From April 28 to May 2, 1945, forces The 150th and 171st rifle divisions of the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front carried out an operation to capture the Reichstag. To this event, my friends, I dedicate this photo collection.
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1. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.
2. Fireworks in honor of the Victory on the roof of the Reichstag. Soldiers of the battalion under the command of Hero Soviet Union S. Neustroeva.
3. Soviet cargo and cars on a destroyed street in Berlin. The Reichstag building can be seen behind the ruins.
4. The head of the River Emergency Rescue Department of the USSR Navy, Rear Admiral Fotiy Ivanovich Krylov (1896-1948), awards a diver with an order for clearing mines from the Spree River in Berlin. In the background is the Reichstag building.
6. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.
7. A group of Soviet officers inside the Reichstag.
8. Soviet soldiers with a banner on the roof of the Reichstag.
9. The Soviet assault group with a banner is moving towards the Reichstag.
10. The Soviet assault group with a banner is moving towards the Reichstag.
11. Commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues.
12. Heavy tank IS-2 against the backdrop of the Reichstag
13. Soldiers of the 150th Idritsko-Berlin Rifle, Order of Kutuzov 2nd degree division on the steps of the Reichstag (among those depicted are scouts M. Kantaria, M. Egorov and the division’s Komsomol organizer Captain M. Zholudev). In the foreground is the 14-year-old son of the regiment, Zhora Artemenkov.
14. The Reichstag building in July 1945.
15. Interior of the Reichstag building after Germany’s defeat in the war. On the walls and columns are inscriptions left by Soviet soldiers.
16. Interior of the Reichstag building after Germany's defeat in the war. On the walls and columns are inscriptions left by Soviet soldiers. The photo shows the southern entrance of the building.
17. Soviet photojournalists and cameramen near the Reichstag building.
18. The wreckage of an inverted German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter with the Reichstag in the background.
19. Autograph of Soviet soldiers on the Reichstag column: “We are in Berlin! Nikolai, Peter, Nina and Sashka. 11.05.45.”
20. A group of political workers of the 385th Infantry Division, led by the head of the political department, Colonel Mikhailov, at the Reichstag.
21. German anti-aircraft guns and a dead German soldier at the Reichstag.
23. Soviet soldiers on the square near the Reichstag.
24. Red Army signalman Mikhail Usachev leaves his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag.
25. A British soldier leaves his autograph among the autographs of Soviet soldiers inside the Reichstag.
26. Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria come out with a banner onto the roof of the Reichstag.
27. Soviet soldiers hoist the banner over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. This is one of the banners installed on the Reistag in addition to the official hoisting of the banner by Egorov and Kantaria.
28. The famous Soviet singer Lydia Ruslanova performs “Katyusha” against the backdrop of the destroyed Reichstag.
29. The son of the regiment, Volodya Tarnovsky, signs an autograph on a Reichstag column.
30. Heavy tank IS-2 against the backdrop of the Reichstag.
31. Captured German soldier at the Reichstag. A famous photograph, often published in books and on posters in the USSR under the title "Ende" (German: "The End").
32. Fellow soldiers of the 88th Separate Guards Heavy Tank Regiment near the Reichstag wall, in the assault of which the regiment took part.
33. Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.
34. Two Soviet officers on the steps of the Reichstag.
35. Two Soviet officers on the square in front of the Reichstag building.
May 6th, 2012
On April 30, 1945, the storming of the German parliament building began. For any Russian, this phrase looks even shorter - storming the Reichstag. It means the end of the war, Victory. And, although complete victory came a little later, it was this assault that became the climax of the entire long war.
The storming of the Reichstag is a military operation of Red Army units against German troops to capture the building of the German parliament. It was carried out at the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation from April 28 to May 2, 1945 by the 150th and 171st Rifle Divisions of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front.
In preparation for repelling the Soviet offensive, Berlin was divided into 9 defense sectors. The central sector, which included government buildings including the Reich Chancellery, the Gestapo building and the Reichstag, was heavily fortified and defended by selected SS units.
It was to the central sector that the armies of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts sought to break through. As we get closer Soviet troops The command of the front and armies set tasks for the mastery of these objects to specific institutions.
On the afternoon of April 27, the task of capturing the Reichstag was assigned to the 11th Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army. However, in the next 24 hours, the tankers were unable to complete it due to strong resistance from German troops.
The 3rd Shock Army, operating as part of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of V.I. Kuznetsov, was not initially intended to storm the central part of the city. However, as a result of seven days of fierce fighting, it was she who, on April 28, found herself closest to the Reichstag area.
It should be said about the aspect ratio in this operation:
The Soviet group included:
79th Rifle Corps (Major General S. N. Perevertkin) consisting of:
150th Rifle Division (Major General V. M. Shatilov)
756th Infantry Regiment (Colonel Zinchenko F.M.)
1st Battalion (Captain Neustroev S.A.)
