Even the fight for Stalingrad is inferior to the battle for Berlin in terms of basic quantitative and qualitative indicators: the number of troops involved in the battles, the number of military equipment involved, as well as the size of the city and the nature of its development. To some extent, the assault on Budapest in January-February and Koenigsberg in April 1945 is comparable to the assault on Berlin. Modern battles, such as the battle for Beirut in 1982, remain a pale shadow of the grandiose battles of World War II.

Sealed "strasse"

The Germans had 2.5 months to prepare Berlin for defense, during which the front stood on the Oder, 70 km from the city. This preparation was by no means improvised. The Germans developed a whole system of turning their own and foreign cities into “festungs” - fortresses. This is the strategy that Hitler followed in the second half of the war. The “fortress” cities had to defend themselves in isolation, supplied by air. Their goal is to hold road junctions and other important points.

The Berlin fortifications of April-May 1945 are quite typical for German “festungs” - massive barricades, as well as residential and administrative buildings prepared for defense. Barricades in Germany were built at an industrial level and had nothing in common with the piles of rubbish that blocked the streets during the period of revolutionary unrest. Berlin ones, as a rule, were 2-2.5 m in height and 2-2.2 m in thickness. They were built from wood, stone, sometimes rails and shaped iron. Such a barricade easily withstood shots from tank guns and even divisional artillery with a caliber of 76-122 mm.

Some streets were completely blocked off with barricades, not even allowing passage. Along the main highways, the barricades still had a three-meter-wide passage, prepared for quick closure with a carriage loaded with earth, stones and other materials. The approaches to the barricades were mined. It cannot be said that these Berlin fortifications were a masterpiece of engineering art. In the Breslau area, Soviet troops faced truly cyclopean barricades, entirely cast from concrete. Their design included huge moving parts that were thrown across the passage. Nothing like this has ever been seen in Berlin. The reason is quite simple: German military leaders believed that the fate of the city would be decided on the Oder Front. Accordingly, the main efforts of the engineering troops were concentrated there, on the Seelow Heights and on the perimeter of the Soviet Kyustrin bridgehead.

Fixed tank company

The approaches to the bridges across the canals and the exits from the bridges also had barricades. In buildings that were to become defense strongholds, window openings were bricked up. One or two embrasures were left in the masonry for firing from small arms and anti-tank grenade launchers - faustpatrons. Of course, not all Berlin houses underwent such reconstruction. But the Reichstag, for example, was well prepared for defense: the huge windows of the German parliament building were walled up.

One of the “finds” of the Germans in the defense of their capital was the Berlin tank company, assembled from tanks incapable of independent movement. They were dug in at street intersections and used as fixed firing points in the west and east of the city. In total, the Berlin company included 10 Panther tanks and 12 Pz.IV tanks.

Map of the actions of Soviet troops in the Reichstag area

In addition to special defensive structures, the city had air defense facilities suitable for ground battles. We are talking primarily about the so-called flakturmas - massive concrete towers about 40 m high, on the roof of which anti-aircraft guns of up to 128 mm caliber were installed. Three such giant structures were built in Berlin. These are Flakturm I in the zoo area, Flakturm II in Friedrichshain in the east of the city and Flakturm III in Humbolthain in the north. (PM wrote in detail about the anti-aircraft towers of the Third Reich in No. 3 for 2009. - Ed.)

Fortress Berlin forces

However, any engineering structures are absolutely useless if there is no one to defend them. This became the biggest problem for the Germans. During Soviet times, the number of defenders of the Reich capital was usually estimated at 200,000. However, this figure appears to be greatly overestimated. The testimony of the last commandant of Berlin, General Weidling, and other captured officers of the Berlin garrison lead to a figure of 100-120 thousand people and 50-60 tanks at the beginning of the assault. For the defense of Berlin, such a number of defenders was clearly not enough. This was obvious to professionals from the very beginning. A summary of the generalized combat experience of the 8th Guards Army that stormed the city stated: “To defend such a large city, surrounded on all sides, there were not enough forces to defend every building, as was the case in other cities, so the enemy defended mainly groups quarters, and within them separate buildings and objects...” The Soviet troops that stormed Berlin numbered, according to April 26, 1945, 464,000 people and about 1,500 tanks. The 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, the 3rd and 5th Shock Armies, the 8th Guards Army (all from the 1st Belorussian Front), as well as the 3rd Guards Tank and part of the forces took part in the assault on the city. 28th Army (1st Ukrainian Front). During the last two days of the assault, units of the 1st Polish Army took part in the fighting.

Evacuated explosives

One of the mysteries of the battles for Berlin is the preservation of many bridges across the Spree and the Landwehr Canal. Given that the banks of the Spree in central Berlin were lined with stone, crossing the river beyond the bridges would have been a difficult task. The answer was provided by the testimony of General Weidling in Soviet captivity. He recalled: “None of the bridges were prepared for the explosion. Goebbels entrusted this to the Shpur organization, due to the fact that when bridges were blown up by military units, economic damage was caused to surrounding properties. It turned out that all the materials for preparing the bridges for the explosion, as well as the ammunition prepared for this, were taken out of Berlin during the evacuation of the Shpur establishments "It should be noted that this concerned the bridges in the central part of the city. On the outskirts, everything was different. For example, all the bridges across the Berlin-Spandauer-Schiffarts canal in the northern part of the city were blown up by the troops of the 3rd Shock Army and the 2nd Shock Army. The Guards Tank Army had to establish crossings. In general, it can be noted that the first days of the fight for Berlin were associated with crossing water barriers on its outskirts.

In the thick of the neighborhoods

By April 27, Soviet troops had largely overcome areas with low-rise and sparse buildings and entered the densely built-up central areas of Berlin. Advancing from different directions, Soviet tank and combined arms armies aimed at one point in the city center - the Reichstag. In 1945, it had long since lost its political significance and had a conditional value as a military facility. However, it is the Reichstag that appears in the orders as the target of the offensive of Soviet formations and associations. In any case, moving from different directions towards the Reichstag, the Red Army troops created a threat to the Fuhrer's bunker under the Reich Chancellery.

The assault group became the central figure in the street battles. Zhukov's directive recommended including 8-12 guns with a caliber of 45 to 203 mm and 4-6 82-120 mm mortars in the assault detachments. The assault groups included sappers and “chemists” with smoke bombs and flamethrowers. Tanks also became constant participants in these groups. It is well known that their main enemy in urban battles in 1945 was hand-held anti-tank weapons - Faust cartridges. Shortly before the Berlin operation, the troops conducted experiments on shielding tanks. However, they did not give a positive result: even when a Faustpatron grenade exploded on the screen, the tank’s armor penetrated. Nevertheless, in some parts, screens were still installed - more for psychological support of the crew than for real protection.

"Panzerfaust" is a family of German single-use anti-tank grenade launchers. When the powder charge placed in the pipe was ignited, the grenade was fired. Thanks to its cumulative action, it was capable of burning through armor plate up to 200 mm thick. In Berlin they were used both against tanks and infantry. At the very bottom are images of Panzerfaust 60 and Panzerfaust 100.

Did the Faustians burn the tank armies?

The losses of tank armies in battles for the city can be assessed as moderate, especially in comparison with battles in open areas against tanks and anti-tank artillery. Thus, Bogdanov’s 2nd Guards Tank Army lost about 70 tanks from Faust cartridges in the battles for the city. At the same time, it acted in isolation from the combined arms armies, relying only on its motorized infantry. The share of tanks destroyed by Faustians in other armies was smaller. In total, during the street fighting in Berlin from April 22 to May 2, Bogdanov’s army irretrievably lost 104 tanks and self-propelled guns (16% of the number of combat vehicles at the start of the operation). During the street fighting, Katukov’s 1st Guards Tank Army also irretrievably lost 104 armored units (15% of the combat vehicles that were in service at the start of the operation). Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army in Berlin itself from April 23 to May 2 irretrievably lost 99 tanks and 15 self-propelled guns (23%). The total losses of the Red Army from Faustpatrons in Berlin can be estimated at 200-250 tanks and self-propelled guns out of almost 1800 lost during the operation as a whole. In a word, there is no reason to say that the Soviet tank armies were burned by the “Faustniks” in Berlin.

However, in any case, the massive use of faustpatrons made it difficult to use tanks, and if the Soviet troops relied only on armored vehicles, the battles for the city would become much bloodier. It should be noted that the Faust cartridges were used by the Germans not only against tanks, but also against infantry. Forced to walk ahead of the armored vehicles, the infantrymen came under a hail of shots from the Faustniks. Therefore, cannon and rocket artillery provided invaluable assistance in the assault. The specifics of urban battles forced divisional and attached artillery to be placed on direct fire. As paradoxical as it sounds, direct fire guns sometimes turned out to be more effective than tanks. The report of the 44th Guards Cannon Artillery Brigade on the Berlin operation stated: “The use of Panzerfausts by the enemy led to a sharp increase in losses in tanks - limited visibility makes them easily vulnerable. Direct fire guns do not suffer from this disadvantage, their losses, in comparison with tanks , small.” This was not an unfounded statement: the brigade lost only two guns in street battles, one of which was hit by the enemy with a Faust cartridge.

The 203 mm tracked B-4 howitzer, placed at direct fire, crushed the walls of Berlin buildings. But even for this powerful weapon, the Flakturm I air defense turret turned out to be a “tough nut to crack.”

The brigade was armed with 152-mm ML-20 gun-howitzers. The actions of the artillerymen can be illustrated by the following example. The battle for the barricade on Sarland Strasse did not start very well. The Faustniki knocked out two IS-2 tanks. Then the gun of the 44th brigade was placed under direct fire 180 m from the fortification. Having fired 12 shells, the artillerymen made a passage in the barricade and destroyed its garrison. The brigade's guns were also used to destroy buildings turned into strongholds.

From a Katyusha direct fire

It was already mentioned above that the Berlin garrison defended only some buildings. If such a strong point could not be taken by an assault group, it was simply destroyed by direct fire artillery. So, from one strong point to another, the assaulters walked towards the city center. In the end, even Katyushas began to be used for direct fire. Frames of large-caliber M-31 rockets were installed in houses on windowsills and fired at buildings opposite. A distance of 100-150 m was considered optimal. The projectile managed to accelerate, broke through the wall and exploded inside the building. This led to the collapse of partitions and ceilings and, as a consequence, the death of the garrison. At shorter distances the wall did not break through and the matter was limited to cracks on the facade. This is where one of the answers to the question of why Kuznetsov’s 3rd Shock Army was the first to reach the Reichstag. Units of this army made their way through the streets of Berlin with 150 direct-fire M-31UK (improved accuracy) shells. Other armies also fired several dozen M-31 shells from direct fire.

The fall of Berlin demoralized the German troops and broke their will to resist. Still possessing considerable combat capabilities, the Wehrmacht capitulated within the next week after the Berlin garrison laid down its arms.

To victory - all the way!

Another “destroyer of buildings” was heavy artillery. As stated in the report on the actions of the artillery of the 1st Belorussian Front, “in the battles for the Poznan fortress and in the Berlin operation, both during the operation itself and especially in the battles for the city of Berlin, artillery of great and special power was of decisive importance.” In total, during the assault on the German capital, 38 high-power guns, that is, 203-mm B-4 howitzers of the 1931 model, were put into direct fire. These powerful tracked guns often appear in newsreels dedicated to the battles for the German capital. The B-4 crews acted boldly, even boldly. For example, one of the guns was installed at the intersection of Liden Strasse and Ritter Strasse 100-150 m from the enemy. Six fired shells were enough to destroy a house prepared for defense. Turning the gun, the battery commander destroyed three more stone buildings.

In Berlin, there was only one building that withstood the blow of the B-4 - it was the Flakturm am Zoo anti-aircraft defense tower, also known as Flakturm I. Units of the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies entered the area of ​​the Berlin Zoo. The tower turned out to be a tough nut to crack for them. The shelling of her with 152-mm artillery was completely ineffective. Then 105 concrete-piercing shells of 203 mm caliber were fired at the flakturm with direct fire. As a result, the corner of the tower was destroyed, but it continued to live until the capitulation of the garrison. Until the last moment, it housed Weidling's command post. Our troops bypassed the air defense towers in Humbolthein and Friedriesshain, and until the surrender these structures remained on German-controlled territory of the city.

On September 7, 1945, IS-3 heavy tanks took part in the parade held in Berlin to mark the end of World War II. The vehicles of this new model never had time to fight in the capital of the Reich, but now they announced with their appearance that the power of the victorious army would continue to grow.

The Flakturm am Zoo garrison was somewhat lucky. The tower did not come under fire from Soviet artillery of special power, 280-mm Br-5 mortars and 305-mm Br-18 howitzers of the 1939 model. Nobody used these guns for direct fire anymore. They fired from positions 7-10 km from the battlefield. The 8th Guards Army was assigned the 34th separate division of special strength. His 280-mm mortars hit Potsdam Station in the last days of the assault on Berlin. Two such shells pierced the asphalt of the street, ceilings and exploded in the underground halls of the station, located at a depth of 15 m.

Why didn't they "smear" Hitler?

Three divisions of 280 mm and 305 mm guns were concentrated in the 5th Shock Army. Berzarin's army was advancing to the right of Chuikov's army in the historical center of Berlin. Heavy weapons were used to destroy strong stone buildings. The 280-mm mortar division hit the Gestapo building, fired more than a hundred shells and scored six direct hits. The 305-mm howitzer division fired 110 shells on the penultimate day of the assault, May 1, alone. In fact, only the lack of accurate information about the location of the Fuhrer's bunker prevented the early end of the fighting. Soviet heavy artillery had the technical capabilities to bury Hitler and his retinue in a bunker or even smear them in a thin layer throughout the labyrinths of the last refuge of the “possessed Fuhrer.”

It was Berzarin’s army, advancing in the direction of the Reichstag, that came closest to Hitler’s bunker. This caused the last burst of Luftwaffe activity in the battle for the city. On April 29, groups of FV-190 attack aircraft and Me-262 jet fighters attacked the battle formations of the 5th Shock Army. The jet Messerschmitts belonged to the 1st group of the JG7 squadron from the Reich air defense, but they could no longer significantly influence the course of hostilities. The next day, April 30, the Fuhrer committed suicide. On the morning of May 2, the Berlin garrison capitulated.

The total losses of the two fronts in the battle for Berlin can be estimated at 50-60 thousand people killed, wounded and missing. Were these losses justified? Undoubtedly. The fall of Berlin and the death of Hitler meant the demoralization of the German army and its surrender. There is no doubt that without the active use of various equipment, the losses of Soviet troops in street battles would have been much higher.

Alexey Isaev - candidate of historical sciences, author of many books on the history of the Great Patriotic War

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 join the Anglo-American forces. 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 I 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, having been 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 invited their leader to 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 turned 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 ones - came out of the basements and entrances of houses with their hands raised. 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 orders of the Fuhrer. 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 Neustroev. On the morning of April 30, the units approached the Reichstag. As for the office, they decided to break 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...

The Last Battle

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 the 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 about 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 to agree 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 has been 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.

G.K. Zhukov called the Berlin operation one of the most difficult operations of the Second World War. And no matter what Russia’s ill-wishers say, the facts indicate that the Headquarters, the General Staff and the front commanders with their subordinates brilliantly coped with the difficulties of taking Berlin.

Ten days after the start of the assault on the city, the Berlin garrison capitulated. In itself, the assault on such a huge city as Berlin, fiercely defended by the enemy using weapons in the mid-forties of the twentieth century, is a unique event of the 2nd World War. The capture of Berlin led to the massive surrender of the remnants of the Wehrmacht and SS troops on most fronts, which allowed the USSR, after the capture of Berlin and the signing of an act of unconditional surrender by Germany, to basically cease hostilities.

