The penultimate battle with fascism: the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops

In April 1945, the Soviet Army launched an offensive, approaching the capital of the Third Reich, Berlin. Excellence was felt in everything. In the sky red star aviation dominated, the Luftwaffe practically had nothing to refuel planes, tank columns filled the German roads, the density of the gun fire did not know historical precedents that are not equal to it today. The flywheel of the defense industry has reached a titanic revolution, there has been no shortage of military hardware. The capture of Berlin by the Soviet troops was a matter of solved, the question was only the price of victory expressed in human lives.

Enemy

Almost all that remained of the Wehrmacht and SS troops (as of early April, about half a million servicemen, of whom about 200,000 were in the city itself), was concentrated in the capital of the Reich and its suburbs. The inability to hold the line and the lack of hope for success did not prevent Adolf Hitler from persistently issuing orders of frightening content, providing for the death penalty for all who do not wish to continue fighting until the last bullet. The operational situation in the meantime developed more and more catastrophically. The 3rd Panzer Army, which the German command was counting on, was firmly blocked by the forces of the 2nd Byelorussian Front, which forced the Oder River into battle.

There were three circular lines of defense, the furthest of which was in the strip of 30-40 kilometers from the city center. At its organization the nature of natural water obstacles and a relief of district has been considered. The middle line repeated the outlines of bypass railroads, playing the role of a kind of rockade, which could theoretically supply, which in practice is problematic due to the lack of defense resources. The internal line passed already along the outskirts and was considered the main one. Inside the city was divided into nine defensive areas. In general, the Wehrmacht Command did everything to make it as difficult as possible for the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops. Briefly, these measures can be described as useless. There were no hopes for repelling attacks and switching to a counteroffensive.

General strategic plan and environment

On April 2, the Stavka decided on the question of who would direct the operation. Stalin decided that the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops would coordinate the general headquarters, and he was appointed by Marshal Zhukov, who flew by plane to the operative region from Moscow. Of the two possible options for mastering the German capital (a siege and storming), one was chosen which maximally accelerated its fall. On April 16, a general offensive began. The city, the outskirts and lines of defense were subjected to artillery fire and powerful bombing by aviation. On April 20, the assault began, and on the 21st, a seizure of southern suburbs was carried out by a tank attack. The most stubborn resistance waited in the Seelow Heights area, where Soviet troops used sound sirens and spotlights (more than 140 pieces) in conjunction with two shock tank armies to intimidate the enemy. On April 25, the general encirclement of the city became a fact, there was nowhere to retreat to the Germans.

Fights in the city

The mobilization of all possible resources only increased the number of victims of both sides. The unprepared militiamen from Volkssturm and the Hitler Youth were killed in the first battles with experienced Soviet soldiers; Houses, turned into supporting fire points, were demolished under the foundation by the fire of artillery and assault aviation. Convergent wedges to the city came parts of the 2nd Belorussian, the first and second Ukrainian fronts. Resistance, however, remained stubborn. In the period from April 26 to 28, another catastrophe occurred, practically disorganizing the forces of the garrison: the city was divided into three separate parts that fell into isolation. The communication between them was broken, which had been carried out earlier by telephone lines laid in tunnels. Coordination was possible, until the Red Army men began throwing bundles of grenades into the hatches of communication wells.

The capture of Berlin by the Soviet troops occurred in stages, they advanced to the center, bearing huge losses, but it was already impossible to stop them. The practice of assault groups that cleared the quarter after quarter was widely used. On April 28, the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Byelorussian Front withdrew to the Reichstag.

Reichstag

The building of the German parliament was defended by a total of five thousand people, of whom one thousand was an improvised garrison sent there in April, and the rest were there as a result of constant replenishment and reinforcement. By the evening of April 30, Soviet soldiers managed to break in, and the most dramatic battle in the entire war began, reminiscent of the agony of a mortally wounded but still resisting monster. This continued until the morning of May 1, while the red flag was not flying over the dome, which meant that the capture of Berlin by the Soviet troops had actually been completed. Separate foci of resistance were suppressed for about another day. After the fall of the Reichstag, the garrisons of the two other powerfully fortified areas - Spandau and Zoobunker - immediately capitulated. Thus, the date of the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops - May 2, 1945.

Results and Victims

Only during the attempt of the defense of the Reichstag the heads of more than two thousand of its defenders have meaninglessly folded. 125 thousand civilians in Berlin were victims of street fighting. During the operation, seventy infantry and 23 mechanized divisions were completely defeated. Of the entire half-million number of troops involved in the defense of the city, only slightly more than 134,000 survived left alive.

Berlin was almost completely destroyed. In particular:

• Demolished completely - 30 thousand buildings;
• Half destroyed - 150 thousand houses;
• Received medium damage - 150 thousand buildings;
• The defenders were blown up when trying to hold off the Soviet offensive of 225 bridges;
• A third of the subway stations on Hitler's orders were flooded with people hiding there from the shelling.

In the battles for Berlin, more than 78,000 Soviet soldiers were killed.

Performed feats worthy of the title of Hero, over six hundred soldiers of the Red Army, of which 13 - again.

The war after Berlin

After the capture of Berlin Soviet troops liberated Prague, in which the remaining parts of the SS tried to arrange a "bloody bath" for the rebellious townspeople in the end. The lightning-fast tank throw stopped the last European hotbed of the fire of war. It's a shame, probably, to die and get injured in her last days and hours, but this is the fate of the soldier.

Czechoslovakia is the last country liberated by Soviet troops after the capture of Berlin, but the war continued, and soldiers, sometimes passing their homes, went to the Far East. There they were waiting for battles with the Japanese. But that is another story…