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 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. A formidable weapon in the conditions of street fighting and limited space Faust cartridges were used 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 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 north-west 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 one possible way It remained to be overcome by 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 advanced 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 went to the negotiations as a colonel (the tallest and most representative), S.A. Neustroyev as his adjutant and private I. Prygunov as a translator. 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 traces of bullets on inside 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 ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Soviet in honor of the 27th anniversary October revolution Stalin said: “From now on and forever, our land is free from Hitler’s evil spirits, and now the Red Army is left with its last, final mission: to complete, together with the armies of our allies, the defeat of the Nazi army, to finish off the fascist beast in its own lair and hoist it over Berlin Banner of Victory." 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 appearance in different parts buildings of different flags. 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 the artillery barrage 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 rank of Heroes 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 towards 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 for awarding the title of Hero Russian Federation group of the above-mentioned warriors. 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, soldiers of 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 “The 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, a monument was erected in 1981 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 a single 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 units. 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, 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 stop him from defending his Motherland. Zolotarevsky went to the front and reached Berlin. Returning from the war, he became an engineer. One day, while on an excursion in 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 on a short time 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, the news of the victorious May 1945, that have survived to this day. 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 is this signature on the southern wall facing courtyard the northern wing, at the level of the plenary hall, and was noticed by Boris Viktorovich - 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 at 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 don't sentimental person, but a lump came to 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."
The operation plan of the Soviet Supreme High Command was to deliver several powerful blows on a wide front, dismember the enemy’s Berlin group, encircle and destroy it piece by piece. The operation began on April 16, 1945. After powerful artillery and air preparation, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked the enemy on the Oder River. At the same time, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to cross the Neisse River. Despite the fierce resistance of the enemy, Soviet troops broke through his defenses.
On April 20, long-range artillery fire from the 1st Belorussian Front on Berlin marked the beginning of its assault. By the evening of April 21, his shock units reached the northeastern outskirts of the city.
The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a rapid maneuver to reach Berlin from the south and west. On April 21, having advanced 95 kilometers, tank units of the front broke into the southern outskirts of the city. Taking advantage of the success of tank formations, the combined arms armies of the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front quickly advanced westward.
On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian Fronts united west of Berlin, completing the encirclement of the entire Berlin enemy group (500 thousand people).
The 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 firmly pinned down the 3rd German Tank Army, preventing it from being used on the approaches to Berlin.
The Nazi group in Berlin, despite the obvious doom, continued stubborn resistance. In fierce street battles on April 26-28, it was cut by Soviet troops into three isolated parts.
The fighting went on day and night. Breaking through to the center of Berlin, Soviet soldiers stormed every street and every house. On some days they managed to clear up to 300 blocks of the enemy. Hand-to-hand combat broke out in subway tunnels, underground communication structures and communication passages. The basis of the combat formations of rifle and tank units during the fighting in the city were assault detachments and groups. Most of the artillery (up to 152 mm and 203 mm guns) was assigned to rifle units for direct fire. Tanks operated as part of both rifle formations and tank corps and armies, promptly subordinate to the command of combined arms armies or operating in their own offensive zone. 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. The most powerful strikes on military targets in the city were carried out by aviation on April 25 and on the night of April 26; 2,049 aircraft took part in these strikes.
By April 28, only the central part remained in the hands of the defenders of Berlin, shot from all sides by Soviet artillery, and by the evening of the same day, units of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag area.
The Reichstag garrison numbered up to one thousand soldiers and officers, but it continued to continuously strengthen. It was armed with a large number of machine guns and faust cartridges. There were also artillery pieces. Deep ditches were dug around the building, various barriers were erected, and machine gun and artillery firing points were equipped.
On April 30, troops of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front began fighting for the Reichstag, which immediately became extremely fierce. Only in the evening, after repeated attacks, Soviet soldiers broke into the building. The Nazis put up fierce resistance. Hand-to-hand combat broke out on the stairs and in the corridors every now and then. The assault units, step by step, room by room, floor by floor, cleared the Reichstag building of the enemy. The entire path of Soviet soldiers from the main entrance to the Reichstag to the roof was marked with red flags and flags. On the night of May 1, the Victory Banner was hoisted over the building of the defeated Reichstag. The battles for the Reichstag 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.
In the battles for the Reichstag, the enemy lost more than 2 thousand soldiers and officers killed and wounded. Soviet troops captured over 2.6 thousand Nazis, as well as 1.8 thousand rifles and machine guns, 59 artillery pieces, 15 tanks and assault guns as trophies.
On May 1, units of the 3rd Shock Army, advancing from the north, met south of the Reichstag with units of the 8th Guards Army, advancing from the south. On the same day, two important Berlin defense centers surrendered: the Spandau citadel and the Flakturm I (Zoobunker) concrete anti-aircraft defense tower.
By 15:00 on May 2, enemy resistance had completely ceased, the remnants of the Berlin garrison surrendered with a total of more than 134 thousand people.
During the fighting, out of approximately 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died, and a significant part of Berlin was destroyed. Of the 250 thousand buildings in the city, about 30 thousand were completely destroyed, more than 20 thousand buildings were in a dilapidated state, more than 150 thousand buildings had moderate damage. More than a third of metro stations were flooded and destroyed, 225 bridges were blown up by Nazi troops.
The fighting with individual groups breaking through from the outskirts of Berlin to the west ended on May 5. On the night of May 9, the Act of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed.
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
I. S. Konev
Storm of Berlin- the final part of the Berlin offensive operation of 1945, during which the Red Army captured the capital of Nazi Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War in Europe. The operation lasted from April 25 to May 2.
Storm of Berlin
The “Zoobunker” - a huge reinforced concrete fortress with anti-aircraft batteries on the towers and extensive underground shelter - also served as the largest bomb shelter in the city.
Early in the morning of May 2, the Berlin metro was flooded - a group of sappers from the SS Nordland division blew up a tunnel passing under the Landwehr Canal in the Trebbiner Strasse area. The explosion led to the destruction of the tunnel and filling it with water along a 25-km section. Water rushed into the tunnels, where a large number of civilians and wounded were taking refuge. The number of victims is still unknown.
Information about the number of victims... varies - from fifty to fifteen thousand people... The data that about a hundred people died under water seems more reliable. Of course, there were many thousands of people in the tunnels, including the wounded, children, women and old people, but the water did not spread through the underground communications too quickly. Moreover, it spread underground in various directions. Of course, the picture of advancing water caused genuine horror in people. And some of the wounded, as well as drunken soldiers, as well as civilians, became its inevitable victims. But talking about thousands of deaths would be a gross exaggeration. In most places the water barely reached a depth of one and a half meters, and the inhabitants of the tunnels had enough time to evacuate themselves and save the numerous wounded who were in the “hospital cars” near the Stadtmitte station. It is likely that many of the dead, whose bodies were subsequently brought to the surface, actually died not from water, but from wounds and illnesses even before the destruction of the tunnel.
At one o'clock in the morning on May 2, the radio stations of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “We ask you to cease fire. We are sending envoys to the Potsdam Bridge.” A German officer who arrived at the appointed place, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance. At 6 a.m. on May 2, Artillery General Weidling, accompanied by three German generals, crossed the front line and surrendered. An hour later, while at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, he wrote a surrender order, which was duplicated and, with the help of loudspeaker installations and radio, delivered to enemy 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.
On May 2 at 10 o'clock in the morning everything suddenly became quiet, the fire stopped. And everyone realized that something had happened. We saw white sheets that had been “thrown away” in the Reichstag, the Chancellery building and the Royal Opera House and cellars that had not yet been taken. Entire columns fell from there. A column passed ahead of us, where there were generals, colonels, then soldiers behind them. We walked for probably three hours.
