"No one expected": what the Red army did to the prisoners by the Germans in Berlin
Four days of brutal fighting, thousands of dead and long-awaited Victory - the storming of the Reichstag was the culmination of the Berlin offensive operation. All the approaches To the German Parliament was blocked by concrete fortifications, and the Nazis, there pulled an elite unit. The SS fought desperately. How to take the lair of Nazism - in the material of the Fins news .
The offensive on Berlin began on 16 April 1945. The red army resisted the millionth group of the Wehrmacht With eight thousand guns and mortars, and 1,200 tanks and assault guns, three and a half thousand aircraft.
By the end of April, Soviet troops, having overcome a series of defensive lines, came To the outskirts of the German capital. The Germans divided the city into sectors and fortifications, built hundreds of concrete bunkers, numerous bunkers and pillboxes, erecting barricades and dig important features, anti-tank ditches.
Berlin was defended by the 200-strong garrison. Soldiers of the Wehrmacht, SS units and the Volkssturm fought to the last, clinging to every street, block, house, apartment, room, basement. The assault groups attacked both day and night.
Soviet soldiers had a lot of experience of urban battles. Use proven tactics: avoiding the offensive in the streets, shooting guns, carefully moved from house to house, capturing the 1st and foremost, lower floors and basements. Advanced units seeped into the enemy's rear, blocking bridges, strongholds and suppressing pockets of resistance.
at the point of attack in the centre of Berlin was the 3rd shock army of General Vasily Kuznetsov, released on 29 April To the complex of government buildings and then To the Reichstag.
"This storm was not easy, - said Last news scientific Director of the Russian military historical society (RVIA) Mikhail Myagkov.- But All the soldiers and commanders were eager as soon As possible to take the city, finishing off the Nazis to their lair. Speaking of hoisting the flag over Berlin, Stalin declared on November 6, 1944 in the capital of Russia, at the solemn meeting on the occasion of the anniversary of the October revolution. However, where it is expected to do, He did not elaborate ".
expected to set the symbol of Victory on the roof of the Reich Chancellery, However, no less high and massive Reichstag Building went better.
"The Reichstag has managed to strengthen, emphasizes softly.- The building and surrounding area was defended by several thousand soldiers and officers, mostly SS: division " Nordland ", composed of Danes and Norwegians, the French " Charlemagne ", the defense also took the Latvians, Estonians and even the Spaniards - All of who scored In the forced deprivation of life of civilians and prisoners of war and refused to surrender even in the last hours of the existence of the Reich."
The move to take the Reichstag did not happen. All the buildings on the outskirts of the Germans was turned into fortifications, around the perimeter of the dug and filled with water deep anti-tank ditch. Each house was equipped with gun emplacements, in the Windows of entrenched snipers and machine gunners. In addition, in the city center dropped by parachute battalion of Marines.
When Under pressure tanks and assault teams defense fell apart on contact With the Soviet command was a chief of the General staff of land forces of German General Hans Krebs. He gave a written letter to the Supreme commander, signed by Goebbels and Bormann, about the fact that on April 30, fifteen: 50 Hitler committed suicide. Krebs requested a dialogue on a truce. Stalin was informed about it late at night. On the news of the death of Hitler, He responded with the phrase: "Play rascal, sorry, I could not take him alive ".
The answer was clear: no negotiations, just capitulation. The German government headed by Goebbels and Bormann to surrender refused. Fighting resumed. For a decisive storming of the Reichstag began on the morning of 30 April, connecting tanks and artillery.
The first house raided by soldiers of Sergeant Ilya Siyanova of the 756 th infantry regiment. To deter attackers, the Germans set fire to the Building. The red army burned the clothes, they choked in the dense smoke. The Nazis threw grenades at a company were heavy fire from small arms. Either way, the unit lasted for almost a day until reinforcements.
The SS fought for Every floor, shooting on stairs and in rooms often passed in the melee. To clean up a large Parliament Building With a deep, extensive basement, lots of transitions and balconies it was very difficult.
"The military Council of the 3rd shock army, even before the assault gave the order to make nine flags on the number of divisions, - said softly.- Banner number five presented the 150th rifle division. The soldiers just in case of nes and other red flags or small flags, hoping own person to install them ".
Thirtieth day of April, roughly in 20 hours 30 minutes, the assault force artillery regiment Under the command of captain Vladimir Makov broke into the roof of the Reichstag and hoisted the flag at the destroyed sculpture.
And at 3 a.m. on may 1, Sergeant Mikhail Yegorov and Junior Sergeant Meliton Kantaria planted there flag number five, which became in the end the legendary Victory Banner. In the night of 1 may 2 they put that flag on the dilapidated dome.
on the same day the commander of the German group in Berlin, General Helmut Weidling crossed the front line and surrendered to the Soviet troops, signed a decree on the surrender of the Moscow garrison.
Arms folded about 70 thousand soldiers of the Wehrmacht. All in all, the battle of Berlin the Germans lost in killed and 380 thousand soldiers and officers, 400 thousand were captured.
"for the next day was the pilgrimage of our soldiers To the Reichstag, - said softly.- Everyone wanted to sign on a building with chalk, paint or leave an autograph with a bayonet. The soldiers were exhausted so many days of fighting, most fell asleep exactly on the steps ".
the attitude of the victors To the defeated enemy should be discussed separately. Yet, on 20 April, Stavka issued a Directive strictly prohibiting arbitrariness in the statement by captured German soldiers and civilians of Germany. In addition, were instructed to provide medical assistance, for which I built 3 hospital - five thousand people Each.
The red army in fact saved Berlin from starvation deaths. Immediately after the capture of the Reichstag on the streets has deployed additional field kitchens for citizens and prisoners of war. According to the documents published by the Ministry of defense of Russia, Every Berliner has received a week to three pounds of bread, five hundred grams of meat, half a kilogram of sugar, organic coffee, vegetables and dairy products.
Under protection took cultural values - archive, house in the square and the Museum-house of Goethe, the cell of Martin Luther in the Augustinian monastery. The Soviet government ordered to track down the paintings from the Dresden gallery, the collection of the Museum of natural history. The military found and rescued by Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck and other great masters.
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