Our military leaders showed high skill in organizing the assault on the largest, fortified city. Success was achieved by organizing close interaction between military branches at the level of small formations - assault groups.

Today a lot is said and written about the large losses of soldiers and officers during the storming of Berlin. These statements themselves require consideration. But in any case, without this assault, the losses of Soviet troops would have been much greater, and the war would have dragged on indefinitely. With the capture of Berlin, the Soviet Union ended the Great Patriotic War and, largely without a fight, disarmed all enemy troops remaining on the Eastern Front. As a result of the Berlin operation, the very possibility of aggression by Germany or any other Western country, as well as Western countries united in a military alliance, to the east was eliminated.

The losses of Soviet troops in this well-conducted battle are deliberately exaggerated by Russia's ill-wishers many times over. There is data on losses in the Berlin operation for each army of each front during the offensive and assault on Berlin. The losses of the 1st Belorussian Front in the period from April 11 to May 1, 1945 amounted to only 155,809 people, including 108,611 people wounded, 27,649 people killed, 1,388 people missing, and 7,560 people missing for other reasons. These losses cannot be called large for an operation on the scale of the Berlin operation.

At the beginning of the operation, the 1st Tank Army had 433 T-34 tanks and 64 IS-2 tanks, as well as 212 self-propelled guns. Between April 16 and May 2, 1945, 197 tanks and 35 self-propelled guns were irretrievably lost. “Looking at these figures, one cannot dare to say that M.E. Katukov’s tank army was “burned.” Losses can be characterized as moderate... During the street battles in the German capital, the 1st Guards Tank Army irretrievably lost 104 armored units, which amounted to 45% of the total number of lost tanks and self-propelled guns and only 15% of the number of tanks that were in service at the beginning of the operation. In a word, the expression “burned on the streets of Berlin” is in no way applicable to Katukov’s army,” writes A. S. Isaev. The losses of Katukov's army near Kursk in July 1943 significantly exceeded the losses in the Berlin operation.

The losses of the 2nd Tank Army were similar. The total irretrievable losses of which amounted to 31% of the number of tanks and self-propelled guns at the beginning of the operation. Losses on the city streets amounted to 16% of the number of tanks and self-propelled guns at the beginning of the operation. The losses of armored vehicles on other fronts can also be cited. There will be only one conclusion: despite participation in street battles, the losses of armored vehicles during the Berlin operation were moderate and, taking into account the complexity of the operation, we can say that the losses were quite low. They could not have been insignificant due to the fierceness of the fighting. Losses were moderate even in the armies of Chuikov and Katukov, who fought fiercely through the Seelow Heights. Air Force losses of the 1st Belorussian Front can be characterized as low - 271 aircraft.

Based on the research carried out, A.V. Isaev wrote quite correctly that the Berlin offensive operation is rightfully considered one of the most successful and exemplary in history.

Soviet troops broke through the defense lines along the Oder and Neisse, surrounded and dismembered enemy troops, captured and destroyed the encircled groups, and took Berlin by storm. During the period from April 16 to May 8, during the indicated stages of the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 infantry, 23 tank and motorized divisions, captured about 480 thousand people, captured up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, over 1.5 thousand tanks and assault rifles. guns, 4500 aircraft.

“The capture of Berlin is a historical fact that can be relied upon in times of timelessness and weakening of the country,” wrote the above-mentioned researcher.

For all four years, our soldiers and officers walked towards this day, dreamed about it, fought for it. For every soldier, for every commander, for every Soviet person, the capture of Berlin meant the end of the war, the victorious end of the fight against the German invaders, the fulfillment of a cherished desire carried through the flames of a 4-year war with the aggressor. It was the capture of Berlin that made it possible, without any reservations, to call 1945 the year of our great Victory, and May 9, 1945, the date of the greatest triumph in Russian history.

The Soviet people and the Soviet government did not diverge words from deeds even during the most tense periods of the country's history. Let us remember how J.V. Stalin told British Foreign Minister Eden on December 15, 1941: “Nothing, the Russians have already been to Berlin twice, and they will be a third time.”

Charity wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting things.” Issue No. 77, March 2015. Battle for Berlin.

Battle of Berlin

Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project “Briefly and clearly about the most interesting things” (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions in the city. The project's publications do not contain any advertising (only founders' logos), are politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, and well illustrated. They are intended as informational “inhibition” of students, awakening cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without pretending to provide academic completeness of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and thereby hope to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Send feedback and suggestions to: pangea@mail.. We thank the Education Department of the Kirovsky District Administration of St. Petersburg and everyone who selflessly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. Our special thanks go to the team of the “Battle for Berlin” project. The Feat of the Standard Bearers" (website panoramaberlin.ru), who kindly allowed us to use the site materials for her invaluable assistance in creating this issue.

Fragment of the painting “Victory” by P.A. Krivonosov, 1948 (hrono.ru).

Diorama “Storm of Berlin” by artist V.M. Sibirsky. Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (poklonnayagora.ru).

Berlin operation

Scheme of the Berlin operation (panoramaberlin.ru).


"Fire on Berlin!" Photo by A.B. Kapustyansky (topwar.ru).

The Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation is one of the last strategic operations of Soviet troops in the European Theater of Operations, during which the Red Army occupied the capital of Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War in Europe. The operation lasted from April 16 to May 8, 1945, the width of the combat front was 300 km. By April 1945, the main offensive operations of the Red Army in Hungary, East Pomerania, Austria and East Prussia were completed. This deprived Berlin of support from industrial areas and the ability to replenish reserves and resources. Soviet troops reached the border of the Oder and Neisse rivers, only a few tens of kilometers remained to Berlin. The offensive was carried out by the forces of three fronts: the 1st Belorussian under the command of Marshal G.K. Zhukov, the 2nd Belorussian under the command of Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky and the 1st Ukrainian under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev, with the support of the 18th Air Army, Dnieper Military Flotilla and Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The Red Army was opposed by a large group consisting of Army Group Vistula (generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner). On April 16, 1945, at 5 a.m. Moscow time (2 hours before dawn), artillery preparation began in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. 9,000 guns and mortars, as well as more than 1,500 BM-13 and BM-31 installations (modifications of the famous Katyushas) crushed the first line of German defense in the 27-kilometer breakthrough area for 25 minutes. With the start of the attack, artillery fire was transferred deep into the defense, and 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on in the breakthrough areas. Their blinding light stunned the enemy, neutralized night vision devices and at the same time illuminated the way for the advancing units.

The offensive unfolded in three directions: through the Seelow Heights directly to Berlin (1st Belorussian Front), south of the city, along the left flank (1st Ukrainian Front) and north, along the right flank (2nd Belorussian Front). The largest number of enemy forces were concentrated in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, and the most intense battles broke out in the Seelow Heights area. Despite fierce resistance, on April 21 the first Soviet assault troops reached the outskirts of Berlin, and street fighting broke out. On the afternoon of March 25, units of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts united, closing a ring around the city. However, the assault was still ahead, and the defense of Berlin was carefully prepared and well thought out. It was a whole system of strongholds and resistance centers, the streets were blocked with powerful barricades, many buildings were turned into firing points, underground structures and the metro were actively used. Faust cartridges became a formidable weapon in conditions of street fighting and limited space for maneuver; they caused especially heavy damage to tanks. The situation was also complicated by the fact that all German units and individual groups of soldiers who retreated during the battles on the outskirts of the city were concentrated in Berlin, replenishing the garrison of the city’s defenders.

The fighting in the city did not stop day or night; almost every house had to be stormed. However, thanks to superiority in strength, as well as the experience accumulated in past offensive operations in urban combat, the Soviet troops moved forward. By the evening of April 28, units of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag. On April 30, the first assault groups broke into the building, unit flags appeared on the building, and on the night of May 1, the Banner of the Military Council, located in the 150th Infantry Division, was hoisted. And by the morning of May 2, the Reichstag garrison capitulated.

On May 1, only the Tiergarten and the government quarter remained in German hands. The imperial chancellery was located here, in the courtyard of which there was a bunker at Hitler's headquarters. On the night of May 1, by prior agreement, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Krebs, arrived at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army. He informed the army commander, General V.I. Chuikov, about Hitler’s suicide and about the proposal of the new German government to conclude a truce. But the categorical demand for unconditional surrender received in response by this government was rejected. Soviet troops resumed the assault with renewed vigor. The remnants of the German troops were no longer able to continue resistance, and in the early morning of May 2, a German officer, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, wrote an order for surrender, which was duplicated and, with the help of loudspeaker installations and radio, communicated to the German units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was communicated to the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.

During the Berlin operation, from April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 were irretrievable. In terms of daily losses of personnel and equipment, the Battle of Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army. The losses of German troops, according to reports from the Soviet command, were: about 400 thousand people killed, about 380 thousand people captured. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and capitulated to the Allied forces.
The Berlin operation dealt the final crushing blow to the armed forces of the Third Reich, which, with the loss of Berlin, lost the ability to organize resistance. Six days after the fall of Berlin, on the night of May 8-9, the German leadership signed the act of unconditional surrender of Germany.

Storming of the Reichstag

Map of the storming of the Reichstag (commons.wikimedia.org, Ivengo)



The famous photograph “Prisoned German soldier at the Reichstag”, or “Ende” - in German “The End” (panoramaberlin.ru).

The storming of the Reichstag is the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation, the task of which was to capture the building of the German parliament and hoist the Victory Banner. The Berlin offensive began on April 16, 1945. And the operation to storm the Reichstag lasted from April 28 to May 2, 1945. The assault was carried out by the forces of the 150th and 171st Rifle Divisions of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, two regiments of the 207th Infantry Division were advancing in the direction of the Krol Opera. By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Krol-Opera theater, the Swiss embassy and a number of other buildings were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they represented a powerful unit of resistance. On April 28, the corps commander, Major General S.N. Perevertkin, was assigned the task of capturing the Reichstag. It was assumed that the 150th SD should occupy the western part of the building, and the 171st SD should occupy the eastern part.

The main obstacle before the advancing troops was the Spree River. The only possible way to overcome it was the Moltke Bridge, which the Nazis blew up when the Soviet units approached, but the bridge did not collapse. The first attempt to take it on the move ended in failure, because... Heavy fire was fired at him. Only after artillery preparation and the destruction of firing points on the embankments was it possible to capture the bridge. By the morning of April 29, the forward battalions of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions under the command of Captain S.A. Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant K.Ya. Samsonov crossed to the opposite bank of the Spree. After the crossing, that same morning the Swiss embassy building, which faced the square in front of the Reichstag, was cleared of the enemy. The next goal on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of the Interior, nicknamed “Himmler’s House” by Soviet soldiers. The huge, strong six-story building was additionally adapted for defense. To capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning, a powerful artillery preparation was carried out. Over the next 24 hours, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and captured it by dawn on April 30. The path to the Reichstag was then open.

Before dawn on April 30, the following situation developed in the combat area. The 525th and 380th regiments of the 171st Infantry Division fought in the neighborhoods north of Königplatz. The 674th Regiment and part of the forces of the 756th Regiment were engaged in clearing the Ministry of Internal Affairs building from the remnants of the garrison. The 2nd battalion of the 756th regiment went to the ditch and took up defense in front of it. The 207th Infantry Division was crossing the Moltke Bridge and preparing to attack the Krol Opera building.

The Reichstag garrison numbered about 1,000 people, had 5 units of armored vehicles, 7 anti-aircraft guns, 2 howitzers (equipment, the location of which has been accurately described and photographed). The situation was complicated by the fact that Königplatz between “Himmler’s house” and the Reichstag was an open space, moreover, crossed from north to south by a deep ditch left over from an unfinished metro line.

Early in the morning of April 30, an attempt was made to immediately break into the Reichstag, but the attack was repulsed. The second assault began at 13:00 with a powerful half-hour artillery barrage. Units of the 207th Infantry Division with their fire suppressed the firing points located in the Krol Opera building, blocked its garrison and thereby facilitated the assault. Under the cover of artillery barrage, the battalions of the 756th and 674th rifle regiments went on the attack and, immediately overcoming a ditch filled with water, broke through to the Reichstag.

All the time, while preparations and assault on the Reichstag were underway, fierce battles were fought on the right flank of the 150th Infantry Division, in the zone of the 469th Infantry Regiment. Having taken up defensive positions on the right bank of the Spree, the regiment fought off numerous German attacks for several days, aimed at reaching the flank and rear of the troops advancing on the Reichstag. Artillerymen played an important role in repelling German attacks.

The scouts from S.E. Sorokin’s group were among the first to break into the Reichstag. At 14:25 they installed a homemade red banner, first on the stairs of the main entrance, and then on the roof, on one of the sculptural groups. The banner was noticed by soldiers on Königplatz. Inspired by the banner, more and more new groups broke into the Reichstag. During the day on April 30, the upper floors were cleared of the enemy, the remaining defenders of the building took refuge in the basements and continued fierce resistance.

On the evening of April 30, the assault group of Captain V.N. Makov made its way into the Reichstag, and at 22:40 they installed their banner on the sculpture above the front pediment. On the night of April 30 to May 1, M.A. Egorov, M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest, with the support of machine gunners from I.A. Syanov’s company, climbed onto the roof and hoisted the official Banner of the Military Council, issued by the 150th, over the Reichstag rifle division. It was this that later became the Banner of Victory.

At 10 a.m. on May 1, German forces launched a concerted counterattack from outside and inside the Reichstag. In addition, a fire broke out in several parts of the building; Soviet soldiers had to fight it or move to non-burning rooms. Heavy smoke formed. However, the Soviet soldiers did not leave the building and continued to fight. The fierce battle continued until late in the evening; the remnants of the Reichstag garrison were again driven into the basements.

Realizing the pointlessness of further resistance, the command of the Reichstag garrison proposed to begin negotiations, but with the condition that an officer with the rank of no lower than colonel should take part in them from the Soviet side. Among the officers present in the Reichstag at that time, there was no one older than the major, and communication with the regiment did not work. After a short preparation, A.P. Berest as a colonel (the tallest and most representative), S.A. Neustroev as his adjutant and Private I. Prygunov as a translator went to the negotiations. The negotiations took a long time. Not accepting the conditions set by the Nazis, the Soviet delegation left the basement. However, in the early morning of May 2, the German garrison capitulated.

On the opposite side of Königplatz, the battle for the Krol Opera building continued all day on May 1. Only by midnight, after two unsuccessful assault attempts, the 597th and 598th regiments of the 207th Infantry Division captured the theater building. According to a report from the chief of staff of the 150th Infantry Division, during the defense of the Reichstag the German side suffered the following losses: 2,500 people were killed, 1,650 people were captured. There is no exact data on the losses of Soviet troops. On the afternoon of May 2, the Victory Banner of the Military Council, hoisted by Egorov, Kantaria and Berest, was transferred to the dome of the Reichstag.
After the Victory, under an agreement with the Allies, the Reichstag moved to the territory of the British occupation zone.

History of the Reichstag

Reichstag, photo of the late 19th century (from the “Illustrated Review of the Past Century,” 1901).



Reichstag. Modern look (Jürgen Matern).

The Reichstag building (Reichstagsgebäude - “state assembly building”) is a famous historical building in Berlin. The building was designed by Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot in the Italian High Renaissance style. The first stone for the foundation of the German parliament building was laid on June 9, 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Construction lasted ten years and was completed under Kaiser Wilhelm II. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became head of the coalition government and chancellor. However, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) had only 32% of the seats in the Reichstag and three ministers in the government (Hitler, Frick and Goering). As chancellor, Hitler asked President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections, hoping to secure a majority for the NSDAP. New elections were scheduled for March 5, 1933.

