By the beginning of April 1945, Soviet troops reached the central regions of Germany in a wide strip and were located 60-70 km from its capital, Berlin. Attaching exceptional importance to the Berlin direction, the main command of the Wehrmacht deployed the 3rd tank and 9th armies of the Vistula army group, the 4th tank and 17th armies of the Center army group, aviation of the 6th air fleet and air Fleet "Reich". This grouping included 48 infantry, four tank and ten motorized divisions, 37 separate regiments and 98 separate battalions, two separate tank regiment, other formations and parts of the branches of the armed forces and branches of the armed forces - a total of about 1 million people, 8 thousand guns and mortars, over 1200 tanks and assault guns, 3330 aircraft.

The area of ​​upcoming hostilities abounded large quantity rivers, lakes, canals and large forest areas, which were widely used by the enemy when creating a system of defensive lines and lines. The Oder-Neisen defensive line with a depth of 20-40 km included three lanes. The first strip, which ran along the western banks of the Oder and Neisse rivers, consisted of two to three positions and had a depth of 5-10 km. It was especially strongly fortified in front of the Kyustrinsky bridgehead. The front line was covered by minefields, barbed wire and subtle obstacles. The average density of mining in the most important directions reached 2 thousand mines per 1 km.

At a distance of 10-20 km from leading edge passed the second lane, equipped along the western banks of numerous rivers. Within its limits were also Zelov heights, which towered over the valley of the river. Oder at 40-60 m. The basis of the third strip were settlements, turned into strong centers of resistance. Further in the depths was the Berlin defensive area, which consisted of three ring contours and the city itself, prepared for long-term resistance. The outer defensive bypass was located at a distance of 25-40 km from the center, and the inner one ran along the outskirts of the Berlin suburbs.

The aim of the operation was to destroy German troops in the direction of Berlin, to seize the capital of Germany and with access to the river. Elba to get in touch with the Allied armies. Its plan was to inflict several blows in a wide band, surround and at the same time cut the enemy grouping into pieces and destroy them individually. The Supreme Command Headquarters involved the 2nd and 1st Belorussian, 1st Ukrainian fronts, part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet, the 18th Air Army, the Dnieper military flotilla to carry out the operation - in total up to 2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and mortars, 6300 tanks and self-propelled guns, 8400 aircraft.

The task of the 1st Belorussian Front was to inflict main blow from the Kyustrinsky bridgehead on the Oder, with the forces of seven armies, of which two are armored, capture Berlin and, no later than 12-15 days of the operation, reach the river. Elbe. The 1st Ukrainian Front was to break through the enemy defenses on the river. Neisse, part of the forces to assist the 1st Belorussian Front in capturing the capital of Germany, and the main forces, developing the offensive in the northern and northwestern directions, no later than 10-12 days to capture the border along the river. Elbe to Dresden. The encirclement of Berlin was achieved by its detour from the north and northwest by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, and from the south and southwest by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The 2nd Belorussian Front received the task of crossing the river. Oder in the lower reaches, defeat the Stettin grouping of the enemy and continue the offensive in the direction of Rostock.

The transition to the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front was preceded by reconnaissance in force, carried out on April 14 and 15 by advanced battalions. Taking advantage of their success in separate sectors, regiments of the first echelons of divisions were brought into battle, which overcame the most dense minefields. But the measures taken did not allow misleading the German command. Having determined that the Soviet troops planned to deliver the main blow from the Kustra bridgehead, the commander of the Vistula Army Group, Colonel-General G. Heinrici, on the evening of April 15, ordered the infantry units and artillery of the 9th Army to be withdrawn from the front line to the depth of defense.

At 5 am on April 16, before dawn, artillery preparation began, during which the most dense fire was fired at the first position left by the enemy. After its completion, 143 powerful searchlights were turned on. Encountering no organized resistance, infantry formations with the support of aviation overcame 1.5-2 km. However, with their access to the third position, the battles took on a fierce character. In order to increase the force of impact, the Marshal of the Soviet Union brought into battle the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies of Colonel General M.E. Katukov and S.I. Bogdanov. Unlike the plan, this input was carried out even before the Zelov heights were mastered. But only by the end of the next day, the divisions of the 5th shock and 8th guards armies, Colonel General N.E. Berzarin and V.I. Chuikov, together with tank corps, with the support of bomber and attack aircraft, were able to break through the enemy defenses in the second lane and advance to a depth of 11-13 km.

During April 18 and 19, the main strike force of the 1st Belorussian Front, successively overcoming echeloned positions, lanes and lines, increased its penetration to 30 km and cut the German 9th Army into three parts. It attracted a significant part of the enemy's operational reserves. In four days, he transferred an additional seven divisions, two brigades of tank destroyers, and more than 30 separate battalions to its zone. Soviet troops inflicted significant damage on the enemy: nine of his divisions lost up to 80% of their people and almost all military equipment. Seven more divisions lost more than half of their composition. But their own losses were significant. Only in tanks and self-propelled guns they amounted to 727 units (23% of those available at the beginning of the operation).

