On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the portal offers its readers a chapter from the forthcoming book by M. I. Frolov and V. V. Vasilik “Battles and Victories. Great Patriotic War” about the feat of the last days of the war and the courage, steadfastness and mercy of the Soviet soldiers shown by them during the capture of Berlin.

One of the final chords of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War was the Berlin operation. She led to the occupation of the capital the German Reich, the destruction and capture of almost a million enemy groups and, ultimately, the surrender of Nazi Germany.

Unfortunately, there has been a lot of speculation around it lately. The first is that the 1st Belorussian Front under command allegedly could take Berlin in January - February 1945 after seizing the bridgeheads on the Oder, 70 kilometers from Berlin, and only Stalin's voluntaristic decision prevented this. In fact, there were no real opportunities to capture Berlin in the winter of 1945: the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front fought 500-600 km, suffering losses, and an attack on the German capital without preparation, with bare flanks, could end in disaster.

Much in the post-war order of the world depended on who entered first into Berlin

The operation to take Berlin was carefully prepared and was carried out only after the destruction of the enemy's Pomeranian grouping. The need to destroy the Berlin group was dictated by both military and political considerations. Much in the post-war order of the world depended on who entered first into Berlin - us or the Americans. The successful offensive of the Anglo-American troops in West Germany created the possibility that the Allies would be the first to capture Berlin, so the Soviet military leaders had to hurry.

By the end of March, the Headquarters had developed a plan for an attack on the German capital. The main role was given to the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of G.K. Zhukov. The 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of I. S. Konev was assigned an auxiliary role - “to defeat the enemy grouping (...) south of Berlin”, and then strike at Dresden and Leipzig. However, in the course of the operation, I. S. Konev, wanting to get the glory of the winner, secretly made adjustments to the original plans and redirected part of his troops to Berlin. Thanks to this, a myth was created about the competition between the two military leaders, Zhukov and Konev, which was allegedly organized by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: the prize in it was supposedly the glory of the winner, and the soldiers' lives were the bargaining chip. In fact, the Stavka's plan was rational and provided for the fastest possible capture of Berlin with minimal losses.

The main thing in Zhukov's plan was to prevent the creation of a strong group in the city and the long-term defense of Berlin

The components of this plan, developed by G.K. Zhukov, were the breakthrough of the front by the forces of tank armies. Then, when the tank armies manage to break out into the operational space, they must go to the outskirts of Berlin and form a kind of "cocoon" around German capital. "Cocoon" would prevent the strengthening of the garrison at the expense of the two hundred thousandth 9th Army or reserves from the west. It was not planned to enter the city at this stage. With the approach of the Soviet combined arms armies, the “cocoon” opened up, and Berlin could already be stormed in accordance with all the rules. The main thing in Zhukov's plan was to prevent the creation of a strong grouping in the city itself and the long-term defense of Berlin, following the example of Budapest (December 1944 - February 1945) or Poznan (January - February 1945). And this plan ultimately succeeded.

Against the German forces, which in total numbered about a million people, a one and a half million strong grouping from two fronts was concentrated. Only the 1st Belorussian Front consisted of 3059 tanks and self-propelled guns, 14038 guns. The forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front were more modest (about 1000 tanks, 2200 guns). The action of the ground forces was supported by the aviation of three air armies (4th, 16th, 2nd), with a total number of 6706 aircraft of all types. They were opposed only by 1950 aircraft of two air fleets (the sixth VF and the VF "Reich"). April 14 and 15 were held in reconnaissance in battle at the Kustrinsky bridgehead. Careful probing of the enemy defenses created the illusion among the Germans that the Soviet the offensive will begin only in a few days. However, at three o'clock in the morning, Berlin time, artillery preparation began, which lasted 2.5 hours. Of the 2,500 guns and 1,600 artillery installations, 450,000 shots were fired.

The actual artillery preparation took 30 minutes, the rest of the time was taken by the "barrage" - fire support for the advancing troops of the 5th shock army (commander N.E. Berzarin) and the 8th Guards army under the command of the hero V.I. Chuikov. In the afternoon, two tank guard armies were sent to the emerging breakthrough at once - the 1st and 2nd, under the command of M. E. Katukov and S. I. Bogdanov, a total of 1237 tanks and self-propelled guns. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, including the divisions of the Polish Army, crossed the Oder along the entire front line. The actions of the ground troops were supported by aviation, which on the first day alone made about 5300 sorties, destroyed 165 enemy aircraft and hit a number of important ground targets.

Nevertheless, the advance of the Soviet troops was rather slow due to the stubborn resistance of the Germans and the presence of a large number of engineering and natural barriers, especially canals. By the end of April 16, Soviet troops reached only the second line of defense. Of particular difficulty was overcoming the seemingly impregnable Seelow Heights, which our troops "gnawed through" with great difficulty. The actions of tanks were limited due to the nature of the terrain, and artillery and infantry often performed the tasks of storming enemy positions. Due to unstable weather, aviation could not provide full support at times.

However, the German forces were no longer the same as in 1943, 1944 or even at the beginning of 1945. They turned out to be no longer capable of counterattacks, but only formed "plugs" that, with their resistance, tried to delay the advance of the Soviet troops.

Nevertheless, on April 19, under the blows of the 2nd Tank Guards and 8th Guards Armies, the Wotan defensive line was broken through and a rapid breakthrough to Berlin began; on April 19 alone, Katukov's army traveled 30 kilometers. Thanks to the actions of the 69th and other armies, the "Halb cauldron" was created: the main forces of the German 9th army standing on the Oder under the command of Busse were surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. This was one of the major defeats of the Germans, according to A. Isaev, undeservedly left in the shadow of the actual assault on the city.

It is customary in the liberal press to exaggerate the losses on the Seelow Heights, mixing them with the losses in the entire Berlin operation (the irretrievable losses of the Soviet troops in it amounted to 80 thousand people, and the total - 360 thousand people). Really total losses of the 8th Guards and 69th Armies during the offensive in the area of ​​the Seelow Heights amounted to about 20 thousand people. Irretrievable losses amounted to approximately 5 thousand people.

During April 20-21, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, overcoming the resistance of the Germans, moved to the suburbs of Berlin and closed the ring of external encirclement. At 6 a.m. on April 21, the advanced units of the 171st division (commander - Colonel A.I. Negoda) crossed the ring Berlin highway and thus began the battle for Greater Berlin.

Meanwhile, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse, then the Spree, entered Cottbus, captured on April 22. By order of I.S. Konev, two tank armies were turned to Berlin - the 3rd Guards under the command of P.S. Rybalko and the 4th Guards under the command of A.D. Lelyushenko. In stubborn battles, they broke into the Barut-Zossen defensive line, captured the city of Zossen, where the General Staff of the German ground forces was located. On April 23, the forward units of the 4th Panzer armies reached the Teltow Canal in the area of ​​Standorf, a southwestern suburb of Berlin.

Steiner's army group was made up of motley and very shabby units, up to a battalion of translators

Anticipating his imminent end, on April 21, Hitler ordered SS General Steiner to assemble a group to release Berlin and restore communications between the 56th and 110th corps. Steiner's so-called army group was a typical "patchwork quilt" made up of motley and very shabby units, up to a battalion of translators. According to the order of the Fuhrer, she was supposed to speak on April 21, but she was able to go on the offensive only on April 23. The offensive was not successful, moreover, under the onslaught of Soviet troops from the east, the German troops had to retreat and leave a bridgehead on the southern bank of the Hohenzollern Canal.

Only on April 25, having received more than modest reinforcements, Steiner's group resumed the offensive in the direction of Spandau. But at Hermannsdorf, it was stopped by Polish divisions, which launched a counteroffensive. Finally, the Steiner group was neutralized by the forces of the 61st Army of P. A. Belov, who on April 29 went to her rear and forced her remnants to retreat to the Elbe.

The other failed savior of Berlin was Walter Wenck, commander of the 12th Army, hastily assembled from new recruits to plug a hole in the Western Front. By order of Reichsmarschall Keitel on April 23, the 12th Army was to leave its positions on the Elbe and go to the release of Berlin. However, although clashes with units of the Red Army began on April 23, the 12th Army was able to go on the offensive only on April 28. The direction to Potsdam and the southern suburbs of Berlin was chosen. Initially, she was accompanied by some success due to the fact that parts of the 4th Guards Tank Army were on the march and the 12th Army managed to somewhat push the Soviet motorized infantry. But soon the Soviet command organized a counterattack by the forces of the 5th and 6th mechanized corps. Near Potsdam, Wenck's army was stopped. Already on April 29, he radioed to the General Staff of the Ground Forces: "The army ... is under such strong pressure from the enemy that an attack on Berlin is no longer possible."

Information about the position of Wenck's army hastened Hitler's suicide.

The only thing that units of the 12th Army could achieve was to hold positions near Beelitz and wait for an insignificant part of the 9th Army (about 30 thousand people) to leave the Halb pocket. On May 2, the Wenck army and units of the 9th Army began to retreat towards the Elbe in order to surrender to the Allies.

The buildings of Berlin were preparing for defense, the bridges across the Spree River and canals were mined. Bunkers, bunkers were built, machine-gun nests were equipped

On April 23, the assault on Berlin began. At first glance, Berlin was a fairly powerful fortress, especially considering that the barricades on its streets were built at an industrial level and reached a height and width of 2.5 m. The so-called air defense towers were a great help in the defense. Buildings were being prepared for defense, bridges across the Spree River and canals were mined. Bunkers, bunkers were built everywhere, machine-gun nests were equipped. The city was divided into 9 defense sectors. According to the plan, the number of the garrison of each sector was to be 25 thousand people. However, in reality there were no more than 10-12 thousand people. In total, the Berlin garrison numbered no more than 100 thousand people, the miscalculation of the Vistula army command, which focused on the Oder Shield, as well as the blocking measures of the Soviet troops, which did not allow a significant number of German units to withdraw to Berlin, affected. The withdrawal of the 56th Panzer Corps slightly strengthened the defenders of Berlin, as its strength was reduced to a division. There were only 140 thousand defenders on 88 thousand hectares of the city. Unlike Stalingrad and Budapest, there was no question of any occupation of each house, only the key buildings of the quarters were defended.

