Battle of Berlin (1945)

49

ПРИКАЗ
Верховного Главнокомандующего

Командующему войсками 1-го Белорусского фронта
Маршалу Советского Союза ЖУКОВУ

Начальнику штаба фронта
Генерал-полковнику МАЛИНИНУ

Войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, перейдя в наступление с плацдармов на западном берегу ОДЕРА, при поддержке массированных ударов артиллерии и авиации прорвали сильно укреплённую, глубоко эшелонированную оборону немцев, прикрывавшую БЕРЛИН с востока, продвинулись вперёд от 60 до 100 километров, овладели городами ФРАНКФУРТ на ОДЕРЕ, ВАНДЛИЦ, ОРАНИЕНБУРГ, БИРКЕНВЕРДЕР, ГЕННИГСДОРФ, ПАНКОВ, ФРИДРИХСФЕЛЬДЕ, КАРЛСХОРСТ, КЕПЕНИК и ворвались в столицу Германии БЕРЛИН.

В боях при прорыве обороны немцев и наступлении на БЕРЛИН отличились войска генерал-полковника КУЗНЕЦОВА, генерал-полковника БЕРЗАРИНА, генерал-полковника ЧУЙКОВА, генерал-лейтенанта ПЕРХОРОВИЧА, 1-й польской армии генерал-лейтенанта ПОПЛАВСКОГО, генерал-полковника БЕЛОВА, генерал-полковника КОЛПАКЧИ, генерал-полковника ЦВЕТАЕВА, генерал-майора БУКШТЫНОВИЧА, генерал-майора КУЩЕВА, генерал-майора БЕЛЯВСКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта ЛУКЬЯНЧЕНКО, генерал-майора РОТКЕВИЧА, генерал-лейтенанта ПУЛКО-ДМИТРИЕВА, генерал-майора, ВЛАДИМИРСКОГО, генерал-майора ОРЛЕАНСКОГО, генерал-майора ПЕРЕВЕРТКИНА, генерал-лейтенанта КАЗАНКИНА, генерал-майора ФИРСОВА, генерал-лейтенанта ЖЕРЕБИНА, генерал-лейтенанта РОСЛОГО, генерал-лейтенанта ГЛАЗУНОВА, генерал-лейтенанта РЫЖОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ХЕТАГУРОВА, генерал-лейтенанта ПОЗНЯКА, генерал-лейтенанта АНДРЕЕВА, генерал-майора АНАШКИНА, генерал-майора СИЯЗОВА, генерал-лейтенанта ХАЛЮЗИНА, генерал-майора ВЕРЖБИЦКОГО, генерал-майора БЕВЗЮКА, генерал-майора КЕНЕВИЧА, полковника СУРЖИЦА, полковника ЗАЙКОВСКОГО, полковника ШЕЙПАКА; артиллеристы генерал-полковника артиллерии КАЗАКОВА, генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии НАДЫСЕВА, генерал-майора артиллерии КОСЕНКО, генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии ПОЖАРСКОГО, генерал-майора артиллерии МОРОЗОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии МОДЗЕЛЕВСКОГО, генерал-майора артиллерии ЕГОРОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ПЛАСКОВА, генерал - майора артиллерии ФРОЛОВА, генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии ИГНАТОВА, генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии РОЖАНОВИЧА, генерал-майора артиллерии ЛИХАЧЕВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ЗЕРНОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ЗРАЖЕВСКОГО, генерал - майора артиллерии БОГДАНА, полковника МИХАЙЛОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии СЕРЕДИНА, полковника ПАСЬКО, полковника КОРЧАГИНА, полковника ПИСАРЕВА, полковника ЖИГАРЕВА, полковника КОБРИНА, полковника БЛОНСКОГО, полковника ВИКЕНТЪЕВА, полковника ЛЯШКО, генерал-майора артиллерии КЕРП, полковника СОКОЛОВА, майора ГОРКУНА, подполковника ДОРОЖКИНА, майора БАДАЕВА, подполковника СКВОРЦОВА, подполковника МИХАЙЛОВСКОГО; танкисты генерал-полковника танковых войск БОГДАНОВА, генерал-полковника танковых войск КАТУКОВА, генерал-лейтенанта РАДЗИЕВСКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта танковых войск ШАЛИНА, полковника АНИСИМОВА, генерал-майора танковых