Alexander Bessarab, participant in the Battle of Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag
Results of the operation
Soviet troops defeated the Berlin group of enemy troops and stormed the capital of Germany, Berlin. Developing a further offensive, they reached the Elbe River, where they linked up with American and British troops. With the fall of Berlin and the loss of vital areas, Germany lost the opportunity for organized resistance and soon capitulated. With the completion of the Berlin operation, favorable conditions were created for encircling and destroying the last large enemy groups on the territory of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
The losses of the German armed forces in killed and wounded are unknown. Of the approximately 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died. The city was heavily destroyed by bombing even before the arrival of Soviet troops. The bombing continued during the battles near Berlin - the last American bombing on April 20 (Adolph Hitler's birthday) led to food problems. The destruction intensified as a result of Soviet artillery attacks.
Indeed, it is unthinkable that such a huge fortified city could be taken so quickly. We know of no other such examples in the history of World War II.
Alexander Orlov, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
Two Guards IS-2 heavy tank brigades and at least nine Guards heavy self-propelled artillery self-propelled artillery regiments took part in the battles in Berlin, including:
- 1st Belorussian Front
- 7th Guards Ttbr - 69th Army
- 11th Guards ttbr - front-line subordination
- 334 Guards tsap - 47th Army
- 351 Guards tsap - 3rd shock army, front-line subordination
- 396 Guards tsap - 5th shock army
- 394 Guards tsap - 8th Guards Army
- 362, 399 guards tsap - 1st Guards Tank Army
- 347 Guards tsap - 2nd Guards Tank Army
- 1st Ukrainian Front
- 383, 384 guards tsap - 3rd Guards Tank Army
Situation of the civilian population
Fear and despair
A significant part of Berlin, even before the assault, was destroyed as a result of Anglo-American air raids, from which the population hid in basements and bomb shelters. There were not enough bomb shelters and therefore they were constantly overcrowded. In Berlin by that time, in addition to the three million local population (consisting mainly of women, old people and children), there were up to three hundred thousand foreign workers, including “ostarbeiters”, most of whom were forcibly taken to Germany. Entry into bomb shelters and basements was prohibited for them.
Although the war had long been lost for Germany, Hitler ordered resistance to the last. Thousands of teenagers and old men were conscripted into the Volkssturm. From the beginning of March, by order of Reichskommissar Goebbels, responsible for the defense of Berlin, tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women, were sent to dig anti-tank ditches around the German capital.
Civilians who violated government orders even in the last days of the war faced execution.
There is no exact information about the number of civilian casualties. Different sources indicate different numbers of people who died directly during the Battle of Berlin. Even decades after the war construction work previously unknown mass graves are found.
Violence against civilians
In Western sources, especially recently, a significant number of materials have appeared concerning mass violence by Soviet troops against the civilian population of Berlin and Germany in general - a topic that was practically not raised for many decades after the end of the war.
There are two opposing approaches to this extremely painful problem. On the one hand, there are artistic and documentary works of two English-speaking researchers - “ last fight"Cornelius Ryan and "The Fall of Berlin. 1945" by Anthony Beevor, which are more or less a reconstruction of the events of half a century ago based on the testimony of participants in the events (overwhelmingly representatives of the German side) and memoirs of Soviet commanders. The claims made by Ryan and Beevor are regularly reproduced by the Western press, which presents them as scientifically proven truth.
On the other hand, there are the opinions of Russian representatives (officials and historians), who acknowledge numerous facts of violence, but question the validity of statements about its extreme mass character, as well as the possibility, after so many years, of verifying the shocking digital data provided in the West . Russian authors also draw attention to the fact that such publications, which focus on hyper-emotional descriptions of scenes of violence that were allegedly committed by Soviet troops on German territory, follow the standards of Goebbels propaganda of the beginning of 1945 and are aimed at belittling the role of the Red Army as the liberator of Eastern and Central Europe from fascism and denigrate the image of the Soviet soldier. In addition, the materials distributed in the West provide virtually no information about the measures taken by the Soviet command to combat violence and looting - crimes against civilians, which, as has been repeatedly pointed out, not only lead to tougher resistance of the defending enemy, but also undermine the combat effectiveness and discipline of the advancing army.
Links
During the capture of Berlin, either half a million or a million Soviet soldiers died and there was no need to storm it at all, but should have been surrounded and starved to death - this is a widespread myth. In fact, the loss figures are not the same at all; the argument about “should have been encircled” also does not stand up to criticism.
From the editor's website:
It is widely believed that there was no need to storm Berlin. This is argued on two points - firstly, that during its capture, either 300 thousand people died, or 500 thousand, or a million - depending on the imagination of the writer, and secondly - that it was possible to get by with encircling Berlin and starving it out . Let us immediately note a mistake that either consciously or out of ignorance is often made by those who write on this topic - namely, mixing the number of total and irrecoverable losses.
The real numbers are as follows: From April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 were irreversible. The losses of Polish troops during the same period amounted to 8,892 people, of which 2,825 were irretrievable. That is, the number of killed Soviet soldiers was 78 thousand people, and not a million, not half a million, or even 300 thousand. The enemy’s losses in killed amounted to about 400 thousand people, and about 380 thousand people captured. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and capitulated to the Allied forces, which also refers to the immediate results of the operation. At least based on the ratio of Soviet and German losses, one can assess the effectiveness of the assault on Berlin.
Was it possible to get by with encircling Berlin and starving it out? It should be noted that at that time most of the German troops were outside Berlin. After the end of the war, about 3.5 million Germans were captured by the Western allies, and about 1.5 million were captured by the USSR. Obviously, if Berlin had not been taken, and Hitler, as a result, had not shot himself, then this would have inspired the Germans troops to continue the resistance (here you can remember that the German garrison held Prague until its capture by Soviet troops on May 9). With such a development of events, of course, the total losses of Soviet troops would be greater than during the storming of Berlin.
Well, you can learn about exactly how the operation to storm Berlin took place from the article by Alexey Isaev “The Price of Berlin”, published in the newspaper “Zavtra”. We also invite you to watch the film about the capture of Berlin from the series and listen to Alexey Isaev’s story about unknown moments in the program “Hour of Truth.”
BERLIN PRICE
Myths and documentsThe beams of the searchlights rest on the smoke, nothing is visible, the Seelow Heights are fiercely snarling with fire in front, and behind them are the generals fighting for the right to be the first to be in Berlin. When the defense was finally broken through in great blood, a bloodbath ensued on the streets of the city, in which tanks burned one after another from the well-aimed shots of the Faustians. Such an unsightly image of the final assault developed in the public consciousness over the post-war decades. Was this really so?
Like most major historical events, the Battle of Berlin was surrounded by many myths and legends. Most of them appeared in Soviet times. As we will see later, this was not least due to the inaccessibility of primary documents, which forced the word of those directly involved in the events to be taken at their word. Even the period preceding the Berlin operation itself was mythologized.
The first legend claims that the capital of the Third Reich could have been taken as early as February 1945. A quick acquaintance with the events of the last months of the war shows that there seem to be grounds for such a statement. Indeed, the bridgeheads on the Oder, 70 km from Berlin, were captured by the advancing Soviet units at the end of January 1945. However, the attack on Berlin followed only in mid-April. The turn of the 1st Belorussian Front in February-March 1945 to Pomerania caused almost greater discussions in the post-war period than Guderian's turn to Kyiv in 1941. The main troublemaker was the former commander of the 8th Guards. army V.I. Chuikov, who put forward the theory of the “stop order” coming from Stalin. In a form cleared of ideological flourishes, his theory was voiced at a conversation for a narrow circle, held on January 17, 1966 by the head of the Main Political Directorate of the SA and the Navy, A.A. Episheva. Chuikov claimed: “On February 6, Zhukov gave instructions to prepare for an attack on Berlin. On this day, during a meeting with Zhukov, Stalin called. He asked: “Tell me, what are you doing?” He: “We are planning an attack on Berlin.” Stalin: “Turn to Pomerania." Zhukov is now refusing this conversation, but he was."