2nd Battalion (Captain Klimenkov)
469th Rifle Regiment (Colonel Mochalov M.A.)
674th Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel A. D. Plekhodanov)
1st Battalion (Captain Davydov V.I.)
2nd battalion (Major Logvinenko Ya. I.)
328th Artillery Regiment (Major G. G. Gladkikh)
1957th Anti-Tank Regiment
171st Rifle Division (Colonel Negoda A.I.)
380th Infantry Regiment (Major Shatalin V.D.)
1st battalion (senior lieutenant Samsonov K. Ya.)
525th Infantry Regiment
713th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel M. G. Mukhtarov)
357th Artillery Regiment
207th Infantry Division (Colonel Asafov V.M.)
597th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel I. D. Kovyazin)
598th Infantry Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel A. A. Voznesensky)
Attached parts:
86th heavy howitzer artillery brigade (Colonel Sazonov N.P.)
104th high-power howitzer brigade (Colonel P. M. Solomienko)
124th High Power Howitzer Brigade (Colonel Gutin G.L.)
136th Cannon Artillery Brigade (Colonel Pisarev A.P.)
1203rd self-propelled artillery regiment
351st Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment
23rd Tank Brigade (Colonel S.V. Kuznetsov)
tank battalion (Major I. L. Yartsev)
tank battalion (captain Krasovsky S.V.)
88th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel P. G. Mzhachikh)
85th Tank Regiment
The Reistag was defended by:
Part of the forces of the 9th Berlin Defense Sector.
Combined battalion of naval school cadets from Rostock
In total, the Reichstag area was defended by about 5,000 people. Of these, the Reichstag garrison numbered about 1,000 people.
We can talk about the capture of Reistag in minutes, since each of them was accomplished by soldiers who accomplished a feat! I'll try to restore the chronology by day...
By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the areaMoabitand from the north-west we approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the theater were locatedKrol-Opera, the Swiss embassy and a number of other buildings. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they represented a powerful unit of resistance.
The task of capturing the Reichstag was set on April 28 in the combat order of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major General S. N. Perevertkin:
3. 150th Infantry Division - one rifle regiment - defense on the river. Spree. Two rifle regiments continue the offensive with the task of crossing the river. Spree and take possession of the western part of the Reichstag...
4. The 171st Infantry Division to continue the offensive within its borders with the task of crossing the river. Spree and capture the eastern part of the Reichstag...
In front of the advancing troops lay another water barrier - the Spree River. Its three-meter reinforced concrete banks excluded the possibility of crossing using available means. The only way to the southern bank was through the Moltke Bridge, which, when Soviet units approached, was blown up by German sappers, but did not collapse, but was only deformed.
At both ends the bridge was covered with reinforced concrete walls one meter thick and about one and a half meters high. It was not possible to capture the bridge on the move, since all approaches to it were shot through with multi-layered machine gun and artillery fire. It was decided to undertake a second assault on the bridge after careful preparation. Powerful artillery fire destroyed the firing points in the buildings on the Kronprinzen-Ufer and Schlieffen-Ufer embankments and suppressed the German batteries that were shelling 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, Soviet units began fighting for the block located southeast of the Moltke Bridge.
Among other buildings in the quarter there was the building of the Swiss embassy, which faced the square in front of the Reichstag and was important element V common system German defense. That same morning, the Swiss embassy building was cleared of the enemy by the companies of Senior Lieutenant Pankratov and Lieutenant M.F. Grankin. The next goal on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of the Interior, nicknamed “Himmler’s House” by Soviet soldiers. It was a huge six-story building that occupied an entire block. The solid stone building was additionally adapted for defense. To capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning, powerful artillery preparation was carried out, immediately after which Soviet soldiers rushed to storm the building.
Over the next 24 hours, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and captured it by dawn on April 30. The path to the Reichstag was open.
The assault on the Reichstag began before dawn on April 30. The 150th and 171st rifle divisions, commanded by General V.M. Shatilov, rushed to the building of the German parliament. and Colonel Negoda A.I. The attackers were met by a sea of fire from various types weapons, and soon the attack fizzled out.
The first attempt to take possession of the building on the move ended in failure. Careful preparations for the assault began. To support the infantry attack, 135 guns, tanks and self-propelled guns were concentrated for direct fire only. artillery installations. Dozens more guns, howitzers and rocket launchers fired from indirect positions. The attackers were supported from the air by the squadrons of the 283rd Fighter Aviation Division of Colonel S.N. Chirva.
At 12 o'clock artillery preparation began. Half an hour later the infantry launched an assault. She had only 250 m left to reach her intended goal, and it seemed that success was already assured. “Everything around was roaring and rumbling,” recalled Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, whose regiment was part of the 150th Infantry Division. “It might have seemed to some of the commanders that his fighters, if they had not yet reached, were about to achieve their cherished goals... So the reports flew on command. After all, everyone so wanted to be the first!.." General Shatilov V.M. first by telephone, and then in writing, he informed the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, General S.N. Perevertkin, that at 14:25 the rifle battalions under the command of captains S.A. Neustroev. and Davydov V.I. stormed the Reichstag and hoisted a banner on it. IN given time units continue to clear the building of Germans.
