Offensive operation on Berlin. Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation
Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation (Berlin Operation, Capture of Berlin)- offensive operation of Soviet troops during Great Patriotic War which ended with the capture of Berlin and victory in the war.
The military operation was carried out in Europe from April 16 to May 9, 1945, during which the territories captured by the Germans were liberated and Berlin was taken under control. Berlin operation became the last in Great Patriotic War And World War II.
Included Berlin operation The following smaller operations were carried out:
- Stettin-Rostock;
- Seelovsko-Berlinskaya;
- Cottbus-Potsdam;
- Stremberg-Torgauskaya;
- Brandenburg-Ratenow.
The goal of the operation was to capture Berlin, which would allow Soviet troops to open the way to join the Allies on the Elbe River and thus prevent Hitler from delaying World War II for a longer period.
Progress of the Berlin operation
In November 1944, the General Staff of the Soviet Forces began planning an offensive operation on the approaches to the German capital. During the operation it was supposed to defeat the German Army Group “A” and finally liberate the occupied territories of Poland.
At the end of the same month german army launched a counteroffensive in the Ardennes and was able to push back the Allied troops, thereby putting them almost on the brink of defeat. To continue the war, the Allies needed the support of the USSR - for this, the leadership of the United States and Great Britain turned to the Soviet Union with a request to send their troops and conduct offensive operations in order to distract Hitler and give the Allies the opportunity to recover.
The Soviet command agreed, and the USSR army launched an offensive, but the operation began almost a week earlier, which resulted in insufficient preparation and, as a result, large losses.
By mid-February Soviet troops were able to cross the Oder - the last obstacle on the way to Berlin. There were a little more than seventy kilometers left to the capital of Germany. From that moment on, the battles took on a more protracted and fierce character - Germany did not want to give up and tried with all its might to hold back the Soviet offensive, but it was quite difficult to stop the Red Army.
At the same time, preparations began on the territory of East Prussia for the assault on the Konigsberg fortress, which was extremely well fortified and seemed almost impregnable. For the assault, the Soviet troops carried out thorough artillery preparation, which ultimately bore fruit - the fortress was taken unusually quickly.
In April 1945, the Soviet army began preparations for the long-awaited assault on Berlin. The leadership of the USSR was of the opinion that in order to achieve the success of the entire operation, it was necessary to urgently carry out the assault, without delaying it, since prolongation of the war itself could lead to the fact that the Germans could open another front in the West and conclude a separate peace. In addition, the leadership of the USSR did not want to give Berlin to the Allied forces.
Berlin offensive operation prepared very carefully. Huge reserves of military equipment and ammunition were transferred to the outskirts of the city, and the forces of three fronts were pulled together. The operation was commanded by Marshals G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky and I.S. Konev. In total, more than 3 million people took part in the battle on both sides.
Storm of Berlin
Berlin operation was characterized by the highest density of artillery shells in the history of all world wars. The defense of Berlin was thought out to the smallest detail, and breaking through the system of fortifications and tricks was not so easy; by the way, the loss of armored vehicles amounted to 1,800 units. That is why the command decided to bring up all nearby artillery to suppress the city’s defenses. The result was a truly hellish fire that literally wiped out the enemy's front line of defense.
The assault on the city began on April 16 at 3 am. Under the light of searchlights, one and a half hundred tanks and infantry attacked the German defensive positions. A fierce battle lasted for four days, after which the forces of three Soviet fronts and troops of the Polish army managed to encircle the city. On the same day, Soviet troops met with the Allies on the Elbe. As a result of four days of fighting, several hundred thousand people were captured and dozens of armored vehicles were destroyed.
However, despite the offensive, Hitler had no intention of surrendering Berlin; he insisted that the city must be held at all costs. Hitler refused to surrender even after Soviet troops approached the city; he threw all available human resources, including children and the elderly, onto the battlefield.
On April 21, the Soviet army was able to reach the outskirts of Berlin and start street battles there - german soldiers fought to the last, following Hitler's orders not to surrender.
On April 30, the Soviet flag was hoisted on the building - the war ended, Germany was defeated.
Results of the Berlin operation
Berlin operation put an end to the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. As a result of the rapid advance of Soviet troops, Germany was forced to surrender, all chances of opening a second front and concluding peace with the Allies were severed. Hitler, having learned about the defeat of his army and the entire fascist regime, committed suicide. More awards were awarded for the storming of Berlin than for other military operations of World War II. 180 units were awarded honorary “Berlin” distinctions, which in terms of personnel is 1 million 100 thousand people.
Berlin operation 1945
After the end of the Vistula-Oder operation, the Soviet Union and Germany began preparations for the Battle of Berlin as the decisive battle on the Oder, as the culmination of the war.
By mid-April, the Germans concentrated 1 million people, 10.5 thousand guns, 1.5 thousand tanks and 3.3 thousand aircraft on a 300-kilometer front along the Oder and Neisse.
On the Soviet side, enormous forces were accumulated: 2.5 million people, over 40 thousand guns, more than 6 thousand tanks, 7.5 thousand aircraft.
Three Soviet fronts operated in the Berlin direction: 1st Belorussian (commander - Marshal G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian (commander - Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian (commander - Marshal I.S. Konev).
The attack on Berlin began on April 16, 1945. The heaviest battles took place in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, where the Seelow Heights were located, covering the central direction. (The Seelow Heights are a ridge of heights on the North German Lowland, 50–60 km east of Berlin. It runs along the left bank of the old riverbed of the Oder River with a length of up to 20 km. At these heights, a well-equipped 2nd defense line was created in engineering terms Germans, which was occupied by the 9th Army.)
To capture Berlin, the Soviet High Command used not only a frontal attack by the 1st Belorussian Front, but also a flank maneuver by formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which broke through to the German capital from the south.
The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front advanced towards the Baltic coast of Germany, covering the right flank of the forces advancing on Berlin.
In addition, it was planned to use part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet (Admiral V.F. Tributs), the Dnieper Military Flotilla (Rear Admiral V.V. Grigoriev), the 18th Air Army, and three air defense corps.
Hoping to defend Berlin and avoid unconditional surrender, the German leadership mobilized all the country's resources. As before, the German command sent the main forces of the ground forces and aviation against the Red Army. By April 15, 214 German divisions were fighting on the Soviet-German front, including 34 tank and 14 motorized and 14 brigades. 60 German divisions, including 5 tank divisions, acted against the Anglo-American troops. The Germans created a powerful defense in the east of the country.
Berlin was covered to great depth by numerous defensive structures erected along the western banks of the Oder and Neisse rivers. This line consisted of three stripes 20–40 km deep. In engineering terms, the defense in front of the Küstrin bridgehead and in the Kotbu direction, where the strongest groups of Nazi troops were concentrated, was especially well prepared.
Berlin itself was turned into a powerful fortified area with three defensive rings (outer, inner, city). The central sector of the capital, where the main government and administrative institutions were located, was especially carefully prepared in terms of engineering. There were more than 400 reinforced concrete permanent structures in the city. The largest of them were six-story bunkers dug into the ground, each holding up to a thousand people. The subway was used for covert maneuver of troops.
The German troops occupying the defensive position in the Berlin direction were united into four armies. In addition to the regular troops, Volkssturm battalions, which were formed from young people and old men, were involved in the defense. The total number of the Berlin garrison exceeded 200 thousand people.
On April 15, Hitler addressed the soldiers of the Eastern Front with an appeal to repel the offensive of the Soviet troops at all costs.
The plan of the Soviet command envisaged powerful strikes by troops from all three fronts to break through the enemy’s defenses along the Oder and Neisse, encircle the main group of German troops in the Berlin direction, and reach the Elbe.
On April 21, the advanced units of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the northern and southeastern outskirts of Berlin.