войск ВАЙНРУБА, полковника НИКОЛАЕВА, генерал-майора танковых войск КРЕТОВА, генерал-майора танковых войск НИКУЛИНА, генерал-майора танковых войск ВЕДЕНЕЕВА, генерал-лейтенанта танковых войск КРИВОШЕИНА, , генерал-майора танковых -войск ТЕЛЯКОВА, полковника БАБАДЖАНЯНА, генерал-майора ДРЕМОВА, генерал-лейтенанта танковых войск КИРИЧЕНКО, полковника ЮРЕНКОВА, полковника НАРУЦКОГО, полковника ЕРЕМЕЕВА, полковника БАЧАКОШВИЛИ; кавалеристы генерал-лейтенанта КОНСТАНТИНОВА; лётчики главного маршала авиации НОВИКОВА, главного маршала авиации ГОЛОВАНОВА, генерал-полковника авиации РУДЕНКО, генерал-лейтенанта авиации БРАЙКО, генерал-майора авиации КАРАВАЦКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта авиации САВИЦКОГО, генерал-майора авиации ДЗУСОВА, генерал-майора авиации СИДНЕВА, генерал-майора авиации ТОКАРЕВА, генерал-майора авиации КРУПСКОГО, полковника СУХОРЯБОВА, полковника БЕРКАЛЬ, полковника СТАЛИНА, генерал-майора авиации КОМАРОВА, подполковника НАКОНЕЧНИКОВА, полковника РАССКАЗОВА, полковника КАЛИНИНА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации БЕЛЕЦКОГО, генерал-майора авиации СКОК, генерал-майора авиации БОРИСЕНКО, полковника ТУРЫКИНА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации ТУПИКОВА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации СЧЕТЧИКОВА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации НЕСТЕРЦЕВА, генерал-майора авиации ЛЕБЕДЕВА, генерал-майора авиации КАРТАКОВА, генерал-майора авиации ГЛУЩЕНКО, генерал-майора авиации ЧЕМОДАНОВА, генерал-майора авиации НАБОКОВА, генерал-майора-авиации БАЛАШОВА, генерал-майора авиации ТИХОНОВА, генерал-майора авиации БЛИНОВА, генерал-майора авиации МЕНЬШИКОВА, генерал-майора авиации БРОВКО, генерал-майора авиации ШИРОКОГО, полковника ГОРЕВАЛОВА, полковника ЧУПИКОВА, полковника ГУСАРОВА; сапёры генерал-полковника инженерных войск ПРОШЛЯКОВА, генерал-майора инженерных войск ФУРСА, генерал-майора инженерных войск ТКАЧЕНКО, генерал-майора инженерных войск МАРЬИНА, генерал - майора инженерных войск БОРДЗИЛОВСКОГО, полковника КОВАЛЕВА, полковника БЕЛЬСКОГО, генерал-майора инженерных войск ХАРЧЕВИНА, генерал-майора инженерных войск ЯКОВЛЕВА, подполковника НЕДЗЕЛЬСКОГО, полковника МАСИКА, подполковника ЧИСТОВА, полковника ПРУССА, инженер-подполковника ЛЕСИНА; связисты генерал-лейтенанта войск связи МАКСИМЕНКО, полковника ФАЛИНА, полковника ЧЕРКАСОВА, генерал-майора войск связи АКИМОВА, полковника СОЛОВЬЕВА, генерал-майора войск связи ЛИТВИНЕНКО, подполковника ВИННИКА, полковника СМОЛИЙ, подполковника ЗАХАРОВА, подполковника государственной безопасности ВАКИША.

В ознаменование одержанной победы соединения и части, наиболее отличившиеся в боях при прорыве обороны немцев и наступлении на БЕРЛИН, представить к награждению орденами.

Сегодня, 23 апреля, в 21 час столица нашей Родины МОСКВА от имени Родины салютует доблестным войскам 1-го Белорусского фронта, в том числе 1-й. польской армии генерал-лейтенанта ПОПЛАВСКОГО, прорвавшимся к БЕРЛИНУ – двадцатью артиллерийскими залпами из двухсот двадцати четырёх орудий.

За отличные боевые действия ОБЯВЛЯЮ БЛАГОДАРНОСТЬ руководимым Вами войскам, участвовавшим в. боях при прорыве обороны немцев и-наступлении на БЕРЛИН.

Вечная слава героям, павшим в боях за свободу и независимость нашей Родины!