In addition, the Berlin garrison was an extremely colorful spectacle, there were up to 70 (!) Types of troops in it. A significant part of the defenders of Berlin was the Volkssturm (people's militia), among them there were many teenagers from the Hitler Youth. The Berlin garrison was in dire need of weapons and ammunition. The entrance to the city of 450,000 battle-hardened Soviet soldiers left no chance for the defenders. This led to a relatively quick assault on Berlin - about 10 days.

However, these ten days, which shook the world, were performed for the soldiers and officers of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts of hard bloody labor. Significant difficulties associated with heavy losses were the forcing of water barriers - rivers, lakes and canals, the fight against enemy snipers and faustpatronniks, especially in the ruins of buildings. At the same time, it should be noted the lack of infantry in the assault detachments, due to both general losses and those suffered before the direct assault on Berlin. The experience of street fighting, starting with Stalingrad, was taken into account, especially during the assault on the German "festungs" (fortresses) - Poznan, Koenigsberg. In the assault detachments, special assault groups were formed, consisting of blocking subgroups (a motorized infantry platoon, a squad of sappers), a support subgroup (two motorized infantry platoons, an anti-tank rifle platoon), two 76 mm and one 57 mm guns. The groups moved along the same street (one on the right, the other on the left). While the blocking subgroup blew up houses, blocked firing points, the support subgroup supported it with fire. Often the assault groups were given tanks and self-propelled guns that provided them with fire support.

Tanks in the conditions of street fighting in Berlin were both a shield for the advancing soldiers, covering them with their fire and armor, and a sword in street battles

The question was repeatedly raised in the liberal press: “Was it worth entering Berlin with tanks?” and even a kind of cliche was formed: tank armies burned by faustpatrons on the streets of Berlin. However, the participants in the battle for Berlin, in particular the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army P. S. Rybalko, have a different opinion: “The use of tank and mechanized formations and units against settlements, including cities, despite the undesirability of restricting their mobility in these battles, as shown by the extensive experience of the Patriotic War, very often becomes inevitable. Therefore, it is necessary to teach our tank and mechanized troops well this type of battle. Tanks in the conditions of street fighting in Berlin were both a shield for the advancing soldiers, covering them with their fire and armor, and a sword in street battles. It is worth noting that the significance of faustpatrons is greatly exaggerated: under normal conditions, the losses of Soviet tanks from faustpatrons were 10 times less than from the actions of German artillery. The fact that in the battles for Berlin half of the losses of Soviet tanks fell on the action of faustpatrons, once again proves the huge level of German losses in equipment, primarily in anti-tank artillery and tanks.

Often, assault groups showed miracles of courage and professionalism. So, on April 28, soldiers of the 28th Rifle Corps captured 2021 prisoners, 5 tanks, 1380 vehicles, released 5 thousand prisoners of various nationalities from the concentration camp, losing only 11 killed and 57 wounded. The soldiers of the 117th battalion of the 39th rifle division took the building with a garrison of 720 Nazis, destroying 70 Nazis and capturing 650. The Soviet soldier learned to fight not by numbers, but by skill. All this refutes the myths that we took Berlin, filling up the enemy with corpses.

Let us briefly touch upon the most remarkable events of the storming of Berlin from April 23 to May 2. The troops that stormed Berlin can be divided into three groups - northern (3rd shock, 2nd guards tank army), southeast (5th shock, 8th guards and 1st guards tank army) and southeast western (troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front). On April 23, the troops of the southeastern group (5th Army) suddenly crossed the Spree River for the enemy, seized a bridgehead and transferred two whole divisions to it. The 26th Rifle Corps captured the Silesian railway station. On April 24, the 3rd shock army, advancing on the center of Berlin, captured the suburb of Reinickendorf. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured a number of bridgeheads on the opposite bank of the Spree River and joined forces with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in the Schönefeld area. On April 25, the 2nd Panzer Army launched an offensive from the bridgeheads captured the day before on the Berlin-Spandauer-Schiffarts canal. On the same day, the Tempelhof airfield was captured, thanks to which Berlin was supplied. The next day, April 26, when trying to recapture it, the German Panzer Division Münchenberg was defeated. On the same day, the 9th Corps of the 5th Shock Army cleared 80 enemy quarters of the enemy. On April 27, troops of the 2nd Panzer Army captured the area and Westend station. On April 28, troops of the 3rd shock army cleared the Moabit region and the political prison of the same name from the enemy, where thousands of anti-fascists were tortured, including the great Soviet poet Musa Jalil. On the same day, the Anhalt station was captured. It is noteworthy that it was defended by the SS division Nordland, partly consisting of French and Latvian "volunteers".

On April 29, Soviet troops reached the Reichstag, the symbol of German statehood, which was taken by storm the next day. The first to break into it were the soldiers of the 171st division, led by Captain Samsonov, who at 14.20 hoisted the Soviet flag in the window of the building. After fierce fighting, the building (with the exception of the basement) was cleared of the enemy. At 21.30, according to the traditional point of view, two soldiers - M. Kantaria and A. Egorov hoisted the banner of Victory on the dome of the Reichstag. On the same day, April 30, at 15.50, having learned that the armies of Wenck, Steiner and Holse would not come to the rescue, and the Soviet troops were only 400 meters from the Reich Chancellery, where the possessed Fuhrer and his associates had taken refuge. They tried to delay their end with the help of numerous new victims, including among the German civilian population. To slow down the advance of the Soviet troops, Hitler ordered the opening of the gateways in the Berlin metro, as a result, thousands of Berlin civilians who fled from bombing and shelling died. In his will, Hitler wrote: "If the German people proved unworthy of their mission, then they must disappear." The Soviet troops sought to spare the civilian population as much as possible. As the participants in the battles recall, additional difficulties, including of a moral nature, were the fact that German soldiers dressed in civilian clothes and treacherously shot at our fighters in the back. Because of this, many of our soldiers and officers died.

After Hitler's suicide, the new German government, headed by Dr. Goebbels, wanted to enter into negotiations with the command of the 1st Belorussian Front, and through it - with the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin. However, G.K. Zhukov demanded unconditional surrender, which Goebbels and Bormann did not agree to. The fighting continued. By May 1, the area occupied by German troops was reduced to only 1 sq. km. The commander of the German garrison, General Krebs, committed suicide. The new commander, General Weidling, commander of the 56th Corps, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, accepted the terms of unconditional surrender. At least 50 thousand German soldiers and officers were taken prisoner. Goebbels, fearing retribution for his crimes, committed suicide.

The assault on Berlin ended on May 2, which in 1945 fell on Holy Tuesday - a day dedicated to the memory of the Last Judgment

The capture of Berlin was, without exaggeration, a landmark event. The symbol of the German totalitarian state was defeated and the center of its administration was struck. It is deeply symbolic that the storming of Berlin ended on May 2, which in 1945 fell on Maundy Tuesday, the day dedicated to the memory of the Last Judgment. And the capture of Berlin truly became the Last Judgment over the occult German fascism, over all its iniquities. Nazi Berlin was quite reminiscent of Nineveh, about which the holy prophet Nahum prophesied: “Woe to the city of blood, the city of deceit and murder!<…>There is no medicine for your wound, your ulcer is painful. All who hear the news of you will clap their hands for you, for to whom has not your malice extended unceasingly?” (Nahum 3:1,19). But the Soviet soldier was much more merciful than the Babylonians and Medes, although the German fascists were no better in their deeds than the Assyrians with their refined atrocities. The nutrition of the two million population of Berlin was immediately established. The soldiers generously shared the latter with their yesterday's enemies.

An amazing story was told by veteran Kirill Vasilyevich Zakharov. His brother Mikhail Vasilyevich Zakharov died in the Tallinn crossing, two uncles were killed near Leningrad, his father lost his sight. He himself survived the blockade, miraculously escaped. And since 1943, when he went to the front, starting from Ukraine, he kept dreaming about how he would get to Berlin and take revenge. And during the battles for Berlin, during a respite, he stopped in the doorway to have a bite. And suddenly I saw how the hatch was rising, an elderly, starving German leaned out of it and asked for food. Kirill Vasilyevich shared his ration with him. Then another German civilian came out and also asked for food. In general, Kirill Vasilyevich was left without lunch that day. So he took revenge. And he did not regret this act of his.

Courage, steadfastness, conscience and mercy - these Christian qualities were shown by a Russian soldier in Berlin in April - May 1945. Eternal glory to him. A deep bow to those participants in the Berlin operation who have survived to this day. For they gave freedom to Europe, including the German people. And they brought the long-awaited peace to the earth.

The Berlin operation is an offensive operation of the 1st Belorussian (Marshal G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian (Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian (Marshal I.S. Konev) fronts to capture Berlin and defeat the defending his groupings April 16 - May 2, 1945 ( The Second World War, 1939-1945). In the Berlin direction, the Red Army was opposed by a large grouping as part of the Vistula Army Group (Generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner).

The ratio of forces is given in the table.

Source: History of the Second World War: In 12 vols. M., 1973-1 1979. T. 10. S. 315.

The attack on the German capital began on April 16, 1945, after the completion of the main operations of the Red Army in Hungary, East Pomerania, Austria and East Prussia. This deprived the German capital of support

the most important agricultural and industrial areas. In other words, Berlin was deprived of any possibility of obtaining reserves and resources, which undoubtedly hastened its fall.

