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The Battle of Berlin was one of the final battles[11] of the European Theatre of World War II. In what was known to the Soviets as the "Berlin Offensive Operation", two massive Soviet army groups attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin.
The battle of Berlin lasted from late April 1945 until early May and was one of the bloodiest battles in history. Before the battle was over, German dictator Adolf Hitler and many of his followers committed suicide. The city's defenders surrendered on May 2. However, fighting continued to the north-west, west and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on May 8 (May 9 to the USSR).
Battle of Berlin WWII
In April, 1945, the Russians were closing in on Berlin. Hitler demanded a fight to the death and designated Berlin a "fortress" to be defended to the last. The city's commandant, Major General Hellmuth Reymann, calculated that it would take at least 200,000 experienced troops to defend the capital, however the only ones available to make up the Volkssturm (or home guard) were mostly old men, women, and children.
Berlin, through the efforts of the Volksstrum, was prepared for the Russian offensive. Barricades were constructed and trenches were dug to trap tanks, however Reymann saw the preparations as futile and said, "I only hope that some miracle happens to change our fortunes, or that the War ends before Berlin comes under siege. Otherwise, God help the Berliners!" Despite fortification efforts, the men and artillary needed to defend the capital never materialized. Meanwhile, 1.3 million soldiers of the Red Army stood poised to descend upon Berlin for what Marshal Georgy K. Zhukov called, their "final hour of vengenance." Every man, on orders from Moscow, had been required to swear an oath on the Soviet flag to fight with special zeal for the motherland, the Communist Party and final victory.
The Russian defeat of Berlin was inevitable for they outnumbered the Germans in men 5:1, guns 15:1, tanks 5:1 and planes 3:1. Yet the battle for Berlin was a unpredictable and bloody; fueled by mutal hate and marked by atrocities. Hitler by this time was talking about armies long since destroyed and had delusions that the British, Americans and Russians would turn against one another. Meanwhile, Stalin believed that whomever raised their flag over Berlin first would be the victor of the war. The Western Allies believed differently and as the Red Army fought for Berlin, they sought to conquer strategic industrial territories for the future division of Germany. The Red Army paid a high price for Stalin's misconception. The casuality rate for the Red Army during the battle for Berlin matched the war-long casuality rate of four Soviet soldiers to one German fatality.
The Soviet battle to capture Berlin finally came on 16 April and was fought building to building and street by street. By 25 April, Berlin had been encircled by the Russians and on 30 April at the Reichstag was finally captured. At 2:25 p.m., the Russian flag was raised on top of the Reichstag barely before the deadline decreed by Stalin. The city surrendered on 2 May.
While Germany lay in ruins as well as his dreams of a New German Order, on 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker. When told of the news of Hitler's death, Stalin remarked, "So that's the end of the bastard. Too bad it was impossible to take him alive." With his death, Germany surrendered. Hitler changed the face of the world. As a result of the forces he set in motion, the world was left with basically only two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which set the pace for the resulting Cold War. It is estimated that at least 40 million people died in Europe alone as the result of World War II along with immeasurable devastation and destruction.
Tocqueville once prophesized approximately 150 years prior to 1945 that the United States and Russia would soon or later become the two main powers of the world. This prophesy came true following the collapse of Germany and Japan in 1945.
The United States was probably the strongest nation at the close of World War I, but after the war, the country pulled its troops completely and swiftly out of Europe. This did not occur following World War II. As Eastern Europe was absorbed by the Soviets, Western Europe, under leadership from the U.S., forged a new anti-totalitarian military and political alliance.
For Russians of the post World War II generation, left a deep mark on the country. The war is an event that left 1 in 3 without a father and the repercussions of the war are still being felt today. For instance, it is still required that every bride place her wedding bouquet on a local war memorial. Following the defeat of Germany, the Soviets, despite enormous losses, were in a politically powerful position. Stalin would see that Russia would never be invaded again. He sought to create a buffer zone in the event the capitalists powers decided to use their might against the country. Winston Churchill summed up the situation in a speech in Fulton, Mississippi in March 1946, "An iron curtain has descended across the continent."
The Eastern Front had been relatively stable since the end of Operation Bagration in late 1944. The Germans had lost Budapest and most of Hungary. Romania and Hungary were forced to surrender and declare war on Germany. The Polish plain was open to the Soviet Red Army.
The Soviet commanders, after waiting for the Germans to reduce the Polish Home Army, took Warsaw in January 1945. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army groups (fronts,) the Red Army began an offensive across the Oder River and from Warsaw. After four days the Red Army broke out and started moving twenty to twenty-five miles a day, conquering the Baltics, Danzig, East Prussia, Poznan, and drawing up on a line thirty-six miles outside of Berlin.
A counterattack by the newly created Army Group Vistula failed by February 24, and the Russians drove on Pomerania and cleared the right bank of the Oder River. In the south, three attempts to relieve the encircled Budapest failed and the city fell on February 13. Again the Germans counterattacked, Hitler insisting on the impossible task of regaining the Danube River. By March 16 the attack had failed and the Red Army counterattacked the same day. On March 30 they entered Austria and captured Vienna on April 13.
Only a twelfth or less of the gasoline needed by the Wehrmacht was available. Fighter and tank production was down, and the quality was much less than in 1944. The war was clearly over, but the Germans would hold out for almost a month. The fighting was would be fierce; national pride and the desire to gain time for refugees to get to the west led German units to fight bitterly.
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