbs of Berlin and closed the external encirclement. At 6 o'clock in the morning on April 21, the advanced units of the 171st division (commander - Colonel A.I. Negoda) crossed the Berlin ring highway and thereby began the battle for Greater Berlin.

Meanwhile, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse, then the Spree, and entered Cottbus, which was captured on April 22. By order of I. S. Konev, two tank armies were turned to Berlin - the 3rd Guards under the command of P. S. Rybalko and the 4th Guards under the command of A. D. Lelyushenko. In stubborn battles, they broke through the Barut-Zossen defensive line and captured the city of Zossen, where the General Headquarters of the German ground forces was located. On April 23, the advanced units of the 4th Panzer The armies reached the Teltow Canal in the area of ​​Standorf, a southwestern suburb of Berlin.

Steiner's army group was made up of motley and very shabby units, right down to a battalion of translators

Anticipating his imminent end, on April 21, Hitler ordered SS General Steiner to assemble a group to relieve Berlin and restore communications between the 56th and 110th Corps. Steiner's so-called army group was a typical "patchwork quilt", made up of motley and very shabby units, right down to a battalion of translators. According to the Fuhrer's order, she was supposed to set out on April 21, but was able to go on the offensive only on April 23. The offensive was unsuccessful; moreover, under the pressure of Soviet troops from the east, German troops had to retreat and leave a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Hohenzollern Canal.

Only on April 25, having received more than modest reinforcements, Steiner’s group resumed its offensive in the direction of Spandau. But at Hermannsdorf it was stopped by Polish divisions, which launched a counteroffensive. Steiner’s group was finally neutralized by the forces of P. A. Belov’s 61st Army, which on April 29 came to its rear and forced its remnants to retreat to the Elbe.

Another failed savior of Berlin was Walter Wenck, commander of the 12th Army, hastily assembled from recruits in order to plug the hole on the Western Front. By order of Reichsmarschall Keitel on April 23, the 12th Army was to leave its positions on the Elbe and go to relieve Berlin. However, although clashes with units of the Red Army began on April 23, the 12th Army was able to go on the offensive only on April 28. The direction was chosen to Potsdam and the southern suburbs of Berlin. Initially, it met with some success due to the fact that units of the 4th Guards Tank Army were on the march and the 12th Army managed to somewhat push back the Soviet motorized infantry. But soon the Soviet command organized a counterattack with the forces of the 5th and 6th mechanized corps. Near Potsdam, Wenck's army was stopped. Already on April 29, he radioed to the General Staff of the Ground Forces: “The army... is under such strong pressure from the enemy that an attack on Berlin is no longer possible.”

Information about the situation of Wenck's army accelerated Hitler's suicide.

The only thing that parts of the 12th Army were able to achieve was to hold positions near Beelitz and wait for a small part of the 9th Army (about 30 thousand people) to leave the “Halba cauldron”. On May 2, Wenck's army and parts of the 9th Army began to retreat towards the Elbe in order to surrender to the Allies.

Berlin buildings were being prepared for defense, bridges across the Spree River and canals were mined. Pillboxes and bunkers were built, machine gun nests were equipped

On April 23, the assault on Berlin began. At first glance, Berlin was a fairly powerful fortress, especially considering that the barricades on its streets were built at an industrial level and reached a height and width of 2.5 m. The so-called air defense towers were a great help in defense. Buildings were being prepared for defense, bridges across the Spree River and canals were mined. Pillboxes and bunkers were built everywhere, and machine gun nests were equipped. The city was divided into 9 defense sectors. According to the plan, the garrison size of each sector was supposed to be 25 thousand people. However, in reality there were no more than 10-12 thousand people. In total, the Berlin garrison numbered no more than 100 thousand people, which was affected by the miscalculation of the command of the Vistula Army, which focused on the Oder Shield, as well as the blocking measures of the Soviet troops, which did not allow a significant number of German units to withdraw to Berlin. The withdrawal of the 56th Panzer Corps provided little reinforcement to the defenders of Berlin, as its strength was reduced to a division. For 88 thousand hectares of the city there were only 140 thousand defenders. Unlike Stalingrad and Budapest, there could be no talk of occupying every house; only the key buildings of the neighborhoods were defended.