Whether Zhukov spoke with Stalin that day and, most importantly, about what, is now almost impossible to establish. But this is not so significant. We have quite enough indirect evidence. It’s not even a matter of reasons obvious to anyone, such as the need to tighten up the rear after the 500-600 km covered in January from the Vistula to the Oder. The weakest link in Chuikov's theory is his assessment of the enemy: "The 9th German Army was smashed to smithereens." However, the 9th Army defeated in Poland and the 9th Army on the Oder front are far from the same thing. The Germans managed to restore the integrity of the front due to the divisions removed from other sectors and newly formed. The “shattered to pieces” 9th Army gave these divisions only the brain, i.e., its headquarters. In fact, the German defense on the Oder, which had to be rammed in April, took shape back in February 1945. Moreover, in February the Germans even launched a counter-offensive on the flank of the 1st Belorussian Front (Operation Solstice). Accordingly, Zhukov had to place a significant part of his troops to protect the flank. Chuikovskoye “broken to pieces” is definitely an exaggeration.
The need to protect the flank inevitably gave rise to a dispersal of forces. Turning to Pomerania, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front implemented the classic principle of the strategy “Beat the enemy in parts.” Having defeated and captured the German group in Eastern Pomerania, Zhukov released several armies at once to attack Berlin. If in February 1945 they stood front to the north in defense, then in mid-April they took part in the attack on the German capital. In addition, in February there could be no question of I. S. Konev’s participation in the attack on Berlin of the 1st Ukrainian Front. He was firmly stuck in Silesia and also suffered several counterattacks. In a word, only a seasoned adventurer could launch an attack on Berlin in February. Zhukov, of course, was not one.
The second legend is perhaps more famous than the debate about the possibility of taking the German capital back in February 1945. She claims that she Supreme Commander arranged a competition between two military leaders, Zhukov and Konev. The prize was the glory of the winner, and the bargaining chip was soldiers' lives. In particular, the famous domestic publicist Boris Sokolov writes: “However, Zhukov continued the bloody assault. He was afraid that the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front would reach Berlin earlier than the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front could do so. The race continued and cost many additional soldiers lives."
As in the case of the February assault on Berlin, the legend of the competition dates back to Soviet times. Its author was one of the “racers” - Ivan Stepanovich Konev, then commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front. In his memoirs, he wrote about it this way: “The break in the demarcation line at Lübben seemed to hint, suggest the proactive nature of actions near Berlin. And how could it be otherwise. Advancing, essentially, along the southern outskirts of Berlin, knowingly leaving it untouched on your right "on the flank, and even in a situation where it was not known in advance how everything would turn out in the future, it seemed strange and incomprehensible. The decision to be prepared for such a blow seemed clear, understandable and self-evident."
Now that we have access to the directives of the Headquarters to both fronts, the cunning of this version is visible to the naked eye. If the directive addressed to Zhukov clearly stated “to capture the capital of Germany, the city of Berlin,” then Konev was only instructed to “defeat the enemy group (...) south of Berlin,” and nothing was said about Berlin itself. The tasks of the 1st Ukrainian Front were quite clearly formulated to a depth much greater than the break point of the demarcation line. The Supreme Command Headquarters Directive No. 11060 clearly states that the 1st Ukrainian Front is required to seize “the line of Beelitz, Wittenberg and further along the Elbe River to Dresden.” Beelitz lies much south of the outskirts of Berlin. Next, the troops of I.S. Konev are targeting Leipzig, i.e. generally to the southwest.
But the soldier is bad who does not dream of becoming a general, and the military leader is bad who does not dream of entering the enemy’s capital. Having received the directive, Konev, secretly from Headquarters (and Stalin), began planning an attack on Berlin. The 3rd Guards Army of V.N. was supposed to conquer the enemy’s capital. Gordova. In the general order to the front troops dated April 8, 1945, the possible participation of the army in the battle for Berlin was assumed to be more than modest: “Prepare one rifle division for operations as part of a special detachment of the 3rd Guards TA from the Trebbin area to Berlin.” This directive was read in Moscow, and it had to be impeccable. But in the directive sent by Konev personally to the commander of the 3rd Guards. army, one division in the form of a special detachment was changed to "the main forces attack Berlin from the south." Those. the entire army. Contrary to the explicit instructions of the Headquarters, Konev, even before the start of the battle, had a plan to attack the city in the zone of the neighboring front.
A minute-long video showing a map with the main attacks of Soviet troops during the capture of Berlin. It clearly shows that the Berlin operation consisted not only of the direct capture of Berlin, but affected a significantly larger territory.
Thus, the version about Stalin as the initiator of the “front competition” does not find any confirmation in the documents. After the start of the operation and the slow development of the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front, he gave the order to turn to Berlin to the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts. For the commander of the last K.K. Rokossovsky's Stalinist order was out of the blue. His troops steadily but slowly made their way across the two channels of the Oder north of Berlin. He had no chance of making it to the Reichstag before Zhukov. In a word, the initiator of the “competition” and, in fact, its only participant was initially Konev personally. Having received Stalin’s go-ahead, Konev was able to extract “homemade preparations” and try to implement them.
A continuation of this topic is the question of the form of the operation itself. A seemingly logical question is asked: “Why didn’t they just try to encircle Berlin? Why did the tank armies enter the streets of the city?” Let's try to figure out why Zhukov did not send tank armies to bypass Berlin.
Proponents of the theory about the expediency of encircling Berlin overlook the obvious question of the qualitative and quantitative composition of the city's garrison. The 9th Army stationed on the Oder consisted of 200 thousand people. They should not have been given the opportunity to withdraw to Berlin. Zhukov already had before his eyes a chain of assaults on the surrounded cities declared by the Germans as “festungs” (fortresses). Both in his front zone and among his neighbors. Isolated Budapest defended itself from the end of December 1944 to February 10, 1945. The classic solution was to surround the defenders on the approaches to the city, not giving them the opportunity to hide behind its walls. The task was complicated by the short distance from the Oder front to the German capital. In addition, in 1945, Soviet divisions numbered 4-5 thousand people instead of 10 thousand according to the staff and they had a small “margin of safety”.
Therefore, Zhukov came up with a simple and, without exaggeration, a brilliant plan. If tank armies manage to break into operational space, then they must reach the outskirts of Berlin and form a kind of “cocoon” around the German capital. "Cocoon" would prevent the garrison from being strengthened by the 200,000-strong 9th Army or reserves from the west. It was not intended to enter the city at this stage. With the approach of the Soviet combined arms armies, the “cocoon” opened, and Berlin could already be stormed according to all the rules. In many ways unexpected turn Konev's troops on Berlin led to the modernization of the "cocoon" to a classic encirclement by adjacent flanks of two neighboring fronts. The main forces of the German 9th Army stationed on the Oder were surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. This was one of the major defeats of the Germans, undeservedly remaining in the shadow of the actual assault on the city. As a result, the capital of the “thousand-year” Reich was defended by Volkssturmists, Hitler Youth, police and the remnants of units defeated on the Oder front. They numbered about 100 thousand people, which was simply not enough to defend such a large city. Berlin was divided into nine defense sectors. According to the plan, the garrison size of each sector was supposed to be 25 thousand people. In reality, there were no more than 10-12 thousand people. There was no question of any occupation of each house; only the key buildings of the districts were defended. The entry of a 400,000-strong group of two fronts into the city left no chance for the defenders. This led to a relatively quick assault on Berlin - about 10 days.