On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down as a result of arson. The fire became for the National Socialists, who had just come to power, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, a reason to quickly dismantle democratic institutions and discredit their main political opponent, the Communist Party. Six months after the fire in the Reichstag, the trial of accused communists begins in Leipzig, among whom were Ernst Torgler, chairman of the communist faction in the parliament of the Weimar Republic, and the Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov. During the trial, Dimitrov and Goering had a fierce argument that went down in history. It was not possible to prove guilt in the arson of the Reichstag building, but this incident allowed the Nazis to establish absolute power.

After this, rare meetings of the Reichstag took place in the Krol Opera (which was destroyed in 1943), and ceased in 1942. The building was used for propaganda meetings and, after 1939, for military purposes.

During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops stormed the Reichstag. On April 30, 1945, the first homemade Victory Banner was hoisted at the Reichstag. Soviet soldiers left many inscriptions on the walls of the Reichstag, some of which were preserved and left during the restoration of the building. In 1947, by order of the Soviet commandant's office, the inscriptions were “censored.” In 2002, the Bundestag raised the question of removing these inscriptions, but the proposal was rejected by a majority vote. Most of the surviving inscriptions of Soviet soldiers are located in the interior of the Reichstag, now accessible only with a guide by appointment. There are also bullet marks on the inside of the left pediment.

On September 9, 1948, during the blockade of Berlin, a rally was held in front of the Reichstag building, attracting over 350 thousand Berliners. Against the backdrop of the destroyed Reichstag building with the now famous call to the world community “Peoples of the world... Look at this city!” Mayor Ernst Reiter addressed.

After the surrender of Germany and the collapse of the Third Reich, the Reichstag remained in ruins for a long time. The authorities could not decide whether it was worth restoring it or whether it would be much more expedient to demolish it. Since the dome was damaged during the fire and was practically destroyed by aerial bombing, in 1954 what was left of it was blown up. And only in 1956 it was decided to restore it.

The Berlin Wall, erected on August 13, 1961, was located in close proximity to the Reichstag building. It ended up in West Berlin. Subsequently, the building was restored and, since 1973, has been used for the exhibition of a historical exhibition and as a meeting room for the bodies and factions of the Bundestag.

On June 20, 1991 (after the reunification of Germany on October 4, 1990), the Bundestag in Bonn (the former capital of Germany) decided to move to Berlin to the Reichstag building. After a competition, the reconstruction of the Reichstag was entrusted to the English architect Lord Norman Foster. He managed to preserve the historical appearance of the Reichstag building and at the same time create premises for a modern parliament. The huge vault of the 6-story building of the German parliament is supported by 12 concrete columns, each weighing 23 tons. The Reichstag dome has a diameter of 40 m, weight 1200 tons, of which 700 tons are steel structures. The observation deck, equipped on the dome, is located at an altitude of 40.7 m. Being on it, you can see both the all-round panorama of Berlin and everything that happens in the meeting room.

Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Victory Banner?

Soviet artillerymen writing on shells, 1945. Photo by O.B. Knorring (topwar.ru).

The storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner over it for every Soviet citizen meant the end of the most terrible war in the entire history of mankind. Many soldiers gave their lives for this purpose. However, why was the Reichstag building chosen, and not the Reich Chancellery, as a symbol of victory over fascism? There are various theories on this matter, and we will look at them.

The Reichstag fire in 1933 became a symbol of the collapse of the old and “helpless” Germany, and marked the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. A year later, a dictatorship was established in Germany and a ban was introduced on the existence and founding of new parties: all power is now concentrated in the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). The power of the new powerful and “strongest in the world” country was henceforth to be located in the new Reichstag. The design of the building, 290 meters high, was developed by Industry Minister Albert Speer. True, very soon Hitler’s ambitions will lead to the Second World War, and the construction of the new Reichstag, which was assigned the role of a symbol of the superiority of the “great Aryan race,” will be postponed indefinitely. During the Second World War, the Reichstag was not the center of political life; only occasionally were speeches made about the “inferiority” of the Jews and the issue of their complete extermination was decided. Since 1941, the Reichstag only played the role of a base for the air force of Nazi Germany, led by Hermann Goering.

Back on October 6, 1944, at a solemn meeting of the Moscow Soviet in honor of the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin said: “From now on and forever, our land is free from Hitler’s evil spirits, and now the Red Army faces its last, final mission: to complete the job together with the armies of our allies. defeat the fascist German army, finish off the fascist beast in its own lair and hoist the Victory Banner over Berlin.” However, over which building should the Victory Banner be hoisted? On April 16, 1945, the day the Berlin offensive operation began, at a meeting of the heads of political departments of all armies from the 1st Belorussian Front, Zhukov was asked where to place the flag. Zhukov forwarded the question to the Main Political Directorate of the Army and the answer was “Reichstag”. For many Soviet citizens, the Reichstag was the “center of German imperialism,” the center of German aggression and, ultimately, the cause of terrible suffering for millions of people. Every Soviet soldier considered it his goal to destroy and destroy the Reichstag, which was comparable to victory over fascism. Many shells and armored vehicles had the following inscriptions written in white paint: “According to the Reichstag!” and “To the Reichstag!”

The question of the reasons for choosing the Reichstag to hoist the Victory Banner still remains open. We cannot say for sure whether any of the theories are true. But the most important thing is that for every citizen of our country, the Victory Banner on the captured Reichstag is a reason for great pride in their history and their ancestors.

Victory Standard Bearers

If you stop a random passer-by on the street and ask him who hoisted the Banner on the Reichstag in the victorious spring of 1945, the most likely answer will be: Egorov and Kantaria. Maybe they will also remember Berest, who accompanied them. The feat of M.A. Egorov, M.V. Kantaria and A.P. Berest is known today throughout the world and is beyond doubt. It was they who erected the Victory Banner, Banner No. 5, one of 9 specially prepared banners of the Military Council, distributed among the divisions advancing in the direction of the Reichstag. This happened on the night of April 30 to May 1, 1945. However, the topic of hoisting the Victory Banner during the storming of the Reichstag is much more complex; it is impossible to limit it to the history of a single banner group.
The red flag raised over the Reichstag was seen by Soviet soldiers as a symbol of Victory, a long-awaited point in a terrible war. Therefore, in addition to the official Banner, dozens of assault groups and individual fighters carried banners, flags and flags of their units (or even homemade ones) to the Reichstag, often without even knowing anything about the Banner of the Military Council. Pyotr Pyatnitsky, Pyotr Shcherbina, the reconnaissance group of Lieutenant Sorokin, the assault groups of Captain Makov and Major Bondar... And how many more could there be that remained unknown, unmentioned in the reports and combat documents of the units?

Today, it is perhaps difficult to establish exactly who was the first to hoist the red flag on the Reichstag, and even more so to create a chronological sequence of the appearance of various flags in different parts of the building. But we also cannot limit ourselves to the history of only one, official, Banner, highlight some and leave others in the shadow. It is important to preserve the memory of all the heroic standard-bearers who stormed the Reichstag in 1945, who risked themselves in the last days and hours of the war, precisely when everyone especially wanted to survive - after all, Victory was very close.

Banner of the Sorokin group

Reconnaissance group S.E. Sorokina at the Reichstag. Photo by I. Shagin (panoramaberlin.ru).

Newsreel footage of Roman Karmen, as well as photographs of I. Shagin and Y. Ryumkin, taken on May 2, 1945, are known all over the world. They show a group of fighters with a red banner, first on the square in front of the main entrance to the Reichstag, then on the roof.
These historical footage depicts soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon of the 674th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant S.E. Sorokin. At the request of correspondents, they repeated for the chronicle their path to the Reichstag, fought through on April 30. It so happened that the first to approach the Reichstag were units of the 674th Infantry Regiment under the command of A.D. Plekhodanov and the 756th Infantry Regiment under the command of F.M. Zinchenko. Both regiments were part of the 150th Infantry Division. However, by the end of the day on April 29, after crossing the Spree on the Moltke Bridge and fierce battles to capture “Himmler’s House,” units of the 756th Regiment suffered heavy losses. Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhodanov recalls that late in the evening of April 29, the division commander, Major General V.M. Shatilov, called him to his OP and explained that in connection with this situation, the main task of storming the Reichstag fell on the 674th regiment. It was at that moment, having returned from the division commander, Plekhodanov ordered S.E. Sorokin, the commander of the regimental reconnaissance platoon, to select a group of fighters who would go in the forward chain of the attackers. Since the Military Council Banner remained at the headquarters of the 756th Regiment, it was decided to make a homemade banner. The red banner was found in the basements of “Himmler’s house.”

To complete the task, S.E. Sorokin selected 9 people. These are senior sergeant V.N. Pravotorov (platoon party organizer), senior sergeant I.N. Lysenko, privates G.P. Bulatov, S.G. Oreshko, P.D. Bryukhovetsky, M.A. Pachkovsky, M.S. Gabidullin, N. Sankin and P. Dolgikh. The first assault attempt, made in the early morning of April 30, was unsuccessful. After artillery preparation a second attack was launched. The “House of Himmler” was separated from the Reichstag by only 300-400 meters, but it was an open space in the square, and the Germans fired multi-layered fire at it. While crossing the square, N. Sankin was seriously wounded and P. Dolgikh was killed. The remaining 8 scouts were among the first to break into the Reichstag building. Clearing the way with grenades and machine gun fire, G.P. Bulatov, who carried the banner, and V.N. Pravotorov climbed to the second floor along the central staircase. There, in the window overlooking Königplatz, Bulatov secured the banner. The flag was noticed by the soldiers who fortified themselves in the square, which gave new strength to the offensive. Soldiers from Grechenkov’s company entered the building and blocked the exits from the basements, where the remaining defenders of the building settled. Taking advantage of this, the scouts moved the banner to the roof and secured it on one of the sculptural groups. It was at 14:25. This time of hoisting the flag on the roof of the building appears in combat reports along with the names of Lieutenant Sorokin’s intelligence officers, and in the memoirs of participants in the events.

Immediately after the assault, the fighters of Sorokin’s group were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, they were awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the capture of the Reichstag. Only I.N. Lysenko a year later, in May 1946, was awarded the gold star of the Hero.

Makov Group Banner

Soldiers of the group of captain V.N. Makov. From left to right: Sergeants M.P. Minin, G.K. Zagitov, A.P. Bobrov, A.F. Lisimenko (panoramaberlin.ru).

On April 27, two assault groups of 25 people each were formed as part of the 79th Rifle Corps. The first group was led by Captain Vladimir Makov from artillerymen of the 136th and 86th artillery brigades, the second group was led by Major Bondar from other artillery units. Captain Makov's group operated in the battle formations of Captain Neustroyev's battalion, which on the morning of April 30 began to storm the Reichstag in the direction of the main entrance. Fierce fighting continued all day with varying success. The Reichstag was not taken. But some fighters still entered the first floor and hung several red kumacs near the broken windows. It was they who became the reason that individual leaders rushed to report the capture of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the “flag of the Soviet Union” over it at 14:25. A couple of hours later, the whole country was notified about the long-awaited event by radio, and the message was transmitted abroad. In fact, by order of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, artillery preparation for the decisive assault began only at 21:30, and the assault itself began at 22:00 local time. After Neustroev’s battalion moved to the main entrance, four from Captain Makov’s group rushed forward along the steep stairs to the roof of the Reichstag building. Paving the way with grenades and machine gun fire, she reached her goal - against the background of the fiery glow, the sculptural composition of the “Goddess of Victory” stood out, over which Sergeant Minin hoisted the Red Banner. He wrote the names of his comrades on the cloth. Then Captain Makov, accompanied by Bobrov, went down and immediately reported by radio to the corps commander, General Perevertkin, that at 22:40 his group was the first to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag.

On May 1, 1945, the command of the 136th Artillery Brigade presented Captain V.N. for the highest government award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Makov, senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov, sergeant M.P. Minin. Successively on May 2, 3 and 6, the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the artillery commander of the 3rd Shock Army and the commander of the 3rd Shock Army confirmed the application for the award. However, the conferment of hero titles did not take place.

At one time, the Institute of Military History of the Russian Defense Ministry conducted a study of archival documents related to the hoisting of the Victory Banner. As a result of studying this issue, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation supported the petition to award the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to the group of the above-mentioned soldiers. In 1997, the entire five Makovs received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from the Permanent Presidium of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. However, this award could not have full legal force, since the Soviet Union no longer existed at that time.

M.V. Kantaria and M.A. Egorov with the Victory Banner (panoramaberlin.ru).



Victory Banner - 150th Rifle Order of Kutuzov, II degree, Idritsa Division, 79th Rifle Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front.

The banner installed on the Reichstag dome by Egorov, Kantaria and Berest on May 1, 1945 was not the very first. But it was this banner that was destined to become the official symbol of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The issue of the Victory Banner was decided in advance, even before the storming of the Reichstag. The Reichstag found itself in the offensive zone of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. It consisted of nine divisions, and therefore nine special banners were made for transmission to the assault groups in each of the divisions. The banners were handed over to political departments on the night of April 20-21. The 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division received banner No. 5. Sergeant M.A. Egorov and Junior Sergeant M.V. Kantaria were also chosen to carry out the task of hoisting the Banner in advance, as experienced intelligence officers who had often acted in pairs, friends in battle. Senior Lieutenant A.P. Berest was sent by battalion commander S.A. Neustroyev to accompany the scouts with the banner.

During the day of April 30, Banner No. 5 was at the headquarters of the 756th regiment. Late in the evening, when several homemade flags had already been installed on the Reichstag, by order of F.M. Zinchenko (commander of the 756th regiment), Egorov, Kantaria and Berest climbed to the roof and secured the Banner on the equestrian sculpture of Wilhelm. After the surrender of the remaining defenders of the Reichstag, on the afternoon of May 2, the Banner was moved to the dome.

Immediately after the end of the assault, many direct participants in the assault on the Reichstag were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the order to award this high rank came only a year later, in May 1946. Among the recipients were M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest was awarded only the Order of the Red Banner.

After the Victory, according to an agreement with the allies, the Reichstag remained on the territory of the British occupation zone. The 3rd Shock Army was being redeployed. In this regard, the Banner, hoisted by Egorov, Kantaria and Berest, was removed from the dome on May 8. Today it is kept in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.

Banner of Pyatnitsky and Shcherbina

A group of soldiers of the 756th Infantry Regiment, in the foreground with a bandaged head - Pyotr Shcherbina (panoramaberlin.ru).

Among the many attempts to hoist the red flag on the Reichstag, not all, unfortunately, were successful. Many fighters died or were wounded at the moment of their decisive throw, without achieving their cherished goal. In most cases, even their names were not preserved; they were lost in the cycle of events of April 30 and the first days of May 1945. One of these desperate heroes is Pyotr Pyatnitsky, a private in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Pyatnitsky was born in 1913 in the village of Muzhinovo, Oryol province (now Bryansk region). He went to the front in July 1941. Many difficulties befell Pyatnitsky: in July 1942 he was seriously wounded and captured, only in 1944 the advancing Red Army freed him from the concentration camp. Pyatnitsky returned to duty; by the time of the storming of the Reichstag he was the liaison officer of the battalion commander, S.A. Neustroev. On April 30, 1945, fighters from Neustroev’s battalion were among the first to approach the Reichstag. Only the Königplatz square separated the building, but the enemy fired constantly and intensely at it. Pyotr Pyatnitsky rushed through this square in the advanced chain of attackers with a banner. He reached the main entrance to the Reichstag, had already climbed the steps of the stairs, but here he was overtaken by an enemy bullet and died. It is still unknown exactly where the hero-standard-bearer is buried - in the cycle of events of that day, his comrades in arms missed the moment when Pyatnitsky’s body was taken from the steps of the porch. The alleged location is a common mass grave of Soviet soldiers in Tiergarten.