Смерть немецким захватчикам!

Верховный Главнокомандующий
Маршал Советского Союза И. СТАЛИН
23 апреля 1945 года. № 339.

50

The Pittsburgh Press (April 23, 1945)

Fourth of Berlin seized – tanks in center of city

Reds outflank capital from north, capture citadel of Frankfurt

BULLETINS

LONDON, England – Marshal Stalin announced tonight that Marshal Ivan S. Konev’s First Ukrainian Army had broken into Berlin from the south.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau reported today that the Russians had captured Potsdam, suburb on the southwestern edge of Berlin.

map.042345.up
In the heart of Berlin, according to Swiss reports, the Red Army was said to be fighting on Unter den Linden. Officially, the Russian communiqué put Soviet troops near the Alexander Station. Arrows show the directions of the Russian drives.

LONDON, England (UP) – Russian forces have smashed to within four miles of the heart of Berlin, Marshal Stalin announced today.

The Soviet leader also revealed that Red Army troops have outflanked the stricken capital on the north in a push through Oranienburg.

Southeast of the city, the bypassed Oder River citadel of Frankfurt was captured.

The Red Army held more than a fourth of the German capital.

Marshal Stalin broke his silence on the Battle of Berlin with an announcement that Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov had advanced a siege line deep into the city and captured the Birkenwerder, Pankow, Friedrichsfeld, Karlshorst and Koepenick districts.

Moscow broadcast Marshal Stalin’s special order of the day – his first on the great offensive – as the faltering German radio admitted that Russian armored spearheads were probing into the heart of Berlin from three directions and neutral dispatches said Soviet tanks were clanking along Unter den Linden.

The Nazis claimed that Adolf Hitler had taken personal command of the defense of Berlin.

Marshal Stalin’s order of the day, addressed to Marshal Zhukov, commander of the First White Russian Army, said:

The First White Russian Army, having gone over to the offensive from a bridgehead on the west bank of the Oder with the support of massed blows by artillery and the air force, broke the strongly fortified and deeply echeloned German defenses covering Berlin from the east and advanced 37 to 62 miles.

The Soviet assault forces broke into Berlin, Marshal Stalin said, after overrunning many of its key outposts, including Frankfurt. This city of 85,000 on the west bank of the Oder 33 miles east of Berlin had anchored the now-crumbled German defenses in the Oder Valley.

Storming into the city from the east, the siege army overran the city’s districts and drove through the rubble-strewn streets for Potsdamer Platz in the heart of the city. Neutral reports of the push to Unter den Linden indicated the Soviet vanguard was within a mile or so of the platz.

The captured districts ringed the entire northern and eastern side of Berlin. Among them was Hennigsdorf, 12 miles northwest of Potsdamer Platz.

A dispatch from Germany through Switzerland said “the Battle of Berlin is practically over.”

The Luxembourg radio reported without confirmation that Russian and American forces had met south of Berlin in the area of Torgau, on the Elbe. But dispatches from the U.S. Ninth and First Armies said the historic junction apparently had not been made.

A late Nazi broadcast said Soviet tanks were in the Mariendorf district, three miles south of Potsdamer Platz, and Lichterfelde, four miles southwest of the famous crossroads in the heart of Berlin, from which Unter den Linden is a mile or so distant.

Swedish reports quoted one of the last air passengers out of Berlin as saying the city was in a state of chaos and partial anarchy. In many districts, he said, civilians were hunting down Gestapo agents and dealing with them summarily.

A Moscow dispatch said Russian siege guns lined up hub to hub from the northwestern to the southern fringes of the city, together with hundreds of Stormovik assault planes, had “pulverized virtually the entire area toward the center of Berlin.”

White flags were flying in the center of Berlin, the Swiss radio said. Fierce battles were underway, the broadcast asserted.

Radio Luxembourg said the Russians also had captured the big Tempelhof Airdrome in southern Berlin.

A dispatch to the Soviet newspaper Pravda said two sergeants of the “Order of Glory” had carried the banner of Stalingrad from the Volga to Berlin and hoisted it in the most advance position in the capital.

“The red banner, on which was embroidered Lenin’s face looking westward, was unfurled in the trenches where amid the din and smoke of battle, soldiers knelt and kissed it,” the dispatch said.

Other Russian columns had three-quarters encircled Berlin. A German communiqué admitted they had reached the Havel River northwest of the city, where they presumably had the last escape routes to the west under artillery fire.