In addition, the garrison of Berlin was an extremely motley sight, there were up to 70 (!) types of troops. A significant part of the defenders of Berlin were Volkssturm (people's militia), among them there were many teenagers from the Hitler Youth. The Berlin garrison was in dire need of weapons and ammunition. The entry of 450 thousand battle-hardened Soviet soldiers into the city left no chance for the defenders. This led to a relatively quick assault on Berlin - about 10 days.

However, these ten days, which shocked the world, were filled with hard, bloody labor for the soldiers and officers of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. Significant difficulties associated with large losses were the crossing of water barriers - rivers, lakes and canals, the fight against enemy snipers and faustpatronniks, especially in the ruins of buildings. At the same time, it should be noted that there was a lack of infantry in the assault troops, due to both general losses and those suffered before the direct assault on Berlin. The experience of street fighting, starting with Stalingrad, was taken into account, especially during the assault on German “festungs” (fortresses) - Poznan and Konigsberg. In the assault detachments, special assault groups were formed, consisting of blocking subgroups (a motorized infantry platoon, a sapper squad), a support subgroup (two motorized infantry platoons, an anti-tank rifle platoon), two 76 mm and one 57 mm guns. The groups moved along the same street (one on the right, the other on the left). While the blocking subgroup was blowing up houses and blocking firing points, the support subgroup supported it with fire. Often assault groups were assigned tanks and self-propelled guns, which provided them with fire support.

In street battles in Berlin, tanks acted as both a shield for advancing soldiers, covering them with their fire and armor, and with a sword in street battles

The question was repeatedly raised in the liberal press: “Was it worth entering Berlin with tanks?” and even a kind of cliché was formed: tank armies burned by Faustpatrons on the streets of Berlin. However, the participants in the battle for Berlin, in particular the commander of the 3rd Tank Army P.S. Rybalko, have a different opinion: “The use of tank and mechanized formations and units against populated areas, including cities, despite the undesirability of limiting their mobility in these battles, as the extensive experience of the Patriotic War has shown, very often becomes inevitable. Therefore, our tank and mechanized troops need to be well trained in this type of combat.” In the conditions of street fighting in Berlin, tanks were at the same time a shield for the advancing soldiers, covering them with their fire and armor, and with a sword in street battles. It is worth noting that the importance of Faustpatrons is greatly exaggerated: under normal conditions, the losses of Soviet tanks from Faustpatrons were 10 times less than from the actions of German artillery. The fact that in the battles for Berlin half of the losses of Soviet tanks were caused by Faust cartridges once again proves the huge level of German losses in equipment, primarily in anti-tank artillery and tanks.

Often, assault groups showed miracles of courage and professionalism. So, on April 28, soldiers of the 28th Rifle Corps captured 2021 prisoners, 5 tanks, 1380 vehicles, freed 5 thousand prisoners of different nationalities from a concentration camp, losing only 11 killed and 57 wounded. Soldiers of the 117th battalion of the 39th Infantry Division took a building with a garrison of 720 Nazis, destroying 70 Nazis and capturing 650. The Soviet soldier learned to fight not with numbers, but with skill. All this refutes the myths that we took Berlin, filling the enemy with corpses.

Let us briefly touch upon the most remarkable events of the storming of Berlin from April 23 to May 2. The troops that stormed Berlin can be divided into three groups - northern (3rd shock, 2nd Guards Tank Army), southeastern (5th shock, 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Army) and south- western (troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front). On April 23, the troops of the southeastern group (5th Army) unexpectedly crossed the Spree River for the enemy, captured a bridgehead and transported as many as two divisions to it. The 26th Rifle Corps captured the Silesian railway station. On April 24, the 3rd Shock Army, advancing on the center of Berlin, captured the suburb of Reinickendorf. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured a number of bridgeheads on the opposite bank of the Spree River and linked up with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the Schenefeld area. On April 25, the 2nd Panzer Army launched an offensive from the bridgeheads captured the day before on the Berlin-Spandauer-Schiffarts canal. On the same day, Tempelhof airfield was captured, thanks to which Berlin was supplied. The next day, April 26, while trying to recapture it, the German tank division “Munchenberg” was defeated. On the same day, the 9th Corps of the 5th Shock Army cleared 80 enemy quarters of the enemy. On April 27, troops of the 2nd Tank Army captured the area and Westend station. On April 28, troops of the 3rd Shock Army cleared the Moabit district and the political prison of the same name from the enemy, where thousands of anti-fascists were tortured, including the great Soviet poet Musa Jalil. On the same day, Anhalt station was captured. It is noteworthy that it was defended by the SS Nordland division, partly consisting of French and Latvian “volunteers”.