And the flag carried by Pyotr Pyatnitsky was picked up by junior sergeant Shcherbina, also Pyotr, and secured on one of the central columns when the next wave of attackers reached the porch of the Reichstag. Pyotr Dorofeevich Shcherbina was the commander of a rifle squad in I.Ya. Syanov’s company; late in the evening of April 30, it was he and his squad who accompanied Berest, Egorov and Kantaria to the roof of the Reichstag to hoist the Victory Banner.

The correspondent of the division newspaper V.E. Subbotin, a witness to the events of the storming of the Reichstag, in those May days made a note about Pyatnitsky’s feat, but the story did not go further than the “division”. Even Pyotr Nikolaevich’s family considered him missing for a long time. They remembered him in the 60s. Subbotin’s story was published, then even a note appeared in “History of the Great Patriotic War” (1963. Military Publishing House, vol. 5, p. 283): “...Here the flag of the soldier of the 1st battalion of the 756th rifle regiment, junior sergeant Peter Pyatnitsky, flew up , struck by an enemy bullet on the steps of the building...” In the fighter’s homeland, in the village of Kletnya, in 1981, a monument was erected with the inscription “Brave participant in the storming of the Reichstag”; one of the streets of the village was named after him.

Famous photo of Evgeniy Khaldei

Evgeny Ananyevich Khaldey (March 23, 1917 - October 6, 1997) - Soviet photographer, military photojournalist. Evgeny Khaldey was born in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). During the Jewish pogrom on March 13, 1918, his mother and grandfather were killed, and Zhenya, a one-year-old child, was shot in the chest. He studied at cheder, began working at a factory at the age of 13, and then took his first photograph with a homemade camera. At the age of 16 he began working as a photojournalist. Since 1939 he has been a correspondent for TASS Photo Chronicle. Filmed Dneprostroy, reports about Alexei Stakhanov. Represented the TASS editorial office in the Navy during the Great Patriotic War. He spent all 1418 days of the war with a Leica camera from Murmansk to Berlin.

The talented Soviet photojournalist is sometimes called the “author of one photograph.” This, of course, is not entirely fair - during his long career as a photographer and photojournalist, he took thousands of photographs, dozens of which became “photo icons.” But it was the photograph “Victory Banner over the Reichstag” that went around the whole world and became one of the main symbols of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The photograph of Yevgeny Khaldei “Victory Banner over the Reichstag” in the Soviet Union became a symbol of victory over Nazi Germany. However, few people remember that in fact the photograph was staged - the author took the picture only the next day after the real hoisting of the flag. Largely thanks to this work, in 1995 in France, Chaldea was awarded one of the most honorable awards in the world of art - “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.”

When the war correspondent approached the shooting location, the fighting had long since died down, and many banners were flying at the Reichstag. But pictures had to be taken. Yevgeny Khaldei asked the first soldiers he met to help him: climb the Reichstag, set up a banner with a hammer and sickle and pose for a bit. They agreed, the photographer found a winning angle and shot two tapes. Its characters were soldiers of the 8th Guards Army: Alexey Kovalev (installing the banner), as well as Abdulkhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev (assistants). Afterwards, the photojournalist took down his banner - he took it with him - and showed the pictures to the editorial office. According to the daughter of Evgeniy Khaldei, TASS “received the photo as an icon - with sacred awe.” Evgeny Khaldey continued his career as a photojournalist, photographing the Nuremberg trials. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin ordered that all participants in the commemorative photograph be presented with the title of Hero of Russia, however, by that time Leonid Gorichev had already passed away - he died from his wounds shortly after the end of the war. To date, not one of the three fighters immortalized in the photograph “Victory Banner over the Reichstag” has survived.

Autographs of the Winners

Soldiers sign on the walls of the Reichstag. Photographer unknown (colonelcassad.livejournal.com).

On May 2, after fierce fighting, Soviet soldiers completely cleared the Reichstag building of the enemy. They went through the war, reached Berlin itself, they won. How to express your joy and jubilation? To mark your presence where the war began and where it ended, to say something about yourself? To indicate their involvement in the Great Victory, thousands of victorious fighters left their paintings on the walls of the captured Reichstag.

After the end of the war, it was decided to preserve a significant part of these inscriptions for posterity. Interestingly, during the reconstruction of the Reichstag in the 1990s, inscriptions were discovered that were hidden under a layer of plaster by the previous restoration in the 1960s. Some of them (including those in the meeting room) have also been preserved.

For 70 years now, the autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag have reminded us of the glorious exploits of our heroes. It is difficult to express the emotions that you feel while being there. I just want to silently examine each letter, mentally saying thousands of words of gratitude. For us, these inscriptions are one of the symbols of Victory, the courage of heroes, the end of the suffering of our people.

“We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, and came to Berlin!”

panoramaberlin.ru

People left autographs at the Reichstag not only for themselves personally, but also for entire units and subunits. A fairly well-known photograph of one of the columns of the central entrance shows just such an inscription. It was made immediately after the Victory by pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Odessa Red Banner Order of Suvorov Regiment. The regiment was based in one of the suburbs, but on one May day the personnel specially came to look at the defeated capital of the Third Reich.
D.Ya. Zilmanovich, who fought as part of this regiment, after the war wrote a book about the military path of the unit. There is also a fragment that tells about the inscription on the column: “The pilots, technicians and aviation specialists received permission from the regiment commander to go to Berlin. On the walls and columns of the Reichstag they read many names scratched with bayonets and knives, written with charcoal, chalk and paint: Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Georgian... More often than others they saw the words: “We’ve arrived! Moscow–Berlin! Stalingrad-Berlin! The names of almost all cities in the country were found. And signatures, many inscriptions, names and surnames of soldiers of all branches of the military and specialties. They, these inscriptions, turned into the tablets of history, into the verdict of the victorious people, signed by hundreds of its valiant representatives.

This enthusiastic impulse - to sign the verdict of defeated fascism on the walls of the Reichstag - gripped the guards of the Odessa fighter. They immediately found a large ladder and placed it against the column. Pilot Makletsov took a piece of alabaster and, climbing the steps to a height of 4-5 meters, wrote the words: “We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!” Everyone clapped. A worthy end to the difficult battle path of the glorious regiment, in which 28 Heroes of the Soviet Union fought during the Great Patriotic War, including four who were twice awarded this high title.

“Stalingraders Shpakov, Matyash, Zolotarevsky”

panoramaberlin.ru

Boris Zolotarevsky was born on October 10, 1925 in Moscow. At the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was only 15. But age did not prevent him from standing up for his homeland. Zolotarevsky went to the front and reached Berlin. Returning from the war, he became an engineer. One day, while on an excursion to the Reichstag, the veteran’s nephew discovered his grandfather’s signature. And so on April 2, 2004, Zolotarevsky again found himself in Berlin to see his name, left here 59 years ago.

In his letter to Karin Felix, a researcher of preserved autographs of Soviet soldiers and the subsequent fate of their authors, he shared his experience: “A recent visit to the Bundestag made such a strong impression on me that I did not then find the right words to express my feelings and thoughts. I am very touched by the tact and aesthetic taste with which Germany preserved the autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag in memory of the war, which became a tragedy for many peoples. It was a very exciting surprise for me to be able to see my autograph and the autographs of my friends: Matyash, Shpakov, Fortel and Kvasha, lovingly preserved on the former smoky walls of the Reichstag. With deep gratitude and respect, B. Zolotarevsky.”

"I. Ryumkin filmed here"

panoramaberlin.ru

There was also such an inscription on the Reichstag - not only “arrived”, but “filmed here.” This inscription was left by Yakov Ryumkin, a photojournalist, the author of many famous photographs, including the one who, together with I. Shagin, photographed S.E. Sorokin’s group of scouts with a banner on May 2, 1945.

Yakov Ryumkin was born in 1913. At the age of 15, he came to work as a courier for one of the Kharkov newspapers. Then he graduated from the workers' department of Kharkov University and in 1936 became a photojournalist for the newspaper "Communist" - the printed organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (at that time the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was in Kharkov). Unfortunately, during the war the entire pre-war archive was lost.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Ryumkin already had considerable experience working in a newspaper. He went through the war from its very first days to the end as a photojournalist for Pravda. He filmed on different fronts, his reports from Stalingrad becoming the most famous. Writer Boris Polevoy recalls this period: “Even among the restless tribe of war photojournalists, during the war days it was difficult to find a more colorful and dynamic figure than Pravda correspondent Yakov Ryumkin. During the days of many offensives, I saw Ryumkin in the advanced attacking units, and his passion to deliver a unique photograph to the editorial office, without hesitation in labor or means, was also well known.” Yakov Ryumkin was wounded and concussed and was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, and the Red Star. After the Victory, he worked for Pravda, Soviet Russia, Ogonyok, and the Kolos publishing house. I filmed in the Arctic, on virgin lands, made reports on party congresses and a large number of very diverse reports. Yakov Ryumkin died in Moscow in 1986. The Reichstag was only a milestone in this large, intense and vibrant life, but a milestone, perhaps, one of the most significant.

“Platov Sergey. Kursk - Berlin"

“Platov Sergey Iv. Kursk - Berlin. 10.5.1945". This inscription on one of the columns in the Reichstag building has not survived. But the photograph that captured her became famous and went around a huge number of various exhibitions and publications. It is even reproduced on the commemorative coin issued for the 55th anniversary of the Victory.

panoramaberlin.ru

The photo was taken on May 10, 1945 by Front-line Illustration correspondent Anatoly Morozov. The plot is random, not staged - Morozov stopped by the Reichstag in search of new personnel after sending a photo report to Moscow about the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany. The soldier captured by the photographer, Sergei Ivanovich Platov, has been at the front since 1942. He served in rifle and mortar regiments, then in reconnaissance. He began his military career near Kursk. That is why - “Kursk - Berlin”. And he himself is originally from Perm.

There, in Perm, he lived after the war, worked as a mechanic at a factory and did not even suspect that his painting on the Reichstag column, captured in the photograph, became one of the symbols of Victory. Then, in May 1945, the photograph did not catch the eye of Sergei Ivanovich. Only many years later, in 1970, Anatoly Morozov found Platov and, having specially arrived in Perm, showed him the photograph. After the war, Sergei Platov visited Berlin again - the GDR authorities invited him to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Victory. It is curious that on the anniversary coin Sergei Ivanovich has an honorary neighbor - on the other side, the meeting of the Potsdam Conference of 1945 is depicted. But the veteran did not live to see its release - Sergei Platov died in 1997.

"Seversky Donets - Berlin"

panoramaberlin.ru

“Seversky Donets – Berlin. Artillerymen Doroshenko, Tarnovsky and Sumtsev” was the inscription on one of the columns of the defeated Reichstag. It would seem that this is just one of thousands and thousands of inscriptions left in the May days of 1945. But still, she is special. This inscription was made by Volodya Tarnovsky, a boy of 15 years old, and at the same time, a scout who had come a long way to Victory and experienced a lot.

Vladimir Tarnovsky was born in 1930 in Slavyansk, a small industrial town in the Donbass. At the start of the Great Patriotic War, Volodya was barely 11 years old. Many years later, he recalled that this news was not perceived by him as something terrible: “We, boys, are discussing this news and remembering the words from the song: “And on enemy soil we will defeat the enemy with little blood, with a mighty blow.” But everything turned out differently...”

My stepfather immediately, in the first days of the war, went to the front and never returned. And already in October the Germans entered Slavyansk. Volodya's mother, a communist and party member, was soon arrested and shot. Volodya lived with his stepfather’s sister, but did not consider it possible for himself to stay there for a long time - the time was difficult, hungry, besides him, his aunt had her own children...

In February 1943, Slavyansk was briefly liberated by advancing Soviet troops. However, then our units had to withdraw again, and Tarnovsky went with them - first to distant relatives in the village, but, as it turned out, conditions there were no better. In the end, one of the commanders involved in the evacuation of the population took pity on the boy and took him with him as the son of the regiment. So Tarnovsky ended up in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division. “At first I was considered the son of the regiment. He was a messenger, delivering various orders and reports, and then he had to fight in full force, for which he received military awards.”

The division liberated Ukraine, Poland, crossed the Dnieper, Oder, took part in the battle for Berlin, from its very beginning with artillery preparation on April 16 until its completion, took the buildings of the Gestapo, post office, and imperial chancellery. Vladimir Tarnovsky also went through all these important events. He speaks simply and directly about his military past and his own sensations and feelings. Including how scary it was at times, how difficult some tasks were. But the fact that he, a 13-year-old teenager, was awarded the Order of Glory, 3rd degree (for his actions in rescuing a wounded division commander during the fighting on the Dnieper) can express how good a fighter Tarnovsky became.

There were some funny moments too. Once, during the defeat of the Yasso-Kishinev group of Germans, Tarnovsky was tasked with single-handedly delivering a prisoner - a tall, strong German. For the soldiers passing by, the situation looked comical - the prisoner and the guard looked so contrasting. However, not for Tarnovsky himself - he walked the whole way with a cocked machine gun at the ready. Successfully delivered the German to the division reconnaissance commander. Subsequently, Vladimir was awarded the medal “For Courage” for this prisoner.

The war ended for Tarnovsky on May 2, 1945: “By that time I was already a corporal, a reconnaissance observer of the 3rd division of the 370th Berlin artillery regiment of the 230th Infantry Stalin-Berlin Division of the 9th Red Banner Brandenburg Corps of the 5th Shock Army . At the front, I joined the Komsomol, had soldier’s awards: the medal “For Courage”, the Order of “Glory 3rd degree” and “Red Star” and the especially significant “For the Capture of Berlin”. Front-line training, soldier friendship, education received among elders - all this helped me a lot in later life.”

It is noteworthy that after the war, Vladimir Tarnovsky was not accepted into the Suvorov School - due to the lack of a metric and a certificate from the school. Neither awards, nor the combat path traveled, nor the recommendations of the regiment commander helped. The former little intelligence officer graduated from school, then college, became an engineer at a shipbuilding plant in Riga, and eventually its director.

"Sapunov"

panoramaberlin.ru

Perhaps one of the most powerful impressions from visiting the Reichstag for every Russian person is the autographs of Soviet soldiers that have survived to this day, the news of the victorious May 1945. But it’s difficult to even try to imagine what a person, a witness and direct participant in those great events, experiences, decades later, looking among many signatures at the only one - his own.

Boris Viktorovich Sapunov was the first to experience such a feeling in many years. Boris Viktorovich was born on July 6, 1922 in Kursk. In 1939 he entered the history department of Leningrad State University. But the Soviet-Finnish War began, Sapunov volunteered for the front and was a nurse. After the end of hostilities he returned to Leningrad State University, but in 1940 he was again drafted into the army. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, he served in the Baltic states. He spent the entire war as an artilleryman. As a sergeant in the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, he participated in the Battle of Berlin and the storming of the Reichstag. He completed his military journey by signing on the walls of the Reichstag.

It was this signature on the southern wall, facing the courtyard of the northern wing, at the level of the plenary hall, that Boris Viktorovich noticed - 56 years later, on October 11, 2001, during an excursion. Wolfgang Thierse, who was the President of the Bundestag at that moment, even ordered that this case be documented, since it was the first.

After demobilization in 1946, Sapunov came to Leningrad State University again, and the opportunity finally arose to graduate from the Faculty of History. Since 1950, a graduate student at the Hermitage, then a research fellow, and since 1986, a chief research fellow in the Department of Russian Culture. B.V. Sapunov became a prominent historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences (1974), and a specialist in ancient Russian art. He was an honorary doctor of Oxford University and a member of the Petrine Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Boris Viktorovich passed away on August 18, 2013.

To conclude this issue, we present an excerpt from the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of two Orders of Victory and many other awards, Minister of Defense of the USSR Georgy Zhukov.