Such long-awaited news spread further - to the headquarters of the 3rd Shock Army and the 1st Belorussian Front. This was reported by Soviet radio, and then by foreign radio stations. The Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front, by order of April 30, had already congratulated the soldiers on their victory, expressed gratitude to all soldiers, sergeants, officers of the 171st and 150th rifle divisions and, of course, General S.N. Perevertkin. and ordered the Army Military Council to nominate the most distinguished for awards.
After receiving the news of the fall of the Reichstag, military cameramen, photojournalists, and journalists rushed to him, among them the famous writer B.L. Gorbatov. What we saw was disappointing: the assault battalions were still fighting on the outskirts of the building, where there was not a single Soviet soldier and not a single flag.
The third attack began at 18:00. Together with the attacking battalions of the 674th and 380th rifle regiments, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhanov, Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, two groups of volunteers, led by the adjutant of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major M.M. Bondar, advanced. and the commander of the control battery of the corps artillery commander, Captain Makovetsky V.N. On the initiative of the command and the political department of the corps, these groups were created specifically to hoist flags made in the corps over the Reistag.
“This attack was a success: the battalions of captains Neustroev S.A., Davydov V.I., senior lieutenant Samsonov K.Ya. and groups of volunteers broke into the building, which Zinchenko F.M. reported to General Shatilov V.M. the second half of the day he repeatedly demanded to break into the Reichstag and, what worried him most, to hoist a banner on it.
The report pleased the division commander and at the same time saddened him: the banner was still not installed. The general ordered to clear the building of the enemy and “immediately install the banner of the Army Military Council on its dome”! To speed up the task, the division commander appointed F.M. Zinchenko. commandant of the Reichstag." (R. Portuguese V. Runov “Boilers of the 45th”, M., “Eksmo”, 2010, p. 234).
However, Colonel Zinchenko F.M. understood, as he wrote after the war, “that the Reichstag cannot be completely cleared either in the evening or during the night, but the banner must be installed at any cost!..”. He ordered to recapture as much as possible from the enemy before nightfall. more rooms, and then give the personnel a rest.
The banner of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army was instructed to hoist the regiment's scouts - M.V. Kantaria and M.A. Egorov. They, together with a group of fighters led by Lieutenant A.P. Berest, with the support of I.Ya. Syanov’s company, climbed onto the roof of the building and at 21:50 on April 30, 1945, hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.
Two days later it was replaced by a large red banner. On June 20, the removed flag was sent to Moscow on a special flight with military honors. On June 24, 1945, the first parade of active army troops took place on Red Square in Moscow. Navy and the Moscow garrison in commemoration of the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War. After participating in the parade, the Victory Banner is kept in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces to this day.
It should also be noted that in addition to the banner of the Military Council of the Army, many other flags were mounted on the Reichstag building. The first flag was hoisted by the group of Captain V.N. Makov, who attacked together with Neustroev’s battalion. Headed by the captain, the volunteers are senior sergeants A.P. Bobrov, G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko. and Sergeant Minin M.P. They immediately rushed to the roof of the Reichstag and planted a flag on one of the sculptures of the right tower of the house. This happened at 10:40 pm, which was two to three hours earlier than the hoisting of the flag, which was destined by history to become the Banner of Victory.
For skillful leadership of the battle and heroism to V.I. Davydov, S.A. Neustroev, K.Ya. Samsonov, I.Ya. Syanov, as well as M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, who hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag, - was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The battle inside the Reichstag continued with great tension until the morning of May 1, and individual groups of fascists holed up in the Reichstag basements continued to resist until May 2, until the Soviet fighters finally put an end to them. In the battles for the Reichstag, up to 2,500 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded, and 2,604 prisoners were captured.
Participants in the storming of the Reichstag (from left to right):
K. Ya. Samsonov, M. V. Kantaria, M. A. Egorov, I. Ya. Syanov, S. A. Neustroev at the Victory Banner. May 1945
Storming of the Reichstag.
The storming of the Reichstag is the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation, the task of which was to capture the building of the German parliament and hoist the Victory Banner.
The Berlin offensive began on April 16, 1945. And the operation to storm the Reichstag lasted from April 28 to May 2, 1945. The assault was carried out by the forces of the 150th and 171st Rifle Divisions of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, two regiments of the 207th Infantry Division were advancing in the direction of the Krol Opera.
By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Krol Opera Theater, the Swiss Embassy and a number of other buildings were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they represented a powerful unit of resistance.
On April 28, the corps commander, Major General S.N. Perevertkin, was assigned the task of capturing the Reichstag. It was assumed that the 150th SD should take western part buildings, and the 171st SD - the eastern one.