In the zone of the 1st Ukrainian Front, reconnaissance in force was carried out on the night of April 16. In the morning, after artillery and aviation preparation, reinforced battalions began crossing the river under the cover of a smoke screen. Neisse. Having seized the bridgeheads, they ensured the construction of pontoon bridges, along which formations of the first echelon of the armies, as well as the advanced units of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, the 25th and 4th Guards Tank Corps, crossed to the opposite bank. During the day, the strike force broke through the main line of defense of the German troops in a sector 26 km wide and advanced 13 km in depth, however, as on the 1st Belorussian Front, it did not complete the task of the day.

On April 17, the Marshal of the Soviet Union brought into battle the main forces of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, Colonel Generals and, who broke through the enemy's second line of defense and advanced 18 km in two days. Attempts by the German command to delay their offensive with numerous counterattacks from their reserves were not successful, and it was forced to begin a retreat to the third line of defense, which ran along the river. Spree. In order to pre-empt the enemy from occupying a profitable defensive line, the commander of the front troops ordered to increase the pace of advance to the maximum. Fulfilling the task, the rifle divisions of the 13th Army (Colonel General N.P. Pukhov), the tank corps of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the Spree by the end of April 18, crossed it on the move and captured the bridgehead.

On the whole, in three days, the front's shock grouping completed the breakthrough of the Neissen defensive line in the direction of the main attack to a depth of 30 km. At the same time, the 2nd Army of the Polish Army (Lieutenant General K. Sverchevsky), the 52nd Army (Colonel General K.A. Koroteev) and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps (Lieutenant General V.K. Baranov) operating in the Dresden direction ) moved to the west by 25-30 km.

After breaking through the Oder-Neissen line, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts began to develop an offensive in order to encircle Berlin. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov decided to bypass the capital of Germany from the northeast to carry out the 47th (Lieutenant General F.I. Perkhorovich) and 3rd shock (Colonel General V.I. Kuznetsov) armies in cooperation with the corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army. The 5th shock, 8th guards and 1st guards tank armies were to continue the attack on the city from the east and isolate the enemy's Frankfurt-Guben grouping from it.

According to the plan of the Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev, the 3rd Guards and 13th Armies, as well as the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, were intended to cover Berlin from the south. At the same time, the 4th Guards Tank Army was to link up to the west of the city with the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and encircle the enemy's Berlin grouping proper.

During April 20-22, the nature of hostilities in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front did not change. His armies were forced, as before, to overcome the fierce resistance of the German troops in numerous strongholds, each time carrying out artillery and aviation training. The tank corps were never able to break away from the rifle units and acted on the same line with them. Nevertheless, they consistently broke through the outer and inner defensive contours of the city and started fighting on its northeastern and northern outskirts.

The 1st Ukrainian Front operated under more favorable conditions. In the course of breaking through the defensive lines on the Neisse and Spree rivers, he defeated the enemy's operational reserves, which allowed mobile formations to develop the offensive in separate directions at a high pace. On April 20, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies reached the approaches to Berlin. Destroying the enemy over the next two days in the areas of Zossen, Luckenwalde and Ueterbog, they overcame the outer Berlin defensive bypass, broke into the southern outskirts of the city and cut off the retreat of the German 9th Army to the west. To accomplish the same task, the 28th Army of Lieutenant General A.A. was also introduced into the battle from the second echelon. Luchinsky.

In the course of further actions, units of the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front established interaction in the Bonsdorf area on April 24, thereby completing the encirclement of the Frankfurt-Guben grouping of the enemy. The next day, when the 2nd and 4th Guards Tank Armies joined west of Potsdam, the same fate befell his Berlin grouping. At the same time, units of the 5th Guards Army, Colonel-General A.S. Zhadova met on the Elbe in the Torgau region with the American 1st Army.

Starting from April 20, the 2nd Belorussian Front of Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. began to implement the general plan of the operation. Rokossovsky. On that day, the formation of the 65th, 70th and 49th armies of Colonel General P.I. Batova, V.S. Popova and I.T. Grishin crossed the river. West Oder and captured bridgeheads on its western bank. Overcoming enemy fire resistance and repulsing counterattacks by his reserves, formations of the 65th and 70th armies united the captured bridgeheads into one up to 30 km wide and up to 6 km deep. Developing the offensive from it, by the end of April 25, they had completed the breakthrough of the main line of defense of the German 3rd Panzer Army.

The final stage of the Berlin offensive began on 26 April. Its content was to destroy the encircled enemy groups and capture the capital of Germany. Deciding to hold Berlin to the last opportunity, on April 22 Hitler ordered the 12th Army, which until that time had been operating against American troops, to break through to the southern suburbs of the city. The encircled 9th Army was supposed to break through in the same direction. After the connection, they were to strike at the Soviet troops that had bypassed Berlin from the south. To meet them from the north, it was planned to launch an offensive by Steiner's army group.

Anticipating the possibility of a breakthrough of the Frankfurt-Guben enemy grouping to the west, Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev ordered four rifle divisions of the 28th and 13th armies, reinforced with tanks, self-propelled guns and anti-tank artillery, to go on the defensive and frustrate the plans of the Wehrmacht high command. At the same time, the destruction of the encircled troops began. By that time, up to 15 divisions of the German 9th and 4th tank armies were blocked in the forests southeast of Berlin. They numbered 200 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 2 thousand guns and mortars, over 300 tanks and assault guns. To defeat the enemy from the two fronts, six armies were involved, part of the forces of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies, the main forces of the 2nd Air Army of Colonel General Aviation S.A. Krasovsky.