On April 24, southeast of Berlin, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front met with formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The next day, these fronts were united to the west of the German capital - thus completing the encirclement of the entire Berlin enemy group.
On the same day, units of the 5th Guards Army of General A.S. Zhadov met on the banks of the Elbe in the Torgau region with reconnaissance groups of the 5th Corps of the 1st American Army of General O. Bradley. The German front was cut. The Americans have 80 km left to Berlin. Since the Germans willingly surrendered to the Western allies and stood to the death against the Red Army, Stalin feared that the Allies might capture the capital of the Reich before us. Knowing about these concerns of Stalin, the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Europe, General D. Eisenhower, forbade the troops to move to Berlin or take Prague. Nevertheless, Stalin demanded that Zhukov and Konev clear Berlin by May 1. On April 22, Stalin gave them orders for a decisive assault on the capital. Konev had to stop parts of his front on a line that ran through the railway station just a few hundred meters from the Reichstag.
Since April 25, there have been fierce street battles in Berlin. On May 1, the red flag was raised over the Reichstag building. On May 2, the city garrison capitulated.
The struggle for Berlin was life and death. From April 21 to May 2, 1.8 million artillery shots (more than 36 thousand tons of metal) were fired at Berlin. The Germans defended their capital with great tenacity. According to the memoirs of Marshal Konev, “German soldiers still surrendered only when they had no choice.”
As a result of the fighting in Berlin, out of 250 thousand buildings, about 30 thousand were completely destroyed, more than 20 thousand were in a dilapidated state, more than 150 thousand buildings had moderate damage. City transport did not work. More than a third of metro stations were flooded. 225 bridges were blown up by the Nazis. The whole system utilities stopped functioning - power plants, water pumping stations, gas plants, sewage systems.
On May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison, numbering more than 134 thousand, surrendered, the rest fled.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 infantry, 23 tank and motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht, captured about 480 thousand people, captured up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, over 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, and 4,500 aircraft. (“The Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Encyclopedia.” P. 96).
Soviet troops suffered heavy losses in this final operation - about 350 thousand people, including over 78 thousand - irrevocably. 33 thousand Soviet soldiers died on the Seelow Heights alone. The Polish army lost about 9 thousand soldiers and officers.
Soviet troops lost 2,156 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, 1,220 guns and mortars, and 527 aircraft. (“The classification of secrecy has been removed. Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts.” M., 1993. P. 220.)
According to Colonel General A.V. Gorbatov, “from a military point of view, there was no need to storm Berlin... It was enough to encircle the city, and it would have surrendered in a week or two. Germany would inevitably capitulate. And during the assault, at the very end of the victory, in street battles, we killed at least a hundred thousand soldiers...” “This is what the British and Americans did. They blocked German fortresses and waited for months for their surrender, sparing their soldiers. Stalin acted differently." (“History of Russia in the 20th century. 1939–2007.” M., 2009. P. 159.)
The Berlin operation is one of the largest operations of the Second World War. The victory of the Soviet troops in it became a decisive factor in completing the military defeat of Germany. With the fall of Berlin and other vital areas, Germany lost the ability to organize resistance and soon capitulated.
On May 5-11, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts advanced towards the capital of Czechoslovakia - Prague. The Germans were able to hold the defense in this city for 4 days. On May 11, Soviet troops liberated Prague.
On May 7, Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender to the Western Allies in Reims. Stalin agreed with the allies to consider the signing of this act as a preliminary protocol of surrender.
The next day, May 8, 1945 (more precisely, at 0 hours 43 minutes on May 9, 1945), the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany was completed. The act was signed by Field Marshal Keitel, Admiral von Friedeburg and Colonel General Stumpf, who were authorized to do so by Grand Admiral Dönitz.
The first paragraph of the Act read:
"1. We, the undersigned, acting on behalf of the German High Command, agree to the unconditional surrender of all our armed forces on land, sea and air, as well as all forces currently under German command, to the Supreme Command of the Red Army and at the same time to the Supreme Command of the Allied expeditionary forces."
The meeting to sign the Act of German Surrender was led by the representative of the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Forces, Marshal G.K. Zhukov. British Air Marshal Arthur W. Tedder, U.S. Commander of Strategic Air Forces General Carl Spaats, and Commander-in-Chief of the French Army General Jean Delattre de Tassigny were present as representatives of the Allied Supreme Command.
The price of victory was the undeserved losses of the Red Army from 1941 to 1945. (Information from the declassified storage facilities of the General Staff, published in Izvestia on June 25, 1998.)
The irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War amounted to 11,944,100 people. Of these, 6,885 thousand people were killed or died from wounds, various diseases, died in disasters, or committed suicide. Missing, captured or surrendered - 4,559 thousand. 500 thousand people died on the way to the front under bombing or for other reasons.
The total demographic losses of the Red Army, including losses from which 1,936 thousand people returned from captivity after the war, military personnel re-conscripted into the army who found themselves in occupied and then liberated territory (they were considered missing in action), 939 thousand people are subtracted, amount to 9,168 400 people. Of these, the payroll (i.e., those who fought with weapons in their hands) is 8,668,400 people.
Overall, the country lost 26,600,000 citizens. The civilian population suffered the most during the war - 17,400,000 killed and died.
By the beginning of the war, 4,826,900 people served in the Red Army and Navy (the state numbered 5,543 thousand military personnel, taking into account 74,900 people serving in other formations).
34,476,700 people were mobilized to the fronts (including those who had already served at the time of the German attack).
After the end of the war, 12,839,800 people remained on the army lists, of which 11,390 thousand people were in service. There were 1,046 thousand people undergoing treatment and 400 thousand people in the formation of other departments.
21,636,900 people left the army during the war, of which 3,798 thousand were dismissed due to injury and illness, of which 2,576 thousand remained permanently disabled.
3,614 thousand people were transferred to work in industry and local self-defense. It was sent to staff the troops and bodies of the NKVD, the Polish Army, the Czechoslovak and Romanian armies - 1,500 thousand people.
More than 994 thousand people were convicted (of which 422 thousand were sent to penal units, 436 thousand were sent to places of detention). 212 thousand deserters and stragglers from the echelons on their way to the front have not been found.
These numbers are amazing. At the end of the war, Stalin said that the army had lost 7 million people. In the 60s, Khrushchev called “more than 20 million people.”
In March 1990, the Military Historical Journal published an interview with the then Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, Army General M. Moiseev: gratuitous losses among military personnel amounted to 8,668,400 people.
In the first period of fighting (June - November 1941), our daily losses at the fronts were estimated at 24 thousand (17 thousand killed and 7 thousand wounded). At the end of the war (from January 1944 to May 1945 - 20 thousand people a day: 5.2 thousand killed and 14.8 thousand wounded).
During the war, our army lost 11,944,100 people.
In 1991, the work of the General Staff to clarify losses in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 was completed.
Direct losses.
The direct losses of the Soviet Union in the Second World War are understood as the losses of military personnel and civilians who died as a result of hostilities and their consequences, due to an increase in the mortality rate compared to peacetime, as well as those people from the population of the USSR on June 22, 1941, who left territory of the USSR during the war and did not return. The human losses of the Soviet Union do not include indirect demographic losses due to a decrease in the birth rate during the war and an increase in mortality in the post-war years.
A complete assessment of all human losses can be obtained using the demographic balance method, by comparing the size and structure of the population at the beginning and end of the war.
The assessment of human losses in the USSR was carried out for the period from June 22, 1941 to December 31, 1945 in order to take into account the deaths of the wounded in hospitals, the repatriation of prisoners of war and displaced persons to the USSR civilian population and repatriation from the USSR of citizens of other countries. For the calculation, the borders of the USSR were taken as of June 21, 1941.