“The final attack of the war was carefully prepared. On the banks of the Oder River we concentrated a huge striking force; the number of shells alone was delivered to a million rounds on the first day of the assault. And then came this famous night of April 16th. Exactly at five o'clock it all started... The Katyushas hit, more than twenty thousand guns began to fire, the roar of hundreds of bombers was heard... One hundred and forty anti-aircraft searchlights flashed, located in a chain every two hundred meters. A sea of ​​light fell on the enemy, blinding him, snatching objects from the darkness for attack by our infantry and tanks. The picture of the battle was huge, impressive in strength. In my entire life I have never experienced an equal sensation... And there was also a moment when in Berlin, above the Reichstag in the smoke, I saw the red banner fluttering. I’m not a sentimental person, but I got a lump in my throat with excitement.”

List of used literature:
1. History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. In 6 volumes - M.: Voenizdat, 1963.
2. Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections. 1969.
3. Shatilov V. M. Banner over the Reichstag. 3rd edition, corrected and expanded. – M.: Voenizdat, 1975. – 350 p.
4. Neustroev S.A. The path to the Reichstag. – Sverdlovsk: Central Ural Book Publishing House, 1986.
5. Zinchenko F.M. Heroes of the storming of the Reichstag / Literary record of N.M. Ilyash. – 3rd ed. -M.: Military Publishing House, 1983. - 192 p.
6. Sboychakov M.I. They took the Reichstag: Dokum. Tale. – M.: Voenizdat, 1973. – 240 p.
7. Serkin S.P., Goncharov G.A. Standard Bearer of Victory. Documentary story. – Kirov, 2010. – 192 p.
8. Klochkov I.F. We stormed the Reichstag. – L.: Lenizdat, 1986. – 190 p.
9. Merzhanov Martyn. So it was: The last days of fascist Berlin. 3rd ed. - M.: Politizdat, 1983. – 256 p.
10. Subbotin V.E. How wars end. – M.: Soviet Russia, 1971.
11. Minin M.P. Difficult roads to Victory: Memoirs of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. – Pskov, 2001. – 255 p.
12. Egorov M. A., Kantaria M. V. Banner of Victory. – M.: Voenizdat, 1975.
13. Dolmatovsky, E.A. Autographs of Victory. – M.: DOSAAF, 1975. – 167 p.
When researching the stories of Soviet soldiers who left autographs at the Reichstag, materials collected by Karin Felix were used.

Archival documents:
TsAMO, f.545, op.216338, d.3, pp.180-185; TsAMO, f.32, op.64595, d.4, pp.188-189; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.28, l.250; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.44; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.22; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.39; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196(box.5353), d.144, l.51; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.24; TsAMO, f.1380(150SID), op.1, d.86, l.142; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.15, l.67; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.20, l.211

The issue was prepared based on material from the website panoramaberlin.ru with the kind permission of the project team "Battle for Berlin. The feat of the standard bearers."

Before the start of the operation, reconnaissance in force was carried out in the zones of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. For this purpose, on April 14, after a 15-20-minute fire raid, reinforced rifle battalions from divisions of the first echelon of combined arms armies began to operate in the direction of the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front. Then, in a number of areas, regiments of the first echelons were brought into battle. During the two-day battles, they managed to penetrate the enemy’s defenses and capture separate sections of the first and second trenches, and in some directions advance up to 5 km. The integrity of the enemy defense was broken. In addition, in a number of places, the front troops overcame the zone of the most dense minefields, which should have facilitated the subsequent offensive of the main forces. Based on an assessment of the results of the battle, the front command decided to reduce the duration of artillery preparation for the attack of the main forces from 30 to 20 - 25 minutes.

In the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front, reconnaissance in force was carried out on the night of April 16 by reinforced rifle companies. It was established that the enemy was firmly in defensive positions directly along the left bank of the Neisse. The front commander decided not to make changes to the developed plan.

On the morning of April 16, the main forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts went on the offensive. At 5 o'clock Moscow time, two hours before dawn, artillery preparation began in the 1st Belorussian Front. In the zone of the 5th Shock Army, ships and floating batteries of the Dnieper Flotilla took part in it. The force of the artillery fire was enormous. If during the entire first day of the operation the artillery of the 1st Belorussian Front spent 1,236 thousand shells, which amounted to almost 2.5 thousand railway cars, then during the artillery preparation - 500 thousand shells and mines, or 1 thousand cars. Night bombers of the 16th and 4th Air Armies attacked enemy headquarters, artillery firing positions, as well as the third and fourth trenches of the main defense line.

After the final salvo of rocket artillery, the troops of the 3rd and 5th shock, 8th Guards, and 69th armies, commanded by generals V.I. Kuznetsov, N.E. Berzarin, V.I. Chuikov, moved forward, V. Ya. Kolpakchi. With the start of the attack, powerful searchlights located in the zone of these armies directed their beams towards the enemy. The 1st Army of the Polish Army, the 47th and 33rd Armies of Generals S.G. Poplavsky, F.I. Perkhorovich, V.D. Tsvetaev went on the offensive at 6:15. Bombers of the 18th Air Army under the command of Air Chief Marshal A.E. Golovanov struck the second defense line. With dawn, the aviation of the 16th Air Army of General S.I. Rudenko intensified the fighting, which on the first day of the operation carried out 5,342 combat sorties and shot down 165 German aircraft. In total, during the first 24 hours, pilots of the 16th, 4th and 18th Air Armies flew over 6,550 sorties and dropped over 1,500 tons of bombs on enemy control points, resistance centers and reserves.

As a result of powerful artillery preparation and air strikes, the enemy suffered great damage. Therefore, for the first one and a half to two hours, the offensive of the Soviet troops developed successfully. However, soon the Nazis, relying on a strong, engineering-developed second line of defense, put up fierce resistance. Intense fighting broke out along the entire front. Soviet troops sought to overcome the enemy's stubbornness at all costs, acting assertively and energetically. In the center of the 3rd Shock Army, the greatest success was achieved by the 32nd Rifle Corps under the command of General D.S. Zherebin. He advanced 8 km and reached the second line of defense. On the left flank of the army, the 301st Infantry Division, commanded by Colonel V.S. Antonov, took an important enemy stronghold and the Verbig railway station. In the battles for it, soldiers of the 1054th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel H.N. Radaev, distinguished themselves. The Komsomol organizer of the 1st battalion, Lieutenant G. A. Avakyan, with one machine gunner, made his way to the building where the Nazis were holed up. Throwing grenades at them, the brave warriors destroyed 56 fascists and captured 14. Lieutenant Avakyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

To increase the tempo of the offensive in the zone of the 3rd Shock Army, the 9th Tank Corps of General I. F. Kirichenko was brought into battle at 10 o’clock. Although this increased the force of the attack, the advance of the troops was still slow. It became clear to the front command that combined arms armies were not able to quickly break through enemy defenses to the depth planned for introducing tank armies into battle. What was especially dangerous was that the infantry could not capture the tactically very important Zelovsky heights, along which the front edge of the second defensive line ran. This natural boundary dominated the entire area, had steep slopes and in all respects was a serious obstacle on the way to the capital of Germany. The Seelow Heights were considered by the Wehrmacht command as the key to the entire defense in the Berlin direction. “By 13 o’clock,” recalled Marshal G.K. Zhukov, “I clearly understood that the enemy’s defense fire system here had basically survived, and in the battle formation in which we launched the attack and were conducting the offensive, we would not be able to take the Zelovsky Heights.” (624) . Therefore, Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov decided to introduce tank armies into battle and, through joint efforts, complete the breakthrough of the tactical defense zone.

In the afternoon, the 1st Guards Tank Army of General M.E. Katukov was the first to enter the battle. By the end of the day, all three of its corps were fighting in the zone of the 8th Guards Army. However, on this day it was not possible to break through the defenses on the Seelow Heights. The first day of the operation was also difficult for the 2nd Guards Tank Army of General S.I. Bogdanov. In the afternoon, the army received orders from the commander to overtake the infantry battle formations and strike at Bernau. By 19:00, its formations reached the line of the advanced units of the 3rd and 5th shock armies, but, having encountered fierce enemy resistance, they could not advance further.

The course of the struggle on the first day of the operation showed that the Nazis were striving to hold the Seelow Heights at any cost: by the end of the day, the fascist command brought forward the reserves of the Vistula Army Group to reinforce the troops defending the second line of defense. The fighting was extremely stubborn. During the second day of the battle, the Nazis repeatedly launched violent counterattacks. However, the 8th Guards Army of General V.I. Chuikov, who fought here, persistently moved forward. Soldiers of all branches of the military showed massive heroism. The 172nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 57th Guards Rifle Division fought courageously. During the assault on the heights covering Zelov, the 3rd battalion under the command of Captain N.N. Chusovsky especially distinguished itself. Having repelled an enemy counterattack, the battalion broke into the Seelow Heights, and then, after a heavy street battle, cleared the southeastern outskirts of the city of Seelow. In these battles, the battalion commander not only led the units, but also, dragging the fighters along with him, personally destroyed four Nazis in hand-to-hand combat. Many soldiers and officers of the battalion were awarded orders and medals, and Captain Chusovskoy was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Zelov was taken by the troops of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps under General V. A. Glazunov, in cooperation with part of the forces of the 11th Guards Tank Corps under Colonel A. Kh. Babajanyan.

As a result of fierce and stubborn battles, by the end of April 17, the troops of the front’s strike group had broken through the second defensive line and two intermediate positions. Attempts by the fascist German command to stop the advance of Soviet troops by bringing four divisions from the reserve into battle were unsuccessful. Bombers of the 16th and 18th Air Armies attacked enemy reserves day and night, delaying their advance to the line of hostilities. On April 16 and 17, the offensive was supported by ships of the Dnieper military flotilla. They fired until the ground forces moved beyond the firing range of the naval artillery. Soviet troops persistently rushed towards Berlin.

The front troops also had to overcome stubborn resistance, striking on the flanks. The troops of the 61st Army of General P. A. Belov, who launched the offensive on April 17, crossed the Oder by the end of the day and captured a bridgehead on its left bank. By this time, formations of the 1st Army of the Polish Army crossed the Oder and broke through the first position of the main defense line. In the Frankfurt area, troops of the 69th and 33rd armies advanced from 2 to 6 km.

On the third day, heavy fighting continued deep in the enemy defenses. The Nazis brought almost all of their operational reserves into the battle. The exceptionally fierce nature of the struggle affected the pace of advance of the Soviet troops. By the end of the day, their main forces had covered another 3-6 km and reached the approaches to the third defensive line. Formations of both tank armies, together with infantrymen, artillerymen and sappers, continuously stormed enemy positions for three days. Difficult terrain and strong enemy anti-tank defenses did not allow the tankers to break away from the infantry. The front's mobile forces have not yet received operational space to conduct rapid maneuvering operations in the Berlin direction.

In the 8th Guards Army zone, the Nazis offered the most stubborn resistance along the highway running west from Seelow, on both sides of which they installed about 200 anti-aircraft guns.

The slow advance of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front posed, in the opinion of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the implementation of the plan to encircle the enemy's Berlin group at risk. As early as April 17, the Headquarters demanded that the front commander ensure a more energetic offensive by the troops under his command. At the same time, she gave instructions to the commanders of the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts to facilitate the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front. The 2nd Belorussian Front (after crossing the Oder) received, in addition, the task no later than April 22 with the main forces to develop an offensive to the southwest, striking bypassing Berlin from the north (625), so that in cooperation with the troops of the 1st The Ukrainian Front will complete the encirclement of the Berlin group.

In pursuance of the instructions of the Headquarters, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front demanded that the troops increase the pace of the offensive, bring up artillery, including high-power artillery, to the first echelon of troops at a distance of 2 - 3 km, which was supposed to facilitate closer interaction with infantry and tanks. Particular attention was paid to the massing of artillery in decisive directions. To support the advancing armies, the front commander ordered the more decisive use of aviation.

As a result of the measures taken, the troops of the strike group broke through the third defensive line by the end of April 19 and in four days advanced to a depth of 30 km, gaining the opportunity to develop an offensive towards Berlin and bypassing it from the north. In breaking through the enemy's defenses, the aviation of the 16th Air Army provided great assistance to the ground forces. Despite unfavorable meteorological conditions, during this time she made about 14.7 thousand sorties and shot down 474 enemy aircraft. In the battles near Berlin, Major I.N. Kozhedub increased the number of enemy aircraft shot down to 62. The famous pilot was awarded a high award - the third Gold Star. In just four days, in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front, Soviet aviation carried out up to 17 thousand sorties (626).

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front spent four days breaking through the Oder defensive line. During this time, the enemy suffered great damage: 9 divisions from the first operational echelon and a division: the second echelon lost up to 80 percent of their personnel and almost all military equipment, and 6 divisions advanced from the reserve, and up to 80 different battalions sent from the depths, - over 50 percent. However, the front troops also suffered significant losses and advanced more slowly than planned. This was due primarily to the difficult conditions of the situation. The deep construction of the enemy’s defense, occupied in advance by troops, its large saturation with anti-tank weapons, the high density of artillery fire, especially anti-tank and anti-aircraft, continuous counterattacks and reinforcement of troops with reserves - all this required maximum effort from the Soviet troops.

Due to the fact that the front’s strike group launched an offensive from a small bridgehead and in a relatively narrow zone limited by water obstacles and wooded and swampy areas, the Soviet troops were constrained in maneuver and could not quickly expand the breakthrough zone. In addition, the crossings and rear roads were extremely congested, which made it extremely difficult to bring new forces into the battle from the depths. The pace of the offensive of the combined arms armies was significantly influenced by the fact that the enemy defenses were not reliably suppressed during artillery preparation. This especially concerned the second defensive line, which ran along the Zelovsky Heights, where the enemy withdrew part of the forces from the first line and brought up reserves from the depths. It did not have much impact on the pace of the offensive and the introduction of tank armies into the battle to complete the breakthrough of the defense. Such use of tank armies was not provided for by the operation plan, so their interaction with combined arms formations, aviation and artillery had to be organized during combat operations.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed successfully. On April 16, at 6:15 a.m., artillery preparation began, during which the reinforced battalions of the first echelon divisions advanced directly to the Neisse River and, after transferring artillery fire, under the cover of a smoke screen placed on a 390-kilometer front, began crossing the river. The personnel of the forward units were transported along assault bridges built during the period of artillery preparation and using improvised means. A small number of escort guns and mortars were transported along with the infantry. Since the bridges were not yet ready, some of the field artillery had to be waded using ropes. At 7:05 a.m., the first echelons of bombers from the 2nd Air Army attacked enemy resistance centers and command posts.

The battalions of the first echelon, quickly capturing bridgeheads on the left bank of the river, provided conditions for building bridges and crossing the main forces. The sappers of one of the units of the 15th Guards Separate Motorized Assault Engineer Battalion showed exceptional dedication. Overcoming barriers on the left bank of the Neisse River, they discovered property for the assault bridge, guarded by enemy soldiers. Having killed the guards, the sappers quickly built an assault bridge, along which the infantry of the 15th Guards Rifle Division began to cross. For their courage and courage, the commander of the 34th Guards Rifle Corps, General G.V. Baklanov, awarded the entire personnel of the unit (22 people) the Order of Glory (627). Pontoon bridges on light inflatable boats were erected after 50 minutes, bridges for loads up to 30 tons - after 2 hours, and bridges on rigid supports for loads up to 60 tons - within 4 - 5 hours. In addition to them, ferries were used to ferry tanks in direct infantry support. In total, 133 crossings were equipped in the direction of the main attack. The first echelon of the main attack group completed the crossing of the Neisse an hour later, during which the artillery fired continuously at the enemy defenses. She then concentrated her attacks on enemy strongholds, preparing an attack on the opposite bank.