Inflicting simultaneous frontal strikes and strikes in converging directions, the Soviet troops constantly reduced the area of ​​the encirclement area, cut the enemy grouping into parts, disrupted the interaction between them and destroyed them individually. At the same time, they stopped the unceasing attempts of the German command to make a breakthrough to connect with the 12th Army. To do this, it was necessary to constantly build up forces and means in threatened directions, to increase the depth of combat formations of troops on them to 15-20 km.

Despite heavy losses, the enemy persistently rushed to the west. Its maximum advance was more than 30 km, and the minimum distance between the formations of the 9th and 12th armies that delivered counter strikes was only 3-4 km. However, by the beginning of May, the Frankfurt-Guben group had ceased to exist. In the course of heavy fighting, up to 60 thousand people were destroyed, 120 thousand soldiers and officers were captured, over 300 tanks and assault guns, 1500 field and anti-aircraft artillery, 17,600 vehicles, a large number of other technology.

The destruction of the Berlin group, which numbered over 200 thousand people, more than 3 thousand guns and mortars, 250 tanks, was carried out in the period from April 26 to May 2. At the same time, the main way to overcome enemy resistance was the widespread use of assault detachments as part of rifle units, reinforced with artillery, tanks, self-propelled guns and sappers. They attacked with the support of aviation of the 16th (Colonel-General of Aviation K.A. Vershinin) and 18th (Chief Marshal of Aviation A.E. Golovanov) air armies in narrow areas and cut the German units into many isolated groups.

On April 26, formations of the 47th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 3rd Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front separated the enemy groups located in Potsdam and directly in Berlin. The next day, Soviet troops captured Potsdam and at the same time started fighting in the central (ninth) defensive sector of Berlin, where the highest state and military authorities of Germany were located.

On April 29, the rifle corps of the 3rd shock army entered the Reichstag area. The approaches to it were covered by the river. Spree and a number of fortified large buildings. At 13:30 on April 30, artillery preparation for the assault began, in which, in addition to artillery operating from closed positions, 152- and 203-mm howitzers took part as direct fire guns. After its completion, units of the 79th Rifle Corps attacked the enemy and broke into the Reichstag.

As a result of the fighting on April 30, the position of the Berlin group became hopeless. It was divided into isolated groups, command and control of troops at all levels was violated. Despite this, individual divisions and parts of the enemy continued futile resistance for several days. Only by the end of May 5 it was finally broken. 134 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered.

In the period from May 3 to May 8, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced in a wide strip to the river. Elbe. The 2nd Belorussian Front, operating to the north, by that time had completed the defeat of the German 3rd Panzer Army, went to the coast Baltic Sea and to the Elbe. On May 4, in the Wismar-Grabov sector, his formations established contact with units of the British 2nd Army.

During the Berlin operation, the 2nd and 1st Belorussian, 1st Ukrainian fronts defeated 70 infantry, 12 tank and 11 motorized divisions, 3 battle groups, 10 separate brigades, 31 separate regiments, 12 separate battalions and 2 military schools. They captured about 480 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, captured 1550 tanks, 8600 guns, 4150 aircraft. At the same time, the losses of the Soviet troops amounted to 274,184 people, of which 78,291 were irretrievable, 2,108 guns and mortars, 1,997 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, 917 combat aircraft.

A distinctive feature of the operation, compared with the largest offensive operations carried out in 1944-1945, was its shallow depth, which amounted to 160-200 km. This was due to the meeting line of the Soviet and allied troops along the line of the river. Elba. Nevertheless, the Berlin operation is an instructive example of an offensive aimed at encircling a large enemy grouping while cutting it into pieces and destroying each of them separately. It also fully reflects the issues of consistently breaking through echeloned defensive lines and lines, timely buildup of strike force, the use of tank armies and corps as mobile groups of fronts and armies, and combat operations in a large city.

For courage, heroism and high military skill shown during the operation, 187 formations and units were awarded the honorary title "Berlin". By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 9, 1945, the medal "For the Capture of Berlin" was established, which was awarded to about 1082 thousand people. Soviet soldiers.

Sergei Aptreikin,
leading Researcher Research
Institute (military history) of the Military Academy
General Staff of the RF Armed Forces

Berlin Strategic offensive - 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 the Second world war in Europe. The operation lasted from April 16 to May 8, 1945, the width of the combat front was 300 km.

By April 1945, the main offensive operations of the Red Army in Hungary, East Pomerania, Austria and East Prussia were completed. This deprived Berlin of 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 opposed large group as part of the Vistula Army Group (Generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner).

The ratio of forces by the time the operation began is given in the table.

On April 16, 1945, at 5 am Moscow time (2 hours before dawn), artillery preparation began in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. 9000 guns and mortars, as well as more than 1500 installations of the RS BM-13 and BM-31 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 flared up in the area of ​​​​the Seelow Heights.

Despite fierce resistance, on April 21, the first Soviet assault detachments reached the outskirts of Berlin, and 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 rifle division. 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 head of the 8th Guards Army arrived at the headquarters general staff German ground forces, General Krebs. 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 from new force resumed the attack. 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 duplicated and, using loud-speaking installations and radio, brought to enemy units defending in 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. In terms of the intensity of losses, this operation is comparable only to the Battle of Kursk.

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.

The Berlin operation is one of the largest in the Great Patriotic War.