The main obstacle before the advancing troops was the Spree River. The only one possible way To overcome it, the Moltke Bridge remained, which the Nazis blew up when the Soviet units approached, but the bridge did not collapse. The first attempt to take it on the move ended in failure, because... Heavy fire was fired at him. Only after artillery preparation and the destruction of firing points on the embankments was it possible to capture the bridge.
By the morning of April 29, the advanced battalions of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions under the command of Captain S.A. Neustroev and senior lieutenant K. Ya. Samsonov crossed to the opposite bank of the Spree. After the crossing, that same morning the Swiss embassy building, which faced the square in front of the Reichstag, was cleared of the enemy. The next goal on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of the Interior, nicknamed by Soviet soldiers “Himmler’s house.” The huge, strong six-story building was additionally adapted for defense. To capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning, a powerful artillery preparation was carried out. Over the next 24 hours, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and captured it by dawn on April 30. The path to the Reichstag was then open.
Before dawn on April 30, the following situation developed in the combat area. The 525th and 380th regiments of the 171st Infantry Division fought in the neighborhoods north of Königplatz. The 674th Regiment and part of the forces of the 756th Regiment were engaged in clearing the Ministry of Internal Affairs building from the remnants of the garrison. The 2nd battalion of the 756th regiment went to the ditch and took up defense in front of it. The 207th Infantry Division was crossing the Moltke Bridge and preparing to attack the Krol Opera building.
The Reichstag garrison numbered about 1,000 people, had 5 units of armored vehicles, 7 anti-aircraft guns, 2 howitzers (equipment, the location of which has been preserved in precise descriptions and photographs). The situation was complicated by the fact that Königplatz between “Himmler’s house” and the Reichstag was an open space, moreover, crossed from north to south by a deep ditch left over from an unfinished metro line.
Early in the morning of April 30, an attempt was made to immediately break into the Reichstag, but the attack was repulsed. The second assault began at 13:00 with a powerful half-hour artillery barrage. Units of the 207th Infantry Division with their fire suppressed the firing points located in the Krol Opera building, blocked its garrison and thereby facilitated the assault. Under the cover of artillery barrage, the battalions of the 756th and 674th Infantry Regiments went on the attack and, immediately overcoming a ditch filled with water, broke through to the Reichstag.
All the time, while preparations and assault on the Reichstag were underway, fierce battles were fought on the right flank of the 150th Infantry Division, in the zone of the 469th Infantry Regiment. Having taken up defensive positions on the right bank of the Spree, the regiment fought off numerous German attacks for several days, aimed at reaching the flank and rear of the troops advancing on the Reichstag. Artillerymen played an important role in repelling German attacks.
The scouts of group S.E. were among the first to break into the Reichstag. Sorokina. At 14:25 they installed a homemade red banner, first on the stairs of the main entrance, and then on the roof, on one of the sculptural groups. The banner was noticed by soldiers on Königplatz. Inspired by the banner, more and more new groups broke into the Reichstag. During the day of April 30th 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. made its way into the Reichstag. Makova, who at 22:40 placed her banner on the sculpture above the front pediment. On the night from April 30 to May 1, M.A. Egorov, M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest with the support of machine gunners from the company I.A. Syanov climbed to the roof and hoisted the official Banner of the Military Council, issued to the 150th Infantry Division, over the Reichstag. It was this that later became the Banner of Victory.
At 10 a.m. on May 1, German forces launched a concerted counterattack from outside and inside the Reichstag. In addition, a fire broke out in several parts of the building; Soviet soldiers had to fight it or move to rooms that were not on fire. Heavy smoke formed. However, the Soviet soldiers did not leave the building and continued to fight. The fierce battle continued until late in the evening; the remnants of the Reichstag garrison were again driven into the basements.
Realizing the pointlessness of further resistance, the command of the Reichstag garrison proposed to begin negotiations, but with the condition that an officer with the rank of no lower than colonel should take part in them from the Soviet side. Among the officers who were in the Reichstag at that time, there was no one older than the major, and communication with the regiment did not work. After a short preparation, A.P. went to negotiations. Berest as a colonel (the tallest and most representative), S. A. Neustroev as his adjutant and Private I. Prygunov as a translator. The negotiations took a long time, without 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.
Reichstag a month after the assault
On the opposite side of Königplatz, the battle for the Krol Opera building continued all day on May 1. Only by midnight, after two unsuccessful attempts assault, the 597th and 598th regiments of the 207th Infantry Division captured the theater building.
According to a report from the chief of staff of the 150th Infantry Division, during the capture of the Reichstag, the German side suffered the following losses: 2,500 people were killed, 1,650 people were captured. There is no exact data on the losses of Soviet troops.
On the afternoon of May 2, the Victory Banner of the Military Council, hoisted by M.A. Egorov, M.V. Kantaria and A.P. Berest, was transferred to the dome of the Reichstag.
After the Victory, according to an agreement with the Allies, the Reichstag moved to the territory of the British occupation zone.