According to the 1939 census, the population on January 17, 1939 was determined to be 168.9 million people. About 20.1 million more people lived in the territories that became part of the USSR in the pre-war years. The natural increase over the 2.5 years to June 1941 amounted to about 7.91 million people.
Thus, in mid-1941 the population of the USSR was approximately 196.7 million people. The population of the USSR as of December 31, 1945 was estimated at 170.5 million people, of which 159.6 million were born before June 22, 1941. The total number of people who died and found themselves outside the country during the war was 37.1 million people (196.7-159.6). If the mortality rate of the population of the USSR in 1941–1945 had remained the same as in pre-war 1940, the number of deaths during this period would have been 11.9 million people. Subtracting this value (37.1-11.9 million), the human losses of generations born before the start of the war amounted to 25.2 million people. To this figure it is necessary to add the losses of children born during the war, but who died due to an increased level of infant mortality compared to the “normal” level. Of those born in 1941–1945, approximately 4.6 million did not live to see the beginning of 1946, or 1.3 million more than would have died at the 1940 mortality rate. These 1.3 million should also be attributed to losses as a result of the war.
As a result, the direct human losses of the USSR population as a result of the war, estimated by the demographic balance method, amount to approximately 26.6 million people.
According to experts, the net increase in mortality as a result of deteriorating living conditions can be attributed to 9-10 million deaths during the war.
Direct losses of the population of the USSR during the war years amounted to 13.5% of its population by mid-1941.
Irreversible losses of the Red Army.
By the beginning of the war, there were 4,826,907 military personnel in the army and navy. In addition, 74,945 military personnel and military construction workers served in the formations of civilian departments. Over the 4 years of the war, minus those re-conscripted, another 29,574 thousand were mobilized. In total, together with personnel, 34,476,700 people were recruited into the army, navy and paramilitary forces. Of these, about one third were in service annually (10.5-11.5 million people). Half of this composition (5.0–6.5 million people) served in the active army.
In total, according to the General Staff commission, during the war years 6,885,100 military personnel were killed, died from wounds and illnesses, or died as a result of accidents, which amounted to 19.9% of those conscripted. 4,559 thousand people were missing or captured, or 13% of those conscripted.
Total total losses of personnel of the Soviet armed forces, including border and internal troops, during the Second World War amounted to 11,444,100 people.
In 1942–1945, in the liberated territory, 939,700 military personnel from among those previously in captivity, surrounded and in occupied territory were re-conscripted into the army.
About 1,836,600 former military personnel returned from captivity at the end of the war. These military personnel (2,775 thousand people) were rightly excluded by the commission from the irretrievable losses of the armed forces.
Thus, the irretrievable losses of personnel of the USSR Armed Forces, taking into account the Far Eastern campaign (killed, died from wounds, went missing and did not return from captivity, as well as non-combat losses) amounted to 8,668,400 people.
Sanitary losses.
The commission established them in the amount of 18,334 thousand people, including: 15,205,600 people were wounded and shell-shocked, 3,047,700 people were sick, 90,900 people were frostbitten.
In total, 3,798,200 people were demobilized from the army and navy during the war due to injury or illness.
Every day on the Soviet-German front, an average of 20,869 people were out of action, of which about 8 thousand were irretrievably lost. More than half - 56.7% of all irretrievable losses - occurred in 1941–1942. The largest average daily losses were observed in the summer-autumn campaigns of 1941 - 24 thousand people and 1942 - 27.3 thousand per day.
The losses of Soviet troops in the Far Eastern campaign were relatively small - in 25 days of fighting, losses amounted to 36,400 people, including 12,000 killed, died or went missing.
About 6 thousand operated behind enemy lines partisan detachments- more than 1 million people.
Head of the Department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for Perpetuation of Memory dead defenders Fatherland Major General A.V. Kirilin, in an interview with the weekly “Arguments and Facts” (2011, No. 24), provided the following data on the losses of the Red Army and Germany during the war of 1941–1945:
From June 22 to December 31, 1941, the losses of the Red Army exceeded 3 million people. Of these, 465 thousand were killed, 101 thousand died in hospitals, 235 thousand people died from illnesses and accidents (military statistics included those shot by their own in this category).
The disaster of 1941 was determined by the number of missing and captured people - 2,355,482 people. Most of these people died in German camps on the territory of the USSR.
The figure for Soviet military losses in the Great Patriotic War is 8,664,400 people. This is a figure that is confirmed by documents. But not all the people listed as casualties died. For example, in 1946, 480 thousand “displaced persons” went to the West - those who did not want to return to their homeland. In total, 3.5 million people are missing.
Approximately 500 thousand people drafted into the army (mostly in 1941) did not make it to the front. They are now classified as general civilian losses (26 million) (disappeared during the bombing of trains, remained in the occupied territory, served in the police) - 939.5 thousand people re-conscripted into the Red Army during the liberation of Soviet lands.
Germany, excluding its allies, lost 5.3 million killed, died from wounds, went missing, and 3.57 million prisoners on the Soviet-German front. For every German killed, there were 1.3 Soviet soldiers. 442 thousand captured Germans died in Soviet captivity.
Of the 4,559 thousand Soviet soldiers captured by Germans, 2.7 million people died.
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The Berlin offensive operation became one of the very last operations of the Great Patriotic War and one of the most famous. During it, the Red Army took the capital of the Third Reich - Berlin, defeated the last, most powerful forces enemy and forced him to capitulate.
The operation lasted 23 days, from April 16 to May 8, 1945, during which Soviet troops advanced 100-220 km westward. Within its framework, private offensive operations were carried out: Stettin-Rostok, Seelow-Berlin, Cottbus-Potsdam, Stremberg-Torgau and Brandenburg-Ratenow. Three fronts took part in the operation: 1st Belorussian (G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian (K.K. Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian (I.S. Konev).
Intent, plans of the parties
The idea of the operation was determined at Headquarters back in November 1944; it was refined during the Vistula-Oder, East Prussian, and Pomeranian operations. They also took into account the actions on the Western Front and the actions of the Allies: at the end of March - beginning of April they reached the Rhine and began to cross it. The Allied High Command planned to capture the Ruhr industrial region, then reach the Elbe and launch an offensive in the Berlin direction. At the same time, in the south, American-French troops planned to capture the areas of Stuttgart and Munich and enter the central parts of Czechoslovakia and Austria.
At the Crimean Conference, the Soviet occupation zone was supposed to go west of Berlin, but the allies planned to launch the Berlin operation themselves, and there was a high probability of a separate conspiracy with Hitler or his military to surrender the city to the United States and England.
Moscow had serious concerns; the Anglo-American troops encountered almost no serious resistance in the West. In mid-April 1945, American radio commentator John Grover reported: “The Western Front virtually no longer exists.” The Germans, having retreated beyond the Rhine, did not create a powerful defense; in addition, the main forces were transferred to the east, and even in the most difficult moments, forces were constantly taken from the Wehrmacht Ruhr group and transferred to the Eastern Front. Therefore, the Rhine was surrendered without serious resistance.
Berlin tried to prolong the war, holding back the onslaught of Soviet armies. At the same time conducting secret negotiations with Westerners. The Wehrmacht built a powerful defense from the Oder to Berlin; the city itself was a huge fortress. Operational reserves were created, in the city and surrounding areas there were militia units (Volkssturm battalions); in April there were 200 Volkssturm battalions in Berlin alone. The basic defense centers of the Wehrmacht were the Oder-Neissen defensive line and the Berlin defensive region. On the Oder and Neisse, the Wehrmacht created three defensive zones 20-40 km deep. The most powerful fortifications of the second zone were on the Seelow Heights. The Wehrmacht engineering units made excellent use of all natural obstacles - lakes, rivers, heights, etc., turned populated areas to strong points, special attention was devoted to anti-tank defense. The enemy created the greatest density of defense in front of the 1st Belorussian Front, where in a 175 km wide zone the defense was occupied by 23 Wehrmacht divisions and a significant number of smaller units.