What made Zhukov delay, so much so that Stalin began sending orders to neighboring fronts to turn to Berlin? Many will give the answer right off the bat - “Seelow Heights.” However, if you look at the map, the Seelow Heights “shade” only the left flank of the Kyustrin bridgehead. If some armies got stuck on the heights, then what stopped the rest from breaking through to Berlin? The legend appeared due to the memoirs of V.I. Chuikov and M.E. Katukova. Advancing on Berlin outside the Seelow Heights N.E. Berzarin (commander of the 5th Shock Army) and S.I. Bogdanov (commander of the 2nd Guards Tank Army) did not leave any memoirs. The first died in a car accident immediately after the war, the second died in 1960, before the period of active writing of memoirs by our military leaders. Bogdanov and Berzarin could tell in best case scenario about how the Seelow Heights were viewed through binoculars.
Maybe the problem was Zhukov’s idea to attack under the light of searchlights? Light attacks were not his invention. The Germans used attacks in the dark under the light of searchlights since 1941. Thus, for example, they captured a bridgehead on the Dnieper near Kremenchug, from which Kyiv was later surrounded. At the end of the war, the German offensive in the Ardennes began with floodlights. This case is closest to the attack under the light of searchlights from the Kyustrin bridgehead. The main objective of this technique was to lengthen the first, most important day of the operation. Yes, the beams of the searchlights were hampered by raised dust and smoke from explosions; it was unrealistic to blind the Germans with several searchlights per kilometer. But the main task was decided, the offensive on April 16 was able to begin earlier than the time of year allowed. By the way, the positions illuminated by searchlights were overcome quite quickly. Problems arose already at the end of the first day of the operation, when the spotlights had long been turned off. The left-flank armies of Chuikov and Katukov rested on the Seelow Heights, the right-flank armies of Berzarin and Bogdanov had difficulty moving through the network of irrigation canals on the left bank of the Oder. A Soviet offensive was expected near Berlin. Zhukov initially had a harder time than Konev, who broke through the weak German defenses far south of the German capital. This delay made Stalin nervous, especially since Zhukov's plan to send tank armies in the direction of Berlin, and not around it, was revealed.
But the crisis soon passed. Moreover, this happened precisely thanks to the tank armies. One of the mechanized brigades of Bogdanov’s army managed to find a weak point among the Germans and break through far into the German defense. The mechanized corps was first pulled into the breach, followed by the main forces of the two tank armies. The defense on the Oder front collapsed on the third day of fighting. The introduction of reserves by the Germans could not change the situation. The tank armies simply bypassed them on both sides and rushed towards Berlin. After this, Zhukov only had to slightly turn one of the buildings towards the German capital and win the race that he did not start. Losses at the Seelow Heights are often confused with losses throughout the Berlin operation. Let me remind you that the irretrievable losses of Soviet troops in it amounted to 80 thousand people, and the total losses - 360 thousand people. These are the losses of three fronts advancing in a strip 300 km wide. To narrow these losses down to just a patch of the Seelow Heights is simply stupid. The only stupid thing is to turn 300 thousand total losses into 300 thousand killed. In reality, the total losses of the 8th Guards and 69th Armies during the offensive in the Seelow Heights area amounted to about 20 thousand people. Irreversible losses amounted to approximately 5 thousand people.
The breakthrough of the German defense by the 1st Belorussian Front in April 1945 is worthy of study in textbooks on tactics and operational art. Unfortunately, because of Zhukov’s disgrace, neither the brilliant “cocoon” plan nor the daring breakthrough of tank armies to Berlin “through the eye of a needle” made it into textbooks.
Summarizing all of the above, we can draw the following conclusions. Zhukov's plan was comprehensively thought out and suited the situation. The German resistance turned out to be stronger than expected, but was quickly broken. Konev's attack on Berlin was not necessary, but it improved the balance of forces during the assault on the city. Also, the turn of Konev's tank armies accelerated the defeat of the German 9th Army. But if the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front had simply carried out the directive from Headquarters, that 12th Army of Wenck would have been destroyed much faster, and the Fuhrer would not even have had the technical ability to rush around the bunker with the question “Where is Wenck?!”
The last question remains: “Was it worth entering Berlin with tanks?” In my opinion, the commander of the 3rd Guards best formulated the arguments in favor of the use of mechanized formations in Berlin. tank army Pavel Semenovich Rybalko: “The use of tank and mechanized formations and units against populated areas, including cities, despite the undesirability of limiting their mobility in these battles, as the extensive experience of the Patriotic War has shown, very often becomes inevitable. Therefore, this type must It’s good to teach our tank and mechanized troops how to fight.” His army stormed Berlin, and he knew what he was talking about.
Archival documents opened today allow us to give a very definite answer about what the storming of Berlin cost the tank armies. Each of the three armies introduced into Berlin lost about a hundred combat vehicles on its streets, about half of which were lost to Faust cartridges. The exception was the 2nd Guards. Bogdanov's tank army, which lost 70 tanks and self-propelled guns out of 104 lost in Berlin to hand-held anti-tank weapons (52 T-34, 31 M4A2 Sherman, 4 IS-2, 4 ISU-122, 5 SU-100, 2 SU-85, 6 SU-76). However, given that before the start of the operation Bogdanov had 685 combat vehicles, these losses cannot in any way be regarded as “the army was burned on the streets of Berlin.” Tank armies provided support to the infantry, becoming their shield and sword. Soviet troops have already accumulated sufficient experience in countering "faustniks" to effectively use armored vehicles in the city. Faustpatrons are still not RPG-7, and their effective firing range was only 30 meters. Often our tanks simply stood a hundred meters from the building where the “Faustniks” were holed up and shot at it point-blank. As a result, in absolute terms, their losses were relatively small. A large share (% of the total) of losses from Faust cartridges is a consequence of the Germans losing traditional means of fighting tanks on the retreat to Berlin.
The Berlin operation is the pinnacle of the Red Army's mastery in World War II. It’s a shame when its real results are belittled by rumors and gossip, which give rise to legends that in no way correspond to reality. All participants in the Battle of Berlin did a lot for us. They gave our country not just victory in one of the countless battles of Russian history, but a symbol of military success, an unconditional and unfading achievement. Power may change, former idols may be torn down from their pedestals, but the Victory Banner raised over the ruins of the enemy capital will remain an absolute achievement of the people.
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Larisa 2017-02-22 02:09:40
There are so many people, so many opinions, but what happened in reality is difficult to determine through the veil of years. We only know the end result.
Odessa 2012-12-01 01:20:13
Odessa 2012-12-01 01:18:56
Eternal memory and glory to the victorious people!!! and the BUTCHER beetles were experienced by officers and privates, I also found those soldiers who fought under his command, that’s the only way they talked about him,
Dmitry: Belarus - St. Petersburg 2011-06-05 02:59:25
Further, we would probably not have had a colonial administration serving the selfish needs of the oligarchy and corrupt bureaucracy, but a government of national interests and a welfare state.
In addition, every Russian native, in addition to a “mirror and beads”, a voucher, a zombie box and the right to vote in elections to the power of one bourgeois president and one party of the bourgeoisie, would have from our “liberals and democrats” much more other freedoms and benefits of civilization such as tourist trips over the hill, foreign cars, computers, mobile phones and other McDonald's, which is how they usually lure smug but narrow-minded mice into a mousetrap.