On April 29, Soviet troops reached the Reichstag, the symbol of German statehood, which was stormed the next day. The first to rush into it were the soldiers of the 171st Division, led by Captain Samsonov, who at 14.20 hoisted the Soviet flag in the window of the building. After fierce fighting, the building (with the exception of the basement) was cleared of the enemy. At 21.30, according to the traditional point of view, two soldiers - M. Kantaria and A. Egorov hoisted the Victory Banner on the dome of the Reichstag. On the same day, April 30, at 15.50, having learned that the armies of Wenck, Steiner and Holse would not come to the rescue, and the Soviet troops were only 400 m from the Reich Chancellery, where the possessed Fuhrer and his associates had taken refuge. They tried to delay their end with the help of numerous new victims, including among the German civilian population. To slow down the advance of Soviet troops, Hitler ordered the floodgates in the Berlin subway to be opened, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Berlin civilians fleeing bombing and shelling. In his will, Hitler wrote: “If the German people are unworthy of their mission, then they must disappear.” Soviet troops sought to spare the civilian population whenever possible. As participants in the battles recall, additional difficulties, including moral ones, were caused by the fact that German soldiers dressed in civilian clothes and treacherously shot our soldiers in the back. Because of this, many of our soldiers and officers died.

After Hitler's suicide, the new German government, led by Dr. Goebbels, wanted to enter into negotiations with the command of the 1st Belorussian Front, and through it, with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief J.V. Stalin. However, G.K. Zhukov demanded unconditional surrender, to which Goebbels and Bormann did not agree. The fighting continued. By May 1, the area occupied by German troops was reduced to only 1 square. km. The commander of the German garrison, General Krebs, committed suicide. The new commander, General Weidling, commander of the 56th Corps, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, accepted the terms of unconditional surrender. At least 50 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured. Goebbels, fearing retribution for his crimes, committed suicide.

The assault on Berlin ended on May 2, which fell on Maundy Tuesday in 1945 - a day dedicated to the remembrance of the Last Judgment

The capture of Berlin was, without exaggeration, an epochal event. The symbol of the German totalitarian state was defeated and the center of its control was struck. It is deeply symbolic that the assault on Berlin ended on May 2, which in 1945 fell on Maundy Tuesday, a day dedicated to the remembrance of the Last Judgment. And the capture of Berlin truly became the Last Judgment of occult German fascism, of all its lawlessness. Nazi Berlin was quite reminiscent of Nineveh, about which the holy prophet Nahum prophesied: “Woe to the city of blood, the city of deceit and murder!<…>There is no cure for your wound, your ulcer is painful. Everyone who heard the news about you will applaud you, for to whom has your malice not continually extended?” (Nahum 3:1,19). But the Soviet soldier was much more merciful than the Babylonians and Medes, although the German fascists were no better in their deeds than the Assyrians with their refined atrocities. Food was immediately provided to the two million population of Berlin. The soldiers generously shared the latter with their yesterday's enemies.

Veteran Kirill Vasilyevich Zakharov told an amazing story. His brother Mikhail Vasilyevich Zakharov died in the Tallinn crossing, two uncles were killed near Leningrad, his father lost his sight. He himself survived the blockade and miraculously escaped. And since 1943, when he went to the front, starting from Ukraine, he kept dreaming about how he would get to Berlin and take revenge. And during the battles for Berlin, during a respite, he stopped in the gateway to have a snack. And suddenly I saw the hatch rising, an elderly hungry German leaning out of it and asking for food. Kirill Vasilyevich shared his rations with him. Then another German civilian came out and also asked for food. In general, that day Kirill Vasilyevich was left without lunch. So he took revenge. And he did not regret this action.

Courage, perseverance, conscience and mercy - these Christian qualities were demonstrated by a Russian soldier in Berlin in April - May 1945. Eternal glory to him. A low bow to those participants in the Berlin operation who have survived to this day. For they gave freedom to Europe, including the German people. And they brought long-awaited peace to earth.