For the blow, which was supposed to shake the German defenses, an unprecedented density of fire was used - over 600 guns per 1 km of the front. The most heated battles broke out in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, where the Seelow Heights covering the central direction were located. For the capture of Berlin, not only the frontal attack of the 1st Belorussian Front was used, but also the flank maneuver of the tank armies (3rd and 4th) of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Having overcome more than a hundred kilometers in a few days, they broke through to the German capital from the south and completed its encirclement. At this time, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front were advancing towards the Baltic coast of Germany, covering the right flank of the forces advancing on Berlin.

The culmination of the operation was the battle for Berlin, in which there was a 200,000-strong group under the command of General X. Weidling. Fighting within the city began on April 21, and by April 25 it was completely surrounded. Up to 464 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers took part in the battle for Berlin, which lasted almost two weeks and was extremely fierce. Due to the retreating units, the garrison of Berlin grew to 300 thousand people.

If in Budapest (see Budapest 1) the Soviet command avoided the use of artillery and aircraft, then during the assault on the capital of Nazi Germany they spared no fire. According to Marshal Zhukov, from April 21 to May 2, almost 1.8 million artillery shots were fired at Berlin. And in total, more than 36 thousand tons of metal were brought down on the city. Fortress guns, the shells of which weighed half a ton, also fired at the capital's center.

A feature of the Berlin operation can be called the widespread use of large tank masses in the zone of continuous defense of German troops, including in Berlin itself. In such conditions, Soviet armored vehicles were not able to use a wide maneuver and became a convenient target for German anti-tank weapons. This resulted in high losses. Suffice it to say that in two weeks of fighting, the Red Army lost a third of the tanks and self-propelled guns participating in the Berlin operation.

The fighting didn't stop day or night. During the day, the assault units advanced in the first echelons, at night - in the second. The battle for the Reichstag, over which the Banner of Victory was hoisted, was especially fierce. On the night of April 30 to May 1, Hitler committed suicide. By the morning of May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison were divided into separate groups, which capitulated by 15 o'clock. The surrender of the Berlin garrison was accepted by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General V.I. Chuikov, who traveled from Stalingrad to the walls of Berlin.

During the Berlin operation, only about 480 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured. The losses of the Red Army amounted to 352 thousand people. In terms of the daily losses of personnel and equipment (over 15 thousand people, 87 tanks and self-propelled guns, 40 aircraft), the battle for Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army, where the damage was inflicted primarily during the battle, in contrast to the battles of the first the period of the war, when the daily losses of the Soviet troops were determined to a large extent by a significant number of prisoners (see Border battles). In terms of the intensity of losses, this operation is comparable only to the Battle of Kursk.

The Berlin operation dealt the last crushing blow to the armed forces of the Third Reich, which, with the loss of Berlin, lost their 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 Germany's unconditional surrender. For participants in the Berlin operation, a medal "For the Capture of Berlin" was issued.

Wir capitulieren nie?

The offensive operation of the 2nd Belorussian (Marshal Rokossovsky), 1st Belorussian (Marshal Zhukov) and 1st Ukrainian (Marshal Konev) fronts on April 16 - May 8, 1945. Having defeated large German groups in East Prussia, Poland and Eastern Pomerania and reaching the Oder and Neisse, Soviet troops penetrated deeply into German territory. On the western bank of the river Oder bridgeheads were captured, including a particularly important one in the Kustrin area. At the same time, Anglo-American troops advanced from the west.

Hitler, hoping for disagreements between the allies, took all measures to delay the advance of the Soviet troops on the outskirts of Berlin and negotiate a separate peace with the Americans. In the Berlin direction, the German command concentrated a large grouping as part of the Vistula Army Group (3rd Panzer and 9th Armies) of Colonel General G. Heinrici (since April 30, Infantry General K. Tippelskirch) and the 4th Panzer and 17th th Army of the Army Group "Center" Field Marshal F. Scherner (a total of about 1 million people, 10,400 guns and mortars, 1,530 tanks and assault guns, over 3,300 aircraft). On the western banks of the Oder and the Neisse, 3 defensive zones were created up to 20-40 km deep. The Berlin defensive area consisted of 3 ring defensive contours. All large buildings in the city were turned into strongholds, streets and squares were blocked by powerful barricades, numerous minefields were set up, and booby traps were scattered everywhere.

The walls of the houses were covered with Goebbels' propaganda slogans: "Wir kapitulieren nie!" ("We will never surrender!"), "Every German will defend his capital!", "Let's stop the red hordes at the walls of our Berlin!", "Victory or Siberia!". Loudspeakers in the streets urged residents to fight to the death. Despite the ostentatious bravado, Berlin was already doomed. The giant city was in a huge trap. The Soviet command concentrated 19 combined arms (including 2 Polish), 4 tank and 4 air armies (2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and mortars, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 7,500 aircraft) in the Berlin direction. British and American bombers came in continuous waves from the west, methodically, block by block, turning the city into a heap of ruins.

On the eve of the surrender, the city was a terrible sight. Tongues of flame escaped from the damaged gas pipeline, illuminating the sooty walls of houses. The streets were impassable due to rubble. Suicide bombers with Molotov cocktails jumped out of the basements of houses and rushed at Soviet tanks that had become easy prey in urban areas. Hand-to-hand fighting went on everywhere - on the streets, on the roofs of houses, in basements, in tunnels, in the Berlin subway. The advanced Soviet units competed with each other for the honor of being the first to capture the Reichstag, which was considered a symbol of the Third Reich. Shortly after the Banner of Victory was hoisted over the dome of the Reichstag, Berlin capitulated on May 2, 1945.

Used material from the site Third Reich www.fact400.ru/mif/reich/titul.htm

In the historical dictionary:

BERLIN OPERATION - an offensive operation of the Red Army at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

In January - March 1945, Soviet troops defeated large fascist German groups in East Prussia, Poland and East Pomerania, penetrated deep into German territory and seized the bridgeheads necessary to take its capital.

The plan of the operation was to inflict several powerful blows on a wide front, dismember the Berlin enemy grouping, surround and destroy it in parts. To accomplish this task, the Soviet command concentrated 19 combined arms (including two Polish), four tank and four air armies (2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and mortars, 6,250 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 7,500 aircraft).

The German command concentrated a large grouping in the Berlin area as part of the Vistula Army Group (3rd Panzer and 9th Armies) and the Center Army Group (4th Panzer and 17th Army) - about 1 million people, 10 400 guns and mortars, 1530 tanks and assault guns, over 3300 aircraft. On the western banks of the Oder and Neisse rivers, three defensive belts up to 20-40 km deep were created; The Berlin defensive area consisted of three ring defensive contours, all large buildings in the city were turned into strongholds, streets and squares were blocked by powerful barricades.

On April 16, after powerful artillery and aviation preparation, the 1st Belorussian Front (Marshal G.K. Zhukov.) Attacked the enemy on the river. Oder. At the same time, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Marshal I.S. Konev) began to force the river. Neisse. Despite the fierce resistance of the enemy, especially on the Zelov heights, the Soviet troops broke through his defenses. Attempts by the Nazi command to win the battle for Berlin on the Oder-Neisse line failed.

On April 20, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front (Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) crossed the river. The Oder and by the end of April 25 broke through the enemy's main line of defense south of Stettin. On April 21, the 3rd Guards Tank Army (General Ya. S. Rybalko) was the first to break into the northeastern outskirts of Berlin. The troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, after breaking through the enemy defenses from the north and south, bypassed Berlin and on April 25 locked up to 200 thousand German troops to the west of Berlin in the encirclement ring.

The defeat of this group resulted in a fierce battle. Until May 2, bloody battles were going on in the streets of Berlin day and night. On April 30, the troops of the 3rd shock army (Colonel-General V.I. Kuznetsov) began fighting for the Reichstag and took it by evening. Sergeant M. A. Egorov and junior sergeant M. V. Kantaria hoisted the Banner of Victory on the Reichstag.

The fighting in Berlin continued until May 8, when representatives of the German High Command, headed by Field Marshal W. Keitel, signed the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender.

Orlov A.S., Georgiev N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 36-37.

Battle for Berlin

In the spring of 1945, the Third Reich was on the verge of final collapse.

By April 15, 214 divisions, including 34 tank and 14 motorized divisions, and 14 brigades were fighting on the Soviet-German front. 60 German divisions acted against the Anglo-American troops, of which 5 were tank divisions.

Preparing to repel the Soviet offensive, the German command created a powerful defense in the east of the country. Berlin was covered to a great depth by numerous defensive structures erected along the western banks of the Oder and Neisse rivers.

Berlin itself was turned into a powerful fortified area. Around it, the Germans built three defensive rings - outer, inner and urban, and in the city itself (an area of ​​​​88 thousand hectares) they created nine defense sectors: eight around the circumference and one in the center. This central sector, which covered the main state and administrative institutions, including the Reichstag and the Imperial Chancellery, was especially carefully prepared in terms of engineering. There were more than 400 reinforced concrete long-term structures in the city. The largest of them - six-story bunkers dug into the ground - could accommodate up to a thousand people each. For the covert maneuver of troops, the subway was used.

For the defense of Berlin, the German command hastily formed new units. In January - March 1945, even 16-, 17-year-old boys were called up for military service.

Considering these factors, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command concentrated large forces in the Berlin direction in the composition of three fronts. In addition, it was supposed to use part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, the Dnieper military flotilla, the 18th air army, and three air defense corps of the country.

Polish troops were involved in the Berlin operation as part of two armies, tank and aviation corps, two breakthrough artillery divisions and a separate mortar brigade. They were part of the fronts.

On April 16, after powerful artillery preparation and air strikes, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front went on the offensive. The Berlin operation began. The enemy, suppressed by artillery fire, offered no organized resistance at the forefront, but then, recovering from the shock, resisted with fierce stubbornness.