South of the capital, the enemy communiqué said, the Russians captured Koepenick, 9½ miles southeast of Potsdam Platz, the center of Berlin, but lost it to a German counterattack.

Close on Zossen

The Russians were also reported within a few miles of Zossen, former German supreme headquarters 11 miles south of Berlin.

Still farther south, Moscow said, other Russian units cut the main Berlin-Dresden highway and closed in on the suburbs of Dresden.

Don and Kuban Moscow Cossack cavalry were mopping up resistance in forests between Dresden and Dessau, now in U.S. First Army hands 80 miles to the northwest. At one point east of Leipzig, the Americans and Russians officially were 34 miles apart.

A Moscow dispatch this morning said only a “few miles” separated American and Russian spearheads in the general Dresden-Dessau section and a “historic junction is imminent.”

Soviet motorcycle patrols which often penetrate far behind the enemy lines already may have reached American-held territory, Moscow said.

Dispatches from Supreme Allied Headquarters also said it was “highly likely” that there already has been “considerable” patrol contact between the Americans and Russians.

Headquarters sources pointed out that patrol contact necessarily must precede an official junction in force. When the latter occurs, headquarters said, it will be announced jointly by Washington, Moscow and London.

City in flames

All of Northeast Berlin itself was a “solid mass of flames and smoke clouds,” Soviet front dispatches said.

Every able-bodied male from 15 to 65, including Hitler Youth, traffic police, letter carriers and factory workers, was said to have been thrown into the blazing battle.

A dispatch to the Moscow newspaper Pravda said only alternate battalions of some of the new recruits were armed.

“Our unarmed battalion was told to take weapons frum the wounded,” one prisoner told the Pravda correspondent. “But we didn’t see anything through the smoke and dust. Then the Russians came.”

Deflect flak guns

Anti-aircraft guns in the capital’s great defense system were deflected and used as anti-tank-guns.

Russian armored columns burst through the barricades and brought flaming buildings down around the German garrison with almost point-blank artillery fire.

They were advancing on a solid 25-mile front from the northeast corner of Berlin. Sixteen districts in the eastern and northeastern part of the city were captured yesterday alone.

Eighty square miles of Berlin’s 332-square-mile area were cleared. Scores of war plants, an auxiliary power station, a tramway depot und other strategic buildings were captured.

While the main Russian armies aimed at the heart of Berlin, reserves of Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s First White Russian Army Group swung northwest and southwest in a bid to encircle the capital and its defenders.

The arms of the pincers at last reports were 30 miles apart. German civilians were in panicky flight through the gap, neutral reports said. Some SS and regular army troops were also said to be joining the exodus.

Glienicke, 9½ miles north of Berlin, fell to Soviet troops on the northern arm of the pincers. On the south, the Red Army captured Schlieben, 37 miles from U.S. First Army troops at Wurzen, and Dahme, 10 miles farther north and 50 miles east of the Americans at Dessau.

34 miles apart

The Russians made their closest approach to the American lines, by official Soviet report, with the capture of Elsterwerda, 34 miles from Wurzen and 24 miles northwest of Dresden.

Torgau, where foreign reports said a Soviet-American junction had already been made, is 20 miles southwest of Schlieben and 23 miles northwest of Elsterwerda.

On the southern flank of the 45-mile-wide Soviet wedge being driven across the southern approaches to Berlin, the Russians captured Bischofswerda, 14 miles northeast of Dresden.

51

Fuehrer fighting in capital beside women, radio says

LONDON, England (UP) – The German radio said today that Adolf Hitler was in the “main fighting line” in embattled Berlin.

If Berlin and Prague are lost, the German broadcast said, “all Europe is lost.”

It said:

Therefore, Hitler has remained in Berlin.

He will stay there despite all rumors. The main front line runs straight through Berlin and the newly-established “Frickcorps-Adolf Hitler” is fighting with women in its ranks.

The broadcast was carried by a Hamburg station, one of the few in Germany still broadcasting under Nazi control. It said Hitler was determined that neither Berlin nor Prague should fall to “Bolshevism.”

Allied circles doubted that Hitler was still in Berlin despite the propaganda broadcast, but recalled that neutral sources had reported the Fuehrer was contemplating death in battle at the head of a suicide battalion.

All other information indicated that Hitler was in Bavaria organizing a final stand in the Alpine redoubt around Berchtesgaden. One report was that he had set up headquarters at Salzburg, just north of Berchtesgaden.

Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister and Gauleiter of Berlin, was reported to have fled Berlin shortly after broadcasting Saturday night that he would remain with the city’s defenders to the end.

Sensational rumors were sweeping Europe in the wake of the Red Army’s entry into Berlin. One report circulated in Stockholm that armistice negotiations were underway in the Nazi capital.

A captured order of the day signed by Hitler revealed that he had told his forces on the Western Front to abandon frontal attacks and resort to guerrilla warfare in an effort to prolong resistance as long as possible.

Panic was reported sweeping Berlin. Some details were seeping through to Stockholm. Swedish correspondents were filing uncensored dispatches for the first time since the start of the war. They explained they could not find censors.

Stockholm said German refugees were fleeing west in terror. Some regular army and even SS troops were among them. They complained because the Americans had not “rescued” them from the Soviets.

Radio Paris said German workers were fighting SS units in the streets of Berlin.

Hitler’s order of the day to troops on the Western Front was captured in the Elbe sector by the British Second Army, an Exchange Telegraph dispatch said.

The order was quoted as saying:

The situation on the Western Front is unfavorable to us because of the enemy’s superiority in manpower, material and ammunition.

Despite this or because of it, we have to keep our enemy at key pitch. Only attacks against the enemy flanks and rear, disrupting, or cutting his lines of communications, guarantee success…

We have to adopt the same method taught us by the Russians in the years 1942 to 1944… Our attacks must not be directed against enemy strongpoints, but against weak spots.

Hitler also reported in Harz forest cave

WITH U.S. NINTH ARMY, Germany (UP) – U.S. Army officers said today there were unverified reports that Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler were hiding in caves in the Harz forests. That area has been occupied by the Americans.

On the face of it, the reports credited to German civilians appeared unreliable since organized resistance in the Harz forests was declared ended Sunday.

Yet 8th Armored Division officers said reports from independent sources crosschecked in their details.

Dozens of Germans were reported as having said that high Nazi authorities had been hiding in the huge chain of caverns near Blankenburg. One chamber alone was reported to have a capacity of more than 1,000 persons.

A darkened and heavily-guarded train was said to have unloaded in the mountains between Blankenburg and Elbingerode, probably at Ruebeland, 14 to 18 days ago. That was before the Americans closed the ring around the Harz pocket.

52

History repeats in Berlin battle

By Henry Shapiro, United Press staff writer

MOSCOW, USSR – History was repeating itself for the third time in 189 years today as the Russians stormed toward the heart of blazing Berlin.

Three times the Russians have taken Berlin – 1756, 1813, and now, 1945.

The eight-day battle for Berlin which began on February 13, 1813, was very much like today’s spectacular struggle for the German capital.

Then, as today, Cossacks stormed toward the Alexanderplatz, fur caps tilted atop their heads, capes flowing behind them, their sabers waving wildly. Then they rode horses, but today of course they were motorized.

1813 report cited

The commanding general of the Russians who took Berlin in 1813, Gen. Chernyshev, wrote a report which reads almost like today’s news dispatches.

Chernyshev wrote to his commander-in-chief, Field Marshal Kutuzov:

Our advance units took Charlottenburg and the Potsdam highway. Enemy cavalry striking from Berlin attacked us. Having crushed them we slashed toward the city on their backs and pursued them as far as Alexanderplatz, where massed infantry met us with hail-fire.

At the same time enemy riflemen from windows, balconies, gateways, and barracks hailed bullets while artillery mowed down our gallant Cossacks.

Today’s reports told of just such violent street fighting, and of how massed anti-aircraft guns and anti-tank pieces battled the onrushing Red tanks.

Bridges blasted

A strong enemy column coming from Prenzlauer Gate defiled behind walls but retreated in the face of our rapid fire. We battled an hour and three-quarters, halting only at the river whose wooden bridges had been blown up with only a stone bridge defended by a six-gun battery.

Inspired by the example of our leaders, our troops attacked the enemy column four times, routed it, and pursued it as far as Alexanderplatz.

Today again the Cossacks were pushing the Germans back to Alexanderplatz.

The report concluded, “February 22, His Imperial Majesty’s banners were fluttering over Berlin.”

53

Pearson story denied

PARIS, France – Allied Supreme Headquarters has officially denied a report that U.S. troops reached the outskirts of Potsdam and then withdrew because of an agreement to permit Russian troops to enter Berlin first. Washington columnist Drew Pearson made the assertion Saturday night.