List of sources used:

1. History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. In 6 vols. - M .: Military Publishing, 1963.

2. Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections. In 2 vols. 1969

4. Shatilov V. M. Banner over the Reichstag. 3rd edition, corrected and enlarged. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1975. - 350 p.

5. Neustroev S.A. Path to the Reichstag. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural book publishing house, 1986.

6. 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.

Storming of the Reichstag.

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.

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. 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 hope to thereby 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 a 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 armed forces 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. next goal 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’s 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 April 30 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 inside 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 Chief political management 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. Everyone soviet soldier considered 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 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 appearance in different parts buildings of various flags. 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 summoned to his NP by division commander Major General V.M. It was 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 flag 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, the four from Captain Makov's group rushed forward along steep stairs on 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 Makov received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from the Permanent Presidium of the Congress people's deputies 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 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 home-made flags were already installed on the Reichstag, by order of F.M. Zinchenko (commander of the 756th regiment), Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest went up 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 rank 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 flag on the Reichstag, not all, unfortunately, were successful. Many fighters died or were injured 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 these desperate heroes is Pyotr Pyatnitsky, a private in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.

Pyotr Nikolaevich Pyatnitsky was born in 1913 in the village of Muzhinovo, Oryol province (now 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): “...Here the flag of a soldier of the 1st battalion of the 756th rifle regiment, junior sergeant Pyotr Pyatnitsky, flew up , 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 Ananievich 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, in TASS the photo was "accepted 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!”

panoramaberlin.ru

Autographs on the Reichstag were left not only from oneself personally, but also from entire units and subdivisions. Enough famous photograph 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. Worthy completion of the difficult combat way glorious regiment, in which 28 Heroes of the Soviet Union fought during the Great Patriotic War, including four who were twice awarded this high title.

"Stalingraders Shpakov, Matyash, Zolotarevsky"

panoramaberlin.ru

Boris Zolotarevsky was born on October 10, 1925 in Moscow. At the 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 her letter to Karin Felix, a researcher of the preserved autographs of Soviet soldiers and further destinies 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 then. 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"

panoramaberlin.ru

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. The 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 I degree and 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.

panoramaberlin.ru

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"

panoramaberlin.ru

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 passed long way to the Victory and survived 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 the 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 on a short time liberated 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 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, post office, 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 rescue a wounded divisional commander during the battles on the Dnieper), is able to express how a good fighter became Tarnovsky.

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, I 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"

panoramaberlin.ru

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 long years. 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, USSR Minister of Defense 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 do not sentimental person, but I got a lump in my throat from excitement.

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.

Image copyright RIA Novosti

On April 16, 1945, the Berlin offensive operation of the Soviet army began, which entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most major battle in history. On both sides, about 3.5 million people, 52 thousand guns and mortars, 7750 tanks, almost 11 thousand aircraft took part in it.

The assault was conducted by eight combined-arms and four tank armies of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts under the command of marshals Georgy Zhukov and Ivan Konev, the 18th long-range air army of air marshal Alexander Golovanov and the ships of the Dnieper military flotilla transferred to the Oder.

In total, the Soviet grouping consisted of 1.9 million people, 6,250 tanks, 41,600 guns and mortars, more than 7,500 aircraft, plus 156,000 Polish troops (the Polish flag was the only one raised over the defeated Berlin along with the Soviet one).

The width of the offensive sector was about 300 kilometers. On the direction of the main attack was the 1st Belorussian Front, which was to capture Berlin.

The operation lasted until May 2 (according to some military experts, until the surrender of Germany).

The irretrievable losses of the USSR amounted to 78291 people, 1997 tanks, 2108 guns, 917 aircraft, the Polish Army - 2825 people.

In terms of the intensity of average daily losses, the Berlin operation surpassed the battle on the Kursk Bulge.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Millions gave their lives for this moment

The 1st Belorussian Front lost 20% of its personnel and 30% of its armored vehicles.

Germany lost about a hundred thousand people killed during the entire operation, including 22 thousand directly in the city. 480 thousand soldiers were captured, about 400 thousand retreated to the west and surrendered to the allies, including 17 thousand people who fought their way out of the surrounded city.

Military historian Mark Solonin points out that, contrary to popular belief, that in 1945 nothing significant except the Berlin operation took place at the front, Soviet losses in it amounted to less than 10% of the total losses for January-May (801 thousand people). The longest and fiercest fighting took place in East Prussia and on the Baltic coast.

The Last Frontier

On the German side, the defense was held by about a million people, reduced to 63 divisions, 1,500 tanks, 10,400 artillery pieces, 3,300 aircraft. Directly in the city and its immediate environs were about 200 thousand soldiers and officers, three thousand guns and 250 tanks.

"Faustniks", as a rule, fought to the end and showed much greater stamina than the battered, but broken by defeats and many years of fatigue, soldiers Marshal Ivan Konev

In addition, there were about 60 thousand (92 battalions) Volkssturm - militia fighters, formed on October 18, 1944 on the orders of Hitler from teenagers, the elderly and people with disabilities. In open battle, their value was not great, but in the city, the Volkssturm, armed with faustpatrons, could pose a threat to tanks.

Captured faustpatrons were also used by Soviet troops, primarily against the enemy, who had settled in the basements. Only in the 1st Guards Tank Army on the eve of the operation, 3,000 of them were stocked.