And, dear ones, what do you think?
Dmitry: Belarus - St. Petersburg 2011-06-05 02:57:22
Next, I am interested in the audience’s opinion on such a completely unscientific and hypothetical question from our alternative history. Let’s say that Stalin and Zhukov, who, according to our liberal-democratic intelligentsia, are “mediocrities” and “cannibals” just because they are communists, have disappeared from our history. If the country and the army at that time were led by “highly moral intellectual reformers” like Gorbachev and Yeltsin or Chubais and Gaidar Jr. (to choose from), whose views, it seemed to me, were shared by Ivan, Oleg and Victor - where would we all be now? ?
Judging by the fact that:
- Soviet Russia, assembled by the communists, is today in pieces, and its fragments have gone through the stage of deindustrialization;
- without the third world war, when we had only allies and partners around us, the number of our compatriots during the years of reforms decreased by several million (according to some estimates, about 10 million and this process continues);
- in the country there is a “flourishing” of medicine with education, and in parallel - crime and drug addiction, homelessness and pedophilia;
- our “invincible and legendary”, having replaced the Victory banner with the Vlasov tricolor, washed herself with blood in the LOCAL Chechen conflict, which is still smoldering;
- we have other “pleasant” little things of our market reality, like the budget deficit, gasoline or buckwheat...
then the Great Patriotic War under the leadership of “liberals and democrats” would have ended by the evening of June 22, 1941 with the complete defeat of the Wehrmacht, the capture of Berlin and the surrender of Germany without any losses or destruction on our part.
To be continued.
Dmitry: Belarus - St. Petersburg 2011-06-05 02:49:38
To begin with, Alexey, at least give a link to the author of this term and explain your understanding of this definition - argue your position if you cannot object to Isaev on the merits (I understand that for us, amateurs, this is difficult), otherwise you hang one on him and the same label from comment to comment.
As for A. Isaev, I don’t think he can be accused of defending the Soviet system, because there is no political bias in his reasoning, there is a clear logic based on archival documents, and not unfounded propaganda statements with figures taken from the ceiling, like anti-Soviet liberals like Rezun with Solzhenitsyn, milk with Svanidze and other brewers. So far, no one from this “liberal-democratic” camp has been honored to present such an analysis of historical events as Isaev’s. To this day, the matter is limited, although talented, to fiction a la Edward Radzinsky, which, like any propaganda, appeals to our emotions, not reason. In my opinion, Isaev does not pretend to be the ultimate truth, but very correctly objects to authors with whose point of view he does not agree.
Now to the topic of our losses, which is present in many materials on the site. Unlike Ivan, Oleg and Victor, they do not seem underestimated to me, since the “liberal-democratic” point of view is not supported by archival documents. This can be attributed to all polemics throughout the Soviet period: be it civil versus domestic, collectivization, repression or the post-war period. Things have not yet gone further than sadomasochistic savoring of the bloody episodes of our history, pulling out individual quotes from the context of documents and building on them one’s own conclusions, brightly colored by emotions. They do not seem to have a scientific approach to the study of history, although the archives have been in their hands for at least 20 years.
To be continued.
Alexey 2011-05-05 22:21:37
A good definition has been found for A. Isaev’s books about the Second World War: historical-maniacal Lysenkoism!
Frundsberg 2011-04-22 21:11:04
"Losses of 10 thousand killed???" - did you expect millions? How can they be bigger?
Frundsberg 2011-04-22 21:09:40
To Victor. What bothers you? Why can the Germans in 1941 kill and capture 5-6 Russians for one of their own, but the Russians cannot kill the Germans in 1945? Colossal firepower, enormous combat experience, and as a result of experience - skill. Actually, this is where the ratio of losses in the Berlin operation comes from - 5 Germans to 1 Russian.
Frundsberg 2011-04-22 21:05:21
Ivan.
“it’s enough to knock out a tank on a narrow street to stop the advance of an entire column, and if you place “faustniks” (which Zhukov didn’t believe in!) along the street, then 5-6 people will “carve up” the column in a few minutes - The armor on top of the tank is very thin." - wrong. As soon as (more precisely, if) the brave Faustian knocks out a tank, the accompanying infantry begins to shoot at it. If the tanks are ISs, then they begin to hill up to a heap of faustnik from the onboard heavy machine guns. Little of. There is most likely reconnaissance going on in front of the tank. And if she doesn’t like a certain house, they will stick, for example, a 16-cm mine into that house. And the faustnik and the sniper fly from the attic to the basement, not even seeing who killed them.
Victor 2010-07-06 12:52:56
Crazy propaganda article. The losses of the Soviet troops were 78 thousand, the Germans 400 thousand. Calculated for idiots and lieletants. Why lie? To whom? The USSR, which surrendered without firing a shot? Or the author wants to cling to the glory of veterans for whom he is no match. I served 30 years in the army and I know very well how numbers are manipulated.
Administration 2010-03-11 23:53:52
Oleg, learn history.
For example
Isaev A.V. Berlin 45th
http://militera.lib.ru/h/isaev_av7/21.html
==
The 3rd Shock Army, which made its way to the Reichstag, suffered quite heavy losses in the battle for Berlin. From April 20 to April 30, V.I. Kuznetsov’s army lost 12,130 people (2,151 killed, 59 missing, 41 non-combat losses, 446 sick and 9,433 wounded
==
The total losses during the direct assault on Berlin by the 3rd Army are not exhausted, of course. If we add to the 2151 killed the losses of other troops (8th Guards Army, 5th Shock Army, 2 tanks) - we get less than 10 thousand.
Oleg 2010-03-11 23:40:32
Losses of 10 thousand killed??? You also write about the battle of Prokhorovka that ours lost 70 tanks there, and the Fritz - 400.
Roman 2010-02-16 20:10:59
And why, really, in this case, did 62-A hang around in Stalingrad, and 6-A storm it? He placed a sniper and a crew with an anti-tank rifle in each house, and that was the end of the matter.
Administration 2010-02-11 18:59:50
Ivan, the Berlin operation was carried out over 23 days, including the operation to encircle the city. Most of the 80 thousand killed in this operation died precisely with those parts of the Wehrmacht that prevented the encirclement of the city. Losses during the direct assault on Berlin amounted to less than 10 thousand people.
Let me quote the introduction to the article again:
“Was it possible to get by with encircling Berlin and starving it out? It should be noted that at that time most of the German troops were outside Berlin. After the end of the war, about 3.5 million Germans were captured by the Western Allies, and about 1.5 million were captured by the USSR million. Obviously, if Berlin had not been taken, and Hitler, as a result, had not shot himself, then this would have inspired the German troops to continue the resistance (here you can remember that the German garrison held Prague until its capture by Soviet troops on May 9) "With such a development of events, of course, the total losses of Soviet troops would be greater than during the storming of Berlin."