Offensive: milestones
At 5 o'clock in the morning on April 16, the 1st Belorussian Front, in a sector of 27 km (breakthrough zone), spent 25 minutes using more than 10 thousand artillery barrels, rocket systems, and mortars, destroying the first line, then transferred fire to the second line of enemy defense. After this, 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on to blind the enemy, the first strip was penetrated in one and a half to two hours, and in some places they reached the second. But then the Germans woke up and brought up their reserves. The battle became even more fierce; our rifle units could not overcome the defense of the Seelow Heights. In order not to disrupt the timing of the operation, Zhukov brought into battle the 1st (M. E. Katukov) and 2nd (S. I. Bogdanov) Guards Tank Armies, while the German command at the end of the day threw the operational reserves of the Vistula Army Group into battle " There was a fierce battle all day and night on the 17th; by the morning of the 18th, units of the 1st Belorussian, with the help of aviation from the 16th and 18th Air Armies, were able to take the heights. By the end of April 19, the Soviet armies, breaking through the defenses and repelling the enemy’s fierce counterattacks, broke through the third line of defense and were able to strike at Berlin itself.
On April 16, a smoke screen was placed on the 390-kilometer front of the 1st Ukrainian Front, an artillery attack began at 6.15, and at 6.55 the advanced units crossed the Neisse River and captured bridgeheads. The establishment of crossings for the main forces began; in the first hours alone, 133 crossings were established; by the middle of the day, the troops broke through the first line of defense and reached the second. The Wehrmacht command, understanding the gravity of the situation, already on the first day threw tactical and operational reserves into battle, setting the task of driving our forces across the river. But by the end of the day, Soviet units broke through the second line of defense, and on the morning of the 17th the 3rd (P.S. Rybalko) and 4th (D.D. Lelyushenko) Guards Tank Armies crossed the river. Our armies were supported from the air by the 2nd Air Army, the breakthrough continued to expand all day, and by the end of the day the tank armies reached the Spree River and immediately began crossing it. In the secondary, Dresden direction, our troops also broke through the enemy front.
Considering the fierce resistance of the enemy in the strike zone of the 1st Belorussian Front and its lag behind schedule, the success of its neighbors, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian were ordered to turn to Berlin and go without getting involved in battles to destroy enemy strongholds. On April 18 and 19, the 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies marched on Berlin at a pace of 35-50 km. At this time, the combined arms armies were preparing to eliminate enemy groups in the Cottbus and Spremberg area. On the 21st, Rybalko's tank army, suppressing fierce enemy resistance in the area of the cities of Zossen, Luckenwalde, and Jutterbog, reached the outer defensive lines of Berlin. On the 22nd, units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army crossed the Notte Canal and broke through the outer fortifications of Berlin.
On April 17-19, the advanced units of the 2nd Belorussian Front conducted reconnaissance in force and captured the Oder interfluve. On the morning of the 20th, the main forces went on the offensive, covering the crossing of the Oder with artillery fire and a smoke screen. The right-flank 65th Army (Batov P.I.) achieved the greatest success, capturing a bridgehead 6 km wide and 1.5 km deep by the evening. In the center, the 70th Army achieved a more modest result; the left flank 49th Army was unable to gain a foothold. On the 21st, all day and night there was a battle to expand the bridgeheads, K.K. Rokossovsky threw units of the 49th Army to support the 70th Army, then threw the 2nd Shock Army, as well as the 1st and 3rd into battle guards tank corps. The 2nd Belorussian Front was able to pin down units of the 3rd German Army with its actions; it was unable to come to the aid of the defenders of Berlin. On the 26th, front units took Stettin.
On April 21, units of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the suburbs of Berlin, on 22-23 there were battles, on the 23rd the 9th Rifle Corps under the command of Major General I.P. Rosly captured Karlshorst, part of Kopenick and, reaching the Spree River, with forced it along the way. The Dnieper military flotilla provided great assistance in crossing it, supporting with fire and transferring troops to the other bank. Our units, leading our own and repelling enemy counterattacks, suppressing his resistance, walked towards the center of the German capital.
The 61st Army and the 1st Army of the Polish Army, operating in the auxiliary direction, launched an offensive on the 17th, breaking through the enemy’s defenses, bypassing Berlin from the north and going to the Elbe.
On the 22nd, at Hitler’s Headquarters, it was decided to transfer W. Wenck’s 12th Army from the Western Front, and Keitel was sent to organize its offensive to help the semi-encircled 9th Army. By the end of the 22nd, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian had practically created two encirclement rings - around the 9th Army east and southeast of Berlin and west of Berlin, surrounding the city itself.
The troops reached the Teltow Canal, the Germans created a powerful defense on its bank, the entire day of the 23rd was preparing for the assault, artillery was massed, there were up to 650 guns per 1 km. On the morning of the 24th, the assault began, suppressing enemy firing points with artillery fire, the canal was successfully crossed by units of the 6th Guards Tank Corps of Major General Mitrofanov and captured the bridgehead. On the afternoon of the 24th, Wenck's 12th Army attacked but was repulsed. At 12 o'clock on the 25th, west of Berlin, units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts united; an hour and a half later, our troops met with American units on the Elbe.
On April 20-23, divisions of the German Army Group Center attacked units of the 1st Ukrainian Front on the left flank, trying to get to its rear. From April 25 to May 2, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front fought in three directions: units of the 28th Army, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies fought in Berlin; The 13th Army, together with units of the 3rd Panzer Army, repelled the attacks of the 12th German Army; The 3rd Guards Army and part of the units of the 28th Army held back and destroyed the encircled 9th German Army. The battles to destroy the German 9th Army (200 thousand strong Frankfurt-Guben group) continued until May 2, the Germans tried to break through to the west, skillfully maneuvered. Creating superiority in forces in narrow areas, they attacked, broke through the ring twice, only emergency measures by the Soviet command made it possible to block them again and ultimately destroy them. Only small enemy groups were able to break through.
In the city, our troops met fierce resistance, the enemy did not even think of surrendering. Relying on numerous structures, underground communications, barricades, he not only defended himself, but constantly attacked. Ours operated in assault groups, reinforced by sappers, tanks, and artillery, and by the evening of the 28th, units of the 3rd Shock Army reached the Reichstag area. By the morning of the 30th, after a fierce battle, they captured the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and began storming the Reichstag, but only on the night of May 2nd did the remnants of the German garrison surrender. On May 1, the Wehrmacht had only the government quarter and Tiergarten left. The chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, General Krebs, proposed a truce, but ours insisted on unconditional surrender, the Germans refused, and the fighting continued. On May 2, General Weidling, commander of the city's defense, announced surrender. Those German units that did not accept it and tried to break through to the west were scattered and destroyed. Thus ended the Berlin operation.
Main results
The main forces of the Wehrmacht were destroyed, the German command was now unable to continue the war, the capital of the Reich and its military-political leadership were captured.
After the fall of Berlin, the Wehrmacht practically ceased resistance.
In fact, the Great Patriotic War was over, all that remained was to formalize the country's surrender.
Hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war, driven into slavery by Soviet people, were freed.
The Berlin offensive operation demonstrated to the whole world the high combat skills of the Soviet armies and its commanders and became one of the reasons for the cancellation of Operation Unthinkable. Our “allies” planned to strike the Soviet army in order to push it into Eastern Europe.
During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet troops carried out the Berlin strategic offensive operation, the purpose of which was to defeat the main forces of the German army groups Vistula and Center, capture Berlin, reach the Elbe River and unite with the Allied forces.