At the same time, the losses of Soviet tanks from faustpatrons during the Berlin operation amounted to only 23%. The main means of anti-tank warfare, as during the entire war, was artillery.

In Berlin, divided into nine defense sectors (eight peripheral and central), 400 pillboxes were built, many houses with strong walls were turned into firing points.

Commanded by Colonel General (in the Wehrmacht this rank corresponded to the Soviet rank of army general) Gotthard Heinrici.

Two lines of defense were created with a total depth of 20-40 km, especially strong opposite the Kyustrinsky bridgehead previously occupied by Soviet troops on the right bank of the Oder.

Training

From the middle of 1943, the Soviet army had an overwhelming superiority in people and equipment, learned how to fight and, in the words of Mark Solonin, "filled up the enemy no longer with corpses, but with artillery shells."

On the eve of the Berlin operation, engineering units built 25 bridges and 40 ferry crossings across the Oder in a short time. Hundreds of kilometers railways were changed to a wide Russian gauge.

From April 4 to April 15, large forces were deployed from the 2nd Belorussian Front operating in northern Germany to participate in the assault on Berlin at a distance of 350 km, mainly by road, for which 1900 trucks were involved. According to the memoirs of Marshal Rokossovsky, it was the largest logistical operation in the entire Great Patriotic War.

Reconnaissance aviation provided the command with about 15 thousand photographs, on the basis of which a large-scale model of Berlin and its environs was made at the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian Front.

Disinformation activities were carried out in order to convince the German command that the main blow would be delivered not from the Kustrinsky bridgehead, but to the north, in the area of ​​​​the cities of Stettin and Guben.

Stalinist castling

Until November 1944, the 1st Belorussian Front, which was supposed to occupy Berlin due to its geographical location, was headed by Konstantin Rokossovsky.

By merit and military talent, he had every right to claim part of the capture of the enemy capital, but Stalin replaced him with Georgy Zhukov, and sent Rokossovsky to the 2nd Belorussian Front - to clear the coast of the Baltic.

Rokossovsky could not resist and asked the Supreme Commander why he was so disfavored. Stalin limited himself to a formal answer that the sector to which he was transferring him was no less important.

Historians see the real reason that Rokossovsky was an ethnic Pole.

Marshal pride

Jealousy between the Soviet military leaders also took place directly during the Berlin operation.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption The city was almost completely destroyed

On April 20, when units of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to advance more successfully than the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, and it became possible that they would be the first to break into the city, Zhukov ordered Semyon Bogdanov, commander of the 2nd Tank Army: "Send from each corps one of the best brigade to Berlin and assign them the task of breaking through to the outskirts of Berlin at any cost no later than 4 o’clock in the morning on April 21 and immediately reporting to Comrade Stalin and announcements in the press.

Konev was even more outspoken.

"Marshal Zhukov's troops are 10 km from the eastern outskirts of Berlin. I order you to be the first to break into Berlin tonight," he wrote on April 20 to the commanders of the 3rd and 4th tank armies.

On April 28, Zhukov complained to Stalin that Konev’s troops had occupied a number of quarters of Berlin, which, according to the original plan, belonged to his area of ​​​​responsibility, and the Supreme Commander ordered units of the 1st Ukrainian Front to give up the territory that had just been occupied with battles.

Relations between Zhukov and Konev remained tense until the end of their lives. According to film director Grigory Chukhrai, soon after the capture of Berlin, things came to a fight between them.

Churchill's attempt

Back in late 1943, at a meeting aboard the battleship Iowa, Franklin Roosevelt set the military the task: "We must reach Berlin. The United States must get Berlin. The Soviets can take territory to the east."

"I think that the best object of attack is the Ruhr, and then to Berlin north way. We must decide that it is necessary to go to Berlin and end the war; everything else should play a secondary role, "wrote British commander-in-chief Bernard Montgomery to Dwight Eisenhower on September 18, 1944. In a response letter, he called the German capital "the main trophy."

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Winners on the steps of the Reichstag

According to the agreement reached in the autumn of 1944 and confirmed at the Yalta Conference, the border of the occupation zones was to pass approximately 150 km west of Berlin.

After the March Ruhr offensive of the allies, the resistance of the Wehrmacht in the west was greatly weakened.

“The Russian armies will undoubtedly occupy Austria and enter Vienna. If they also take Berlin, will not the unjustified notion be strengthened in their minds that they have made the main contribution to our common victory? serious and insurmountable difficulties in the future? I believe that, in view of the political significance of all this, we must advance in Germany as far east as possible, and if Berlin is within our reach, we must, of course, take it, "wrote the British Prime Minister .

Roosevelt consulted with Eisenhower. He rejected the idea, citing the need to save lives. american soldiers. Perhaps the fear that Stalin, in response, would refuse to participate in the war with Japan, also played a role.

On March 28, Eisenhower personally sent Stalin a telegram in which he said that he was not going to storm Berlin.

On April 12, the Americans reached the Elbe. According to Commander Omar Bradley, the city, to which there were about 60 kilometers, "lay at his feet," but on April 15, Eisenhower forbade the continuation of the offensive.

The famous British researcher John Fuller called it "one of the strangest decisions in military history."