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

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

For the first time since the beginning of the war, the superiority of Soviet troops in manpower and equipment was not just significant, but overwhelming. 2.5 million soldiers and officers, 41.6 thousand guns, more than 6.3 thousand tanks, 7.5 thousand aircraft were supposed to attack Berlin. The main role in the offensive plan approved by Stalin was assigned to the 1st Belorussian Front. From the Küstrinsky bridgehead, Zhukov was supposed to storm the defense line head-on on the Seelow Heights, which towered above the Oder, closing the road to Berlin. Konev’s front had to cross the Neisse and strike the capital of the Reich with the forces of the tank armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko. It was planned that in the west it would reach the Elbe and, together with Rokossovsky’s front, would link up with the Anglo-American troops. The Allies were informed of the Soviet plans and agreed to halt their armies on the Elbe. The Yalta agreements had to be implemented, and this also made it possible to avoid unnecessary losses.

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

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

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

Friedrich Hitzer, German writer, translator:

My answer regarding the assault on Berlin is purely personal, not a military strategist. In 1945 I was 10 years old, and, being a child of the war, I remember how it ended, how the defeated people felt. Both my father and my closest relative took part in this war. The latter was a German officer. Returning from captivity in 1948, he decisively told me that if this happened again, he would go to war again. And on January 9, 1945, on my birthday, I received a letter from the front from my father, who also wrote with determination that we needed to “fight, fight and fight the terrible enemy in the east, otherwise we will be taken to Siberia.” Having read these lines as a child, I was proud of the courage of my father - “the liberator from the Bolshevik yoke.” But very little time passed, and my uncle, that same German officer, told me many times: “We were deceived. Make sure this doesn’t happen to you again.” The soldiers realized that this was not the same war. Of course, not all of us were “deceived.” One of my father's best friends warned him back in the 30s: Hitler is terrible. You know, any political ideology of the superiority of some over others, absorbed by society, is akin to drugs...

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

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

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

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

Last birthday

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

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

Zhukov ordered not to waste time suppressing individual firing points and to hurry forward. Meanwhile, Rybalko’s tanks approached the headquarters of the German command in Zossen. Most of the officers fled to Potsdam, and the chief of staff, General Krebs, went to Berlin, where on April 22 at 15.00 Hitler held his last military meeting. Only then did they decide to tell the Fuhrer that no one could save the besieged capital. The reaction was violent: the leader burst into threats against the “traitors,” then collapsed on a chair and groaned: “It’s over... the war is lost...”

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

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

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

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

City on fire

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

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

And Zhukov’s strike forces continued to rush towards the city center. Many fighters and commanders had no experience of fighting in a big city, which led to huge losses. The tanks moved in columns, and as soon as the front one was knocked out, the entire column became easy prey for the German Faustians. We had to resort to merciless but effective combat tactics: first, the artillery fired hurricane fire at the target of the future offensive, then volleys of Katyusha rockets drove everyone alive into shelters. After this, tanks moved forward, destroying barricades and destroying houses from which shots were fired. Only then did the infantry get involved. During the battle, the city was hit by almost two million gun shots - 36 thousand tons of deadly metal. Fortress guns were delivered from Pomerania by rail, firing shells weighing half a ton into the center of Berlin.

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

The police and Nazi officials began to flee. Many tried to get to the west to surrender to the Anglo-Americans. But the Soviet units were already there. On April 25 at 13.30 they reached the Elbe and met with tank crews of the 1st American Army near the town of Torgau.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As for the looting, our soldiers did not come there on their own. And now, 60 years later, all sorts of myths are being spread, growing to ancient proportions...

Reich convulsions

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

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

The city center has turned into a real hell. The heat made it impossible to breathe, the stones of buildings were cracking, and water was boiling in ponds and canals. There was no front line - a desperate battle went on for every street, every house. In dark rooms and on staircases - the electricity in Berlin had long gone out - hand-to-hand fighting broke out. Early in the morning of April 29, soldiers of General Perevertkin’s 79th Rifle Corps approached the huge building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - “Himmler’s house.” Having shot the barricades at the entrance with cannons, they managed to break into the building and capture it, which made it possible to get close to the Reichstag.