The Red Army troops, having defeated large groups of Nazi troops in East Prussia, Poland and Eastern Pomerania during January - March 1945, reached the end of March on a wide front to the Oder and Neisse rivers. After the liberation of Hungary and the occupation of Vienna by Soviet troops in mid-April, Nazi Germany was under attack from the Red Army from the east and south. At the same time, from the west, without encountering any organized German resistance, Allied troops advanced in the Hamburg, Leipzig and Prague directions.
The main forces of the Nazi troops acted against the Red Army. By April 16, there were 214 divisions (of which 34 tank and 15 motorized) and 14 brigades were on the Soviet-German front, and against the American-British troops the German command held only 60 poorly equipped divisions, of which five were tank. The Berlin direction was defended by 48 infantry, six tank and nine motorized divisions and many other units and formations (a total of one million people, 10.4 thousand guns and mortars, 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns). From the air, ground troops covered 3.3 thousand combat aircraft.
The defense of the fascist German troops in the Berlin direction included the Oder-Neissen line 20-40 kilometers deep, which had three defensive lines, and the Berlin defensive area, which consisted of three ring contours - external, internal and urban. In total, the depth of defense with Berlin reached 100 kilometers; it was intersected by numerous canals and rivers, which served as serious obstacles for tank forces.
During the Berlin offensive operation, the Soviet Supreme High Command envisaged breaking through the enemy's defenses along the Oder and Neisse and, developing an offensive in depth, encircling the main group of fascist German troops, dismembering it and subsequently destroying it piece by piece, and then reaching the Elbe. For this, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov and troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev were brought in. The operation was attended by the Dnieper military flotilla, part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, and the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army. In total, the Red Army troops advancing on Berlin numbered over two million people, about 42 thousand guns and mortars, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, and 7.5 thousand combat aircraft.
According to the plan of the operation, the 1st Belorussian Front was supposed to capture Berlin and reach the Elbe no later than 12-15 days later. The 1st Ukrainian Front had the task of defeating the enemy in the Cottbus area and south of Berlin and on the 10-12th day of the operation to capture the line of Belitz, Wittenberg and further the Elbe River to Dresden. The 2nd Belorussian Front had to cross the Oder River, defeat the enemy's Stettin group and cut off the main forces of the German 3rd Tank Army from Berlin.
On April 16, 1945, after powerful aviation and artillery preparation, a decisive attack by troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts on the Oder-Neissen defensive line began. In the area of the main attack of the 1st Belorussian Front, where the offensive was launched before dawn, infantry and tanks, in order to demoralize the enemy, launched an attack in a zone illuminated by 140 powerful searchlights. The troops of the front's strike group had to successively break through several lines of deeply echeloned defense. By the end of April 17, they managed to break through the enemy’s defenses in the main areas near the Seelow Heights. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front completed the breakthrough of the third line of the Oder defense line by the end of April 19. On the right wing of the front's shock group, the 47th Army and the 3rd Shock Army successfully advanced to cover Berlin from the north and northwest. On the left wing, conditions were created to bypass the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group from the north and cut it off from the Berlin area.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse River, broke through the enemy’s main defense line on the first day, and wedged 1-1.5 kilometers into the second. By the end of April 18, front troops completed the breakthrough of the Niessen defense line, crossed the Spree River and provided conditions for encircling Berlin from the south. In the Dresden direction, formations of the 52nd Army repelled an enemy counterattack from the area north of Görlitz.
The advanced units of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Ost-Oder on April 18-19, crossed the interfluve of the Ost-Oder and West Oder, and then began crossing the West Oder.
On April 20, artillery fire from the 1st Belorussian Front on Berlin marked the beginning of its assault. On April 21, tanks of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke into the southern outskirts of Berlin. On April 24, troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts united in the Bonsdorf area (southeast of Berlin), completing the encirclement of the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben group. On April 25, tank formations of the fronts, having reached the Potsdam area, completed the encirclement of the entire Berlin group (500 thousand people). On the same day, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Elbe River and linked up with American troops in the Torgau area.
During the offensive, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Oder and, having broken through the enemy’s defenses, advanced to a depth of 20 kilometers by April 25; they pinned down the German 3rd Panzer Army, preventing it from launching a counterattack from the north against the Soviet forces encircling Berlin.
The Frankfurt-Guben group was destroyed by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts in the period from April 26 to May 1. The destruction of the Berlin group directly in the city continued until May 2. By 15:00 on May 2, enemy resistance in the city had ceased. The fighting with individual groups breaking through from the outskirts of Berlin to the west ended on May 5.
Simultaneously with the defeat of the encircled groups, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Elbe River on a wide front on May 7.
At the same time, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, successfully advancing in Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg, on April 26 captured the main strongholds of the enemy’s defense on the western bank of the Oder River - Poelitz, Stettin, Gatow and Schwedt and, launching a rapid pursuit of the remnants of the defeated 3rd tank army, on May 3 they reached the coast of the Baltic Sea, and on May 4 they advanced to the line of Wismar, Schwerin, and the Elde River, where they came into contact with British troops. On May 4-5, front troops cleared the islands of Wollin, Usedom and Rügen of the enemy, and on May 9 they landed on the Danish island of Bornholm.
The resistance of the Nazi troops was finally broken. On the night of May 9, the Act of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed in the Karlshorst district of Berlin.
The Berlin operation lasted 23 days, the width of the combat front reached 300 kilometers. The depth of front-line operations was 100-220 kilometers, the average daily rate of attack was 5-10 kilometers. As part of the Berlin operation, the Stettin-Rostok, Seelow-Berlin, Cottbus-Potsdam, Stremberg-Torgau and Brandenburg-Ratenow front-line offensive operations were carried out.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops surrounded and eliminated the largest group of enemy troops in the history of wars.
They defeated 70 enemy infantry, 23 tank and mechanized divisions and captured 480 thousand people.
The Berlin operation cost the Soviet troops dearly. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 78,291 people, and sanitary losses - 274,184 people.
More than 600 participants in the Berlin operation were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 13 people were awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
(Additional
After artillery preparation, the troops of the 5th Guards Army began crossing the river. The smoke masked the movement of troops towards the river, but at the same time made it somewhat difficult for us to observe enemy firing points. The attack began successfully, the crossing on ferries and boats was in full swing, by 12 o'clock. 60-ton bridges were built. At 13.00 our advanced detachments moved forward. The first - from the 10th Guards Tank Corps was the 62nd Guards Tank Brigade by I. I. Proshin, reinforced by heavy tanks, anti-tank artillery and motorized infantry of the 29th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade by A. I. Efimov. Essentially, these were 2 brigades. The second forward detachment - from the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps - the 16th Guards Mechanized Brigade of G. M. Shcherbak with assigned reinforcements. The detachments quickly crossed over the built bridges to the opposite bank and, together with the infantry, entered the battle, completing the breakthrough of the enemy’s tactical defense. The brigades of I. I. Proshin and A. I. Efimov overtook the rifle chains and went forward.
The plan we outlined was followed, although not entirely accurately, but there is nothing surprising in this; in a war where two forces, two wills, two plans opposing one another collide, the planned plan can rarely be carried out in all details. Changes occur, dictated by the current situation, for the better or for the worse, in this case for us for the better. The advance detachments advanced faster than we expected. Therefore, we decided to develop the offensive as quickly as possible with all the forces of the army on the night of April 17, so that the next day we could cross the river on the move. Spree, get out into the operational space, get ahead of the enemy reserves and defeat them. We already had such experience during the offensive from the Sandomierz bridgehead. Then, in the zone of the 13th Army of General N.P. Pukhov, on the night of January 13, 1945, we brought into action the main forces of the 10th Tank and 6th Mechanized Guards Corps, we managed to get ahead of the Nazi reserves - the 24th Tank Corps - and, in cooperation with neighbors, defeat it.