Dissenting opinions

In 1964, shortly before the 20th anniversary of the Victory, Marshal Stepan Chuikov, who commanded the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belorussian Front during the assault on Berlin, expressed the opinion in an article in the Oktyabr magazine that after the Vistula-Oder operation triumphant for the USSR the offensive should have continued, and then Berlin would have been taken at the end of February 1945.

With military point sight Berlin did not have to be stormed. It was enough to take the city into the ring, and he himself would have surrendered in a week or two. And in the assault on the very eve of victory in street battles, we laid down at least a hundred thousand soldiers Alexander Gorbatov, General of the Army

The rest of the marshals gave him a sharp rebuke. Zhukov wrote to Khrushchev that Chuikov "did not understand the situation for 19 years" and "abuses the Berlin operation, which our people are legitimately proud of."

When Chuikov refused to amend the manuscript of his memoirs he had submitted to the Military Publishing House, he was scolded at the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army.

According to most military analysts, Chuikov was wrong. After the Vistula-Oder operation, the troops really needed to be reorganized. However, the honored marshal, moreover, a direct participant in the events, had the right to personal assessments, and the methods by which he was gagged had nothing to do with scientific discussion.

On the other hand, Army General Alexander Gorbatov believed that Berlin should not have been taken head-on at all.

The course of the battle

The final plan of the operation was approved on April 1 at a meeting with Stalin with the participation of Zhukov, Konev and Chief of the General Staff Alexei Antonov.

The advanced Soviet positions were separated from the center of Berlin by about 60 kilometers.

In preparing the operation, we somewhat underestimated the complexity of the terrain in the area of ​​the Seelow Heights. First of all, I must take the blame for the flaw in the question Georgy Zhukov, "Memoirs and Reflections"

At 5 am on April 16, the 1st Belorussian Front went on the offensive with the main forces from the Kustrinsky bridgehead. At the same time, a novelty in military affairs was applied: 143 anti-aircraft searchlights turned on.

Opinions differ on its effectiveness, as the beams had difficulty penetrating the morning fog and dust from explosions. "The troops did not receive real help from this," Marshal Chuikov argued at a military scientific conference in 1946.

On the 27-kilometer section of the breakthrough, 9 thousand guns and one and a half thousand Katyushas were concentrated. Massive artillery preparation lasted 25 minutes.

The head of the political department of the 1st Belorussian Front, Konstantin Telegin, subsequently reported that 6-8 days were allotted for the entire operation.

The Soviet command expected to take Berlin already on April 21, by Lenin's birthday, but it took only three days to take the fortified Seelow Heights.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption A lot of armored vehicles entered the city

At 13:00 on the first day of the offensive, Zhukov made a non-standard decision: to throw the 1st Guards Tank Army of General Mikhail Katukov on the unsuppressed enemy defenses.

In an evening telephone conversation with Zhukov, Stalin expressed doubts about the advisability of this measure.

After the war, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky criticized both the tactics of using tanks on the Seelow Heights and the subsequent entry of the 1st and 2nd Panzer Armies directly into Berlin, which led to huge losses.

"Unfortunately, the tanks were not used in the best way in the Berlin operation," Marshal of the Armored Forces Hamazasp Babajanyan pointed out.

This decision was defended by marshals Zhukov and Konev and their subordinates, who accepted it and put it into practice.

“We reckoned that we would have to suffer losses in tanks, but we knew that even if we lose even half, we will still bring up to two thousand armored vehicles to Berlin, and this will be enough to take it,” the general wrote. Telegin.

The experience of this operation once again convincingly proved the inexpediency of using large tank formations in the battle for a large settlement Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky

Zhukov's dissatisfaction with the pace of advancement was such that on April 17 he forbade issuing vodka to tankers until further notice, and many generals received reprimands and warnings from him about incomplete official compliance.

There were special complaints about long-range bomber aircraft, which repeatedly struck at their own. On April 19, Golovanov's pilots mistakenly bombed Katukov's headquarters, killed 60 people, burned seven tanks and 40 vehicles.

According to General Bakhmetyev, Chief of Staff of the 3rd Tank Army, "I had to ask Marshal Konev not to have any aircraft."

Berlin in the ring

Nevertheless, on April 20, Berlin was fired from long-range guns for the first time, which became a kind of "gift" for Hitler's birthday.

On this day, the Fuhrer announced his decision to die in Berlin.

"I will share the fate of my soldiers and accept death in battle. Even if we cannot win, we will bring half the world into oblivion," he said to his entourage.

The next day, units of the 26th Guards and 32nd Rifle Corps reached the outskirts of Berlin and installed the first Soviet banner in the city.

Already on April 24, I was convinced that it was impossible to defend Berlin and from a military point of view it was pointless, since the German command did not have sufficient forces for this, General Helmut Weidling

On April 22, Hitler ordered General Wenck's 12th Army to be removed from the Western Front and transferred to Berlin. Field Marshal Keitel flew to her headquarters.

On the evening of the same day, Soviet troops closed a double encirclement around Berlin. Nevertheless, Hitler continued to rave about the "army of Wenck" until the last hours of his life.

The last reinforcements, a battalion of naval cadets from Rostock, arrived in Berlin on transport planes on 26 April.

On April 23, the Germans launched the last relatively successful counterattack: they temporarily advanced 20 kilometers at the junction of the 52nd Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Army of the Polish Army.