History of the Reichstag.
The Reichstag building (Reichstagsgebäude - “state assembly building”) is a famous historical building in Berlin. The building was designed by Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot in the Italian High Renaissance style. The first stone for the foundation of the German parliament building was laid on June 9, 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Construction lasted ten years and was completed under Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Victory Banner?
The storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner over it for every Soviet citizen meant the end of the most terrible war in the entire history of mankind. Many soldiers gave their lives for this purpose. However, why was the Reichstag building chosen, and not the Reich Chancellery, as a symbol of victory over fascism? There are various theories on this matter, and we will look at them.
I. S. Konev
Storm of Berlin- the final part of the Berlin offensive operation of 1945, during which the Red Army captured the capital of Nazi Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War in Europe. The operation lasted from April 25 to May 2.
Storm of Berlin
The “Zoobunker” - a huge reinforced concrete fortress with anti-aircraft batteries on the towers and extensive underground shelter - also served as the largest bomb shelter in the city.
Early in the morning of May 2, the Berlin metro was flooded - a group of sappers from the SS Nordland division blew up a tunnel passing under the Landwehr Canal in the Trebbiner Strasse area. The explosion led to the destruction of the tunnel and filling it with water along a 25-km section. Water rushed into the tunnels, where a large number of civilians and wounded were taking refuge. The number of victims is still unknown.
Information about the number of victims... varies - from fifty to fifteen thousand people... The data that about a hundred people died under water seems more reliable. Of course, there were many thousands of people in the tunnels, including the wounded, children, women and old people, but the water did not spread through the underground communications too quickly. Moreover, it spread underground in various directions. Of course, the picture of advancing water caused genuine horror in people. And some of the wounded, as well as drunken soldiers, as well as civilians, became its inevitable victims. But talking about thousands of deaths would be a gross exaggeration. In most places the water barely reached a depth of one and a half meters, and the inhabitants of the tunnels had enough time to evacuate themselves and save the numerous wounded who were in the “hospital cars” near the Stadtmitte station. It is likely that many of the dead, whose bodies were subsequently brought to the surface, actually died not from water, but from wounds and illnesses even before the destruction of the tunnel.
At one o'clock in the morning on May 2, the radio stations of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “We ask you to cease fire. We are sending envoys to the Potsdam Bridge.” A German officer who arrived at the appointed place, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to stop resistance. At 6 a.m. on May 2, Artillery General Weidling, accompanied by three German generals, crossed the front line and surrendered. An hour later, while at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, he wrote a surrender order, which was duplicated and, with the help of loudspeaker installations and radio, delivered to enemy units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was communicated to the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.
On May 2 at 10 o'clock in the morning everything suddenly became quiet, the fire stopped. And everyone realized that something had happened. We saw white sheets that had been “thrown away” in the Reichstag, the Chancellery building and the Royal Opera House and cellars that had not yet been taken. Entire columns fell from there. A column passed ahead of us, where there were generals, colonels, then soldiers behind them. We walked for probably three hours.
Alexander Bessarab, participant in the Battle of Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag
Results of the operation
Soviet troops defeated the Berlin group of enemy troops and stormed the capital of Germany, Berlin. Developing a further offensive, they reached the Elbe River, where they linked up with American and British troops. With the fall of Berlin and the loss of vital areas, Germany lost the opportunity for organized resistance and soon capitulated. With the completion of the Berlin operation, favorable conditions to encircle and destroy the last large enemy groups on the territory of Austria and Czechoslovakia.
The losses of the German armed forces in killed and wounded are unknown. Of the approximately 2 million Berliners, about 125 thousand died. The city was heavily destroyed by bombing even before the arrival of Soviet troops. The bombing continued during the battles near Berlin - the last American bombing on April 20 (Adolph Hitler's birthday) led to food problems. The destruction intensified as a result of Soviet artillery attacks.
Indeed, it is unthinkable that such a huge fortified city could be taken so quickly. We know of no other such examples in the history of World War II.
Alexander Orlov, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
Two Guards heavy armored vehicles took part in the battles in Berlin. tank brigades IS-2 and at least nine guards heavy self-propelled artillery self-propelled artillery regiments, including:
- 1st Belorussian Front
- 7th Guards Ttbr - 69th Army
- 11th Guards ttbr - front-line subordination
- 334 Guards tsap - 47th Army
- 351 Guards tsap - 3rd shock army, front-line subordination
- 396 Guards tsap - 5th shock army
- 394 Guards tsap - 8th Guards Army
- 362, 399 guards tsap - 1st Guards Tank Army
- 347 Guards tsap - 2nd Guards Tank Army
- 1st Ukrainian Front
- 383, 384 guards tsap - 3rd Guards Tank Army
Situation of the civilian population
Fear and despair
A significant part of Berlin, even before the assault, was destroyed as a result of Anglo-American air raids, from which the population hid in basements and bomb shelters. There were not enough bomb shelters and therefore they were constantly overcrowded. In Berlin by that time, in addition to the three million local population (consisting mainly of women, old people and children), there were up to three hundred thousand foreign workers, including “ostarbeiters”, most of whom were forcibly taken to Germany. Entry into bomb shelters and basements was prohibited for them.