Soviet infantry and tanks advanced 1.5-2 km. In the current situation, in order to speed up the advance of the troops, Marshal Zhukov brought into battle the tank and mechanized corps of the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front was successfully developing. At 06:15 on April 16, artillery preparation began. Bombers and attack aircraft inflicted heavy blows on resistance centers, communication centers and command posts. Battalions of divisions of the first echelon quickly crossed the Neisse River and captured bridgeheads on its left bank.

The German command brought into battle from its reserve up to three tank divisions and a tank destroyer brigade. The fighting took on a fierce character. Breaking the resistance of the enemy, the combined arms and tank formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through the main line of defense. On April 17, the troops of the front completed the breakthrough of the second lane and approached the third, which ran along the left bank of the river. Spree.

The successful offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front created a threat for the enemy to bypass his Berlin grouping from the south. The German command concentrated its efforts in order to delay the further advance of the Soviet troops at the turn of the river. Spree. The reserves of Army Group Center and the retreating troops of the 4th Panzer Army were sent here. But the enemy's attempts to change the course of the battle were not successful.

The 2nd Belorussian Front went on the offensive on 18 April. On April 18-19, the troops of the front crossed the Ost-Oder in difficult conditions, cleared the lowland between the Ost-Oder and West-Oder from the enemy, and took up their starting positions for forcing the West-Oder.

Thus, in the zone of all fronts, favorable prerequisites were formed for the continuation of the operation.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed most successfully. They entered the operational space and rushed to Berlin, covering the right wing of the Frankfurt-Guben group. On April 19-20, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies advanced 95 km. The rapid offensive of these armies, as well as the 13th Army, by the end of April 20, led to the cutting off of the Vistula Army Group from the Center Army Group.

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front continued their offensive. On April 20, on the fifth day of the operation, long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army, Colonel General V.I. Kuznetsova opened fire on Berlin. On April 21, the advanced units of the front broke into the northern and southeastern outskirts of the German capital.

On April 24, southeast of Berlin, the 8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, advancing on the left flank of the shock group, met with the 3rd Guards Tank and 28th Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front. As a result, the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy was completely isolated from the Berlin garrison.

On April 25, the advanced units of the 1st Ukrainian Front - the 5th Guards Army of General A.S. Zhadov - met on the banks of the Elbe in the Torgau region with reconnaissance groups of the 5th Corps of the 1st American Army, General O. Bradley. The German front was split. In honor of this victory, Moscow saluted the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front.

At this time, the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the West-Oder and broke through the defenses on its western bank. They fettered the German 3rd Panzer Army and deprived it of the opportunity to launch a counterattack from the north against the Soviet troops surrounding Berlin.

During the ten days of the operation, Soviet troops overcame the German defenses along the Oder and Neisse, surrounded and dismembered his groupings in the Berlin direction and created the conditions for capturing Berlin.

The third stage is the destruction of the Berlin enemy grouping, the capture of Berlin (April 26 - May 8). German troops, despite the inevitable defeat, continued to resist. First of all, it was necessary to liquidate the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy, numbering up to 200 thousand people.

Part of the troops of the 12th Army who survived the defeat retreated to the left bank of the Elbe along the bridges built by the American troops and surrendered to them.

By the end of April 25, the enemy defending in Berlin occupied a territory whose area was approximately 325 square meters. km. The total length of the front of the Soviet troops operating in the capital of Germany was about 100 km.

On May 1, units of the 1st Shock Army, advancing from the north, met south of the Reichstag with units of the 8th Guards Army, advancing from the south. The surrender of the remnants of the Berlin garrison took place on the morning of May 2 by order of its last commander, General of Artillery G. Weidling. The liquidation of the Berlin grouping of German troops was completed.

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, advancing in a westerly direction, reached the Elbe by May 7 on a wide front. The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front reached the coast of the Baltic Sea and the line of the Elbe River, where they established contact with the 2nd British Army. The troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to regroup in the Prague direction to complete the tasks of completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia. During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 enemy infantry, 23 tank and motorized divisions, captured about 480 thousand people, captured up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, over 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, 4500 aircraft.

Soviet troops in this final operation suffered heavy losses - more than 350 thousand people, including over 78 thousand - irretrievably. The 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army lost about 9 thousand soldiers and officers. (Secrecy stamp removed. Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, combat actions and military conflicts. M., 1993. S. 220.) Soviet troops also lost 2156 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 1220 guns and mortars, 527 aircraft.

The Berlin operation is one of the largest operations of the Second World War. The victory of the Soviet troops in it became a decisive factor in the completion of the military defeat of Germany. With the fall of Berlin and the loss of vital areas, Germany lost the opportunity for organized resistance and soon capitulated.

Used materials from the site http://100top.ru/encyclopedia/

The Berlin offensive operation is the last operation of the Red Army forces against the forces of the Third Reich. The operation did not stop from April 16 to May 8, 1945 - 23 days. As a result, it led to the unconditional surrender of Germany in World War II.

Purpose and essence of the operation

Germany

The Nazis tried to drag out the fighting as long as possible, while they wanted to achieve peace with the United States and Britain - that is, the split of the anti-Hitler coalition. This would make it possible to keep the Eastern Front against the SRSR with the aim of further counter-offensive with the subsequent defeat of the Soviet Union.

SRSR

The Soviet army was supposed to destroy the Reich forces in the Berlin direction, capture Berlin and unite with the Allied forces on the Elbe River - this would destroy all German plans to drag out the war.

Side forces

The SRSR had at its disposal 1.9 million people in this direction, in addition to this, the Polish troops numbered 156 thousand people. In total, the army consisted of 6250 tanks and about 42 thousand guns, as well as mortar guns, more than 7500 military aircraft.

Germany had one million men, 10,400 guns and mortars, 1,500 tanks and 3,300 combat aircraft.
Thus, one can notice a clear superiority of numbers towards the Red Army, which had 2 times as many soldiers, 4 times as many mortar guns, as well as more than 2 times as many aircraft and 4 times as many tanks.

Now it would be wise to analyze in detail the entire course of the Berlin offensive.

Operation progress

The first hours of the operation were more than successful for the soldiers of the Red Army, as in a short time it easily broke through the first line of defense. However, later met with very fierce resistance from the Nazis.

The Red Army received the greatest resistance at the Zelov Heights. As it turned out, the infantry could not break through the defense either, since the German fortifications were well prepared and they gave this position special importance. Then Zhukov decides to use tank armies.

April 17 began a decisive assault on the heights. Fierce battles were fought all night and day, as a result of which, on the morning of April 18, they nevertheless managed to take defensive positions.

By the end of April 19, the Red Army repulsed the fierce German counterattacks and was already able to develop an offensive against Berlin. Hitler ordered to hold the defense at any cost.

On April 20, the first air strikes were carried out on the city of Berlin. On April 21, paramilitary units of the Red Army invaded the outskirts of the city of Berlin. Already on April 23 and 24, the actions acquired a particularly fierce character, as the Germans stood resolutely to the death. On April 24, the pace of the offensive practically stopped, but the Germans failed to stop it completely. The 5th Army, waging fierce, bloody battles, broke through to the center of Berlin.

The offensive in this direction developed more successfully than that of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front.

The Red Army successfully crossed the Neisse River and transported troops for further advance.

Already on April 18, an order was given to send the 3rd and 4th Panzer Army to the aid of the Belorussian Front, which met with determined resistance.

On April 20, the forces of the Red Army divided the forces of the armies "Vistula" and "Center". Already on April 21, a battle began for the outer defensive positions of Berlin. And on April 22, the defensive positions were broken through, but then the Red Army met strong resistance, and the attack was stopped.

On April 22, the ring around Berlin was practically closed. On this day, Hitler makes the last decision that could have an impact on the course of military operations. He considered Berlin's last hope to be W. Wenck's 12th Army, which was obliged to transfer from the Western Front and break through the ring.

On April 24, the Red Army was able to capture the defensive positions of the southern bank of the Teltow Canal, where the Germans decisively fortified and only the most powerful artillery salvos made it possible to force.

Also on April 24, Wenck's army launched an offensive with tank armies, but the Red Army managed to hold them back.

On April 25, Soviet soldiers met with the Americans on the Elbe.

(April 20 - May 8) 2nd Belorussian Front

On April 20, the crossing of the Oder began, which took place with varying success. As a result, the Red Army forces froze the 3rd Panzer Army in action, which could help Berlin.

On April 24, the power of the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian fronts surrounded Busse's army and cut it off from Berlin. So more than 200 thousand German soldiers were surrounded. However, the Germans not only organized a powerful defense, but also tried to carry out counterattacks right up to May 2 in order to unite with Berlin. They even managed to break through the ring, but only a small part of the army was able to reach Berlin.

On April 25, the ring around the capital of Nazism, Berlin, finally closed. The defense of the capital was carefully prepared and consisted of a garrison of at least 200 thousand people. The closer the Red Army advanced to the center of the city, the denser the defense became. The streets became barricades - serious fortifications with thick walls, behind which the Germans fought to the death. Numerous tanks of the Soviet Union in urban conditions suffered from German faustpatrons. Before launching the next offensive, the Soviet army carried out heavy artillery shelling of the enemy’s combat positions.

The fighting went on continuously, both during the day and at night. Already on April 28, the soldiers of the Red Army reached the Reichstag area. And on April 30, the path to it was completely open.

On April 30, his decisive assault began. In a short time, almost the entire building was captured. However, the Germans stood on the defensive so stubbornly that they had to fight fierce battles for rooms, corridors, etc. On May 1, the flag was raised over the Reichstag, but the battles for it continued right up to May 2, only at night the garrison capitulated.