54

Editorial: Germany destroys herself

The great day of Allied entry into Berlin has come. To the south, a meeting of the armies of Russia and the Western Allies is imminent, if it has not already occurred. But the time for rejoicing is not yet. V-E Day is postponed. Gen. Eisenhower warns that it may not come until summer.

This may be an overly-cautious prediction. But even to us civilians at home, it is obvious that there is a big military job yet to be done.

Not that it is an orthodox military job remaining. By all the rules of warfare the German armies are beaten beyond any hope of recovery. In most places, particularly in the west, there is no organized front. No amount of Nazi skill, courage or fanaticism can reorganize those armies for they have been decimated by death and surrender until only remnants are left, and those lack the supplies and communications essential to major warfare.

Instead of stopping the war under these hopeless conditions, however, the Nazi authorities choose destruction. Hitler, or whoever speaks for him, has ordered isolated pockets, ports and cities to hold out until death. He has called upon the “faithful” behind Allied lines to carry on guerrilla warfare.

Neither Hitler nor Marshal Stalin nor Gen. Eisenhower can know how long it will take the Allies to clean up such a sticky situation, though all know that the final result is inevitable. Hitler’s written order for guerilla warfare, captured by the British, says: “We have to adopt the same method taught us by the Russians in the years 1942-44.” But the German soldier has neither the “partisan” training of the Russian, nor the morale.

While the Nazi tactics of desperation postpone Allied victory, they also hasten and complete the destruction of a large part of Germany. And, in the long view, the latter is more significant.

What is happening is that the Nazi suicide stand is imposing a form of suicide on the German people. Those who have followed Hitler all these years even at this late date lack the will. or power, to defy him in order to save themselves and their cities.

Whether it is called mass paralysis or insanity, or simply muss stupefaction, the defeated German people are imposing upon themselves and their land a retribution more terrible than ever contemplated by their enemies. Berlin is now added to the long list of German cities virtually wiped out.

They will be a heritage of suffering for Germans yet unborn. For when V-E Day comes there will be no surcease for Germans. Even if the entire Allied effort after European victory were devoted to German relief, many years would be required to establish a minimum basis for civilized existence. Actually, the European allies will be busy rebuilding their own lands, and the United States at least will be concentrating on winning the Pacific war.

Altogether apart from reparations – and these will be heavy – the German people have created conditions in their country which condemn them to a bondage of misery. Every day they continue the war, they project that self-imposed suffering further into the future. They think they are hurting us, though they are destroying themselves.

55

Führer HQ (April 24, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Im Frontbogen südlich des Semmering warfen unsere Truppen die Sowjets noch weiter zurück und wiesen Angriffe bei Altmark und Traisen ab. Zwischen Laa an der Thaya und Nikolsburg sowie südlich Brünn konnte der Feind keine nennenswerten Erfolge erzielen. In diesem Kampfraum wurden 52 Panzer abgeschossen.

Im Südabschnitt der großen Schlacht zwischen den Sudeten und der Pommerschen Bucht drangen unsere Truppen in schwungvollem Angriff bis in den Raum hart östlich Wart vor. In der Stadt verteidigt sich die Besatzung weiter gegen starke Angriffe. Durch die Unterbrechung seiner rückwärtigen Verbindungen nordwestlich Brünn wurde der Gegner gezwungen, seine auf Dresden vorgeschobenen Angriffsspitzen zurückzunehmen. Priegnitz und Kamenz sind wieder in unserer Hand. Im Raum südlich Spremberg binden eigene Truppen in harten Kämpfen starke Kräfte der Bolschewisten.

Von Jüterbog stößt der Feind auf Wittenberg vor. An der Linie Guben-Frankfurt-Fürstenwalde wurden heftige Angriffe abgewiesen oder aufgefangen.

In der Schlacht um die Reichshauptstadt stießen die Bolschewisten trotz erbitterten Widerstandes unserer Truppen und Volkssturmeinheiten bis in den Raum südöstlich Brandenburg, südlich Potsdam und nördlich Königs Wusterhausen bis in die Randgebiete der östlichen und westlichen Stadtgebiete vor.

An der nördlichen Oderfront griff der Feind bei Schwetz erfolglos an, konnte seinen Brückenkopf zwischen Schwetz und Stettin dagegen erweitern. Nordöstlich Pillau vereitelten unsere Verbände in schweren Waldkämpfen nächtliche Durchbruchsversuche.