Although the war had long been lost for Germany, Hitler ordered resistance to the last. Thousands of teenagers and old men were conscripted into the Volkssturm. From the beginning of March, on the orders of Reichskommissar Goebbels, responsible for the defense of Berlin, tens of thousands of civilians, mostly women, were sent to dig anti-tank ditches around the German capital.
Civilians who violated government orders, even in last days war was threatened with execution.
About the number of victims among civilian population There is no exact information. Different sources indicate different numbers of people who died directly during the Battle of Berlin. Even decades after the war construction work previously unknown mass graves are found.
Violence against civilians
In Western sources, especially recently, a significant number of materials have appeared concerning mass violence by Soviet troops against the civilian population of Berlin and Germany in general - a topic that was practically not raised for many decades after the end of the war.
There are two opposing approaches to this extremely painful problem. On the one hand, there are artistic and documentary works by two English-speaking researchers - “The Last Battle” by Cornelius Ryan and “The Fall of Berlin. 1945" by Anthony Beevor, which are more or less a reconstruction of the events of half a century ago based on the testimony of participants in the events (overwhelmingly representatives of the German side) and memoirs of Soviet commanders. The claims made by Ryan and Beevor are regularly reproduced by the Western press, which presents them as scientifically proven truth.
On the other hand, there are the opinions of Russian representatives (officials and historians), who acknowledge numerous facts of violence, but question the validity of statements about its extreme mass character, as well as the possibility, after so many years, of verifying the shocking digital data provided in the West . Russian authors also draw attention to the fact that such publications, which focus on hyper-emotional descriptions of scenes of violence that were allegedly committed by Soviet troops on German territory, follow the standards of Goebbels propaganda of the beginning of 1945 and are aimed at belittling the role of the Red Army as the liberator of Eastern and Central Europe from fascism and denigrate the image of the Soviet soldier. In addition, the materials distributed in the West provide virtually no information about the measures taken by the Soviet command to combat violence and looting - crimes against civilians, which, as has been repeatedly pointed out, not only lead to tougher resistance of the defending enemy, but also undermine the combat effectiveness and discipline of the advancing army.
AuthorVadim Ninov
The traces of the Nazis from the Reichstag were lost without a trace. Only from German archives can our historians restore the truth and the exact number of defenders.
Hero of the Soviet Union S. Neustroyev
In Soviet historiography, the storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the red flag on it became the culminating event of the entire Great Patriotic War. These events have become an absolute and indisputable symbol, glorified in art, textbooks and memoirs. In the Russian Federation it is legally determined that "The Victory Banner is the official symbol of the victory of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces above Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, a state relic of Russia".
Such a significant and unprecedented topic should be written down in history in great detail, for the edification of future generations. However, what do we know about the storming of the Reichstag? Through the efforts of Soviet official historiography, we know very little - fragmentary and distorted Soviet memoirs and confusing presentation in official sources. The words of the battalion commander who broke into the Reichstag, spoken by him in his declining years, serve as a verdict on all official Soviet historiography. Almost half a century later, S. Neustroev still did not really know with whom, in fact, he was fighting. During all this time, scientific teams led by professors and academicians never bothered to study and publish the details of the storming of the Reichstag. And if the actions of the Soviet side today can be quite accurately reconstructed, then the quantitative and qualitative composition of the Germans, not to mention the details, through the efforts of Soviet historiography remain a terra incognita.
Lieutenant Colonel S. Neustroev understood what the high ranks did not want to understand: "Only from German archives can our historians restore the truth and the exact number of defenders". To this day, the truth has not been restored, and German numbers are unknown - only confused stories and unconfirmed allegations.
However, not everything can be found out from German archives. In the last days of the battle for Berlin, the German defense was improvised, and much was no longer recorded on paper. Was there an opportunity, as Neustroyev said, to “restore the truth”? Of course, the Soviet side had such an opportunity, and given the special attitude towards the storming of the Reichstag, it was simply necessary to do so. The defense headquarters of the capital of the Third Reich, headed by a commander and documents to boot, was in the hands of the Red Army. What was not included in the documents could be clarified from German prisoners who spent up to 10 years in Soviet captivity. After the war, many former prisoners returned to the GDR, which was under Soviet influence. And finally, if desired, no one bothered to collect information from German veterans living in Germany. The Reichstag area is not like that large plot so that it cannot be thoroughly studied. There would be a desire.