As of May 1, only the state quarter and the Tiergarten remained in the clutches of the German soldiers. Here was Hitler's headquarters. An offer of surrender reached Zhukov as Hitler committed suicide in the bunker. However, Stalin refused and the offensive continued.

On May 2, the last commander of the defense of Berlin surrendered and signed a surrender pact. However, not all units decided to surrender and continued to fight to the death.

Losses

Both warring camps suffered colossal losses in human strength. According to the data, the Red Army lost over 350 thousand people, wounded and killed, more than 2 thousand tanks, about 1 thousand aircraft and 2 thousand guns. However, these data should not be trusted blindly, since the SRSR kept silent about the real numbers and gave false data. The same applies to the assessment of German losses by Soviet analysts.
Germany, on the other hand, lost (according to Soviet data, which may have greatly exceeded real losses) 400 thousand soldiers killed and wounded. 380 thousand people were taken prisoner.

Results of the Berlin operation

- The Red Army defeated the largest grouping of German troops, and also captured the top leadership (military and political) of Germany.
- The capture of Berlin, which finally broke the spirit of the German troops and influenced their decision to end the resistance.
– Hundreds of thousands of people were released from German captivity.
The battle for Berlin went down in history as the largest battle in history, in which more than 3.5 million people took part.

The Berlin offensive operation became one of the last operations of the Great Patriotic War and one of the most famous. During it, the Red Army took the capital of the Third Reich - Berlin, defeated the last, most powerful enemy forces and forced him to capitulate.

The operation lasted 23 days, from April 16 to May 8, 1945, during which the Soviet troops advanced 100-220 km to the west. Within its framework, private offensive operations were carried out: Stettin-Rostock, Zelow-Berlin, Cottbus-Potsdam, Stremberg-Torgau and Brandenburg-Ratenow. Three fronts took part in the operation: the 1st Belorussian (G.K. Zhukov), the 2nd Belorussian (K.K. Rokossovsky) and the 1st Ukrainian (I.S. Konev).

The idea, the plans of the parties

The idea of ​​​​the operation at the Headquarters was determined back in November 1944, it was refined even in the process of the Vistula-Oder, East Prussian, Pomeranian operations. They also took into account the actions on the Western Front, the actions of the allies: in late March - early April they went to the Rhine and began to force it. The Allied High Command planned to capture the Ruhr industrial region, then go to the Elbe and launch an offensive in the Berlin direction. At the same time, in the south, the American-French troops planned to capture the areas of Stuttgart, Munich, and enter the central parts of Czechoslovakia and Austria.

At the Crimean Conference, the Soviet zone of occupation was supposed to pass west of Berlin, but the Allies planned to start the Berlin operation themselves, moreover, there was a high probability of a separate conspiracy with Hitler or his military in order to surrender the city to the United States and England.

Moscow had serious concerns, the Anglo-American troops met almost no serious resistance in the West. In mid-April 1945, the American radio commentator John Grover reported: "The Western Front, in fact, no longer exists." The Germans, having retreated beyond the Rhine, did not create a powerful defense, in addition, the main forces were transferred to the east, and even in the most difficult moments, forces were constantly taken from the Ruhr group of the Wehrmacht and transferred to the Eastern Front. Therefore, the Rhine surrendered without serious resistance.

Berlin tried to drag out the war, holding back the onslaught of the Soviet armies. At the same time conducting secret negotiations with Westerners. The Wehrmacht from the Oder to Berlin built a powerful defense, the city itself was a huge fortress. Operational reserves were created, in the city and its environs, detachments of the people's militia (Volkssturm battalions), in April there were 200 Volkssturm battalions in Berlin alone. The base defense centers of the Wehrmacht were the Oder-Neissen defensive line and the Berlin defensive area. On the Oder and Neisse, the Wehrmacht created three defensive strips with a depth of 20-40 km. The most powerful fortifications of the second line were on the Seelow Heights. The engineering units of the Wehrmacht made excellent use of all natural obstacles - lakes, rivers, heights, etc., turned settlements into strongholds, special attention was paid to anti-tank defense. The enemy created the greatest density of defense in front of the 1st Belorussian Front, where 23 Wehrmacht divisions and a significant number of smaller units occupied the defense in a strip 175 km wide.

Offensive: milestones

At 5 o'clock in the morning on April 16, the 1st Belorussian Front, in a section of 27 km (breakthrough zone), for 25 minutes from more than 10 thousand artillery pieces, rocket systems, mortars destroyed the first line, then transferred the fire to the enemy's second line of defense. After that, 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on to blind the enemy, the first lane was broken in one and a half to two hours, in some places they went to the second. But then the Germans woke up, pulled up the reserves. The battle became even more fierce, our rifle units could not overcome the defense of the Seelow Heights. In order not to disrupt the timing of the operation, Zhukov brought into battle the 1st (Katukov M.E.) and 2nd (Bogdanov S.I.) guards tank armies, while the German command at the end of the day threw into battle the operational reserves of the Vistula Army Group ". All day and night on the 17th there was a fierce battle, by the morning of the 18th part of the 1st Belorussian, with the help of aviation of the 16th and 18th air armies, they were able to take the heights. By the end of April 19, the Soviet armies, breaking through the defenses and repelling the fierce counterattacks of the enemy, broke through the third line of defense and were able to strike at Berlin itself.

On April 16, a smoke screen was placed on the 390-kilometer front of the 1st Ukrainian Front, at 6.15 artillery strike began, at 6.55 advanced units crossed the Neisse River and captured bridgeheads. The construction of crossings for the main forces began, only in the first hours they built 133 crossings, by the middle of the day the troops broke through the first line of defense and reached the second. The Wehrmacht command, realizing the gravity of the situation, already on the first day threw tactical and operational reserves into battle, setting the task of driving our forces across the river. But by the end of the day, the Soviet units broke through the second line of defense, on the morning of the 17th the 3rd (Rybalko P.S.) and 4th (Lelyushenko D.D.) guards tank armies crossed the river. From the air, our armies were supported by the 2nd Air Army, the breakthrough was expanding all day, by the end of the day the tank armies reached the Spree River and immediately began forcing it. On a secondary, Dresden direction, our troops also broke through the enemy's front.

Considering the fierce resistance of the enemy in the strike zone of the 1st Belorussian Front and its delay from the schedule, the success of the neighbors, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian were ordered to turn to Berlin and go without getting involved in battles to destroy the enemy strongholds. On April 18 and 19, the 3rd and 4th tank armies marched on Berlin, at a pace of 35-50 km. At this time, the combined arms armies were preparing to liquidate enemy groupings in the area of ​​Cottbus and Spremberg. On the 21st, Rybalko's tank army, suppressing the enemy's fierce resistance in the area of ​​​​the cities of Zossen, Luckenwalde, Jutterbog, reached the outer defensive lines of Berlin. On the 22nd, units of the 3rd Guards Tank Army crossed the Notte Canal and broke through the outer fortifications of Berlin.

On April 17-19, the advanced units of the 2nd Belorussian Front conducted reconnaissance in force and captured the interfluve of the Oder. On the morning of the 20th, the main forces went on the offensive, the Oder crossing was covered by artillery fire and a smoke screen. The right-flank 65th Army (P. I. Batov) achieved the greatest success, capturing a bridgehead 6 km wide and 1.5 km deep by evening. In the center, the 70th Army achieved a more modest result, the left-flank 49th Army was unable to gain a foothold. On the 21st, the battle was going on all day and night to expand the bridgeheads, K.K. Rokossovsky threw parts of the 49th army to support the 70th army, then threw the 2nd shock army into battle, as well as the 1st and 3rd guards tank corps. The 2nd Belorussian Front was able to tie down parts of the 3rd German Army with its actions; it could not come to the aid of the defenders of Berlin. The 26th part of the front took Stettin.

On April 21, units of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the suburbs of Berlin, on April 22-23 there were battles, on the 23rd, the 9th Rifle Corps under the command of Major General I.P. the course forced it. The Dnieper military flotilla provided great assistance in forcing it, supporting it with fire and transferring troops to the other side. Our units, leading our own and repelling the enemy's counterattacks, suppressing his resistance, went to the center of the capital of Germany.

The 61st Army and the 1st Army of the Polish Army, operating in the auxiliary direction, launched an offensive on the 17th, breaking through the enemy defenses, bypassed Berlin from the north and went to the Elbe.

On the 22nd, at Hitler's Headquarters, it was decided to transfer W. Wenck's 12th Army from the Western Front, Keitel was sent to help the semi-encircled 9th Army to organize its offensive. By the end of the 22nd troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian, they practically created two encirclement rings - around the 9th Army east and southeast of Berlin and west of Berlin, surrounding the city itself.

The troops reached the Teltow Canal, the Germans created a powerful defense on its shore, all day on the 23rd there was preparation for the assault, artillery was drawn up, there were up to 650 barrels per 1 km. On the morning of the 24th, the assault began, having suppressed enemy firing points with artillery fire, the canal was successfully crossed by units of the 6th Guards Tank Corps of Major General Mitrofanov and captured the bridgehead. On the afternoon of the 24th, Wenck's 12th Army struck but was repulsed. At 12 o'clock on the 25th, units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts joined up west of Berlin, and an hour and a half later, our troops met on the Elbe with American units.

On April 20-23, the divisions of the German Army Group Center attacked units of the 1st Ukrainian Front on the left flank, trying to get behind its rear. From April 25 to May 2, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front fought in three directions: units of the 28th Army, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies fought on the territory of Berlin; The 13th Army, together with units of the 3rd Panzer Army, repulsed the attacks of the 12th German Army; The 3rd Guards Army and part of the units of the 28th Army held back and destroyed the encircled 9th German Army. The fighting to destroy the 9th German Army (200 thousandth Frankfurt-Guben group) went on until May 2, the Germans tried to break through to the west, skillfully maneuvering. Creating superiority in forces in narrow areas, they attacked, broke through the ring twice, only emergency measures by the Soviet command made it possible to block them again and eventually destroy them. Only small groups of the enemy were able to break through.