Ivan 2010-02-09 14:31:15
Actually, the question is asked: was it necessary to storm Berlin? Could the forces of the German 9th Army enter Berlin and defend themselves? Strategically, neither one nor the other is justified. Berlin is a huge (for those times) city, with a huge population, with canals and bridges, with prepared long-term firing positions at key points: it is enough to knock out a tank on a narrow street to stop the advance of an entire column, and if you place "faustniks" \"(in which Zhukov did not believe!) along the street, then 5-6 people \"cut up\" the column in a few minutes - the armor on top of the tank is very thin. But you can’t overcome a street clogged with burning tanks; you have to look for other streets where the same mobile groups with ammo cartridges operate, plus snipers who shoot jumping tankers. Tanks in the city face certain death, the same thing happened during the storming of Grozny in the 90s, which is why they created the BMPT "Terminator" - a street combat tank. There was no need to keep a lot of forces in Berlin, two or three hundred mobile groups of snipers and "faustniks" could destroy a huge army (2 tank armies were destroyed in Berlin), and in fact Berlin is a "dummy". All the losses were for nothing, just to sign on the Reichstag? The city is a "stone bag", depriving any army of maneuver, in addition, food supplies cannot supply big army, and 200-300 thousand soldiers simply cannot be fed during a long siege (as happened with the shock army of General Vlasov), so why should the 9th German Army enter Berlin, and why should the Soviet Army storm it? Only the Soviet command could give the order for an assault, never taking into account the losses of THEIR (!) soldiers; only an ambitious commander, without looking at the corpses of his soldiers, could order an assault on a city turned by the defenders into a trap, in which there is no target, but TAKE Berlin(! ) - this is the prestige of the commander, and this was it, it was Zhukov, and why after the war Stalin wanted to try Zhukov and shoot him, maybe for violating the order of the Commander-in-Chief?
alson 2010-01-20 21:54:26
From April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 were irretrievable. That is, the number of killed Soviet soldiers was 78 thousand people, and not a million, not half a million, or even 300 thousand.
The enemy's losses in killed amounted to about 400 thousand people, about 380 thousand people captured.
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Everything seems to be clearer than ever with the capture of the den of fascism by Soviet troops, if you do not take into account the discrepancy in the assessment of the number of opposing opponents and their losses, weapons and military equipment that took part in the battles for Berlin
“The defense of Berlin is very poorly organized, and the operation of our troops to capture the city is developing very slowly,” Zhukov convinced the army commanders in a telegram dated April 22, 1945 (Note 1*)
“The number and strength of the formations that defended the capital of the German Reich in these April days... were so insignificant that it is even difficult to imagine” - Theo Findal, Norwegian journalist for the Aftenposten newspaper (Oslo), eyewitness to the siege of Berlin (Note 22* )
“... it feels like our troops worked on Berlin with taste. While passing, I saw only a dozen surviving houses” - Stalin 07/16/1945 at the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of the Three Allied Powers (Note 8*)
BRIEF INFO: Berlin's population in 1945 was 2-2.5 million people, area 88 thousand hectares. This area, the so-called Greater Berlin, was only 15% built up. The rest of the city was occupied by gardens and parks. Greater Berlin was divided into 20 districts, of which 14 were external. The development of the outer areas was sparse, low-rise, most houses had a wall thickness of 0.5-0.8 m. The border of Greater Berlin was the ring motorway. The innermost areas of the city were most densely built up within the boundaries of the ring railway. Approximately along the border of the densely built area was the perimeter of the city’s defense system, divided into 9 (8 and one internal - Note 28*) sectors. The average width of streets in these areas is 20–30 m, and in some cases up to 60 m. The buildings are stone and concrete. The average height of the houses is 4–5 floors, the thickness of the walls of the buildings is up to 1.5 m. By the spring of 1945, most of the houses were destroyed by Allied bombing. Sewage, water and electricity supplies were damaged and did not work. The total length of the metro lines was about 80 km. (Note 2* and 13*). In the city there were more than 400 reinforced concrete bunkers for 300-1000 people (Note 6*). 100 km. was the total length of the Berlin front and 325 sq.m - the area of the besieged city at the time of the start of the assault
- on 03/06/45, General H. Reimann, commandant of Berlin (until 04/24/45 - Note 28 *), stated that no measures were taken to protect the city from the assault, there was no plan, no line of defense, and in fact there was no there were troops. Worse, there were no food supplies for the civilian population, and there was simply no plan for the evacuation of women, children and the elderly (Note 27*). According to General G. Weidling, the last commandant of Berlin, on April 24, 1945, Berlin had food and ammunition supplies for 30 days, but the warehouses were located on the outskirts, in the center there was almost no ammunition or food, and the more the ring of the Red Army narrowed around the defenders of the city, the more difficult the situation with ammunition and food became, and in the last couple of days they were left almost without both (Note 28*)
- communication between individual defensive sectors, as well as communication with the defense headquarters, was worthless. There was no radio communication, telephone communication was maintained only through civilian telephone wires (Note 28)
- 04/22/45, for unknown reasons, 1400 Berlin fire brigades were ordered to move from the city to the West, the order was subsequently canceled, but only a small number of firefighters were able to return (Note 27*)
- on the eve of the assault, 65% of all large factories and plants, which employed 600 thousand people, continued to function in the city (Note 27*)
More than 100 thousand foreign workers, mostly French and Soviet citizens, were present on the eve of the storming of Berlin (Note 27*)
- in accordance with previously reached agreements with the USSR, the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition at the beginning of April 1945 finally stopped at the turn of the Elbe River, which corresponds to a distance of 100-120 km. from Berlin. At the same time, Soviet troops were at a distance of 60 km from Berlin (Note 13*) - fearing that the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition would violate their previously assumed obligations, Stalin ordered the assault on Berlin to begin no later than April 16, 1945 and take the city in 12 15 days (Note 13*)
- initially, on April 14, 1945, the Berlin garrison consisted of 200 Volkssturm battalions, the Greater Germany security regiment, one anti-aircraft division with reinforcement units, 3 tank destroyer brigades, a special tank company "Berlin" (24 T-VI and T- tanks V not moving, as well as individual towers mounted on concrete bunkers), 3 anti-tank divisions, defense armored train No. 350, which totaled 150 thousand people, 330 guns, 1 armored train, 24 tanks not moving (Note 12*) . Until April 24, 1945, according to the last commandant of the city, General G. Wedling, there was not a single regular formation in Berlin, with the exception of the “Greater Germany” security regiment and the SS Mohnke brigade, which guarded the Imperial Chancellery and up to 90 thousand people from the Volkssturm , police, fire department, anti-aircraft units, except for the rear units serving them (Note 28*). According to modern Russian data for 2005, Weidling had 60 thousand soldiers at his disposal, who were opposed by 464 thousand Soviet troops. On April 26, 1945, the Germans took the last step to stop the enemy (Note 30*) 
According to Soviet data, the encircled garrison of Berlin on April 25, 1945 numbered 300 thousand people, 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks and self-propelled guns. According to German data: 41 thousand people (of which 24 thousand were “Volkssturmists”, 18 thousand of whom belonged to the “Clausewitz call” from the 2nd category and were in a state of 6-hour readiness). In the city there was the Munichenberg Panzer Division, the 118th Panzer Division (sometimes called the 18th Panzergrenadier Division), the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland, units of the 15th Latvian Grenadier Division, and air defense units (Note 7* and 5*). According to other sources, in addition to the Hitler Youth and Volkssturm, the city was defended by units of the 11th SS Division "Nordland", the 32nd Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS "Charlemagne" (a total of about 400 French - data from Western historians), a Latvian battalion from the 15th Grenadier Waffen-SS divisions, two incomplete divisions of the 47th Wehrmacht Corps and 600 SS men of Hitler’s personal battalion (Note 14*). According to the last commandant of Berlin, on April 24, 1945, the city was defended by units of the 56th Tank Corps (13-15 thousand people) consisting of: 18th MD (up to 4000 people), the Muncheberg division (up to 200 people, division artillery and 4 tanks ), MDSS "Nordland" (3500-4000 people); 20th MD (800-1200 people); 9th ADD (up to 4500 people) (Note 28*)
- The 102nd Spanish company as part of the SS Grenadier Division "Nordland" fought in the Moritz Platz area, where the buildings of the Reich Ministry of Aviation and Propaganda were located (Note 24*)
- 6 Turkestan battalions from eastern volunteers took part in the defense of the city (Note 29*) 
- the total number of defenders was approximately 60 thousand and consisted of various units of the Wehrmacht, SS, anti-aircraft units, police, fire brigades, Volkssturm and Hitler Youth with no more than 50 tanks, but a relatively large number of anti-aircraft guns, including 4 anti-aircraft air defense towers (Note 20*); the number of Berlin defenders is 60 thousand with 50-60 tanks (Note 19*), a similar estimate is given by Z. Knappe, head of the operational department of the 26th Tank Tank, and not 300 thousand according to official Soviet data. The book “The Fall of Berlin” by English historians E. Reed and D. Fisher provides figures according to which on April 19, 1945, the military commandant of Berlin, General H. Reimann, had 41,253 people at his disposal. Of this number, only 15,000 were soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. Among the rest were 1713 (12 thousand - Note 27 *) police officers, 1215 "Hitler Youth" and representatives of the labor service and 24 thousand Volkssturmists. Theoretically, within 6 hours a conscription could be put under arms (Volkssturm units of the 2nd category, which were supposed to join the ranks of the defenders already during the battles, and as certain enterprises were closed - Note 28 *), called "Clausewitz Muster", numbering 52,841 people. But the reality of such a call and its combat capabilities were quite conditional. Besides, big problem there were weapons and ammunition. In total, Reiman had at his disposal 42,095 rifles, 773 submachine guns, 1,953 light machine guns, 263 heavy machine guns and a small number of mortars and field guns. Standing apart among the defenders of Berlin was Hitler's personal guard, numbering about 1,200 people. The number of Berlin defenders is also evidenced by the number of prisoners taken during the capitulation (as of 05/02/45, 134 thousand military personnel, military officials and military police officers were captured (surrendered or arrested? - editor's note) (Notes 5* and 7 *).The size of the Berlin garrison can be estimated at 100–120 thousand people (Note 2*).