20 years after the end of the war, the monumental 6-volume work “History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-1945” was published in the USSR. The compilation of this opus was carried out not by anyone, but by the special department of the history of the Second World War of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU. This department had the broadest powers, and the authors included senior military officials Soviet army. And what do we see there? We see the total collapse of Soviet official historiography. In the section dedicated to the assault on Berlin, stunning maps are laid out, where specific Soviet units are indicated, but German ones are not marked at all! Just a blue line and an inscription - "Remains of the 9th Army. Volkssturm battalions". And there are no more questions about who, how many and where - historians highest rank everything is clearly calculated - “remains”. And on the map of the storming of the Reichstag it is even more laconic - blue lines and an inscription "about 5,000 enemy soldiers and officers". The "Volkssturm battalions" have already disappeared somewhere. And think what you want. This is all that official Soviet historiography of the highest rank has mastered in 23 years of fruitful work after the war. Needless to say, this is not how military maps are drawn and history is not written. So history is kept silent. In subsequent official publications, the presentation remained at the same “residual” level of penetration and reliability. The Soviet side in the Berlin issue was generally prone to strong exaggerations and distortions, both in military documents and in post-war works. Minimum information content - maximum pathos. Exalt, not study; to be proud, and not to know - that’s what Soviet historians were guided by.
Western individual historians, unlike Soviet historical institutes and professors, did not have similar access to information and funding. As a result, today there is no reliable and complete picture of the German forces defending the Reichstag area.
And yet we will try to reconstruct the forces of the Reichstag defenders, relying on Soviet and Western sources, as well as film and photographic materials. After the battles, heavy weapons remained standing near the Reichstag for quite a long time and were recorded by journalists and amateurs in photographs and film. Unfortunately, this is the only relatively reliable evidence of what the Reichstag defenders had.
Analyzing the heavy German weapons caught in the frame near the Reichstag, you need to remember that relatively close, in the Tiergarten park, there was a collection point for broken equipment. After the end of the fighting, she was dragged there along the roads near the Reichstag, and the immediate route depended on where it was most convenient to do it at the moment, i.e. where there is less blockage, damage to the roadway, people and equipment. Thus, the frame could have captured vehicles that did not fight at the Reichstag, but were transported to the collection site for scrap equipment in Tiergarten. Today we can talk about the following German forces at the Reichstag:
1 x tank Tiger ( Pz.Kpfw. VI), Panzer Division Müncheberg (Panzer-Division Müncheberg)
1 x tank Royal Tiger ( Pz.Kpfw. VI B), 503rd SS Heavy Tank Battalion (schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503)
1 x 20mm ZSU ( 2 cm Flak-Vierling 38 auf Selbstlafette)
1 x anti-tank vehicle Wanze ( Borgward B IV Ausführung mit Raketenpanzerbüchse 54, Wanze)
1 X StuG IV -
1 X Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) - it is not known whether he participated in the defense of the Reichstag
8 x 8mm anti-aircraft guns ( Flak 37)
2 x 150mm howitzers ( 15 cm sFH 18) - probably did not participate in the direct defense of the Reichstag
All these objects were positioned and plotted on an aerial photograph. Below is a photo of them and a short note.
Attention! Interactive image.
The circles with numbers represent the location of heavy weapons in front of the Reichstag.
Click on them and read in more detail.
The location of German heavy weapons in the defense of the Reichstag.
Wanze near the Reichstag, Berlin, 1945. Approximately 165m from the northwest corner of the Reichstag.
On general scheme designated
This Borgward B IV Ausführung mit Raketenpanzerbüchse 54 anti-tank vehicle is located approximately 150m northwest of the Reichstag. The vehicle was badly damaged - an explosion in the engine compartment, the right track was torn off, the armored shield with six grenade launchers was missing... This Wanze is one of about 56 produced. Their more or less noticeable use occurred precisely during the Berlin battles. To the right in front of the car (in azimuth at 2 o'clock) the hospital bunker is clearly visible.
2 cm Flak-Vierling 38 auf Selbstlafette (Sd.Kfz.7/1)
Quadruple 20mm anti-aircraft gun on a self-propelled carriage - 2 cm Flak-Vierling 38 auf Selbstlafette (Sd.Kfz.7/1), approximately 60 meters west of the southwestern corner of the Reichstag.
In the general diagram it is indicated
The same quad 20mm anti-aircraft gun on a self-propelled carriage - 2 cm Flak-Vierling 38 auf Selbstlafette (Sd.Kfz.7/1), approximately 60 meters west of the southwestern corner of the Reichstag.
In the general diagram it is indicated
StuG IV
StuG IV near the Reichstag, Berlin, 1945. Approximately 30m from the southern wall, standing on the parapet of the trench.
In the general diagram it is indicated
The picture shows StuG IV 32-35m from the southern wall of the Reichstag, in the center. The starboard side and part of the stern of the self-propelled gun are visible, and the forehead is turned to the east. The right caterpillar stands on the parapet of the trench. It is noteworthy that the StuG IV does not have a barrel. It remains a mystery how the self-propelled gun lost it and whether it participated in the defense of the Reichstag. One can only make a number of assumptions. StuG IV lost its barrel in the battle of the Reichstag; or the barrel was lost even earlier, and the self-propelled gun fought at the Reichstag as a machine gun point against infantry; or a damaged car, without a trunk, was used as an improvised tractor. There are a lot of options, even to the point that the StuG ended up at the Reichstag and was captured on camera when military equipment was removed from the streets after the battles. One of the collection points for broken equipment was located in Tiergarten.