In the city, our troops met fierce resistance, the enemy did not even think of giving up. Relying on numerous structures, underground communications, barricades, he not only defended, but constantly attacked. Ours acted as assault groups, reinforced by sappers, tanks, artillery, by the evening of the 28th division of the 3rd shock army they reached the Reichstag area. By the morning of the 30th, after a fierce battle, they seized the building of the Ministry of the Interior, began an assault on the Reichstag, but only on the night of May 2nd did the remnants of the German garrison surrender. On May 1, the Wehrmacht had only the government quarter and the Tiergarten, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, General Krebs, offered a truce, but ours insisted on unconditional surrender, the Germans refused, the fighting continued. On May 2, General Weidling, commander of the defense of the city, announced the surrender. Those German units that did not accept it and tried to break through to the west were scattered and destroyed. Thus ended the Berlin operation.

Main results

The main forces of the Wehrmacht were destroyed, the German command was now unable to continue the war, the capital of the Reich, its military-political leadership, was captured.

The Wehrmacht after the fall of Berlin practically ceased resistance.

In fact, the Great Patriotic War was over, it remains only to formalize the surrender of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war driven into slavery by Soviet people were released.

The Berlin offensive operation demonstrated to the whole world the high combat skill of the Soviet armies and its commanders and became one of the reasons for the cancellation of Operation Unthinkable. Our "allies" planned to strike at the Soviet army in order to force it into Eastern Europe.

Charitable wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting". Issue #77, March 2015. Battle for Berlin.

Battle for Berlin

Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (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 publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only logos of the founders), politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as an information "slowdown" of students, the awakening of cognitive activity and the desire to read. The authors and publishers, without claiming to be academically complete in the presentation 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. Please send comments and suggestions to: [email protected] We thank the Department of Education of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who selflessly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. Our special gratitude goes to the team of the project “Battle for Berlin. The feat of the standard-bearers” (website panoramaberlin.ru), who kindly allowed me to use the materials of the site, for their invaluable help in creating this issue.

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

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

Berlin operation

Scheme of the Berlin operation (panoramaberlin.ru).


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

The Berlin strategic offensive operation is one of the last strategic operations of the 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 World War II 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 the support of industrial areas and the possibility of replenishing reserves and resources. Soviet troops reached the line 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. air army, the Dnieper military flotilla and the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. The Red Army was opposed by a large grouping as part of the Vistula Army Group (Generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner). On April 16, 1945, at 5 am 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) for 25 minutes grinded the first line of German defense on the 27-kilometer breakthrough section. With the start of the attack, artillery fire was moved deep into the defense, and 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on in the breakthrough areas. Their dazzling light stunned the enemy, neutralized night vision devices and at the same time illuminated the path 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 was concentrated in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, the most intense battles broke out in the area of ​​​​the Seelow Heights. Despite fierce resistance, on April 21, the first Soviet assault detachments reached the outskirts of Berlin, street fighting ensued. On the afternoon of March 25, units of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts joined, closing the ring around the city. However, the assault was yet to come, and the defense of Berlin was carefully prepared and well thought out. It was a whole system of strongholds and centers of resistance, the streets were blocked by powerful barricades, many buildings were turned into firing points, underground structures and the metro were actively used. Faustpatrons became a formidable weapon in the conditions of street fighting and limited space for maneuver, they inflicted especially heavy damage on tanks. The situation was also complicated by the fact that all German units and individual groups of soldiers, retreating during the fighting on the outskirts of the city, 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 taken by storm. However, thanks to the superiority in strength, as well as the experience gained 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, 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 office was located here, in the courtyard of which there was a bunker at Hitler's headquarters. On the night of May 1, by prior arrangement, 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 commander of the army, General V. I. Chuikov, about Hitler's suicide and about the proposal of the new German government to conclude a truce. But the categorical demand for unconditional surrender received in response was rejected by this government. 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 a surrender order, which was reproduced and, using loud-speaking installations and radio, brought to the German units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was brought to the attention of 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. Separate 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 people were irretrievably lost. In terms of daily losses of personnel and equipment, the battle for Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army. The losses of the German troops according to the reports of the Soviet command amounted to: killed - about 400 thousand people, captured about 380 thousand people. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and capitulated to the allied forces.
The Berlin operation dealt the last crushing blow to the armed forces of the Third Reich, which, with the loss of Berlin, lost their 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 Germany's unconditional surrender.

Storming the Reichstag

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



The famous photo "A captured German soldier at the Reichstag", or "Ende" - in German "The End" (panoramaberlin.ru).

The assault on 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 Banner of Victory. 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 Kroll Opera. By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, the Krol-Opera Theater, the Swiss embassy and a number of other structures were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they were a powerful center of resistance. On April 28, the corps commander, Major General S.N. Perevertkin, was tasked with capturing the Reichstag. It was assumed that the 150th SD should occupy the western part of the building, and the 171st SD - the eastern part.

The main obstacle to the advancing troops was the Spree River. The only possible way to overcome it was the Moltke bridge, which the Nazis blew up when the Soviet units approached, but the bridge did not collapse. The first attempt to take it on the move ended in failure, because. heavy fire was fired at him. Only after artillery preparation and the destruction of firing points on the embankments was it possible to capture the bridge. By the morning of April 29, the 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, on the same morning, the building of the Swiss embassy, ​​which faced the square in front of the Reichstag, was cleared of the enemy. The next target on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of the Interior, nicknamed by the Soviet soldiers "Himmler's House". A huge, solid six-story building was additionally adapted for defense. A powerful artillery preparation was carried out to capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning. For the next day, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and captured it by dawn on April 30. The way to the Reichstag was then opened.

Before dawn on April 30, the situation in the combat area was as follows. The 525th and 380th regiments of the 171st rifle division fought in the quarters north of Königplatz. The 674th regiment and part of the forces of the 756th regiment were engaged in cleaning the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from the remnants of the garrison. The 2nd battalion of the 756th regiment went to the moat and took up defense in front of it. The 207th Infantry Division crossed the Moltke Bridge and prepared to attack the building of the Krol Opera.

The Reichstag garrison numbered about 1000 people, had 5 armored vehicles, 7 anti-aircraft guns, 2 howitzers (equipment, the exact location of which has been preserved accurate descriptions and photographs). The situation was complicated by the fact that Königplatz between the "Himmler House" and the Reichstag was an open space, moreover, crossed from north to south by a deep moat 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 preparation. Parts of the 207th Infantry Division suppressed the firing points located in the building of the Krol Opera with their fire, blocked its garrison and thereby contributed to the assault. Under the cover of artillery preparation, the battalions of the 756th, 674th rifle regiments went on the attack and, on the move, overcoming the moat filled with water, broke through to the Reichstag.

All the while, while the preparation and storming of the Reichstag was going on, fierce battles were also fought on the right flank of the 150th Infantry Division, in the band 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.

One of the first to break into the Reichstag was the scouts of the group of S.E. Sorokin. At 2:25 p.m., they installed a home-made 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 the fighters on Königplatz. Encouraged by the banner, all new groups broke into the Reichstag. During the day of 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 to the Reichstag, 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 the company of I.A. Syanov, climbed onto the roof, hoisted the official Banner of the Military Council, issued by the 150th rifle division. It was it that later became the Banner of Victory.

At 10 am on May 1, German troops launched a concerted counterattack from outside and inside the Reichstag. In addition, a fire broke out in several parts of the building, the Soviet soldiers had to fight it or move to non-burning premises. There was a strong smoke. However, the Soviet soldiers did not leave the building and continued to fight. A fierce battle continued until late in the evening, the remnants of the Reichstag garrison were again driven into the cellars.

Realizing the futility of further resistance, the command of the Reichstag garrison offered to start negotiations, but on the condition that an officer with the rank of no less than a colonel should take part in them from the Soviet side. Among the officers who were at that time in the Reichstag, there was no one older than the major, and communication with the regiment did not work. After a short preparation, A.P. Berest went into negotiations as a colonel (the tallest and most representative), S.A. Neustroev as his adjutant and private I. Prygunov as an interpreter. Negotiations went on for 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 all day on May 1, there was a battle for the building of the Krol Opera. Only by midnight, after two unsuccessful assault attempts, the 597th and 598th regiments of the 207th rifle division captured the theater building. According to the report of 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 taken prisoner. There is no exact data on the losses of the Soviet troops. On the afternoon of May 2, the Victory Banner of the Military Council, hoisted by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was transferred to the dome of the Reichstag.
After the Victory, under an agreement with the Allies, the Reichstag withdrew to the territory of the occupation zone of Great Britain.

History of the Reichstag

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



Reichstag. Modern view (Jürgen Matern).

The Reichstag building (Reichstagsgebäude - “state assembly building”) is a famous historical building in Berlin. The building was designed by the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot in the style of the Italian High Renaissance. The first stone in the foundation of the building of the German Parliament was laid on June 9, 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Construction lasted ten years and was completed under Kaiser Wilhelm II. 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 Göring). 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 an excuse for the National Socialists, who had just come to power, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, to quickly dismantle democratic institutions and discredit their main political opponent, the Communist Party. Six months after the fire in the Reichstag in Leipzig, the trial of the accused communists begins, among which were Ernst Torgler, chairman of the communist faction in the parliament of the Weimar Republic, and the Bulgarian communist Georgy Dimitrov. During the process, Dimitrov and Goering had a fierce skirmish 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.

Thereafter, rare meetings of the Reichstag took place at the Kroll 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 self-made Victory Banner was hoisted at the Reichstag. On the walls of the Reichstag, Soviet soldiers left many inscriptions, 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 of votes. 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 the inside of the left pediment.