Norwegian journalist Theo Findal from the Aftenposten newspaper (Oslo), an eyewitness to the siege of Berlin: "... Undoubtedly, the basis of Berlin's defense was artillery. It consisted of light and heavy batteries, which were united into weak regiments... Almost all the guns were foreign production, and therefore the supply of ammunition was limited. In addition, the artillery was almost immobile, since the regiments did not have a single tractor. The infantry units of the defenders of Berlin were not distinguished by either good weapons or high combat training. The Volkssturm and the Hitler Youth were the main forces of local self-defense. They could not be considered as combat units. Rather, they could be compared with paramilitary units of the people's militia. All age groups were represented in the Volkssturm - from 16-year-old boys to 60-year-old men. But most often the bulk of the units The Volkssturm consisted of elderly people. As a rule, the party appointed unit commanders from its ranks and only the SS brigade of SS Brigadeführer Mohnke, which exercised command power in the city center, was well equipped and distinguished by high morale" (Note 22 *) 
- at the end of the assault on the city, 84 out of 950 bridges were destroyed (Note 11*). According to other sources, the defenders of the city destroyed 120 bridges (Note 20* and 27*) out of the existing 248 city bridges (Note 27*)
- Allied aviation dropped 49,400 tons of explosives on Berlin, destroying and partially destroying 20.9% of the city's buildings (Note 10*). According to the Red Army rear services, the Allies dropped 58,955 tons of bombs on Berlin over the last three years of the war, while Soviet artillery fired 36,280 tons. shells in just 16 days of assault (Note 20*)
- Allied bombing of Berlin reached its peak in early 1945. 03/28/1945 The 8th Army of the US Air Force, based in England, struck with 383 B-17 aircraft with 1038 tons of bombs on board (Note 23*)
- 02/03/45 alone killed 25 thousand Berlin residents as a result of an American raid (Note 26*). In total, 52 thousand Berliners died as a result of the bombing (Note 27*)
- The Berlin operation is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the bloodiest battle of our time: 3.5 million people, 52 thousand guns and mortars, 7,750 tanks, and 11 thousand aircraft took part in it on both sides (Note 5*)
- the assault on Berlin was carried out by units of the 1st, 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts with the support of warships of the Baltic Fleet and the Dnieper River Flotilla (62 units). From the air, the 1st Ukrainian Front was supported by the 2nd VA (1,106 fighters, 529 attack aircraft, 422 bombers and 91 reconnaissance aircraft), the 1st Belorussian Front - by the 16th and 18th VA (1,567 fighters, 731 attack aircraft, 762 bomber and 128 reconnaissance aircraft), the 2nd Belorussian Front was supported by the 4th VA (602 fighters, 449 attack aircraft, 283 bombers and 26 reconnaissance aircraft) 
1st Belorussian Front consisted of 5 combined arms armies, 2 shock and 1 guards armies, 2 guards tank armies, 2 guards cavalry corps, 1 army of the Polish Army: 768 thousand people, 1795 tanks, 1360 self-propelled guns, 2306 anti-tank guns, 7442 field guns (caliber from 76mm and above), 7186 mortars (caliber 82mm and above), 807 Katyusha ruzo
2nd Belorussian Front consisted of 5 armies (one of them was shock): 314 thousand people, 644 tanks, 307 self-propelled guns, 770 anti-tank guns, 3172 field guns (caliber 76mm and above), 2770 mortars (caliber 82mm and above), 1531 ruzo " Katyusha"
1st Ukrainian Front consisted of 2 combined arms, 2 guards tank and 1 guards armies and the army of the Polish Army: 511.1 thousand people, 1388 tanks, 667 self-propelled guns, 1444 anti-tank guns, 5040 field guns (caliber from 76mm and above), 5225 mortars (caliber from 82mm and above), 917 ruzo "Katyusha" (Note 13*)
- according to other sources, the assault on Berlin was carried out by units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, which included 464 thousand soldiers and officers, 14.8 thousand guns and mortars, almost 1500 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as, (Note 19*) - at least 2 thousand Katyushas. 12.5 thousand Polish troops also took part in the assault (Note 7 *, 5 *, 19 *)
- in the Berlin operation, in addition to the armies of three fronts, units of the 18th VA long-range aviation, air defense troops, the Baltic Fleet and the Dnieper military flotilla were involved, which totaled 2.5 million people, 41.6 thousand guns and mortars, 6250 tanks and self-propelled guns, 7.5 thousand aircraft. This made it possible to achieve superiority in personnel - by 2.5 times, in tanks and artillery - by 4 times, in aircraft - by 2 times (Note 7 * and 25 *)
- for every kilometer of advance of the 1st Belorussian Front, which carried out the main combat mission, there were on average 19 tanks and self-propelled guns, 61 guns, 44 mortars and 9 Katyushas, not counting infantry (Note 13*)
- 04/25/1945 500 thousand German group was cut in two - one part remained in Berlin, the other (200 thousand, more than 300 tanks and self-propelled guns, over 2 thousand guns and mortars) - south of the city (Note 7 *)
On the eve of the assault, 2000 aircraft of the 16th and 18th VA launched three massive attacks on the city (Note 5*). On the night before the assault on Berlin, 743 Il-4 (Db-3f) long-range bombers carried out a bomb attack, and in total more than 1,500 long-range bombers were involved in the Berlin operation (Note 3*)
- 04/25/45 674 long-range bombers of the 18th VA alone (ex-ADD of the Red Army Air Force) attacked Berlin (Note 31 *)
- on the day of the assault, after artillery preparation, two strikes were carried out by 1,486 aircraft of the 16th VA (Note 22). Ground forces during the assault on Berlin were also supported by 6 air corps of the 2nd VA (Note 7*)
- During the battle, almost 2 million gun shots fell on Berlin - 36 thousand tons of metal. Fortress guns were delivered from Pomerania by rail, firing shells weighing half a ton into the center of Berlin. After the victory, it was estimated that 20% of the houses in Berlin were completely destroyed, and another 30% - partially (Note 30*)
- According to the Soviet command, up to 17 thousand people with 80–90 units of armored vehicles managed to escape from Berlin. However, few managed to reach the German positions in the north (Note 4*) According to other sources, a group of 17 thousand people left Berlin for the breakthrough, and 30 thousand from Spandau (Note 5*)