On April 23, Hitler, who was in a state close to insanity, ordered the commander of the 56th Panzer Corps, General Helmut Weidling, to be shot "for cowardice". He achieved an audience with the Fuhrer, during which he not only saved his life, but also appointed him commandant of Berlin.

“It would be better if they shot me,” Weidling said, leaving the office.

In hindsight, we can say that he was right. Once in Soviet captivity, Weidling spent 10 years in the Vladimir Special Purpose Prison, where he died at the age of 64.

On the streets of the metropolis

On April 25, fighting began in Berlin itself. By this time, the Germans did not have a single solid formation left in the city, and the number of defenders was 44 thousand people.

From the Soviet side, 464 thousand people and 1500 tanks took part directly in the storming of Berlin.

To conduct street fighting, the Soviet command created assault groups consisting of an infantry platoon, two to four guns, one or two tanks.

On April 29, Keitel sent a telegram to Hitler: "I consider it hopeless to attempt to unblock Berlin," once again suggesting that the Fuhrer try to fly to southern Germany by plane.

We finished him off [Berlin]. He will envy Orel and Sevastopol - this is how we treated him General Mikhail Katukov

By April 30, only the Tiergarten government quarter remained in German hands. At 21:30, units of Major General Shatilov's 150th Rifle Division and Colonel Negoda's 171st Rifle Division approached the Reichstag.

It would be more correct to call further battles a sweep, but it was also not possible to completely capture the city by May 1.

On the night of May 1, Chief of the German General Staff Hans Krebs appeared at the headquarters of Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and offered to conclude a truce, but Stalin demanded unconditional surrender. The newly appointed Chancellor Goebbels and Krebs committed suicide.

At 6 am on May 2, General Weidling surrendered in the area of ​​the Potsdam Bridge. An hour later, the surrender order signed by him was brought to the German soldiers who continued to resist through loudspeakers.

Agony

The Germans fought to the last in Berlin, especially the SS and the propaganda-washed teenagers of the Volkssturm.

Up to two-thirds of the personnel of the SS units were foreigners - fanatical Nazis who deliberately chose to serve Hitler. The last person to receive the Knight's Cross in the Reich on April 29 was not a German, but a Frenchman Eugene Valo.

This was not the case in the political and military leadership. Historian Anatoly Ponomarenko cites numerous examples of strategic mistakes, the collapse of governance, and a sense of hopelessness that made it easier for the Soviet army to take Berlin.

For some time now, self-deception has become the main refuge of the Fuhrer Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel

Due to Hitler's stubbornness, the Germans defended their own capital with relatively small forces, while 1.2 million people remained to the end and surrendered in the Czech Republic, a million in Northern Italy, 350 thousand in Norway, 250 thousand in Courland.

The commander, General Heinrici, frankly cared about one thing: to withdraw as many units as possible to the west, so on April 29 Keitel suggested that he shoot himself, which Heinrici did not do.

On April 27, SS Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner did not comply with the order to go to unblock Berlin and took his group into American captivity.

Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, who was in charge of the engineering side of the defense, could not prevent the Berlin subway from being flooded on Hitler's orders, but saved 120 of the city's 248 bridges from destruction.

Volkssturmovtsy had 42,000 rifles for 60,000 people and five rounds of ammunition for each rifle, and were not even put on boiler allowances, but, being mostly residents of Berlin, ate whatever they could at home.

Banner of Victory

Although the parliament did not play any role under the Nazi regime, and did not meet at all since 1942, the conspicuous Reichstag building was considered a symbol of the German capital.

The red banner, now stored in the Moscow Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War, was hoisted over the dome of the Reichstag on the night of May 1, according to the canonical version, by privates of the 150th Infantry Division Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria. It was a dangerous operation, because bullets were still whistling around, so, according to the battalion commander Stepan Neustroev, his subordinates danced on the roof not for joy, but to evade the shots.

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Salute on the roof of the Reichstag

Subsequently, it turned out that nine banners were prepared and the corresponding number of assault groups were formed, so it is difficult to determine who was the first. Some historians give priority to the group of Captain Vladimir Makov from the 136th Rezhetskaya Red Banner Artillery Brigade. Five "Makovites" were presented for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but they were given only the Order of the Red Banner. The banner they set up has not been preserved.

With Egorov and Kantaria was the battalion's political officer Alexei Berest, a man of heroic strength, literally dragging his comrades on his hands to the dome shattered by shells.

However, the then PR people decided that, given the nationality of Stalin, Russians and Georgians should become heroes, and all the rest turned out to be superfluous.

The fate of Alexei Berest was tragic. After the war, he was in charge of the regional cinema network in Stavropol Territory and received 10 years in the camps on charges of embezzlement, although 17 witnesses confirmed his innocence at trial. According to daughter Irina, cashiers stole, and her father suffered because he was rude to the investigator during the first interrogation. Shortly after his release, the hero died after falling under a train.

Bormann's secret

Hitler committed suicide in the building of the Reich Chancellery on 30 April. Goebbels followed suit a day later.

Goering and Himmler were outside Berlin and were captured by the Americans and the British respectively.

Another Nazi boss, Deputy Fuhrer for the party Martin Bormann, went missing during the storming of Berlin.

It is felt that our troops did a tasteful job on Berlin. On the way, I saw only a dozen surviving houses. Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference

According to the widespread version, Bormann lived incognito in Latin America for many years. The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced him to hanging in absentia.

