In the spring of 1945, the Soviet Red Army and the British and American Allies invaded the German mainland from the east and the west, and the German army at this time was already at the end of the crossbow, and it was even more powerless to fight back under the two-sided attack, and could only retreat one after another. The Allies and the Red Army, on the other hand, were advancing step by step, with the Vanguard of the Allied forces reaching the Banks of the Elbe River, one hundred and twenty kilometers from the German capital Berlin, and the Red Army advancing so rapidly that it reached a hundred kilometers from Berlin.
All that is to be done now is to strike a final blow at Berlin, the heart of the Nazis, and to put a coffin lid on the fascists and bury them in the ground! The Soviet Union took the lead in taking this final "funeral" step, but this step was not so easy to take, although the vitality was seriously injured, but Germany still contracted its strength, concentrated the last elite troops in Berlin, and encouraged many veterans and children to form a "National Commando", a total of 800,000 people, and also built three lines of defense in depth on the outskirts of Berlin, and built a large number of fortifications, and even had various firepower points in the city of Berlin, preparing to stage the German version of the "Battle of Stalingrad" , the use of street battles to consume the living strength of the Soviet army, a trapped beast fighting, fish dead net breaking posture.
German tanks used to serve as fixed turrets
However, at this time, the Soviet army can also be said to have experienced hundreds of battles, from recovering the invaded territory to pushing back to Germany itself, countless bloody battles in the middle of the way, turning things around. At this time, the firepower was also in full swing, the morale was strong, and a total of three fronts of troops were gathered, totaling 2.5 million people! Tanks, self-propelled guns more than 6,200, 7,500 aircraft, artillery is up to 42,000! The largest artillery scale ever built by mankind, the torrent of steel like the early days of the German Blitzkrieg was unstoppable! Two tenacious old rivals will make the final match in Berlin, and the scene must be very tragic!
Soviet artillery positions
On April 16, 1945, the Soviet Union launched an attack from the east, south and north of the three directions with three fronts, and after three days of crushing by successive servants, successfully broke through the German perimeter fortifications, arrived at the city of Berlin from different directions on April 19, and began to eliminate the remnants of the enemy, and then the three troops met on April 25, thus forming a siege of Berlin.
On April 26, after the "saturation" bombardment of Berlin by artillery and aircraft, the Soviet army began to break into the city from all directions, although it was bombed by the Soviet army, but because of the various hidden fortifications, the German army could still continue to resist, and the troops of both sides were glued to the extremely narrow city, which could not be as large as the field battle, and the formation of the war, but in the form of small detachments, house by house, street by house, fighting. But the Soviets had the experience of the "Battle of Stalingrad", the brutal street fighting of the meat grinder, so they were not beaten dizzy, caught off guard, they knew how to capture a city, so they were able to defend and counterattack in the right way.
Oil painting about the battle for the Capitol.
When it comes to street battles, the bloodiest battle in Berlin is the "Battle for the Reichstag". On April 29, the Soviet army came to the center of the political organ of the Third Reich (Nazi) in Berlin - the Til Garden District, which is the center of the highest power of the Third Reich (Nazis), where a series of representative buildings such as the High Command, the Chancellery's Office, the Reichstag and so on are gathered.
The Reichstag Building
The Soviets decided to take the Capitol first, which they thought was relatively empty of defenses, but things surprised them! The Soviet Seventy-ninth Army first sent hundreds of soldiers to launch a tentative attack, only to be beaten by the 1,500 SS and foreign soldiers guarding the Reichstag building with heavy fire from mg-34 and MG-42 machine guns, and the Soviets repeatedly launched multiple attacks, but they were forced back by the German army, which had the advantage of the terrain, and even had to retreat to the square in front of the Reichstag.
Tekken bazooka
The Soviets brought in tanks as cover, but they were all destroyed by the Germans using "iron fist" bazookas and anti-tank guns, but the Soviets continued to send tanks continuously, and finally gained a certain advantage, but at this time, other parts of the SS squad launched a sneak attack from behind the Soviets, and the Soviets could only reorganize the defense behind them. On the morning of the thirtieth, the rest of the Soviet army had occupied the Prime Minister's Office, so they could withdraw to support the Soviet troops attacking the Reichstag. But even with personnel replenishment, a simple charge will not help.
Soviet soldiers operating artillery in street battles
So the Soviets assembled 89 artillery pieces and covered the Reichstag for twenty minutes. After the artillery cover, the Soviets once again rushed to the Reichstag from three directions at the same time, but the Germans dodged the shelling with underground fortifications, and once again stopped the Soviet attack with intensive fire, and after an hour of impact, there was no progress, and the Soviets had to withdraw and re-prepare. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the Soviet army used tanks and artillery to shoot at the bottom floor of the Reichstag and the windows for thirty minutes, blowing a large hole in the bottom floor of the Reichstag, and the soldiers of the three battalions of the Soviet Army quickly rushed into it and occupied the bottom floor of the Empire State Building with difficulty.
At this time, the Soviet army and two more divisions of support force into the battlefield, after occupying the bottom, the Soviet army did not continue to risk rushing upstairs, but used artillery to shell the German army upstairs, intending to use this way to make the German army surrender, but shelled for an hour, the German army did not have the slightest intention of surrendering, the Soviet army could only launch an attack on the roof, but the German army set up cards and resisted. The two sides exchanged fire with submachine guns indoors, and threw a large number of grenades, and even sometimes met in a narrow way, and before they could shoot, they twisted into a piece, and the two sides killed red eyes, almost crazy, fists, bayonets, and even bricks!
There are no tactics to speak of, it is just the original one-on-one consumption! With the numerical superiority, the Soviet army fought to the end, almost all the Germans were killed, this group of German troops including foreign soldiers can be said to be very fanatical, basically did not surrender or survive, really to the last soldier! At 9:50 p.m., the Soviets finally occupied the Reichstag and planted the red flag on the roof, which also marked the blade of the Soviet army inserted into the heart of the German Nazis, on May 2, the German commander of the city defense of Berlin announced his surrender, and the Battle of Berlin ended, and the anti-fascist war in the European battlefield was victorious!