Having received the order to bring the main forces into action, E. E. Belov energetically launched an offensive with all the forces of the 10th Guards Corps. At approximately 10 p.m. we, together with the artillery commander N.F. Mentyukov, went to I.I. Proshin and A.I. Efimov, where Belov was already there, to inquire how things were going on the spot, and, if necessary, to provide them with assistance, since The fulfillment of the mission not only by the 10th Guards Tank Corps, but also by the entire army as a whole depended on their successful actions. We soon became convinced that Proshin and Efimov were rapidly moving forward, everything was going well for them.
In the second echelon of the corps, increasing the pace of the offensive, were the 63rd brigade of M. G. Fomichev and the 61st brigade of V. I. Zaitsev.
I soon returned to my command post in order to find out how the offensive was developing on the left wing of the army - the silence of the commander of the 6th Guards Corps, Colonel V.I. Koretsky, was somewhat disturbing. General Upman reported that there had been a hitch in Koretsky’s sector, and the corps was fighting with approaching enemy tanks.
At 11 p.m. 30 min. April 16 Belov reported that Proshin and Efimov met some enemy tank units moving forward. After 1.5 hours, he reported that the corps units had defeated up to two enemy regiments (tank and motorized) belonging to the Fuhrer's Guard tank division and the Bohemia tank training division, and captured the headquarters of the Fuhrer's Guard division. A very important enemy combat order No. 676/45 dated April 16, 1945, signed by the division commander, General Roemer, was captured at the headquarters, from which it followed that the enemy between the Neisse and Spree rivers had a pre-prepared line called “Matilda” (which we are talking about didn’t know) and put forward his reserve: 2 tank divisions - “Fuhrer’s Guard” and the training tank division “Bohemia”. This is what the order said:
1. Enemy ( we're talking about about Us.- D.L.) 16.4 in the morning hours, after a strong artillery preparation, went on the offensive on a wide front in the Muskau - Triebel sector, formed Neisse at Kebeln, southwest of Gross-Zerchen and Zetz, and after heavy fighting with superior forces, threw back the 545 NGD (infantry division. - D.L.) from the forest in the Erishke area to the west. Enemy attacks were supported by large air forces. (For details, see the intelligence report.) The division expects the continuation of 17.4 enemy attacks with the introduction of reinforced tank formations and in the direction along the Muskau - Spremberg highway.
2. The Fuhrer's Guard division with its subordinate tank training division Bohemia continues 17.4 defensive battles at the Matilda line. The point is to crush the expected 17.4 new strong enemy attacks, especially those supported by tanks, in front of the front line...
12. Reports.
Inform 17.4 by 4.00 that the defense is ready...
Signed: Roemer.
A copy of this order is kept by me to this day as a memory of the last battles of the last war. From the above text it is clear that the enemy did not expect our attack at night, which is convincingly stated in the 12th paragraph of the order: since the unit commanders were ordered to report the readiness of the defense by 4 o'clock. on the morning of April 17, which means that the Nazis did not suspect that Soviet troops would advance at night. This is what destroyed the enemy. We began the offensive not on the morning of April 17, as the enemy believed, but on the night of April 17. With a strong blow from our 10th Guards Tank Corps, in cooperation with Zhadov’s infantry, the enemy in this sector April 17 was broken.
We decide, following Belov’s 10th Guards Corps, to introduce 5th Guards Mechanized Corps Ermakov. I immediately reported to the front commander about the defeat of the enemy at the Matilda line and the decision made. The captured enemy order was sent to front headquarters. Marshal I.S. Konev approved our actions and approved the decision.
So, our plan to gain time, get ahead of the enemy and destroy his reserves was crowned with complete success. True, the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps lingered on the left flank of Zhadov’s army, where its infantry was unable to immediately break through the defenses, as fresh enemy reserves arrived there.
Now Belov’s tank and mechanized corps and Ermakova, i.e. main forces of the army. On April 18, the 10th Tank and 5th Mechanized Guards Corps, sweeping away the enemy in their path, broke into operational space and rushed to the west.
About 3 o'clock. on the night of April 18, we received a combat order from the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which stated that, in pursuance of the order of the Supreme High Command 4th Guards Tank Army by the end of April 20, capture the area of Beelitz, Treuenbritzen, Luckenwalde, and on the night of April 21, capture Potsdam and the southwestern part of Berlin. The neighbor on the right - the 3rd Guards Tank Army - was tasked with crossing the river during the night of April 18. Spree and quickly develop an offensive in the general direction of Fetschau, Barut, Teltow, the southern outskirts of Berlin, and on the night of April 21, break into Berlin from the south.
This directive set a new task - an attack on Berlin, in contrast to the previous plan, which aimed to attack in the general direction of Dessau. This turn of events did not come as a surprise to us. We at army headquarters thought about it even before the operation began. Therefore, without unnecessary loss of time, new tasks were assigned: the 10th Guards Tank Corps to develop an offensive in the direction of Luckau-Dame-Luckenwalde-Potsdam, cross the Teltow Canal and capture the southwestern part of Berlin on the night of April 21; The 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, after capturing the city of Spremberg, will go to the Nauen area and unite there with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, completing the complete encirclement of the Berlin enemy group; The 5th Guards Mechanized Corps advance in the direction of Jüterbog, on April 21, capture the Beelitz, Treyenbritzen line and gain a foothold on it, securing the left flank of the army from possible enemy attacks from the west and creating an external front of encirclement of the Berlin group in the southwestern direction.
Having received new tasks, the corps commanders energetically began to carry them out. By the end of April 18, the 10th and 5th corps reached the Drebkau, Neu-Petershain line, this is more than 50 km from the former front line of enemy defense. Their advanced detachments advanced 70 km, and the 63rd Guards Tank Brigade of M. G. Fomichev pulled ahead even 90 km. The offensive progressed at an increasing pace. The 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, fulfilling the directive of the front, assisted the 5th Guards Army in capturing the city of Spremberg in order to quickly begin its main task - the encirclement of Berlin.
April 20 a new order was received from the front commander:
“Personally to comrades Rybalko and Lelyushenko. Marshal Zhukov's troops are ten kilometers from the eastern outskirts of Berlin... I order that they must break into Berlin tonight... Deliver the execution. 19-40.20.4.1945. Konev." The distance to Berlin was 50-60 km, but that happens in war.
In accordance with this order, the tasks of the troops were clarified, and primarily of the 10th Guards Corps, which was aimed at the southwestern outskirts of Berlin.
When the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the eastern outskirts of Berlin on April 21, the right-flank troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front were approaching the southeastern and southern outskirts of the fascist capital. on the same day it captured the cities of Kalau, Luckau, Babelsberg and on April 21 reached the approaches to the southwestern outskirts of Berlin. 63rd Guards Tank Brigade under the command of Colonel M. G. Fomichev, acting as an advance detachment 4th Guards Tank Army, defeated the enemy garrison in Babelsberg (south of the outskirts of Berlin) and freed 7 thousand prisoners of various nationalities from concentration camps.
Continuing to carry out the task, the 63rd Guards Brigade soon encountered fierce enemy resistance in the village of Enikesdorf. It seemed to me that the battle was becoming protracted, and I decided to go to Fomichev to get acquainted with the situation on the spot and clarify the task for the strike in the direction of Berlin.
The brigade was given the task of rapidly advancing on the southwestern part of Berlin in the general direction of the Brandenburg Gate. We were supported from the air by A. I. Pokryshkin’s fighters, V. G. Ryazanov’s attack aircraft and D. T. Nikitin’s bombers. The 81st Guards Bomber Regiment under the command of V. Ya. Gavrilov especially helped us.
April 22 Ermakov Corps, advancing south of Belov’s corps, sweeping away the enemy on his way, he captured the cities of Beelitz, Treyenbritzen, and Jüterbog. From the fascist camp in the Troyenbritzen area, 1,600 French, British, Danes, Belgians, Norwegians and prisoners of other nationalities who had languished in Hitler's dungeons were freed.