At 8:40 a.m., troops of the 13th Army, as well as the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies, began breaking through the main defensive line. The fighting on the left bank of the Neisse became fierce. The Nazis launched fierce counterattacks, trying to eliminate the bridgeheads captured by Soviet troops. Already on the first day of the operation, the fascist command threw up to three tank divisions and a tank destroyer brigade into battle from its reserve.

In order to quickly complete the breakthrough of the enemy's defense, the front commander used the 25th and 4th Guards Tank Corps of Generals E.I. Fominykh and P.P. Poluboyarov, as well as forward detachments of tank and mechanized corps of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Corps armies (628) . Working closely together, combined arms and tank formations by the end of the day broke through the main line of defense on a 26 km front and advanced to a depth of 13 km.

The next day, the main forces of both tank armies were brought into battle. Soviet troops repelled all enemy counterattacks and completed the breakthrough of the second line of its defense. In two days, the troops of the front's strike group advanced 15 - 20 km. Part of the enemy forces began to retreat across the Spree River. To support the combat operations of the tank armies, most of the forces of the 2nd Air Army were brought in. Attack aircraft destroyed the enemy's firepower and manpower, and bomber aircraft attacked his reserves.

In the Dresden direction, troops of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army under the command of General K. K. Sverchevsky and the 52nd Army of General K. A. Koroteev after the entry into battle of the 1st Polish Tank and 7th Guards Mechanized Corps under the command of Generals I. K. Kimbara and I.P. Korchagina also completed the breakthrough of the tactical defense zone and, in two days of fighting, advanced up to 20 km in some areas.

The successful offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front created for the enemy the threat of a deep bypass of his Berlin group from the south. The Nazis concentrated their efforts to delay the advance of Soviet troops at the turn of the Spree River. They also sent the reserves of Army Group Center and the withdrawn troops of the 4th Tank Army here. However, the enemy's attempts to change the course of the battle were unsuccessful.

In pursuance of the instructions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, on the night of April 18, the front commander assigned the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies under the command of Generals P. S. Rybalko and D. D. Lelyushenko the task of reaching the Spree, crossing it on the move and developing the offensive directly to Berlin from the south. The combined arms armies were ordered to carry out previously assigned tasks. The front's Military Council drew special attention to the commanders of the tank armies to the need for rapid and maneuverable actions. In the directive, the front commander emphasized: “In the main direction, use a tank fist to push forward more boldly and decisively. Bypass cities and large populated areas and not get involved in protracted frontal battles. I demand that you firmly understand that the success of tank armies depends on bold maneuver and swiftness in action” (629). On the morning of April 18, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the Spree. They, together with the 13th Army, crossed it on the move, broke through the third defensive line on a 10-kilometer section and captured a bridgehead north and south of Spremberg, where their main forces concentrated. On April 18, troops of the 5th Guards Army with the 4th Guards Tank Corps and in cooperation with the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps crossed the Spree south of the city. On this day, the planes of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel A.I. Pokryshkin, covered the troops of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank, 13th and 5th Guards Armies, which crossed the Spree. During the day, in 13 air battles, the division pilots shot down 18 enemy aircraft (630). Thus, favorable conditions for a successful offensive were created in the zone of action of the front’s strike group.

Front troops operating in the Dresden direction repelled strong enemy counterattacks. On this day, the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps under the command of General V.K. Baranov was brought into battle here.

In three days, the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced up to 30 km in the direction of the main attack. Significant assistance to the ground forces was provided by the 2nd Air Army of General S.A. Krasovsky, which during these days carried out 7517 sorties and shot down 155 enemy aircraft (631) in 138 air battles.

While the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts were conducting intense combat operations to break through the Oder-Neissen defensive line, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front were completing preparations for crossing the Oder. In the lower reaches, the bed of this river is divided into two branches (Ost- and West-Oder), therefore, the front troops had to overcome two water obstacles in succession. In order to create the best conditions for the main forces for the offensive, which was scheduled for April 20, the front commander decided on April 18 and 19 to cross the Ost-Oder River with advanced units, destroy the enemy's military outposts in the interfluve and ensure that the front's attack group formations would occupy an advantageous starting position.

On April 18, simultaneously in the zones of the 65th, 70th and 49th armies under the command of generals P.I. Batov, V.S. Popov and I.T. Grishin, rifle regiments of the first echelon divisions on improvised and light crossing means, under the cover of artillery fire and smoke screens crossed the Ost-Oder, in a number of areas overcame the enemy defenses in the interfluve and reached the bank of the West Oder River. On April 19, the units that crossed continued to destroy enemy units in the interfluve, concentrating on the dams on the right bank of this river. Substantial assistance to the ground forces was provided by the aviation of the 4th Air Army of General K. A. Vershinin. It suppressed and destroyed enemy strongholds and firing points.

By active operations in the Oder interfluve, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front had a significant influence on the course of the Berlin operation. Having overcome the swampy floodplain of the Oder, they took an advantageous starting position for crossing the West Oder, as well as breaking through the enemy defenses along its left bank, in the area from Stettin to Schwedt, which did not allow the fascist command to transfer formations of the 3rd Tank Army to the 1st Tank Army Belorussian Front.

Thus, by April 20, generally favorable conditions had developed in the zones of all three fronts for the continuation of the operation. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed the offensive most successfully. During the breakthrough of the defense along the Neisse and Spree, they defeated the enemy reserves, entered the operational space and rushed to Berlin, covering the right wing of the Frankfurt-Guben group of Nazi troops, which included part of the 4th Panzer and the main forces of the 9th Field Armies. In solving this problem, the main role was assigned to tank armies. On April 19, they advanced 30 to 50 km in a northwestern direction, reached the area of ​​Lübbenau, Luckau and cut off the communications of the 9th Army. All enemy attempts to break through from the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg to the crossings of the Spree and reach the rear of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front were unsuccessful. The troops of the 3rd and 5th Guards Armies under the command of Generals V.N. Gordov and A.S. Zhadov, moving west, reliably covered the communications of the tank armies, which allowed the tankers the very next day, without encountering serious resistance, to overcome more 45 - 60 km and reach the approaches to Berlin; The 13th Army of General N.P. Pukhov advanced 30 km.

The rapid offensive of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank, as well as the 13th Armies, by the end of April 20, led to the cutting off of Army Group Vistula from Army Group Center, and enemy troops in the areas of Cottbus and Spremberg found themselves semi-encircled. A commotion began in the highest circles of the Wehrmacht when they learned that Soviet tanks had reached the Wünsdorf area (10 km south of Zossen). The headquarters of the operational leadership of the armed forces and the general staff of the ground forces hastily left Zossen and moved to Wansee (Potsdam region), and some departments and services were transferred by plane to Southern Germany. In the diary of the Wehrmacht Supreme Command for April 20, the following entry was made: “For the highest command authorities, the last act of the dramatic death of the German armed forces begins... Everything is done in a hurry, since you can already hear Russian tanks firing from cannons in the distance... Depressed mood" (632).

The rapid development of the operation made a quick meeting of Soviet and American-British troops realistic. At the end of April 20, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command sent a directive to the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, as well as the commanders of the Air Force, armored and mechanized forces of the Soviet Army. It stated that it was necessary to establish signs and signals for mutual identification. By agreement with the allied command, the commander of the tank and combined arms armies was ordered to determine a temporary tactical demarcation line between the Soviet and American-British units in order to avoid mixing of troops (633).

Continuing the offensive in the northwestern direction, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front by the end of April 21 overcame enemy resistance in individual strong points and came close to the outer perimeter of the Berlin defensive area. Considering the upcoming nature of the fighting in such a large city as Berlin, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front decided to strengthen the 3rd Guards Tank Army of General P. S. Rybalko with the 10th Artillery Corps, the 25th Breakthrough Artillery Division, the 23rd Anti-Aircraft Division artillery division and 2nd Fighter Aviation Corps. In addition, two rifle divisions of the 28th Army of General A. A. Luchinsky, brought into the battle from the second echelon of the front, were transported by motor transport.

On the morning of April 22, the 3rd Guards Tank Army, having deployed all three corps in the first echelon, began an attack on enemy fortifications. Army troops broke through the outer defensive perimeter of the Berlin region and by the end of the day they began fighting on the southern outskirts of the German capital. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front had broken into its northeastern outskirts the day before.

Operating to the left, the 4th Guards Tank Army of General D. D. Lelyushenko by the end of April 22 also broke through the outer defensive contour and, having reached the Zarmund-Belits line, took an advantageous position to connect with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and complete the encirclement together with them. the entire Berlin enemy group. Its 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, together with the troops of the 13th and 5th Guards armies, had by this time reached the line of Belitz, Treuenbritzen, Tsana. As a result, the path to Berlin for enemy reserves from the west and southwest was closed. In Treuenbritzen, tank crews of the 4th Guards Tank Army rescued from fascist captivity about 1,600 prisoners of war of various nationalities: British, Americans and Norwegians, including the former commander of the Norwegian army, General O. Ryge. A few days later, soldiers of the same army liberated from a concentration camp (in the suburbs of Berlin) the former Prime Minister of France E. Herriot, a famous statesman who back in the 20s advocated Franco-Soviet rapprochement.

Taking advantage of the success of the tankers, the troops of the 13th and 5th Guards Armies quickly advanced westward. In an effort to slow down the advance of the strike group of the 1st Ukrainian Front towards Berlin, on April 18 the fascist command launched a counterattack from the Gorlitsa area against the troops of the 52nd Army. Having created a significant superiority in forces in this direction, the enemy tried to reach the rear of the front’s strike group. On April 19 - 23, fierce battles broke out here. The enemy managed to penetrate the location of Soviet and then Polish troops to a depth of 20 km. To help the troops of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army, part of the forces of the 5th Guards Army, the 4th Guards Tank Corps were transferred and up to four aviation corps were redirected. As a result, the enemy suffered great damage, and by the end of April 24, his advance was suspended.

While formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a rapid maneuver to bypass the German capital from the south, the strike force of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked directly on Berlin from the east. After breaking through the Oder line, the front troops, overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, moved forward. On April 20, at 13:50, the long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army fired the first two salvos at the fascist capital, and then systematic shelling began. By the end of April 21, the 3rd and 5th Shock Armies, as well as the 2nd Guards Tank Army, had already overcome resistance on the outer perimeter of the Berlin defensive area and reached the northeastern outskirts of the city. By the morning of April 22, the 9th Guards Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army reached the Havel River, on the northwestern outskirts of the capital, and, in cooperation with units of the 47th Army, began crossing it. The 1st Guards Tank and 8th Guards Armies also advanced successfully, and by April 21 they had reached the outer defensive perimeter. On the morning of the next day, the main forces of the front's strike group were already fighting with the enemy directly in Berlin.

By the end of April 22, Soviet troops had created the conditions to complete the encirclement and dissection of the entire Berlin enemy group. The distance between the forward units of the 47th, 2nd Guards Tank Armies, advancing from the northeast, and the 4th Guards Tank Army was 40 km, and between the left flank of the 8th Guards Tank Army and the right flank of the 3rd Guards Tank Army - no more than 12 km. The headquarters of the Supreme High Command, having assessed the current situation, demanded that the front commanders complete the encirclement of the main forces of the 9th Field Army by the end of April 24 and prevent its withdrawal to Berlin or to the west. In order to ensure the timely and accurate implementation of the instructions of the Headquarters, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front introduced his second echelon into the battle - the 3rd Army under the command of General A.V. Gorbatov and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps of General V.V. Kryukov. In cooperation with the troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front, they were supposed to cut off the main forces of the enemy’s 9th Army from the capital and encircle them southeast of the city. The troops of the 47th Army and the 9th Guards Tank Corps were ordered to speed up the offensive and, no later than April 24-25, complete the encirclement of the entire enemy group in the Berlin direction. In connection with the advance of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front to the southern outskirts of Berlin, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on the night of April 23 established a new demarcation line for it with the 1st Belorussian Front: from Lübben to the northwest to the Anhalt station in Berlin.

The Nazis made desperate efforts to prevent their capital from being encircled. On the afternoon of April 22, the last operational meeting was held in the Imperial Chancellery, which was attended by W. Keitel, A. Jodl, M. Bormann, G. Krebs and others. Hitler agreed with Jodl's proposal to remove all troops from the Western Front and throw them into the battle for Berlin. In this regard, the 12th Army of General W. Wenck, which occupied defensive positions on the Elbe, was ordered to turn its front to the east and advance to Potsdam and Berlin to join the 9th Army. At the same time, an army group under the command of SS General F. Steiner, which operated north of the capital, was supposed to strike the flank of a group of Soviet troops that was bypassing it from the north and northwest (634).

To organize the offensive of the 12th Army, Field Marshal Keitel was sent to its headquarters. Completely ignoring the actual state of affairs, the German command hoped that this army would attack from the west, and Steiner’s army group from the north, to prevent the complete encirclement of the city. The 12th Army, turning its front to the east, on April 24 began operations against the troops of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies, which were occupying defenses at the Belitz-Tröyenbritzen line. The German 9th Army was ordered to withdraw west to link up with the 12th Army south of Berlin.

On April 23 and 24, fighting in all directions became particularly fierce. Although the pace of advance of the Soviet troops slowed down somewhat, the Nazis were unable to stop them. The intention of the fascist command to prevent the encirclement and dismemberment of their group was thwarted. Already on April 24, the troops of the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front linked up with the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front southeast of Berlin. As a result, the main forces of the 9th and part of the forces of the enemy's 4th Tank Army were cut off from the city and surrounded. The next day after the connection west of Berlin, in the Ketzin area, the 4th Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front with the troops of the 2nd Guards Tank and 47th Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, the Berlin enemy group itself was surrounded.

On April 25, a meeting between Soviet and American troops took place. On this day, in the Torgau area, units of the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army crossed the Elbe and established contact with the 69th Infantry Division of the 1st American Army that had arrived here. Germany found itself divided into two parts.

The situation in the Dresden direction also changed significantly. The counterattack of the enemy's Görlitz group by April 25 was finally thwarted by the stubborn and active defense of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army and the 52nd Army. To strengthen them, the defense line of the 52nd Army was narrowed, and to the left of it, formations of the 31st Army, which arrived at the front under the command of General P. G. Shafranov, deployed. The released rifle corps of the 52nd Army was used in the area of ​​its active operations.

Thus, in just ten days, Soviet troops overcame the enemy’s powerful defenses along the Oder and Neisse, encircled and dismembered his group in the Berlin direction and created the conditions for its complete liquidation.

In connection with the successful maneuver to encircle the Berlin group by troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts, there was no longer a need to bypass Berlin from the north with the forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front. As a result, already on April 23, Headquarters ordered him to develop the offensive in accordance with the original operation plan, that is, in the western and northwestern directions, and with part of his forces to strike bypassing Stettin from the west (635).

The offensive of the main forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front began on April 20 with the crossing of the West Oder River. Thick morning fog and smoke sharply limited the actions of Soviet aviation. However, after 9 o'clock visibility improved somewhat and air support increased for ground forces. The greatest success during the first day of the operation was achieved in the zone of the 65th Army under the command of General P.I. Batov. By evening, it captured several small bridgeheads on the left bank of the river, transporting there 31 rifle battalions, part of the artillery and 15 self-propelled artillery units. The troops of the 70th Army under the command of General V.S. Popov also operated successfully. 12 rifle battalions were transported to the bridgehead they captured. The crossing of the West Oder by the troops of the 49th Army of General I. T. Grishin turned out to be less successful: only on the second day they managed to capture a small bridgehead (636).