On September 9, 1948, during the blockade of Berlin, a rally was held in front of the Reichstag building, which brought together over 350 thousand Berliners. Against the background of the destroyed building of the Reichstag with the famous appeal to the world community "Peoples of the world ... Look at this city!" Mayor Ernst Reuter asked.

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 in any way whether it was worth restoring it or it would be much more expedient to demolish it. Since the dome was damaged during the fire, and almost destroyed by air bombardments, 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, passed in close proximity to the Reichstag building. It ended up in West Berlin. Subsequently, the building was restored and, since 1973, it has been used as a historical exhibition and as a meeting room for bodies and factions of the Bundestag.

On June 20, 1991 (after German reunification on October 4, 1990), the Bundestag in Bonn (the former capital of Germany) decides to move to Berlin in the Reichstag building. After the 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 the modern parliament. The huge arch of the 6-storey building of the German parliament is carried by 12 concrete columns, each weighing 23 tons. The dome of the Reichstag has a diameter of 40 m, a weight of 1200 tons, of which 700 tons are steel structures. The observation deck, equipped on the dome, is located at a height of 40.7 m. Being on it, you can see both the circular panorama of Berlin and everything that happens in the meeting room.

Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Banner of Victory?

Soviet gunners make inscriptions on shells, 1945. Photo by O.B.Knorring (topwar.ru).

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

The fire of the Reichstag 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 regime was established in Germany and a ban was introduced on the existence and foundation of new parties: all power is now concentrated in the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). The power of the new powerful and "most powerful in the world" country was henceforth to be located in the new Reichstag. The 290-metre-high building was designed by Minister of Industry 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 there were speeches 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 forces of Nazi Germany, led by Hermann Goering.

As early as October 6, 1944, at a solemn meeting of the Moscow City Council in honor of the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin said: “From now on, our land is free from Hitler’s evil spirits, and now the Red Army is left with its last, final mission: to complete the work together with the armies of our allies defeat the Nazi army, finish off the fascist beast in its own lair and hoist the Banner of Victory over Berlin. However, over which building should the Banner of Victory be hoisted? On April 16, 1945, the day the Berlin offensive began, at a meeting of the heads of political departments of all armies from the 1st Belorussian Front, Zhukov was asked where to put 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 focus of German aggression and, ultimately, the cause of terrible suffering for millions of people. Each Soviet soldier considered it his goal to destroy and destroy the Reichstag, which was comparable to the victory over fascism. Many shells and armored vehicles were inscribed with white paint: “According to the Reichstag!” and "To the Reichstag!".

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

Standard-bearers of Victory

If you stop a random passerby on the street and ask him who hoisted the Banner on the Reichstag in the victorious spring of 1945, the most likely answer would be: Yegorov and Kantaria. Perhaps 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 installed the Banner of Victory, Banner No. 5, one of the 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 Banner of Victory during the storming of the Reichstag is much more complicated, it is impossible to limit it to the history of a single banner group.
The red flag raised above 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 home-made 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 units could remain unknown, not mentioned in the reports and combat documents?

Today, perhaps, it is difficult to establish exactly who was the first to hoist the red banner on the Reichstag, and even more so to compile a chronological sequence of the appearance of various flags in different parts of the building. But it is also impossible to limit oneself to the history of only one, official, Banner, to single out some and leave others in the shadow. It is important to preserve the memory of all the banner-bearing heroes who stormed the Reichstag in 1945, who risked themselves in the last days and hours of the war, just when everyone especially wanted to survive - after all, Victory was very close.

Banner of Sorokin's group

Intelligence group S.E. Sorokin at the Reichstag. Photo by I. Shagin (panoramaberlin.ru).

Newsreel footage of Roman Karmen, as well as photographs by 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 historic 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 the correspondents, they repeated for the chronicle their way to the Reichstag, passed with battles on April 30th. It so happened that the 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 were the first to approach the Reichstag. Both regiments were part of the 150th Infantry Division. However, by the end of the day on April 29, after crossing the Spree along the Moltke bridge and fierce fighting to capture the "Himmler's house", units of the 756th regiment suffered heavy losses. Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhodanov recalls that in the late evening of April 29 he was called to his NP by the division commander, Major General V.M. Just at that moment, having returned from the division commander, Plekhodanov ordered S.E. Sorokin, the regimental intelligence platoon commander, to select a group of fighters who would go in the front line of the attackers. Since the Banner of the Military Council remained at the headquarters of the 756th regiment, it was decided to make a homemade banner. The red cloth was found in the cellars of the "Himmler's house".

To accomplish 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. Gabidullin, N. Sankin and P. Dolgikh. The first assault attempt, made in the early morning of April 30, was unsuccessful. After the artillery preparation, the second attack rose. "Himmler's House" was separated from the Reichstag by only 300-400 meters, but it was an open space of the square, the Germans fired at it with multi-layered fire. When crossing the square, N. Sankin was seriously wounded and P. Dolgikh was killed. The remaining 8 scouts broke into the Reichstag building among the first. Clearing the way with grenades and automatic bursts, 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 fixed the banner. The flag was noticed by the fighters who fortified on 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 fixed it on one of the sculptural groups. It was at 2:25 pm. Such a time of hoisting the flag on the roof of the building appears in combat reports along with the names of Lieutenant Sorokin's scouts, in the memoirs of participants in the events.

Immediately after the assault, the fighters of the Sorokin group were presented with the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union. However, they were awarded the Order of the Red Banner - for the capture of the Reichstag. Only I.N. Lysenko a year later, in May 1946, was awarded the golden star of the Hero.

Banner of the Makov Group

The fighters 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, led by Captain Vladimir Makov, from the artillerymen of the 136th and 86th artillery brigades, the second, led by Major Bondar from other artillery units. The group of Captain Makov acted in the battle formations of the battalion of Captain Neustroev, who, on the morning of April 30, began to storm the Reichstag in the direction of the main entrance. Fierce battles continued throughout the day with varying success. The Reichstag was not taken. But individual fighters nevertheless penetrated the first floor and hung several red tarts by the broken windows. It was they who became the reason that some leaders hurried 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 on the radio, the message was also transmitted abroad. In fact, on the orders of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the artillery preparation for the decisive assault began only at 21:30, and the assault itself began at 22:00 local time. After Neustroev's battalion moved to the main entrance, four of Captain Makov's group rushed forward along the steep stairs to the roof of the Reichstag building. Paving the way with grenades and automatic bursts, she reached her goal - against the backdrop of a fiery glow, the sculptural composition “Goddess of Victory” stood out, over which Sergeant Minin hoisted the Red Banner. On the cloth he wrote the names of his comrades. Then Captain Makov, accompanied by Bobrov, went downstairs 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. Makov, senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov, sergeant M.P. Minin. On May 2, 3 and 6, the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the commander of the artillery of the 3rd shock army and the commander of the 3rd shock army confirmed the application for the award. However, the assignment of the titles of heroes did not take place.

At one time, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation conducted a study of archival documents related to the hoisting of the Banner of Victory. 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 conferring the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to a group of the above-mentioned soldiers. In 1997, all five of Makov 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 Banner of Victory (panoramaberlin.ru).



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

The banner installed on the dome of the Reichstag by Yegorov, 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 the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The issue of the Banner of Victory was decided in advance, even before the storming of the Reichstag. The Reichstag was in the offensive zone of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front. It consisted of nine divisions, in connection with which nine special banners were made for transfer to assault groups in each of the divisions. The banners were handed over to the political departments on the night of April 20-21. Banner No. 5 hit the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division. Sergeant M.A. Egorov and junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria were also chosen in advance to carry out the task of hoisting the Banner, as experienced scouts who had acted in pairs more than once, fighting friends. Senior Lieutenant A.P. Berest was sent to accompany the scouts with a banner by the battalion commander S.A. Neustroev.

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

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

After the Victory, under an agreement with the Allies, the Reichstag remained on the territory of the occupation zone of Great Britain. The 3rd Shock Army was being redeployed. In this regard, the Banner, hoisted by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was removed from the dome on May 8. Today it is stored 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 banner on the Reichstag, not all, unfortunately, were successful. Many fighters died or were wounded at the moment of their decisive throw, without reaching their cherished goal. In most cases, even their names were not preserved; they were lost in the cycle of events on April 30 and the first days of May 1945. One of such desperate heroes is Pyotr Pyatnitsky, a private of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Pyatnitsky was born in 1913 in the village of Muzhinovo, Oryol province (now the Bryansk region). He went to the front in July 1941. Many difficulties fell on 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 the Reichstag was stormed, he was the liaison commander of the battalion, S.A. Neustroev. On April 30, 1945, the fighters of the Neustroev battalion were among the first to approach the Reichstag. Only Königplatz Square separated from the building, but the enemy fired at it constantly. Pyotr Pyatnitsky with a banner rushed through this square in the forward line of the attackers. He ran to 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 not known exactly where the banner-bearing hero 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 supposed place is the common mass grave of Soviet soldiers in the Tiergarten.

And the flag carried by Pyotr Pyatnitsky was picked up by junior sergeant Shcherbina, also Peter, and fixed 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 the rifle squad in the company of I.Ya. Syanov, in the late evening of April 30, it was he who, with his squad, accompanied Berest, Yegorov and Kantaria to the roof of the Reichstag to hoist the Banner of Victory.

The correspondent of the divisional newspaper V.E. Subbotin, a witness to the events of the storming of the Reichstag, in those May days made a note about the feat of Pyatnitsky, but the story did not go further than the “divisionka”. Even the family of Pyotr Nikolaevich considered him missing for a long time. He was remembered 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): , struck by an enemy bullet on the steps of the building ... ". In the homeland of the fighter, in the village of Kletnya, in 1981 a monument was erected with the inscription "The brave participant in the storming of the Reichstag", one of the streets of the village was named after him.