Most researchers tend to think that Bormann failed to get out of the city.

In December 1972, while laying a telephone cable near the Lehrter station in West Berlin, two skeletons were discovered that forensic doctors, dentists and anthropologists recognized as belonging to Bormann and Hitler's personal doctor Ludwig Stumpfegger. Between the teeth of the skeletons were fragments of glass ampoules with potassium cyanide.

Bormann's 15-year-old son Adolf, who fought in the ranks of the Volkssturm, survived and became a Catholic priest.

uranium trophy

One of the goals of the Soviet army in Berlin, according to modern data, was the Physics Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, where there was an operating nuclear reactor and 150 tons of uranium purchased before the war in the Belgian Congo.

It was not possible to capture the reactor: the Germans had previously taken it to the Alpine village of Haigerloch, where the Americans got it on April 23. But the uranium fell into the hands of the victors, which, according to a member of the Soviet nuclear project academician Julius Khariton, brought the creation of the bomb about a year closer.

And the end of the bloodshed, because it was she who put an end to the end of the Great Patriotic War.

In the period from January to March 1945, Soviet troops fought active battles in Germany. Thanks to unprecedented heroism in the area and the Neisse, strategic bridgeheads were captured by Soviet troops, including the Kustrin area.

The Berlin operation lasted only 23 days, began on April 16 and ended on May 8, 1945. Our troops made a throw across Germany to the west for a distance of almost 220 km, and the front of fierce hostilities spread over a width of more than 300 km.

At the same time, without encountering particularly organized resistance, the Anglo-American allied forces approached Berlin.

The plan of the Soviet troops was, first of all, to inflict several powerful and unexpected blows on a wide front. The second task was to separate the remnants of the fascist troops, namely the Berlin group, into parts. The third, final part of the plan was to encircle and finally destroy the remnants of the fascist troops in parts and at this stage capture the city of Berlin.

But, before starting the main, decisive battle in the war, a huge preparatory work was carried out. Soviet aircraft conducted 6 reconnaissance sorties. Their goal was aerial photography of Berlin. The scouts were interested in the fascist defensive lines of the city and fortifications. Almost 15,000 aerial photographs were taken by pilots. Based on the results of these surveys and interviews of prisoners, special maps of the fortified areas of the city were compiled. It was they who were successfully used in organizing the offensive of the Soviet troops.

A detailed plan of the terrain and defensive enemy fortifications, which were studied in detail, ensured the successful assault on Berlin and the fighting in the center of the capital.

In order to deliver weapons and ammunition, as well as fuel, on time, Soviet engineers converted the German railway track to the familiar Russian track all the way to the Oder.

The assault on Berlin was carefully prepared, for this, along with maps, an exact layout of the city was made. It displayed the layout of streets and squares. The slightest features of attacks and assaults on the streets of the capital were worked out.

In addition, the scouts carried out misinformation of the enemy, and the date of the strategic offensive was kept in strict secrecy. Only two hours before the attack, junior commanders had the right to tell their subordinate Red Army men about the offensive.

The Berlin operation of 1945 began on April 16 with the main attack of the Soviet troops from the bridgehead in the Kustrin area on the Oder River. First, Soviet artillery struck a powerful blow, and then aviation.

The Berlin operation was a fierce battle, the remnants of the fascist army did not want to give up the capital, because it would have been a complete fall. The battles were very fierce, the enemy had an order - not to surrender Berlin.

As noted earlier, Berlin operation lasted only 23 days. Given that the battle was on the territory of the Reich, and it was the agony of fascism, the battle was special.

The heroic 1st Belorussian Front was the first to act, it was he who delivered the strongest blow to the enemy, and the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an active offensive at the same time on the Neisse River.

It should be noted that the Nazis were well prepared for defense. On the banks of the Neisse and Oder rivers, they created powerful defensive fortifications that stretched up to 40 kilometers in depth.

The city of Berlin at that time consisted of three rings built in the form of rings. The Nazis skillfully used obstacles: every lake, river, canal and numerous ravines, and the surviving large buildings played the role of strongholds, ready for all-round defense. The streets and squares of Berlin have turned into real barricades.

Starting from April 21, as soon as the Soviet army entered Berlin, and right up to the very streets of the capital, there were endless battles. Streets and houses were taken by storm, fighting was going on even in subway tunnels, in sewer pipes, in dungeons.

The Berlin offensive operation ended with the victory of the Soviet troops. The last efforts of the Nazi command to keep Berlin in their hands ended in complete failure.

April 20 became a special day in this operation. This was a turning point in the battle for Berlin, as Berlin fell on April 21, but even before May 2 there were life-and-death battles. On April 25, an important event also took place, since the Ukrainian troops in the area of ​​​​the cities of Torgau and Riza met with the soldiers of the 1st american army.

On April 30, Red was already developing over the Reichstag, and on the same April 30, Hitler, the mastermind behind the bloodiest war of the century, took poison.

On May 8, 1945, the main document of the war, the act of complete surrender of Nazi Germany, was signed.

During the operation, our troops lost about 350 thousand people. The loss of manpower of the Red Army amounted to 15 thousand people per day.

Undoubtedly, this war, inhuman in its cruelty, was won by a simple Soviet soldier, because he knew that he died for his Motherland!