In the following days, front troops fought intense battles to expand bridgeheads, repelled enemy counterattacks, and also continued to cross their troops to the left bank of the Oder. By the end of April 25, formations of the 65th and 70th armies completed the breakthrough of the main defense line. In six days of fighting they advanced 20 - 22 km. The 49th Army, taking advantage of the success of its neighbors, in the morning of April 26, crossed the West Oder with its main forces along the crossings of the 70th Army and by the end of the day had advanced 10 - 12 km. On the same day, in the zone of the 65th Army, troops of the 2nd Shock Army of General I. I. Fedyuninsky began crossing to the left bank of the West Oder. As a result of the actions of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, the 3rd German Tank Army was shackled, which deprived the Nazi command of the opportunity to use its forces for operations directly in the Berlin direction.

At the end of April, the Soviet command focused all its attention on Berlin. Before its assault, party-political work unfolded with renewed vigor among the troops. Back on April 23, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front addressed an appeal to the soldiers, which said: “Before you, Soviet heroes, is Berlin. You must take Berlin, and take it as quickly as possible, so as not to give the enemy time to come to his senses. For the honor of our Motherland forward! To Berlin! (637) In conclusion, the Military Council expressed full confidence that the glorious warriors would fulfill the task entrusted to them with honor. Political workers, party and Komsomol organizations used any respite in the battles to familiarize everyone with this document. Army newspapers called on the soldiers: “Forward, for complete victory over the enemy!”, “Let us hoist the banner of our victory over Berlin!”

During the operation, employees of the Main Political Directorate negotiated almost daily with members of military councils and heads of political departments of the fronts, listened to their reports, and gave specific instructions and advice. The Main Political Directorate demanded that the soldiers be made aware that in Berlin they were fighting for the future of their Motherland, of all peace-loving humanity.

In newspapers, on billboards installed along the route of movement of Soviet troops, on guns, and vehicles there were inscriptions: “Comrades! Berlin's defenses have been breached! The desired hour of victory is near. Forward, comrades, forward!”, “One more effort, and victory is won!”, “The long-awaited hour has come! We are at the walls of Berlin!

And the Soviet soldiers intensified their attacks. Even wounded soldiers did not leave the battlefield. Thus, in the 65th Army, more than two thousand soldiers refused to be evacuated to the rear (638). Soldiers and commanders applied daily for admission to the party. For example, in the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, 11,776 soldiers (639) were accepted into the party in April alone.

In this situation, special care was taken to further increase the command staff's sense of responsibility for carrying out combat missions, to ensure that officers did not lose control of the battle for a minute. All available forms, methods and means of party political work supported the initiative of the soldiers, their resourcefulness and audacity in battle. Party and Komsomol organizations helped commanders timely concentrate efforts where success was expected, and the communists were the first to rush into attacks and drag their non-party comrades along with them. “What kind of fortitude and desire to win it was necessary to have in order to reach the goal through a devastating barrage of fire, stone and reinforced concrete barriers, overcoming numerous “surprises”, fire bags and traps, engaging in hand-to-hand combat,” recalls a member of the Military Council 1- of the Belorussian Front, General K. F. Telegin. - But everyone wanted to live. But this is how a Soviet person was brought up - the common good, the happiness of his people, the glory of the Motherland are more valuable to him than anything personal, more valuable than life itself” (640).

The headquarters of the Supreme High Command issued a directive that demanded a humane attitude towards those ordinary members of the National Socialist Party who are loyal to the Soviet Army, the creation of local administrations everywhere, and the appointment of burgomasters in cities.

When solving the problem of capturing Berlin, the Soviet command understood that they could not underestimate the Frankfurt-Guben group, which Hitler intended to use to relieve the blockade of his capital. As a result, along with increasing efforts to defeat the Berlin garrison, the Headquarters considered it necessary to immediately begin eliminating the troops surrounded southeast of Berlin.

The Frankfurt-Guben group consisted of up to 200 thousand people. It was armed with over 2 thousand guns, more than 300 tanks and assault guns. The forested and swampy area it occupies is about 1500 square meters. km was very convenient for defense. Considering the composition of the enemy group, the Soviet command involved the 3rd, 69th and 33rd Armies and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps of the 1st Belorussian Front, the 3rd Guards and 28th Armies, as well as the Rifle Corps of the 13th Army in its liquidation 1st Ukrainian Front. The actions of ground troops were supported by seven aviation corps; Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in men by 1.4 times, and in artillery by 3.7 times. Since the bulk of Soviet tanks at that time were fighting directly in Berlin, the forces of the parties were equal in number.

In order to prevent a breakthrough of the blocked enemy group in the western direction, the troops of the 28th and part of the forces of the 3rd Guards Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front went on the defensive. On the paths of a probable enemy attack, they prepared three defensive lines, laid mines and created rubble.

On the morning of April 26, Soviet troops launched an offensive against the encircled group, trying to dissect and destroy it piece by piece. The enemy not only put up stubborn resistance, but also made repeated attempts to break through to the west. Thus, units of two infantry, two motorized and tank divisions struck at the junction of the 28th and 3rd Guards armies. Having created a significant superiority in forces, the Nazis broke through the defenses in a narrow area and began to move west. During fierce battles, Soviet troops closed the neck of the breakthrough, and the part that broke through was surrounded in the Barut area and almost completely liquidated. Aviation provided great assistance to the ground forces, which during the day carried out about 500 sorties, destroying enemy manpower and equipment.

In the following days, fascist German troops again tried to connect with the 12th Army, which in turn sought to overcome the defenses of the troops of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th armies operating on the outer front of the encirclement. However, all enemy attacks during April 27-28 were repelled. Considering the likelihood of new attempts by the enemy to break through to the west, the command of the 1st Ukrainian Front strengthened the defense of the 28th and 3rd Guards Armies and concentrated its reserves in the areas of Zossen, Luckenwalde, and Jüterbog.

At the same time (April 26 - 28), troops of the 1st Belorussian Front were pushing back the encircled enemy group from the east. Fearing complete liquidation, the Nazis again tried to break out of the encirclement on the night of April 29. By dawn, at the cost of heavy losses, they managed to break through the main defensive line of Soviet troops at the junction of two fronts - in the area west of Wendisch-Buchholz. On the second line of defense, their advance was stopped. But the enemy, despite heavy losses, stubbornly rushed to the west. In the second half of April 29, up to 45 thousand fascist soldiers resumed attacks on the sector of the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps of the 28th Army, broke through its defenses and formed a corridor up to 2 km wide. Through it they began to retreat to Luckenwalde. The German 12th Army attacked from the west in the same direction. There was a threat of a union between two enemy groups. By the end of April 29, Soviet troops with decisive actions stopped the enemy’s advance at the Sperenberg-Kummersdorf line (12 km east of Luckenwalde). His troops were dismembered and surrounded in three separate areas. Nevertheless, the breakthrough of large enemy forces into the Kummersdorf area led to the fact that the communications of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, as well as the 28th Armies, were cut off. The distance between the advanced units of the breakthrough group and the enemy 12th Army advancing from the west was reduced to 30 km.

Particularly intense fighting broke out on April 30. Ignoring losses, the Nazis continued their offensive and advanced 10 km to the west within a day. By the end of the day, a significant part of the troops that had broken through was eliminated. However, one of the groups (numbering up to 20 thousand people) on the night of May 1 managed to break through at the junction of the 13th and 4th Guards Tank Armies and reach the Belitsa area, now only 3 - 4 km separated it from the 12th Army . To prevent these troops from further advancing westward, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army promoted two tank brigades, a mechanized brigade, a light artillery brigade, and a motorcycle regiment. During the fierce battles, the 1st Guards Assault Aviation Corps provided great assistance to the ground troops.

By the end of the day, the main part of the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group was eliminated. All hopes of the fascist command for the unblockade of Berlin collapsed. Soviet troops captured 120 thousand soldiers and officers, captured more than 300 tanks and assault guns, over 1,500 field guns, 17,600 vehicles and a lot of various military equipment. The enemy lost 60 thousand people (641) in killed alone. Only small scattered groups of the enemy managed to penetrate through the forest and escape to the west. Part of the troops of the 12th Army that survived the defeat retreated to the left bank of the Elbe along bridges built by American troops and surrendered to them.

In the Dresden direction, the fascist German command did not abandon its intention to break through the defenses of Soviet troops in the Bautzen area and go to the rear of the strike group of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Having regrouped their troops, the Nazis launched an offensive on the morning of April 26 with four divisions. Despite heavy losses, the enemy did not reach the goal and his advance was stopped. Stubborn fighting continued here until April 30, but there was no significant change in the position of the parties. The Nazis, having exhausted their offensive capabilities, went on the defensive in this direction.

Thus, thanks to stubborn and active defense, Soviet troops not only thwarted the enemy’s plan to go behind the strike group of the 1st Ukrainian Front, but also captured bridgeheads on the Elbe in the area of ​​Meissen, Riesen, which later served as a favorable starting area for an attack on Prague.

Meanwhile, the struggle in Berlin reached its climax. The garrison, continuously increasing due to the involvement of the city population and retreating military units, already numbered 300 thousand people (642). It was armed with 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks. By the end of April 25, the enemy occupied the territory of the capital along with its suburbs with a total area of ​​325 square meters. km. The eastern and southeastern outskirts of Berlin were most fortified. The streets and alleys were crossed by strong barricades. Everything was adapted to the defense, even destroyed buildings. The city's underground structures were widely used: bomb shelters, metro stations and tunnels, drainage collectors and other objects. Reinforced concrete bunkers were built, the largest ones for 300 - 1000 people each, as well as a large number of reinforced concrete caps.

By April 26, troops of the 47th Army, 3rd and 5th Shock, 8th Guards Combined Arms, 2nd and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, as well as 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies and part of the forces of the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. In total, they included about 464 thousand people, over 12.7 thousand guns and mortars of all calibers, up to 2.1 thousand rocket artillery installations, about 1,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations.

The Soviet command abandoned an offensive along the entire circumference of the city, as this could lead to excessive dispersal of forces and a slowdown in the pace of advance, but concentrated efforts on individual directions. Thanks to this unique tactic of “driving” deep wedges into the enemy’s position, his defense was dismembered into separate parts, and troop control was paralyzed. This method of action increased the pace of the offensive and ultimately led to effective results.

Taking into account the experience of previous battles for large populated areas, the Soviet command ordered the creation of assault detachments in each division as part of reinforced battalions or companies. Each such detachment, in addition to infantry, included artillery, tanks, self-propelled artillery units, sappers, and often flamethrowers. It was intended for action in any one direction, which usually included one street, or for the assault of a large object. To capture smaller objects, assault groups consisting of a rifle squad to a platoon, reinforced with 2 - 4 guns, 1 - 2 tanks or self-propelled artillery units, as well as sappers and flamethrowers, were allocated from the same detachments.

The start of operations by assault detachments and groups, as a rule, was preceded by a short but powerful artillery preparation. Before attacking a fortified building, the assault force was usually divided into two groups. One of them, under the cover of tank and artillery fire, burst into the building, blocked the exits from the basements, which served as shelter for the Nazis during the artillery barrage, and then destroyed them with grenades and bottles of flammable liquid. The second group cleared the upper floors of machine gunners and snipers.

The specific conditions of combat operations in a large city determined a number of features in the use of military branches. Thus, artillery destruction groups were created in divisions and corps, and long-range groups were created in combined arms armies. A significant part of the artillery was used for direct fire. The experience of previous battles has shown that tanks and self-propelled artillery can only advance if they work closely with the infantry and under its cover. Attempts to use tanks independently led to heavy losses from artillery fire and faustpatrons. Due to the fact that Berlin was shrouded in smoke during the assault, the massive use of bomber aircraft was often difficult. Therefore, the main forces of bomber and attack aircraft were used to destroy the Frankfurt-Guben group, and fighter aircraft carried out an air blockade of Hitler’s capital. The aircraft carried out the most powerful strikes on military targets in the city on April 25 and on the night of April 26. The 16th and 18th Air Armies carried out three massive strikes, involving 2,049 aircraft.

After the Soviet troops captured the airfields in Tempelhof and Gatow, the Nazis tried to use Charlottenburgstrasse to land their planes. However, these enemy calculations were also thwarted by the actions of the pilots of the 16th Air Army, who continuously patrolled over this area. Attempts by the Nazis to drop supplies to the encircled troops by parachute were also unsuccessful. Most of the enemy transport aircraft were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery and aircraft as they approached Berlin. Thus, after April 28, the Berlin garrison could no longer receive any effective assistance from outside. The fighting in the city did not stop day or night. By the end of April 26, Soviet troops had cut off the Potsdam enemy group from Berlin. The next day, formations of both fronts penetrated deeply into the enemy’s defenses and began fighting in the central sector of the capital. As a result of the concentric offensive of the Soviet troops, by the end of April 27, the enemy group was compressed into a narrow zone (it reached 16 km from east to west). Due to the fact that its width was only 2 - 3 km, the entire territory occupied by the enemy was under the continuous influence of fire weapons of the Soviet troops. The fascist German command sought to provide assistance to the Berlin group by any means possible. “Our troops on the Elbe,” noted in the OKB diary, “turned their backs on the Americans in order to alleviate the situation of the defenders of Berlin with their offensive from the outside” (643). However, by the end of April 28, the encircled group was divided into three parts. By this time, attempts by the Wehrmacht command to assist the Berlin garrison with external attacks had completely failed. The political and moral state of the fascist troops fell sharply.

On this day, Hitler subordinated the general staff of the ground forces to the chief of staff of the operational leadership, hoping to restore the integrity of command and control. Instead of General G. Heinrici, accused of unwillingness to provide assistance to the encircled Berlin, General K. Student was appointed commander of Army Group Vistula.

After April 28, the struggle continued unabated. Now it flared up in the area of ​​the Reichstag, the battle for which began on April 29 by the troops of the 3rd Shock Army. The Reichstag garrison, consisting of 1 thousand soldiers and officers, was armed with a large number of guns, machine guns and faust cartridges. Deep ditches were dug around the building, various barriers were erected, and machine gun and artillery firing points were equipped.

The task of capturing the Reichstag building was assigned to the 79th Rifle Corps of General S.N. Perevertkin. Having captured the Moltke Bridge on the night of April 29, units of the corps on April 30, by 4 o'clock, captured a large resistance center - the house where the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nazi Germany and the Swiss Embassy were located, and went directly to the Reichstag. Only in the evening, after repeated attacks by the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of General V.M. Shatilov and Colonel A.I. Negoda, soldiers of the 756th, 674th and 380th rifle regiments, commanded by Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, Lieutenant Colonel A D. Plekhodanov and the chief of staff of the regiment, Major V. D. Shatalin, burst into the building. The soldiers, sergeants and officers of the battalions of captains S.A. Neustroev and V.I. Davydov, senior lieutenant K.Ya. Samsonov, as well as individual groups of Major M.M. covered themselves with unfading glory. Bondar, captain V.N. Makov and others.

Together with rifle units, the valiant tankmen of the 23rd Tank Brigade stormed the Reichstag. The commanders of the tank battalions, Major I.L. Yartsev and Captain S.V. Krasovsky, the commander of the tank company, Senior Lieutenant P.E. Nuzhdin, the commander of the tank platoon, Lieutenant A.K. Romanov, and the assistant commander of the reconnaissance platoon, Senior Sergeant N.V. .

The Nazis put up fierce resistance. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out on the stairs and in the corridors. The assault units, meter by meter, room by room, cleared the Reichstag building of fascists. The fighting continued until the morning of May 1, and individual groups of the enemy, holed up in basement compartments, capitulated only on the night of May 2.