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

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

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

Near the zoo, Soviet assault troops came under attack from the SS from the torn up metro tunnels. Chasing them, the fighters penetrated underground and discovered passages leading towards the office. A plan arose right away to “finish off the fascist beast in its lair.” The scouts went deeper into the tunnels, but after a couple of hours water rushed towards them. According to one version, upon learning that the Russians were approaching the office, Hitler ordered to open the floodgates and let the Spree water flow into the metro, where, in addition to Soviet soldiers, there were tens of thousands of wounded, women and children. Berliners who survived the war recalled that they heard an order to urgently leave the metro, but due to the resulting crush, few were able to get out. Another version refutes the existence of the order: water could have broken into the subway due to continuous bombing that destroyed the walls of the tunnels.

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

Zhukov Yuri Nikolaevich, historian, writer:

The winners are not judged. That's all. In 1944, it turned out to be quite possible to withdraw Finland, Romania, and Bulgaria from the war without serious fighting, primarily through the efforts of diplomacy. An even more favorable situation for us arose on April 25, 1945. On that day, troops of the USSR and the USA met on the Elbe, near the city of Torgau, and the complete encirclement of Berlin was completed. From that moment on, the fate of Nazi Germany was sealed. Victory became inevitable. Only one thing remained unclear: exactly when the complete and unconditional surrender of the moribund Wehrmacht would follow. Zhukov, having removed Rokossovsky, took upon himself the leadership of the assault on Berlin. I could just squeeze the blockade ring every hour.

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

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

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

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

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

The shooting ended on May 2nd. And suddenly there was such silence that it was impossible to believe. Residents of the city began to come out of their shelters, they looked at us from under their brows. And here, in establishing contacts with them, their children helped. The ubiquitous children, 10-12 years old, came to us, we treated them to cookies, bread, sugar, and when we opened the kitchen, we began to feed them cabbage soup and porridge. It was a strange sight: somewhere the shooting was renewed, gunfire could be heard, and there was a line for porridge outside our kitchen...

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

last fight

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

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

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

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

At 18.30, soldiers of the 5th Army of General Berzarin stormed the last stronghold of Nazism - the Imperial Chancellery. Before this, they managed to storm the post office, several ministries and a heavily fortified Gestapo building. Two hours later, when the first groups of attackers had already approached the building, Goebbels and his wife Magda followed their idol by taking poison. Before this, they asked the doctor to administer a lethal injection to their six children - they were told that they would give an injection that would never make them sick. The children were left in the room, and the corpses of Goebbels and his wife were taken out into the garden and burned. Soon everyone who remained below - about 600 adjutants and SS men - rushed out: the bunker began to burn. Somewhere in its depths only General Krebs, who fired a bullet in the forehead, remained. Another Nazi commander, General Weidling, took responsibility and radioed Chuikov agreeing to unconditional surrender. At one o'clock in the morning on May 2, German officers with white flags appeared on the Potsdam Bridge. Their request was reported to Zhukov, who gave his consent. At 6.00 Weidling signed the order to surrender addressed to all German troops, and he himself set an example to his subordinates. After this, the shooting in the city began to subside. From the basements of the Reichstag, from under the ruins of houses and shelters, the Germans came out, silently putting their weapons on the ground and forming columns. They were observed by the writer Vasily Grossman, who accompanied the Soviet commandant Berzarin. Among the prisoners, he saw old men, boys and women who did not want to part with their husbands. The day was cold, and a light rain fell on the smoldering ruins. Hundreds of corpses lay on the streets, crushed by tanks. There were also flags with swastikas and party cards lying around - Hitler's followers were in a hurry to get rid of the evidence. In Tiergarten, Grossman saw a German soldier and a nurse on a bench - they were sitting hugging each other and not paying any attention to what was happening around them.

In the afternoon, Soviet tanks began driving through the streets, broadcasting the order of surrender through loudspeakers. Around 15.00 the fighting finally stopped, and only in the western regions did explosions roar - there they were chasing SS men who were trying to escape. An unusual, tense silence hung over Berlin. And then it was torn apart by a new barrage of shots. Soviet soldiers crowded on the steps of the Reichstag, on the ruins of the Imperial Chancellery and fired again and again - this time into the air. Strangers threw themselves into each other's arms and danced right on the pavement. They couldn't believe that the war was over. Many of them had new wars, hard work, difficult problems ahead, but they had already accomplished the most important thing in their lives.

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

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