It is impossible to say reliably that this StuG IV fought near the Reichstag.
To the left of the StuG IV is an Opel Blitz with a kung. Rear side door the kunga was torn out.
In general, it is noteworthy that in almost the same place, near the Reichstag there were two self-propelled guns without barrels (see below).
Jagdpanzer IV
Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) near the Reichstag.
The top photo was taken in March 1945, before the fighting. It shows a car approximately 28m south of the southeast corner of the Reichstag (circled).
The bottom photo is after the battles.
In the general diagram it is indicated
Jagdpanzer IV/70(A), or as it was also designated Pz IV/70(A), (Sd Kfz 162/1) is located approximately 28m south of the southeast corner of the Reichstag. A remarkable detail is that the tank does not have a barrel. It can be assumed that this Jagdpanzer IV took part in the battles at the Reichstag, where it was damaged and lost its gun.
However, an earlier photograph taken from the air shows how a certain car stands in the same place, facing the Reichstag in the same way. It is not possible to determine the exact type of machine, but the location and rotation angle are identical. Therefore, we can put forward a second assumption that this Jagdpanzer IV without a barrel ended up at the indicated place near the Reichstag even before the start of the fighting. However, since it was damaged, it remained standing there all this time and did not participate in the battles for the Reichstag.
The question of how he ended up in that place, if he did not fight, is quite prosaic. For comparison, even in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery after the battles, outdated armored vehicles remained under the jurisdiction of the Police. In the Police itself, they were part of the Technische Nothilfe - the formation that was responsible for quick repair and the functioning of objects of mass necessity (water supply, gas, etc.) Since Berlin was constantly subjected to bombing, accompanied by fires and building collapses, Technische Nothilfe employees were in dire need of equipment capable of protecting them in extreme conditions. It is possible that the damaged Jagdpanzer IV, on which it was not possible to repair the gun, was transferred, for example, to the Technische Nothilfe, where it finally failed and stood at the Reichstag during the battles. By the way, the Reichstag area was subject to heavy air raids and there was something to repair there.
Let's take a closer look. In the photo everything looks like fog, but in reality it is smoke and red dust from the ruins. The red dust that was everywhere in Berlin was noted by many participants in those bloody events. Let's look at the picture in detail - that fraction of a second that it took for the camera to take the picture left a lot for descendants interesting moments, some, just a few, of which we will look.
The frame shows the area between the Brandenburg Gate (in the background) and the Reichstag (from where the photo was taken).
Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) near the Reichstag.
Obviously the same Jagdpanzer IV/70(A) in the lower left corner of the picture. The left sloth and the absence of a caterpillar are clearly visible. Perhaps the vehicle belonged to the Müncheberg Panzer Division.
In the general diagram it is indicated
PzKpfw VI #323
Between the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag was a Tiger with tactical number 323, from the Muncheberg division.
Between the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag there was a Tiger with tactical number 323, from the Muncheberg division.
In the general diagram it is indicated
PzKpfw VI B
The Royal Tiger of the SS Unterscharführer Georg Diers from SS sPzAbt 503 took part in the battles at the Reichstag. The Reichstag does not have photographs of this tank, but Dirs himself has preserved his memories. On April 30, 1945, he received orders to arrive at the Reichstag and on the same day entered into battle with Soviet tanks. On May 1, 1945, this tank fought in the area of the Reichstag - Brandenburg Gate - Triumphal Column. He took part in the counterattack to Krol-Opera, where the Germans were still holding out. Around 19:00, Diers received orders to withdraw from the area to participate in the breakout of the remaining troops from Berlin.
indicated on the general diagram
Flak #1
Flak #1
This Flak 37 anti-aircraft gun stood approximately 120 meters from the front of the Reichstag, opposite the first and second windows to the left of the main entrance. The cannon could effectively shoot through the Soviet advance along the Moltke Bridge. The distance from this gun to the barricade blocking the exit from the Moltke Bridge is about 440 meters.
In the general diagram it is indicated
Flak #2
Flak #2
This Flak 37 is approximately 100 meters from the front of the Reichstag, opposite the right edge of the main staircase. The cannon could fire towards the Moltke Bridge. The distance from this gun to the barricade blocking the exit from the Moltke Bridge is about 477 meters.
In the general diagram it is indicated
Flak #3
Flak 37 is indicated on the general diagram
Flak #4
Flak #4
Flak 37 was located on the opposite side of the moat from the Reichstag, just next to the bridge, approximately 205m west of the southwest corner of the Reichstag.
In the general diagram it is indicated