Beiderseits der unteren Ems wurden wiederholte Angriffe abgewiesen, dabei eine große Anzahl Panzer abgeschossen und Gefangene eingebracht.

Der Schwerpunkt der Kampfhandlungen in Nordwestdeutschland lag gestern zwischen der Aller, der nördlichen Weser und der Elbe bei Stade. In schweren wechselvollen Kämpfen gelang es dem Gegner trotz vielfacher Überlegenheit nicht unsere Front zu durchbrechen. Während im sächsischen Raum und im Vogtland weiterhin Kampfruhe herrscht, halten die feindlichen Angriffe gegen den Raum Eger-Weiden an.

In Süddeutschland richtete sich der Hauptdruck der Amerikaner nach Südosten gegen den Nordteil des Bayrischen Waldes und den Großraum Regensburg. Unsere Gegenangriffe gegen die tiefe Flanke der auf die Donau durchgedrungenen Kräfte sind zwischen Ehingen und Regensburg in gutem Fortschreiten. Versuche, der Amerikaner, ihren Brückenkopf südlich Dillingens zu erweitern, brachen verlustreich zusammen. Aus dem Raum Sigmaringen drang der Feind weiter, nach Südosten vor. Mit den westlich davon durchgebrochenen Panzerspitzen sind heftige Kämpfe im Abschnitt Tuttlingen-Donaueschingen und weiter südlich im Gange.

In Italien hält das erbitterte Ringen in unverminderter Härte an, ohne dass sich die Gesamtlage wesentlich veränderte.

56

Soviet Information Bureau (April 24, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 24 апреля

В течение 24 апреля северо-западнее БЕРЛИНА войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, овладели городами КРЕММЕН, ФЛАТСВ, ВЕЛЬТЕН, НАУЕН. Юго-восточнее БЕРЛИНА войска фронта форсировали реку ДАМЕ и заняли пригороды АДЛЕРСХОФ, РУДОВ, АЛЬТ-ГЛИНИНКЕ, БОНСДОРФ, где соединились с наступающими с юга войсками 1-го УКРАИНСКСГО фронта. Одновременно войска фронта вели уличные бои в северной и восточной части БЕРЛИНА, заняв при этом городские районы ТЕГЕЛЬ, ВИТЕНАУ, РЕЙНИКЕНДОРФ, Силезский вонзал и городские кварталы, расположенные севернее и восточнее Силезского вокзала. Южнее ФРАНКФУРТА на ОДЕРЕ войска фронта овладели городами ФЮРСТЕНБЕРГ и ГУБЕН. В боях за 23 апреля войска фронта взяли в плен более 3.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили следующие трофеи: танков – 48, полевых орудий – более 200, автомашин – 2.550, паровозов – 88, железнодорожных вагонов – более 1.000, складов с военным имуществом – 113.

Войска 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта с боями заняли в южной части БЕРЛИНА городские районы МАРИЕНДОРФ, ЛАНКВИЦ, ОСДОРФ, ШТАНСДОРФ и соединились с войсками 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта, форсировавшими реку ДАМЕ юго-восточнее БЕРЛИНА. На ДРЕЗДЕНСКОМ направлении войска фронта овладели городом ГРОССЕНХАЙН. В боях за 23 апреля войска фронта взяли в плен более 6.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 38 танков. В числе пленных командир дивизии «Фридрих Людвиг Ян» – полковник Берменбляйн.

На других участках фронта – бои местного значения и поиски разведчиков.

За 23 апреля на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено 110 немецких танков. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 60 самолётов противника.

57

The Pittsburgh Press (April 24, 1945)

REDS CUT THROUGH BERLIN
Fall of capital imminent

Encirclement of city reported – Nazis mass for battle to death

BULLETINS

LONDON, England – Front dispatches said Allied fliers sighted huge German motor columns moving eastward from the Elbe River toward Berlin today and destroyed at least 200 vehicles within 15 miles of the capital.

The German radio admitted today that Red flags are flying from civilian homes in Berlin. Nazi soldiers are tearing down the Soviet emblems, the broadcast said.

LONDON, England (UP) – Russian siege forces were reported late today to have driven into the Charlottenburg area of west-central Berlin, apparently after knifing clear through the heart of the devastated and tottering city.