Early in the morning of May 1, on the pediment of the Reichstag, near the sculptural group, the Red Banner, presented to the commander of the 150th Infantry Division by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army, was already waving. It was erected by scouts of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, led by the deputy battalion commander for political affairs, Lieutenant A.P. Berest, with the support of company machine gunners I.Ya. Syanov. This Banner symbolically embodied all the banners and flags that, during the most fierce battles, were hoisted by the groups of Captain V.N. Makov, Lieutenant R. Koshkarbaev, Major M.M. Bondar and many other soldiers. From the main entrance of the Reichstag to the roof, their heroic path was marked with red banners, flags and flags, as if now merging into a single Banner of Victory. It was a triumph of victory, a triumph of the courage and heroism of Soviet soldiers, the greatness of the feat of the Soviet Armed Forces and the entire Soviet people.

“And when the red banner, hoisted by the hands of Soviet soldiers, soared over the Reichstag,” said L. I. Brezhnev, “it was not only the banner of our military victory. This was the immortal banner of October; it was the great banner of Lenin; it was the invincible banner of socialism - a bright symbol of hope, a symbol of freedom and happiness of all peoples!” (644)

On April 30, Hitler's troops in Berlin were actually divided into four isolated units of different composition, and command and control of the troops was paralyzed. The last hopes of the fascist German command for the liberation of the Berlin garrison by the forces of Wenck, Steiner and Busse were dissipated. Panic began among the fascist leadership. To evade responsibility for the atrocities committed, Hitler committed suicide on April 30. In order to hide this from the army, fascist radio reported that the Fuhrer had been killed at the front near Berlin. On the same day, in Schleswig-Holstein, Hitler's successor, Grand Admiral Doenitz, appointed a “provisional imperial government”, which, as subsequent events showed, tried to reach contact with the United States and England on an anti-Soviet basis (645).

However, the days of Nazi Germany were already numbered. The position of the Berlin group by the end of April 30 became catastrophic. At 3 o'clock on May 1, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, General Krebs, by agreement with the Soviet command, crossed the front line in Berlin and was received by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General V.I. Chuikov. Krebs reported Hitler's suicide, and also conveyed a list of members of the new imperial government and a proposal from Goebbels and Bormann for a temporary cessation of hostilities in the capital in order to prepare the conditions for peace negotiations between Germany and the USSR. However, this document said nothing about surrender. This was the last attempt by the fascist leaders to split the anti-Hitler coalition. But the Soviet command figured out this enemy plan too.

Krebs' message was reported through Marshal G.K. Zhukov to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. The answer was extremely short: to force the Berlin garrison to immediately and unconditionally capitulate. The negotiations did not affect the intensity of the fighting in Berlin. Soviet troops continued to actively advance, striving for complete capture of the enemy capital, and the Nazis offered stubborn resistance. At 18:00 it became known that the fascist leaders rejected the demand for unconditional surrender. By doing this, they once again demonstrated their complete indifference to the fate of millions of ordinary Germans.

The Soviet command gave the troops the order to complete the liquidation of the enemy group in Berlin as soon as possible. Within half an hour, all the artillery hit the enemy. The fighting continued throughout the night. When the remnants of the garrison were dismembered into isolated groups, the Nazis realized that resistance was useless. On the night of May 2, the commander of the defense of Berlin, General G. Weidling, announced to the Soviet command the surrender of the 56th Tank Corps, subordinate directly to him. At 6 o'clock, having crossed the front line in the 8th Guards Army, he surrendered. At the suggestion of the Soviet command, Weidling signed an order for the Berlin garrison to stop resistance and lay down their arms. Somewhat later, a similar order on behalf of the “provisional imperial government” was signed by Goebbels’ first deputy, G. Fritsche. Due to the fact that the control of Hitler's troops in Berlin was paralyzed, the orders of Weidling and Fritsche could not be communicated to all units and formations. Therefore, from the morning of May 2, individual enemy groups continued to resist and even tried to break out of the city to the west. Only after the order was announced on the radio did mass surrender begin. By 15:00 the enemy had completely ceased resistance in Berlin. On this day alone, Soviet troops captured up to 135 thousand people (646) in the city area.

The above figures convincingly indicate that the Nazi leadership attracted considerable forces to defend its capital. Soviet troops fought against a large enemy group, and not against the civilian population, as some bourgeois falsifiers claim. The battles for Berlin were fierce and, as Hitler’s general E. Butlar wrote after the war, “cost great losses not only to the Germans, but also to the Russians...” (647).

During the operation, millions of Germans became convinced from their own experience of the humane attitude of the Soviet Army towards civilians. Fierce fighting continued on the streets of Berlin, and Soviet soldiers shared hot food with children, women and the elderly. By the end of May, the entire population of Berlin had been issued food cards and food distribution was organized. Even though these standards were still small, the residents of the capital received more food than recently under Hitler. Before the artillery salvoes had died down, work began on establishing the city's economy. Under the leadership of military engineers and technicians, Soviet soldiers, together with the population, restored the metro by the beginning of June, and trams were launched. The city received water, gas, electricity. Life was returning to normal. The intoxication of Goebbels's propaganda about the monstrous atrocities allegedly inflicted on the Germans by the Soviet Army began to dissipate. “The innumerable noble deeds of the Soviet people will never be forgotten, who, while still holding a rifle in one hand, were already sharing a piece of bread with the other, helping our people overcome the terrible consequences of the war unleashed by the Hitler clique and take the destinies of the country into their own hands, clearing the way for those enslaved and enslaved by imperialism and fascism to the German working class...” - this is how 30 years later the Minister of National Defense of the GDR, General G. Hoffmann, assessed the actions of Soviet soldiers (648).

Simultaneously with the end of hostilities in Berlin, the troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to regroup in the Prague direction to complete the task of completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia, and the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front moved westward and by May 7 reached the Elbe on a wide front .

During the assault on Berlin, a successful offensive by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front was launched in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg. By the end of May 2, they reached the coast of the Baltic Sea, and the next day, having advanced to the line of Wismar, Schwerin, and the Elbe River, they established contact with the 2nd British Army. The liberation of the islands of Wollin, Usedom and Rügen ended the offensive operation of the 2nd Belorussian Front. Even at the final stage of the operation, front troops entered into operational-tactical cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet: fleet aviation provided effective support to ground forces advancing in the coastal direction, especially in the battles for the Swinemünde naval base. The amphibious assault landing on the Danish island of Bornholm disarmed and captured the Nazi troops stationed there.

The defeat of the enemy's Berlin group by the Soviet Army and the capture of Berlin were the final act in the fight against Nazi Germany. With the fall of the capital, it lost all possibility of waging an organized armed struggle and soon capitulated.

The Soviet people and their Armed Forces, under the leadership of the Communist Party, won a world-historical victory.

During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 infantry, 12 tank, 11 motorized divisions and most of the Wehrmacht aviation. About 480 thousand soldiers and officers were captured, up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, more than 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, as well as 4.5 thousand aircraft were captured as trophies.

Together with Soviet soldiers, soldiers and officers of the Polish Army took an active part in the defeat of this group. Both Polish armies operated in the first operational echelon of the Soviet fronts, 12.5 thousand Polish soldiers took part in the assault on Berlin. They hoisted their national banner above the Brandenburg Gate next to the victorious Soviet Red Banner. It was a triumph of the Soviet-Polish military partnership.

The Berlin operation is one of the largest operations of the Second World War. It was characterized by exceptionally high intensity of struggle on both sides. Poisoned by false propaganda and intimidated by brutal repression, the fascist troops resisted with extraordinary tenacity. The degree of fierceness of the fighting is also evidenced by the large losses of Soviet troops. From April 16 to May 8, they lost more than 102 thousand people (649). Meanwhile, American-British troops along the entire Western Front lost 260 thousand people (650) during 1945.

As in previous battles, in the Berlin operation, Soviet soldiers showed high combat skill, courage and mass heroism. More than 600 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov was awarded the third, and Marshals of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev and K.K. Rokossovsky the second Gold Star medal. The second Gold Star medal was awarded to V. I. Andrianov, S. E. Artemenko, P. I. Batov, T. Ya. Begeldinov, D. A. Dragunsky, A. N. Efimov, S. I. Kretov, M. V. Kuznetsov, I. X. Mikhailichenko, M. P. Odintsov, V. S. Petrov, P. A. Plotnikov, V. I. Popkov, A. I. Rodimtsev, V. G. Ryazanov, E. Y. Savitsky, V. V. Senko, Z. K. Slyusarenko, N. G. Stolyarov, E. P. Fedorov, M. G. Fomichev. 187 units and formations received the names Berlin. From the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts alone, 1,141 thousand soldiers were awarded orders and medals, many units and formations were awarded orders of the Soviet Union, and 1,082 thousand participants in the assault were awarded the medal “For the Capture of Berlin”, established in honor of this historic victory.

The Berlin operation made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of Soviet military art. It was prepared and carried out on the basis of comprehensive consideration and creative use of the rich experience of the Soviet Armed Forces accumulated during the war. At the same time, the military art of the Soviet troops in this operation has a number of features.

The operation was prepared in a short time, and its main goals - encircling and destroying the main enemy group and capturing Berlin - were achieved in 16 - 17 days. Noting this feature, Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky wrote: “The pace of preparation and implementation of final operations indicates that the Soviet military economy and the Armed Forces had reached a level by 1945 that made it possible to do what would previously have seemed a miracle” ( 651)

The limited preparation time for such a major operation required new, more effective forms and methods of work from commanders and staffs of all levels. Not only in fronts and armies, but also in corps and divisions, a parallel method of work of commanders and staffs was usually used. At all command and staff levels, the rule developed in previous operations was strictly observed to provide troops with as much time as possible for their immediate preparation for combat operations.

The Berlin operation is distinguished by the clarity of its strategic plan, which was fully consistent with the assigned tasks and the peculiarities of the current situation. It is a classic example of an offensive by a group of fronts carried out with such decisive purpose. During this operation, Soviet troops surrounded and eliminated the largest group of enemy troops in the history of wars.

The simultaneous offensive of three fronts in a 300-kilometer zone with the delivery of six strikes pinned down the enemy’s reserves, contributed to the disorganization of his command, and in a number of cases made it possible to achieve operational-tactical surprise.

Soviet military art in the Berlin operation was characterized by the decisive massing of forces and means in the directions of the main attacks, the creation of high densities of suppression means and deep echeloning of combat formations of troops, which ensured a relatively quick breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses, the subsequent encirclement and destruction of his main forces and the preservation of overall superiority over enemy throughout the entire operation.

The Berlin operation is very instructive in its experience of the varied combat use of armored and mechanized forces. It involved 4 tank armies, 10 separate tank and mechanized corps, 16 separate tank and self-propelled artillery brigades, as well as more than 80 separate tank and self-propelled artillery regiments. The operation once again clearly demonstrated the feasibility of not only tactical, but also operational massing of armored and mechanized troops in the most important areas. The creation of powerful success development echelons in the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts (each included two tank armies) is the most important prerequisite for the successful conduct of the entire operation, which once again confirmed that tank armies and corps, when used correctly, are the main a means of developing success.

The combat use of artillery in the operation was characterized by its skillful massing in the directions of the main attacks, the creation of artillery groups at all organizational levels - from regiment to army, centralized planning of an artillery offensive, wide maneuver of artillery, including large artillery formations, sustainable fire superiority over the enemy .

The art of the Soviet command in using aviation was manifested primarily in its massing and close interaction with ground forces, to support which the main efforts of all air armies, including long-range aviation, were directed. In the Berlin operation, Soviet aviation firmly maintained air supremacy. In 1,317 air battles, 1,132 enemy aircraft (652) were shot down. The defeat of the main forces of the 6th Air Fleet and the Reich Air Fleet was completed in the first five days of the operation, and subsequently the rest of the aviation was finished off. In the Berlin operation, Soviet aviation destroyed the enemy's defensive structures, destroyed and suppressed its firepower and manpower. Working closely with combined arms formations, it struck the enemy day and night, bombarded his troops on the roads and on the battlefield, when moving them out of the depths and when leaving encirclement, and disrupted control. The use of the Air Force was characterized by centralization of its control, timely relocation, and continuous increase in efforts in solving basic tasks. Ultimately, the combat use of aviation in the Berlin operation most fully expressed the essence of that form of warfare, which during the war was called an air offensive.

In the operation under consideration, the art of organizing interaction was further improved. The foundations of strategic interaction were laid even during the development of its concept through careful coordination of the actions of the fronts and branches of the Armed Forces in the interests of successfully solving the main operational-strategic tasks. As a rule, the interaction of the fronts within the framework of the strategic operation was also stable.

The Berlin operation provided interesting experience in the use of the Dnieper military flotilla. The skillfully executed maneuver from the Western Bug and Pripyat to the Oder deserves attention. In difficult hydrographic conditions, the flotilla completed a more than 500-kilometer journey in 20 days. Some of the flotilla's ships were transported by rail over distances exceeding 800 km. And this took place in conditions when on the route of their movement there were 75 operational and destroyed crossings, railway and highway bridges, locks and other hydraulic structures, and in 48 places it was necessary to clear the shipping channel. In close operational-tactical cooperation with ground forces, the ships of the flotilla solved various tasks. They took part in artillery preparation, assisted the advancing troops in crossing water barriers and actively participated in the battles for Berlin on the Spree River.

Political bodies showed great skill in ensuring the combat activities of troops. The intense and purposeful work of commanders, political agencies, party and Komsomol organizations ensured an exceptionally high morale and offensive impulse among all soldiers and contributed to the solution of the historical task - the victorious end of the war with Nazi Germany.

The successful conduct of one of the last operations of the Second World War in Europe was also ensured by the high level of strategic leadership and the military leadership of the commanders of the fronts and armies. Unlike most previous strategic operations, where coordination of the actions of the fronts was entrusted to representatives of the Headquarters, in the Berlin operation the overall command of the troops was carried out directly by the Supreme High Command. Headquarters and the General Staff showed particularly high skill and flexibility in the leadership of the Soviet Armed Forces. They promptly set tasks for the fronts and branches of the Armed Forces, clarified them during the offensive depending on changes in the situation, organized and supported operational-strategic interaction, skillfully used strategic reserves, and continuously replenished the troops with personnel, weapons and military equipment.

Evidence of the high level of Soviet military art and the skill of military leaders in the Berlin operation was the successful solution to the complex problem of logistics support for troops. The limited preparation time for the operation and the large expenditure of material resources, due to the nature of the hostilities, required great tension in the work of the rear agencies of all levels. Suffice it to say that during the operation, troops on three fronts consumed over 7,200 wagons of ammunition and from 2 - 2.5 (diesel fuel) to 7 - 10 (aviation gasoline) front-line fuel refills. The successful solution of logistics support was achieved mainly due to the sharp approach of material supplies to the troops and the widespread use of road transport to transport the necessary supplies. Even during the period of preparation for the operation, more material was transported by road than by rail. Thus, 238.4 thousand tons of ammunition, fuel and lubricants were delivered to the 1st Belorussian Front by rail, and 333.4 thousand tons were delivered by road transport of the front and armies.

Military topographers made a great contribution to ensuring the combat operations of troops. The military topographic service promptly and completely provided the troops with topographic and special maps, prepared initial geodetic data for artillery fire, took an active part in deciphering aerial photographs, and determined the coordinates of targets. Only the troops and headquarters of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts were issued 6.1 million copies of maps, 15 thousand aerial photographs were deciphered, the coordinates of about 1.6 thousand support and artillery networks were determined, and 400 artillery batteries were geodetic referenced. In order to support combat operations in Berlin, the topographic service of the 1st Belorussian Front prepared a relief plan of the city, which turned out to be of great help to the headquarters in preparing and conducting the operation.

The Berlin operation went down in history as the victorious crown of the difficult and glorious path that the Soviet Armed Forces, led by the Communist Party, traversed. The operation was carried out with full satisfaction of the needs of the fronts with military equipment, weapons and logistics. The heroic rear provided its soldiers with everything that was necessary for the final defeat of the enemy. This is one of the clearest and most convincing evidence of the high organization and power of the economy of the Soviet socialist state.