By David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
Translation: Zhao Wei Zhao Guoxing
In fact, everyone – from Stalin down to soviet soldiers – was emotionally and intellectually bent on conquering Berlin. After more than three years of devastation and horrific casualties, the Soviets were determined to destroy the enemy regime and finally end the war. Moreover, after so much blood and sweat to defeat the German Army from the ground, Soviet commanders were reluctant to let their Western allies reap the fruits of victory. From this point of view, even without talking about Stalin's desire to take control of post-war Central Europe and the factors of reaching an agreement with the Western Allies to occupy Berlin by the Soviets, this emotional impulse would have driven the Red Army to the German capital.
breakthrough
At 05:30 on April 14, 1945, after 15 to 20 minutes of artillery fire, the reinforced infantry battalions of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Echelon Infantry Division of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to conduct combat reconnaissance in the main offensive directions (see Battlefield Situation Figure 26). Zhukov's front alone put in 38 battalions and several reinforced companies. A typical battalion contingent would be supported by a tank company, a self-propelled artillery company, and artillery and engineers. 21 In some areas, the First Echelon will also join the battle to develop local victories. During the two-day battle, some detachments were wedged into the German line up to 5 kilometers behind; however, the defending Germans by this time had become accustomed to this tactic. The captives confidently told the Soviets who had captured them that the main offensive would begin in two or three days. In order to avoid being killed by more artillery fire, Hitler approved Heinrich's request on the night of April 15, withdrawing most of his personnel from the forward positions, retaining only a small force.
From the evening of 15 april to the early morning of 16 April, 150 night bombers of the 4th and 16th Armies of the Soviet Air Force launched an aviation attack on the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front, bombing the first German defensive belt. When the ground offensive began the following day, the four strike aviation units of the 18th Air Force would turn to targets in the German second defensive belt. On the first day alone, the three air groups flew 6,548 sorties.
Based on the results of the combat reconnaissance, the Soviet commander adjusted the amount of fire preparation on each section. For example, Zhukov's 47th Army reduced the shelling time from 30 minutes to 25 minutes, while the 5th Army, which was the smoothest friendly assault at the time of testing the waters, only fired for 20 minutes, and then switched to attacking deep targets. At 03:00 on 16 April, the 1st Belorussian Front began general artillery preparations. But this time [the artillery] preparation was so fierce that it caused more trouble than it destroyed in many places, and did not clear the German second defensive positions on the Celo Heights at all. The air was thick with smoke before dawn; Zhukov's whimsical searchlight tactic not only failed to penetrate the smoke clouds in front of the attacking soldiers, but caused chaos on his own side. The few roads near the Oder River were quickly congested, and the sides were so wet and soft that it was difficult for vehicles to overtake or give way. Disturbed by searchlights, the infantry could not see anything or distinguish the direction, and traveled 1.5 to 2 kilometers forward to reach the Haupt Canal under the Celo Heights. The Soviets encountered great difficulties in overcoming this obstacle. Even if the armored troops in charge of support in some places can approach the high ground, the slope is too large to accompany the infantry impact. By late in the morning, Trikov's Guards 8th Army had made only limited progress, and General Korparkch's 69th Army to the south was completely blocked.
Zhukov, who was observing the battle at the forward command post of the Guards 8th Army, had an iron will, and could no longer control himself. Once again, he made the mistakes that Soviet generals often made between 1942 and 1943 (including his own time at Lezhev in November 1942). The field marshal decided to put the armored units used to develop victories into battle in advance in order to open a breakthrough in the second German defensive belt, which was still intact. General Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army and Admiral Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army were hopelessly blocked with the artillery and supply vehicles of the onslaught infantry division. The 11th Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army repelled the counter-assault of the "Minscheberg" panzer division, but the two tank armies could not complete the task of interspersing depth - the German villages surrounded by fortifications were like a labyrinth, and every time they tried to rush through these places, German infantry armed with "armored fists" would ambush at close range. Eventually, the brigades and corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army were dispersed to support the 8th Guards and assault the 5th Army. Overall, the Soviet advance was slow and miserable.
It took the 1st Belorussian Front 2 days to break through the defenses of the Celo Heights and achieve its initial objectives. Trikov's attack was so difficult that most of his 9 disgruntled German divisions escaped and retreated to the next line of defense. To cover the retreat, the Germans also launched a counterattack on 17 April, throwing three divisions in an attempt to cut off the Berlin-Kustrin highway behind the forward forces of the Katukov Tank Army. The next day, Trikov was forced to launch a second breakthrough against the German third line of defense (which was not discovered by pre-war reconnaissance). However, even the most tenacious defenders did not have many soldiers and weapons and ammunition. By 20 April, Lieutenant General Nikolai Errastovich Belzalin's Assault 5th Army and Trikov's 8th Guards Army had successfully broken through the German fourth line of defense and begun to advance towards the eastern outskirts of Berlin, but at an unbearable pace and at a high cost.
From the beginning to the present, Stalin, who could not bear the patience, was soft and Zhukov. Meanwhile, on The Zhukov right flank, the 47th Army of Lieutenant General Franz Josefovich Perhorovich and the assault of the 3rd Army of Admiral Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov went more smoothly and began to raid Berlin from the north and northwest. On the left flank, Korpakch's 69th Army and Admiral Vyacheslav Dmitrievich Tsvetaev's 33rd Army cut off the central and right flanks of the German 9th Army from Berlin, paving the way for the next step of encircling the enemy from the north.
Fortunately for the Soviets, Konev's forces on Zhukov's left wing (south flank) made greater progress, although they also encountered unprecedented German defenses. Konev's artillery took longer to prepare for fire than Zhukov, but did not produce catastrophic side effects. Before the assault troops crossed the River Nice, the Soviet artillery first shaved the heads of the German defenders for 40 minutes, then suppressed the German artillery for up to 1 hour when they actually crossed the river, and then poured a rain of bullets for 45 minutes after the assault troops successfully crossed the river.
By the end of the first day, Konev's infantry, supported by the 25th Tank Corps and the 4th Guards Tank Corps, had already forcibly crossed the River Nice with the advance detachments of the 3rd and 4th Guards Tanks of Rebalko and Lelyuschenko, broke through the main German defensive belt, and wedged into the second defensive belt for 1.5 kilometers. The next day, the Germans launched several counter-assaults, but the Soviets' momentum of advance remained unabated, with a breakthrough depth of 18 kilometers. By the end of 18 April, Konev's forces had thoroughly broken through the Nice line and crossed the River Spree south of Berlin, creating the conditions for the siege of the city from the south. In the direction of Dresden, General Koroteev's 52nd Army and Carol Wácław Xivchev continued to advance, repelling several increasingly fierce German counter-assaults from the Görlitz area.
On 18-19 April, in the north, Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front forcibly crossed the eastern section of the Oder River and occupied the starting position on the islands in the river in order to successfully carry out the next strong crossing of the western section of the Oder River.
This article is excerpted from "The Collision of Giants: A New History of the Soviet-German War"