There was an airfield not far from the camp in the Jüterbog area. More than 300 aircraft and a lot of other military equipment fell into our hands there. The commander showed particular resourcefulness and skill in leading this operation. 5th Guards Mechanized Corps Major General I.P. Ermakov.
On April 22, having reached the Treyenbritzen line, Beelitz, the 5th Guards Corps began a battle with the advanced units of the 12th German Army of General Wenck, which was trying to break through to Berlin. All enemy attacks were repelled, and its units were thrown back to their original position.
On the same day, E. E. Belov’s 10th Guards Tank Corps continued an intense battle on the southwestern outskirts of Berlin, encountering fierce resistance. The Faustian detachments were especially rampant. Despite this, the tankers continued to move forward, storming house after house, block after block.
The 3rd Guards Tank Army fought on the southern outskirts of Berlin. On the night of April 23, the 10th Guards Tank Corps reached the Teltow Canal and was preparing to cross it.
Having received intelligence data, Belov intensely prepared the corps troops to cross the Teltow Canal. On the same day, Marshal I.S. Konev transferred the 350th Infantry Division from the 13th Army under the command of Major General G.I. Vekhin to our operational subordination. This was very useful, since infantry was urgently needed to create battle groups during the assault on Berlin. On the Teltow Canal, selected SS units fought with fanaticism bordering on madness.
We started forcing the channel on the morning of April 23. The 29th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of Belov's Corps walked ahead. An advance detachment was allocated from its composition. Soon the tankers of I. I. Proshin’s 62nd Guards Brigade arrived and quickly attacked the enemy on the northern bank of the Teltow Canal.
Storm of Berlin
10th Guards Tank Corps by E. E. Belov, reinforced by G. I. Vekhin’s 350th Rifle Division, April 23 continued to storm the southwestern outskirts of Berlin, the 3rd Guards Tank Army of P.S. Rybalko, a neighbor on the right, fought in the southern part of Berlin. The tank brigades of this army, which directly interacted with us, were headed by the formation commander, General V.V. Novikov. Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front from April 21 continued to storm the fascist capital from the east and northeast.
The fighting was exceptionally intense and fierce in all sectors of the front. The Nazis fought for every block, for every house, floor, room. Our 5th Guards Mechanized Corps of I.P. Ermakov continued the stubborn battle on the line of Treuenbritzen, Beelitz, holding back the strongest pressure from the west of the enemy divisions of Wenck's 12th Army - "Scharngorst", "Hutten", "Theodor Kerner" and other formations , striving to break through to Berlin at any cost. Hitler called out to them with a plea for salvation.
The chief of staff of the Supreme High Command of Nazi Germany, Field Marshal General Keitel, visited Wenck’s troops. He demanded that the command staff and all troops of the 12th Army “fanaticalize” the fight, arguing that if the army breaks through to Berlin, the entire military-political situation will radically change and that Busse’s 9th Army is coming to meet Wenck. But it didn't help. Wenck's army suffered colossal casualties from the attacks of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps.
In order to prevent the enemy's 12th Army from reaching Berlin, we strengthened the defense in this direction and sent 5th Guards Corps to the line of Treyenbritzen, Beelitz, the 70th Guards Self-Propelled Artillery Brigade under Lieutenant Colonel N.F. Kornyushkin and artillery units of army subordination, in particular the 71st Separate Guards Light Artillery Brigade under Colonel I.N. Kozubenko.
As a result of the efforts of the guards 4th Tank Army With the assistance of the troops of the 13th Army, enemy attacks were repelled and the Troyenbritzen, Beelitz line was held. Repeated enemy attacks were broken here by the unparalleled resilience of Soviet soldiers and officers.
The 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, which had delayed to provide assistance to the 5th Guards Army of A.S. Zhadov, after capturing the city of Spremberg, quickly took the lead and rushed to Potsdam. On the morning of April 23 He broke through the enemy’s defenses on the outer perimeter of Berlin in the Fresdorf area, where the Nazis again closed the gap, and defeated units of the enemy Friedrich Ludwig Jahn infantry division there. Here the 35th Guards Mechanized Brigade, Colonel P.N. Turkin, distinguished himself, and the commander of the unit of this brigade, Lieutenant V.V. Kuzovkov, captured the commander of the enemy division, Colonel Klein.
Soon I drove up to the corps to clarify the situation and assist the young corps commander, Colonel V.I. Koretsky, in quickly moving forward to encircle Berlin. A captured colonel was brought to us, he showed that the division was formed in early April from young men 15-16 years old. I couldn’t stand it and told him: “Why are you driving innocent teenage boys to slaughter on the eve of an inevitable catastrophe?” But what could he answer to this? All he could do was move his lips convulsively, the eyelid of his right eye twitched convulsively, and his legs trembled. This Nazi warrior looked pitiful and disgusting.
On April 24, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and the right-flank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front united southeast of Berlin, encircling the 9th German Army.
4th Guards Tank Army quickly moved to link up with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, closing the encirclement ring around Berlin from the west. The 6th Guards Mechanized Corps of V.I. Koretsky was intended to carry out this task. The 35th Guards Mechanized Brigade of Colonel P.N. Turkin came from him as an advance detachment. Having overcome 6 serious water obstacles, several strips of minefields, scarps, counter-scarps, anti-tank ditches, the brigade destroyed 9 Nazi detachments and individual units covering the obstacles and crossings southwest and west of Berlin. Here she captured many staff officers of the units and units serving Hitler's headquarters. A powerful radio communications center of the fascist high command fell into our hands - more than 300 different radio devices of the latest type. With their help, the Nazi command maintained contact with troops in all theaters of military operations.
On the night of April 25 P.N. Turkin captured the city of Ketzin, 22 km west of Berlin, where he united with the 328th Rifle Division of the 77th Rifle Corps of General V.G. Poznyak and the 65th Guards Tank Brigade of the 1st Belorussian Front. Soon the main forces of our 6th Guards Mechanized Corps arrived here. This act ended important stage The Berlin operation - the fascist lair with a 200,000-strong garrison led by Hitler was completely surrounded. The sappers, led by the head of the engineering service of the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, Lieutenant Colonel A.F. Romanenko, acted boldly and energetically. It should be noted the excellent combat work of the soldiers of the 22nd Separate Guards Three-Order Sapper Battalion, Major E. I. Pivovarov. Under enemy fire, they quickly cleared mine routes, established ferry and bridge crossings, and removed obstacles.
The pilots supported the offensive 4th Guards Tank Army throughout her entire battle path. These were the fighters of Colonel A.I. Pokryshkin and Lieutenant Colonel L.I. Goreglyad, attack aircraft of the 1st Guards Air Corps of General V.G. Ryazanov. The neighboring part of I.N. Kozhedub helped us. I would like to mention the brave pilot G.I. Remez, who rammed enemy planes, and the flight commander of the 22nd Guards Fighter Air Division, N.I. Glotov, who became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
In honor of this victory, which announced to the world the imminent end of the war, on April 25, Moscow saluted the valiant soldiers of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts with 20 artillery salvoes from 224 guns.
April 25 a very significant event occurred. In the area of Torgau on the Elbe, the advanced units of the 5th Guards Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front met with patrols of the 1st American Army. Now the front of the Nazi troops was torn into parts - northern and southern, separated from each other. In honor of this great victory, Moscow again saluted the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front with 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns.
Hitler's headquarters, having lost control of its troops, was in its death throes. The diary of the Nazi General Staff on April 25, 1945 records: “Fierce fighting is taking place in the eastern and northern parts of the city... The city of Potsdam is completely surrounded. In the area of Torgau on the Elbe, Soviet and American troops unite for the first time.”
