BATTLE OF BERLIN
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(Redirected from Battle for Berlin)
:''For the bombing campaign on Berlin by the RAF from November 1943 to March 1944, see Battle of Berlin (air).''
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).
In the wake of Operation Bagration in August 1944, the Eastern Front became relatively stable. Romania and Bulgaria had been forced to surrender and declare war on Germany. The Germans had lost Budapest and most of the rest of Hungary. The plains of Poland were now open to the Soviet Red Army.
Starting on January 12, 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula-Oder offensive across the Narew River and from Warsaw -- a three-day operation on a broad front which incorporated four army Fronts. On the fourth day, the Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to thirty to forty kilometres per day. They took the Baltic states, Danzig, East Prussia, and Poznań, drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of Berlin, along the Oder River.
The newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler, attempted a counter-attack but failed by February 24. The Red Army then drove on to Pomerania. The Red Army cleared the right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia.
In the south the Battle of Budapest raged. Three German attempts to relieve the encircled Hungarian capital city failed. Budapest fell to the Soviets on February 13. Again the Germans counter-attacked, Hitler insisting on the impossible task of regaining the Danube River. By March 16, the German's Lake Balaton Offensive had failed. Within twenty-four hours, the Red Army's counter-attack took back everything the Germans had gained in ten days. On March 30, the Soviets entered Austria and, during the Vienna Offensive, they captured Vienna on April 13.
By this time, it was clear that the final defeat of the Third Reich was only a few weeks away. The Wehrmacht had, at most, eight percent of the fuel it needed to operate effectively, and both the production and the quality of fighter aircraft and tanks deteriorated from their heights in 1944.MFA Productions LLC; The Battle for Berlin January - May 1945 However, it was also known that the fighting would be as fierce as at any other time in the war. The Germans fought bitterly, because of national pride, the Allied insistence on unconditional surrender, and to buy time for the German people to flee from the Red Army.
Adolf Hitler decided to remain in the city, against the wishes of his advisers. On April 12, Hitler heard the news that the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. This briefly raised false hopes in the Führerbunker that there might yet be a falling out among the Allies, and that Berlin would be saved at the last moment as had happened once before when Berlin was threatened (see The miracle of the House of Brandenburg).
The Western Allies had tentative plans to drop paratroopers to occupy Berlin in case of a sudden German collapse. No offensive was planned to seize the city.[12] Eisenhower saw no need to suffer casualties in attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war. The major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the strategic bombing of Berlin during 1945. During 1945 USAAF launched a number of very large daytime raids on Berlin and for 36 nights in succession scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.
The Soviet offensive into central Germany [what later became East Germany (GDR)] had two objectives. Stalin did not believe the Western Allies would hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet zone, so he began the offensive on a broad front and moved rapidly to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the German atomic bomb programme.[13]
On 6 March, Hitler appointed Lieutenant General Helmuth Reymann as the commander of the Berlin Defense Area replacing Lieutenant General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild.
On 20 March, General Gotthard Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula replacing ''Reichsführer-SS''
:''For the bombing campaign on Berlin by the RAF from November 1943 to March 1944, see Battle of Berlin (air).''
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).
Background
In the wake of Operation Bagration in August 1944, the Eastern Front became relatively stable. Romania and Bulgaria had been forced to surrender and declare war on Germany. The Germans had lost Budapest and most of the rest of Hungary. The plains of Poland were now open to the Soviet Red Army.
Starting on January 12, 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula-Oder offensive across the Narew River and from Warsaw -- a three-day operation on a broad front which incorporated four army Fronts. On the fourth day, the Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to thirty to forty kilometres per day. They took the Baltic states, Danzig, East Prussia, and Poznań, drawing up on a line sixty kilometres east of Berlin, along the Oder River.
The newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler, attempted a counter-attack but failed by February 24. The Red Army then drove on to Pomerania. The Red Army cleared the right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia.
In the south the Battle of Budapest raged. Three German attempts to relieve the encircled Hungarian capital city failed. Budapest fell to the Soviets on February 13. Again the Germans counter-attacked, Hitler insisting on the impossible task of regaining the Danube River. By March 16, the German's Lake Balaton Offensive had failed. Within twenty-four hours, the Red Army's counter-attack took back everything the Germans had gained in ten days. On March 30, the Soviets entered Austria and, during the Vienna Offensive, they captured Vienna on April 13.
By this time, it was clear that the final defeat of the Third Reich was only a few weeks away. The Wehrmacht had, at most, eight percent of the fuel it needed to operate effectively, and both the production and the quality of fighter aircraft and tanks deteriorated from their heights in 1944.MFA Productions LLC; The Battle for Berlin January - May 1945 However, it was also known that the fighting would be as fierce as at any other time in the war. The Germans fought bitterly, because of national pride, the Allied insistence on unconditional surrender, and to buy time for the German people to flee from the Red Army.
Adolf Hitler decided to remain in the city, against the wishes of his advisers. On April 12, Hitler heard the news that the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt had died. This briefly raised false hopes in the Führerbunker that there might yet be a falling out among the Allies, and that Berlin would be saved at the last moment as had happened once before when Berlin was threatened (see The miracle of the House of Brandenburg).
The Western Allies had tentative plans to drop paratroopers to occupy Berlin in case of a sudden German collapse. No offensive was planned to seize the city.[12] Eisenhower saw no need to suffer casualties in attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war. The major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the strategic bombing of Berlin during 1945. During 1945 USAAF launched a number of very large daytime raids on Berlin and for 36 nights in succession scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.
Preparations
The Soviet offensive into central Germany [what later became East Germany (GDR)] had two objectives. Stalin did not believe the Western Allies would hand over territory occupied by them in the post-war Soviet zone, so he began the offensive on a broad front and moved rapidly to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin was taken. Another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the German atomic bomb programme.[13]
On 6 March, Hitler appointed Lieutenant General Helmuth Reymann as the commander of the Berlin Defense Area replacing Lieutenant General Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild.
On 20 March, General Gotthard Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula replacing ''Reichsführer-SS''
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