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Battle of Berlin information


Battle of Berlin
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, May 1945
Date16 April – 2 May 1945
(2 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Berlin, Nazi Germany
52°31′07″N 13°22′34″E / 52.51861°N 13.37611°E / 52.51861; 13.37611
Result

Decisive Soviet victory:

  • Collapse of the Third Reich
  • Suicide of Adolf Hitler and deaths of other high-ranking Nazi officials
  • Unconditional surrender of the Berlin city garrison on 2 May
  • Capitulation of German forces outside Berlin on 8/9 May as part of unconditional surrender of all forces
  • End of World War II in Europe
Territorial
changes
Soviets occupy what would become East Germany during the Partition of Germany
Belligerents
  • Battle of Berlin Soviet Union
  • Battle of Berlin Poland
Battle of Berlin Germany
Commanders and leaders
Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov
Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky
Soviet Union Ivan Konev
Battle of Berlin Stanisław Popławski
Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 
Nazi Germany Gotthard Heinrici
Nazi Germany Felix Steiner
Nazi Germany Wilhelm Keitel
Nazi Germany Wilhelm Burgdorf
Nazi Germany Kurt von Tippelskirch [a]
Nazi Germany Ferdinand Schörner
Nazi Germany Hellmuth Reymann
Nazi Germany Helmuth Weidling Surrendered[b]
Units involved
  • 1st Belorussian Front
  • 2nd Belorussian Front
  • 1st Polish Army
  • 2nd Polish Army
  • 1st Ukrainian Front
  • Army Group Vistula
  • Army Group Centre
  • Berlin Defence Area
Strength
  • Total strength:
    • 2,300,000 soldiers (155,900–200,000
      Polish People's Army)[1][2]
  • 6,250 tanks and SP guns[2]
  • 7,500 aircraft[2]
  • 41,600 artillery pieces.[3][4]
  • For the investment and assault on the Berlin Defence Area: about 1,500,000 soldiers[5]
  • Total strength:
  • 36 divisions[6]
  • 766,750 soldiers[7]
  • 1,519 AFVs[8]
  • 2,224 aircraft[9]
  • 9,303 artillery pieces[7][c]
  • In the Berlin Defence Area: about 45,000 soldiers, supplemented by the Berlin police force, Hitler Youth, and 40,000 Volkssturm[5][d]
Casualties and losses

Total: 361,367

  • Archival research
    (operational total)
  • 81,116 dead or missing[10]
  • 280,251 sick or wounded
  • Material losses:
  • 1,997 tanks and SPGs destroyed[11]
  • 2,108 artillery pieces
  • 917 aircraft[11]

Total: 917,000–925,000

  • 92,000–100,000 killed
  • 220,000 wounded[12][e]
  • 480,000 captured[13]
  • 125,000 civilians dead[14]

The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II.[f]

After the Vistula–Oder offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km (37 mi) east of Berlin. On 9 March, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz. The first defensive preparations at the outskirts of Berlin were made on 20 March, under the newly appointed commander of Army Group Vistula, General Gotthard Heinrici.

When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts (army groups) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights and Halbe. On 20 April 1945, Hitler's birthday, the 1st Belorussian Front led by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, advancing from the east and north, started shelling Berlin's city centre, while Marshal Ivan Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front broke through Army Group Centre and advanced towards the southern suburbs of Berlin. On 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganised Army and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm and Hitler Youth members. Over the course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city.

On 30 April, Hitler and several of his officials committed suicide. The city's garrison surrendered on 2 May but fighting continued to the north-west, west, and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May (9 May in the Soviet Union) as some German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets.[15]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Zaloga 1982, p. 27.
  2. ^ a b c Glantz 1998, p. 261.
  3. ^ Ziemke 1969, p. 71.
  4. ^ Murray & Millett 2000, p. 482.
  5. ^ a b Beevor 2002, p. 287.
  6. ^ Antill 2005, p. 28.
  7. ^ a b Glantz 1998, p. 373.
  8. ^ Wagner 1974, p. 346.
  9. ^ Bergstrom 2007, p. 117.
  10. ^ Krivosheev 1997, p. 157.
  11. ^ a b Krivosheev 1997, p. 263.
  12. ^ Müller 2008, p. 673.
  13. ^ Glantz 2001, p. 95.
  14. ^ Antill 2005, p. 85.
  15. ^ Beevor 2002, pp. 400–405.

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