Losses of the Red Army during the seven days of the assault on Berlin: 361,367 people killed, wounded or missing, 2,108 guns and mortars, 1,997 tanks and self-propelled guns lost (Note 19* and 22*), 917 combat aircraft (Note 5* and 7* ). According to other sources, losses amounted to 352 thousand people, of which 78 thousand died (9 thousand Poles), 2 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 527 aircraft (Note 19*). According to modern estimates, in the battles for Berlin, the total losses of the Red Army amounted to about 500 thousand people
- in 16 days of fighting in Berlin (04/16-05/02/1945), the Red Army approximately lost only 100 thousand people killed (Note 20*). According to the newspaper "Arguments and Facts" 5\2005, the Red Army lost 600 thousand, while according to G. Krivosheev in his work "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century. Statistical study" irretrievable losses in the Berlin strategic offensive operation amounted to 78.3 thousand (Note 21*). According to modern official Russian data for 2015, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the storming of Berlin amounted to 78.3 thousand people, and the losses of the Wehrmacht were about 400 thousand killed and about 380 thousand captured (Note 25*)
- losses amounted to more than 800 tanks out of 1200 that took part in the assault on Berlin (Note 17*). The 2nd Guards TA alone lost 204 tanks in a week of fighting, half of which were due to the actions of faustpatrons (Note 5* and 7*)
- 125 thousand civilians died during the capture of Berlin in 1945 (Note 9*). According to other sources, about 100 thousand Berliners became victims of the assault, of whom about 20 thousand died of heart attacks, 6 thousand became suicides, the rest died directly from shelling, street fighting or died later from wounds (Note 27*)
- due to the fact that the demarcation line between the advancing Soviet units was established untimely, Soviet aviation and the artillery repeatedly struck at its own troops to the deputy head of the secret department of the OGPU, Yakov Agranov. (Note 5*)
- the Reichstag was defended by a garrison of up to 2,000 people (1,500 of whom were killed and 450 captured), mostly parachuted by cadets of the naval school from Rostock (Note 6*). According to other sources, about 2.5 thousand defenders of the Reichstag died and about 2.6 thousand surrendered (Note 14*)
04/30/41, on the eve of suicide, Hitler signed and brought to the Wehrmacht command an order to break through troops from Berlin, but after his death, by the evening of 04/30/41 it was canceled by the “Goebbels government”, which demanded that the city be defended according to the latter - from the post-war interrogation of the latter Chief of Defense of Berlin, General Weidling (Note 28*)
- during the surrender of the Reichstag, the following trophies were taken by Soviet troops: 39 guns, 89 machine guns, 385 rifles, 205 machine guns, 2 self-propelled guns and a large number of faustpatrons (Note 6*)
- before the storming of Berlin, the Germans had about 3 million “Faustpatrons” at their disposal (Note 6*)
- defeat by the Faustpatron caused the death of 25% of all destroyed T-34s (Note 19*)
- : 800 gr. bread, 800 gr. potatoes, 150 gr. meat and 75 gr. fat (Note 7*)
- the claim remains unconfirmed that Hitler ordered the floodgates on the Spree River to be opened to flood the section of the metro between Leipzigerstrasse and Unter der Linden, where thousands of Berliners were sheltering at the stations (Note 5*). According to other information, sappers of the SS division "Nordland" on the morning of 05/02/45 blew up a tunnel under the Landwehr Canal in the Trebinnerstrasse area, the water from which gradually flooded a 25-kilometer section of the metro and caused the death of about 100 people, and not 15-50 thousand, as it was According to some data, it was previously reported (Note 15*)
The tunnels of the Berlin metro were repeatedly blown up during the assault on the city by Soviet sappers (Note 16*)
- during the Berlin operation (from April 16 to May 8, 1945), Soviet troops expended 11,635 wagons of ammunition, including over 10 million artillery and mortar ammunition, 241.7 thousand rockets, almost 3 million hand grenades and 392 million cartridges for small arms (Note 18*)
- Soviet prisoners of war released from the Berlin Moabit prison (7 thousand - Note 30*) were immediately armed and enlisted in the rifle battalions that stormed Berlin (Note 20*)
NOTES:
(Note 1*) - B. Belozerov "Front without borders 1941-1945."
(Note 2*) - I. Isaev "Berlin '45: The Battle in the Lair of the Beast"
(Note 3*) - Yu. Egorov "Airplanes of the S.V. Ilyushin Design Bureau"
(Note 4*) - B. Sokolov "Mythical war. Mirages of the Second World War"
(Note 5*) - Runov "Assaults of the Great Patriotic War. Urban battle, it is the most difficult"
(Note 6*) - A. Vasilchenko “Faustniks in battle”
(Note 7*) - L. Moshchansky "At the Walls of Berlin"
(Note 8*) - B. Sokolov "Unknown Zhukov: portrait without retouching in the mirror of the era"
(Note 9*) - L. Semenenko "The Great Patriotic War. How it happened"
(Note 10*) - Ch. Webster "Strategic bombing of Germany"
(Note 11*) - A. Speer "The Third Reich from the Inside. Memoirs of the Reich Minister of War Industry"
(Note 12*) - V. But “Battle of Berlin” part 2 “Science and Technology” magazine 5\2010
(Note 13*) - V. But "Battle of Berlin" part 1 magazine "Science and Technology" 4\2010
(Note 14*) - G. Williamson “SS is an instrument of terror”
(Note 15*) - E. Beaver "The Fall of Berlin. 1945"
(Note 16*) - N. Fedotov “I remember...” Arsenal-Collection magazine 13\2013
(Note 17*) - S. Monetchikov “Domestic mounted anti-tank grenade launchers” magazine “Brother” 8\2013
(Note 18*) - I. Vernidub “Victory Ammunition”
(Note 19*) - D. Porter "World War II - a steel shaft from the East. Soviet armored forces 1939-45"
(Note 20*) - "Encyclopedia WW2. Collapse of the Third Reich (spring-summer 1945)"
(Note 21*) - Yu. Rubtsov "Penalties of the Great Patriotic War. In life and on the screen"
(Note 22*) - P. Gostoni "The Battle of Berlin. Memoirs of eyewitnesses"
(Note 23*) - H. Altner “I am Hitler’s suicide bomber”
(Note 24*) - M. Zefirov "Aces of WW2. Allies of the Luftwaffe: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria"
(Note 25*) - Yu. Rubtsov “The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” (Moscow, 2015)
(Note 26*) - D. Irving “The Destruction of Dresden”
(Note 27*) - R. Cornelius "The Last Battle. Storm of Berlin"
(Note 28*) - V. Makarov “Wehrmacht generals and officers tell...”
(Note 29*) - O. Karo “Soviet Empire”
(Note 30*) - A. Utkin “Storm of Berlin” magazine “Around the World” 05\2005
(Note 31*) - collection "Russian Long-Range Aviation"