Events, meanwhile, developed with cinematic speed. April 26 6th Guards Mechanized Corps 4th Guards Tank Army captures the center of Potsdam and on its northeastern outskirts again unites with units of the 9th Guards Tank Corps of General N.D. Vedeneev of the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. On the connection of the corps, N.D. Vedeneev and V.I. Koretsky drew up and signed an act, sending it to the appropriate headquarters. This closed the circle of encirclement of the Berlin group for the second time. The soldiers of the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps showed high combat skill and heroism.
The capture of Potsdam was a blow to the very heart of reactionary Prussian militarism. After all, this city - a suburb of Berlin - has been the residence of Prussian kings since 1416, the site of countless military parades and reviews. Here in 1933, in the garrison church, the last president of the Weimar Republic, Field Marshal Hindenburg, blessed Hitler as the new ruler of Germany.
But when we were planning an attack on Potsdam, we were interested not so much in these data about it, but in the very advantageous position of the city for the defense of the enemy, which was actually located on an island, washed on one side by the river. The Havel, into which the Spree flows, and on the other - lakes. An assault by tanks on such a resistance center located on a wooded island was not an easy task.
When setting the task for the 6th Guards Corps, the army's military council took into account all this and, most importantly, the importance that the Nazis attached to the defense of the fortress city. The capture of Potsdam, despite stubborn resistance, was carried out with a very skillful maneuver, thanks to which many buildings of historical value were preserved, including the castles of Sansouci, Bebelsberg, and Zitzilienhof.
I must say that by April 25-26 The 9th German Army, surrounded in the Cottbus area and southeast of Berlin, was virtually paralyzed, most of it destroyed. She no longer came to the rescue of Berlin and Hitler himself, but sought at all costs to go to the West in order to surrender to the Americans. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front fought fiercely against the breaking through group from the north and northeast, and the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front fought from the southeast, south and southwest.
Here the 3rd Guards Army of General V.N. Gordov, formations of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Army, parts of the 28th Army of A. A. Luchinsky and the 13th Army of General Pukhov.
The battles were bloody. Attacks and counterattacks, as a rule, ended in hand-to-hand combat. The doomed enemy was rushing to the west. His groups were cut into separate parts by our troops, blocked and destroyed in the Barut area, in the forest to the north and at other points.
A small group of Nazis managed to break through in the city of Luckenwalde, just to the rear of the 4th Guards Tank Army and, above all, the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps of I.P. Ermakov, which repelled the fierce attacks of Wenck’s 12th Army at the line of Treuenbritzen, Beelitz, front to the west.
Now Ermakov had to fight with an inverted front, still directing his main forces to the west against Wenck’s army and part of his forces to the east against Busse’s breaking through group of the 9th Army. To help Ermakov, I urgently sent the 63rd Guards Tank Brigade of M. G. Fomichev with the 72nd Guards Heavy Tank Regiment of Major A. A. Dementyev and a separate self-propelled artillery regiment to the Luckenwalde area. The 68th Guards Tank Brigade under the army subordination of Colonel K. T. Khmylov was also deployed there.
In the last days of April The battle for Berlin reached its climax. The soldiers of the Red Army, with utmost effort, sparing neither blood nor life itself, went into the last and decisive battle. Tankers V.I. Zaitsev, I.I. Proshina, P.N. Turkin and N.Ya. Selivanchik, motorized riflemen A.I. Efimov, infantrymen of General G.I. Vekhin under the leadership of E.E. Belov and V.I. Koretsky in a fierce, bloody battle, storming Berlin, in cooperation with its neighbors, captured the southwestern part of the city and advanced in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate. Ermakov's warriors reliably held the outer front at the Treyenbritzen-Beelitz line, repelling the onslaught of the 12th enemy army.
April 27 The diary of Hitler’s general staff records: “Fierce fighting is taking place in Berlin. Despite all the orders and measures to assist Berlin, this day clearly indicates that the end of the battle for the German capital is approaching...”
On this day, our troops were approaching the lair of the fascist beast like an unstoppable avalanche. The enemy sought to break through to the west, to the Americans. His pressure was especially strong in the sector of our 10th Guards Tank Corps, reinforced by the 350th Rifle Division of General G.I. Vekhin. 18 enemy attacks were repelled here on April 26 and 27, but the enemy was not released from Berlin.
5th Guards Mechanized Corps I. P. Ermakov, in which there were many sailors of the Pacific Fleet, stood indestructibly on the line between Treyenbritzen and Beelitz, continuously repelling the attacks of Wenck's army. The soldiers of this corps showed exceptional resilience - 10th Guards Mechanized Brigade by V. N. Buslaev, 11th Guards Mechanized Brigade by I. T. Noskov and 12th Guards Mechanized Brigade by G. Ya. Borisenko. Day and night on April 29, a bloody battle continued in all areas.
The army command and all the soldiers understood that the troops 4th Guards Tank Army these days they were performing a responsible task: firstly, it was necessary to reliably close the enemy’s exit routes from Berlin to the southwest, and secondly, prevent Wenck's 12th Army from reaching Berlin, which had the main task of releasing Berlin with a 200,000-strong garrison, and, thirdly, not releasing the remnants of the enemy’s 9th Army, which were breaking through the rear of our army in the Luckenwalde area to the west, into the American zone. Troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts stormed Berlin.
But the Nazis still continued to resist, although there was already panic and confusion at the top of the Wehrmacht. Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide, other fascist thugs fled in all directions. On the morning of May 1 A scarlet banner was already flying over the Reichstag, installed by the soldiers of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Division of General V.M. Shatilov, Sergeant M.A. Egorov and Private M.V. Kantaria.
On May 1, we received a report from the commander of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, I.P. Ermakov, that the enemy was exerting strong pressure from the west and east. It was Wenck's 12th Army, which received reinforcements, that strained its last strength to save the Nazis remaining in Berlin. At the same time, the remnants of the enemy's 9th Army sought to break through to the Americans. We urgently send to the aid of Ermakov the 71st separate Guards light artillery brigade I. N. Kozubenko, the 3rd Guards motorized engineering brigade A. F. Sharuda, the 379th Guards heavy self-propelled artillery regiment with 100 mm guns under the command of Major P. F. Sidorenko, the 312th Guards Katyusha Mortar Regiment, the 61st Guards Tank Brigade of V.I. Zaitsev and the 434th Anti-Aircraft Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel V.P. Ashkerov.
In order to completely defeat the enemy in the area of operations of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, i.e. near Treuenbritzen, Beelitz and Luckenwalde, I ordered at 15 o'clock. On May 1, the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, which had already captured Brandenburg, turned east and struck in the rear of Wenck’s army, defeated it and prevented the remnants of the enemy’s 9th Army from breaking through into the American zone.
The results were immediate. The decisive blow of the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps to the west and the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps to the east and southeast, in cooperation with units of the 13th Army of General Pukhov, completely defeated the formations of the 12th and the remnants of the 9th enemy armies.
In those same May days, when we were fighting with superior enemy forces on two fronts, Belov’s 10th Guards Tank Corps, together with the 350th Rifle Division of Vekhin attached to it and other army formations, continued to persistently storm the southwestern part of Berlin, pressing the enemy to Brandenburg Gate.
We were reliably provided from the air by the fearless pilots of the fighter division, led by three times Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin.
The ring around Berlin was shrinking. Hitler's leaders faced an inevitably approaching catastrophe.
On May 2, Berlin fell. The 200,000-strong Nazi group surrounded in it capitulated. The long-awaited victory came, in the name of which millions of Soviet people gave their lives.
During the Berlin operation, the troops of our 4th Guards Tank Army destroyed 42,850 enemy soldiers and officers, 31,350 were captured, 556 tanks and armored personnel carriers, 1,178 guns and mortars were burned and captured.