Berlin, The fall of, 1945

In April 1945 Zhukov began to prepare his offensive against Berlin. Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front raced for the Neisse River, and Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front hcaded for thc northern reaches of the Oder while Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front held a line along the Oder opposite Berlin. The three Soviet Fronts combined had 2,5000,000 men, 6,250 tanks, 7,500 aircraft and 41,000 artillery pieces.

From I February to 21 April Berlin bad been bombed almost every night. On 15 April shortly before the Russian attack, Hitler transferred command of Berlin city defenses to Army Group Vistula, under General Heinrici. On 16 April the I st Belorussian Front attacked at dawn and the 1 st Ukrainian Front joined in at daylight. The 1st Belorussian Front did not make much progress and since the 1st Ukrainian Front had penetrated six miles on the first day Konev was ordered to head for Berlin. On 19 April the I st Belorussian Front broke through and reached the outskirts of Berlin on the next day. Konev cut off all communication on the south side of the city. Then the Third Army cut off the Ninth Army from Berlin and one of General Sokolovsky's tank columns joined up with Konev's armies west of the city on 25 April to complete its encirclement. On the same day Rokossovsky' s 2nd Belorussian Front broke through the Third Panzer Army's line near Stettin. Hitler did not believe he was beaten and ordered Operational Group Steiner to attack eastwards from Oranienburg and throw back the Red Army. All German armies were turning round to attack east, so that they could surrender to the Allies.

Eight Soviet armies destroyed Berlin's makeshift defenses and although every street was contested they made progress on 29 April. Thousands of civilians died in the intense block-by-block, house-to-house struggle, in which young boys fought alongside old men to defend the capital of the Reich. Hitler flooded the underground in a last-ditch attempt to save Berlin in the process thousands of German civilians were drowned. On 30 April Hitler shot himself and General Krehs tried to negotiate an armistice with Chuikov. On 1 May the Reichstag surrendered after frantic resistance hy SS troops and on 2 May General Weidling, Commandant of Berlin, visited Chuikov and wrote a proclamation calling on German troops to surrender. Soviet troops only joined up at Charlottenberg Chausee on 2 May and mopped up the remnants.