Famous photo of Evgeny Khaldei

Evgeny Ananyevich Khaldei (March 23, 1917 - October 6, 1997) - Soviet photographer, military photojournalist. Evgeny Khaldei 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 a cheder, from the age of 13 he began working at a factory, at the same time he took the first picture with a home-made 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 editors of TASS in the Navy during the Great Patriotic War. He traveled 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 pictures, dozens of which became "photo icons". But it was the photo "Victory Banner over the Reichstag" that went around the world and became one of the main symbols of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The photo 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 day after the real hoisting of the flag. Largely due to this work in 1995 in France Chaldea was awarded one of the most honorary awards in the art world - "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters".

When the war correspondent approached the shooting location, the fighting had long subsided, and many banners fluttered on the Reichstag. But pictures had to be taken. Yevgeny Khaldei asked the very 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 cassettes. His characters were the fighters of the 8th Guards Army: Alexei Kovalev (installs the banner), as well as Abdulkhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev (assistants). After that, the press photographer took off his banner - he took it with him - and showed the pictures to the editorial office. According to the daughter of Yevgeny Khaldei, TASS "accepted the photo as an icon - with sacred awe." Yevgeny Khaldei continued his career as a photojournalist, filming the Nuremberg Trials. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin ordered that all participants in the commemorative photograph be presented for 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, none of the three fighters immortalized in the photograph "Victory Banner over the Reichstag" has survived.

Autographs of the Winners

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

On May 2, after fierce fighting, Soviet soldiers completely cleared the Reichstag building from the enemy. They went through the war, reached Berlin itself, they won. How to express your joy and exultation? Mark your presence where the war originated and ended, 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 save a significant part of these inscriptions for posterity. Interestingly, in the 1990s, during the reconstruction of the Reichstag, inscriptions were discovered 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 deeds of heroes. It is difficult to express the emotions that you feel while being there. I just want to silently consider 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, we came to Berlin!”

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Autographs on the Reichstag were left not only from oneself personally, but also from entire units and subdivisions. 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 the pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Odessa Red Banner Order of the Suvorov Regiment. The regiment was based in one of the suburbs, but on one of the May days, 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 combat path of the unit. There is also a fragment that tells about the inscription on the column: “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 in charcoal, chalk and paint: Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Georgian ... More often than others, they saw the words: “Got it! Moscow-Berlin! Stalingrad-Berlin! There were names of almost all cities of the country. And signatures, many inscriptions, names and surnames of soldiers of all branches of service 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 on the defeated fascism on the walls of the Reichstag - seized the guards of the Odessa Fighter. They immediately found a large ladder, put it to the column. Pilot Makletsov took a piece of alabaster and, climbing the steps to a height of 4-5 meters, brought out the words: "We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!" Everyone clapped. A worthy completion of the difficult military 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"

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Boris Zolotarevsky was born on October 10, 1925 in Moscow. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was only 15. But age did not prevent him from defending his homeland. Zolotarevsky went to the front, reached Berlin. After returning from the war, he became an engineer. Once, while on a tour of the Reichstag, the veteran's nephew discovered his grandfather's signature. And on April 2, 2004, Zolotarevsky again ended up in Berlin to see his name left here 59 years ago.

In his letter to Karin Felix, a researcher of the surviving autographs of Soviet soldiers and the further 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 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 nations. It was a very exciting surprise for me to see my autograph and the autographs of my friends: Matyash, Shpakov, Fortel and Kvasha, lovingly preserved on the former sooty walls of the Reichstag. With deep gratitude and respect, B. Zolotarevsky.”

"I. Ryumkin filmed here"

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There was such an inscription on the Reichstag - not only “reached”, 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, on May 2, 1945, shot a group of intelligence officers of S.E. Sorokin with a banner.

Yakov Ryumkin was born in 1913. At the age of 15, he came to work in one of the Kharkov newspapers as a courier. Then he graduated from the working faculty of Kharkov University and in 1936 became a photojournalist for the Kommunist newspaper, the press 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 years, 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. Filmed on different fronts, his reports from Stalingrad became the most famous. Writer Boris Polevoy recalls this period: “Even among the restless tribe of military photojournalists, it was difficult to find a figure more colorful and dynamic during the war than Pravda correspondent Yakov Ryumkin. During the days of many offensives, I saw Ryumkin in the advanced advancing units, and his passion to deliver a unique photograph to the editorial office, not embarrassed either in labor or in means, was also well known. Yakov Ryumkin was wounded and shell-shocked, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st Class, and the Order of the Red Star. After the Victory, he worked at Pravda, Soviet Russia, Ogonyok, and the Kolos publishing house. He filmed in the Arctic, in the virgin lands, made reports on party congresses and a large number of the most diverse reports. Yakov Ryumkin died in Moscow in 1986. The Reichstag was only a milestone in this great, saturated to the limit and vibrant life, but a milestone, perhaps, one of the most significant.

Platov Sergei. Kursk - Berlin

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

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The picture was taken on May 10, 1945 by Frontline Illustration correspondent Anatoly Morozov. The plot is random, not staged - Morozov drove into the Reichstag in search of new personnel after sending to Moscow a photo report on the signing of the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Germany. The soldier caught in the lens of the photographer - Sergei Ivanovich Platov - has been at the front since 1942. He served in the infantry, mortar regiments, then in intelligence. He began his military journey near Kursk. That is why - "Kursk - Berlin". And he comes from Perm.

There, in Perm, he lived after the war, worked as a mechanic at the factory and did not even suspect that his painting on the Reichstag column, captured in the picture, had become 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 a photograph. After the war, Sergei Platov again visited Berlin - the GDR authorities invited him to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Victory. It is curious that Sergei Ivanovich has an honorable neighborhood on the commemorative coin - on the other hand, the meeting of the Potsdam Conference of 1945 is depicted. But the veteran did not live up to the moment of its release - Sergei Platov died in 1997.

"Seversky Donets - Berlin"

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Seversky Donets - Berlin. Artillerymen Doroshenko, Tarnovsky and Sumtsev "- there was such an inscription on one of the columns of the defeated Reichstag. It would seem that just one of the 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 time of the beginning 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, discuss this news and recall the words from the song:“ And on enemy land 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 in October, the Germans entered Slavyansk. Volodya's mother, a communist, 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 hard, hungry, besides him, his aunt had her own children ...

In February 1943, Slavyansk was liberated for a short time by the advancing Soviet troops. However, then our units had to retreat again, and Tarnovsky left with them - first to distant relatives in the village, but, as it turned out, conditions were no better there either. 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 a regiment. He was a messenger, delivered various orders, reports, and then he had to fight in full, 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 to completion, took the buildings of the Gestapo, the post office, the imperial office. Vladimir Tarnovsky also went through all these important events. He speaks simply and directly about his military past and his own feelings and feelings. Including how at times it was scary, how hard some tasks were given. But the fact that he, a 13-year-old teenager, was awarded the Order of Glory 3rd degree (for his actions to save a wounded divisional commander during the fighting on the Dnieper), is able to express how good a fighter Tarnovsky became.

There were also some funny moments. Once, during the defeat of the Yasso-Kishinev group of Germans, Tarnovsky was instructed to deliver the prisoner alone - a tall, strong German. For the fighters passing by, the situation looked comical - the prisoner and the escort looked so contrasting. However, not for Tarnovsky himself - he walked all the way with a cocked machine gun at the ready. Successfully delivered the German to the division's intelligence 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, reconnaissance observer of the 3rd Battalion 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 awards: the medal “For Courage”, the orders of “Glory 3rd degree” and the “Red Star” and the especially significant “For the Capture of Berlin”. Front-line hardening, soldier friendship, education received among the elders - all this helped me a lot in my later life.

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

"Sapunov"

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

Boris Viktorovich Sapunov, the first in many years, had a chance to experience such a feeling. Boris Viktorovich was born on July 6, 1922 in Kursk. In 1939 he entered the history department of the Leningrad State University. But the Soviet-Finnish war began, Sapunov volunteered for the front, 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 went through the whole war as an artilleryman. As a sergeant in the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, he participated in the battle for Berlin and the storming of the Reichstag. He completed his military career by signing on the walls of the Reichstag.

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

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

At the end of this issue, we give an excerpt from the memoirs of the 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, some shells were brought up for a million shots 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 were fired, the rumble 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 the attack of our infantry and tanks. The picture of the battle was huge, impressive force. In all my life, I have not experienced an equal feeling ... And there was also a moment when in Berlin over the Reichstag in the smoke I saw a red flag fluttering. I am not a sentimental person, but a lump of excitement came to my throat.

List of used literature:
1. History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. In 6 volumes - M .: Military Publishing House, 1963.
2. Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections. 1969.
3. Shatilov V. M. Banner over the Reichstag. 3rd edition, corrected and enlarged. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1975. - 350 p.
4. Neustroev S.A. Path to the Reichstag. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural book publishing house, 1986.
5. Zinchenko F.M. Heroes of the assault on 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.: Military Publishing House, 1973. - 240 p.
7. Serkin S.P., Goncharov G.A. Banner 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 Nazi 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.: Military Publishing, 1975.
13. Dolmatovsky, E.A. Autographs of Victory. - M.: DOSAAF, 1975. – 167 p.
When studying the stories of Soviet soldiers who left autographs on the Reichstag, materials collected by Karin Felix were used.

Archival documents:
TsAMO, f.545, op.216338, d.3, ll.180-185; TsAMO, f.32, op.64595, d.4, ll.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(kor.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 on the basis of the material from the site panoramaberlin.ru with the kind permission of the project team "Battle for Berlin. The feat of the standard-bearers.