“The imminent fall of Berlin,” a Moscow radio commentator said this evening, “will break the last vestiges of resistance, the last convulsive throes of the wounded monster.”

Unofficial advices reported that the siege ring had been closed around Berlin in a grand-scale encirclement maneuver by two Red armies, trapping any Nazi leaders who stayed to see the death of their capital.

In what Moscow called Berlin’s last hours, a United Press dispatch from the Soviet capital reported that the Red Army and the U.S. First Army had made the long-awaited junction from east and west some 60 miles south of the German capital. The report lacked official confirmation by an expected joint statement in Moscow, London and Washington on the subject.

The BBC reported that Marshal Gregory K. Zhukov’s First White Russian Army had broken into Charlottenburg, the sprawling area of Berlin lying directly west of the business area. Marshal Zhukov’s forces had been beating straight across the core of Berlin on a siege line between the northwest and southwest part of the city.

The report tallied with an earlier hint from Nazi sources that the hard-pressed defenders were falling back into the northwestern quarter of Berlin for their last stand.

Half of city seized

Two Russian armies were chopping through street barricades in the heart of the capital. Official reports, lagging far behind the blazing battle, said one-third to one-half of Berlin had been captured.

Street fighting of “fantastic fury” was reported by the Nazi-controlled Oslo radio. It said that the main weight of the struggle now centered in the northwestern section, which the Nazis appeared to have chosen for their last stand.

A German High Command admission that the Russians had reached Brandenburg, 22 miles west of Berlin, indicated that they were running rampant beyond the capital. It tended to support the encirclement report. A communiqué also said the Russians had thrust as far as the area south of Potsdam and beyond Koenigs Wusterhausen, at the southeastern edge of the city.

Report encirclement

Stockholm and French advices reported the encirclement of Berlin and the trapping of whatever members of the Nazi hierarchy remained to witness the death throes of their devastated capital. The Nazis said yesterday that Adolf Hitler was directing the defense of Berlin, but the report was tainted with propaganda possibilities.

Soviet front dispatches said the defenders of interior Berlin were beginning to show signs of cracking up. In one rubbish-heaped street 60 men surrendered. Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian slave laborers were emerging from the ruins of the central district to welcome the Red Army.

City desolate waste

All accounts pictured Berlin as a desolate waste. The Russian Army organ Red Star published pictures showing Soviet tanks rolling through rubble-littered streets where not a soul was in sight.

“If this is typical of the rest of the city, Berlin is wrecked worse than Stalingrad and Warsaw,” a United Press dispatch describing the pictures said.

A correspondent for the Soviet government organ Izvestia said chaos and confusion were rife in the German-held part of Berlin, where the warlords maintained some semblance of discipline only by terrorism.

Raze stations

Red Star said the shells of hundreds of Russian guns had leveled the Stettin and Nord rail stations and demolished the Argus airplane engine and Heinkel aircraft plants on the Berlinerstrasse.

Gas plants were blazing, burned out panzers littered the broad avenues, and many streets were impassable, a Red Star correspondent said.

Marshal Zhukov’s tanks and motorized infantry broke across the circular railroad into inner Berlin from the north, east and south. They now were battering through the city, block by block, blasting out nests of SS Elite Guards and Volkssturm (home guard) remnants from cellars and hideouts in the ruins, while Soviet artillery demolished row after row of street barricades.

Hoist flag on Reichstag

Some 50 miles north of Berlin, the North German home radio service said, the Russians had broken across the lower Oder River in the area of Gartz, 16 miles south of Stettin, and established a bridgehead 12 miles long and about two miles deep.

The Luxembourg radio said that in Berlin, the Russian flag was already flying over the ruins of the Reichstag, and Potsdamer Platz. Anhalter Station and the Tiergarten were in Soviet hands.

Radio Luxembourg, regarded as the voice of Allied Supreme Headquarters, said the Americans and Russians had joined hands along a broad front near Torgau on the Elbe. The Russians reached the Elbe along a 39-mile front yesterday.

Work together

“American and Russian tanks and motorized columns are already working together,” the Luxembourg broadcast said.

A poll of high Soviet officers in Moscow revealed that they believed all German resistance north of Berlin and south of Dresden would be crushed in the next fortnight, leaving only the redoubt to be conquered.

Washington military observers estimated it would take the Allies about three weeks to clean up northern Germany except for holdout port cities and possibly six weeks to conquer the southern redoubt.

May drive in north

Within the next few days, two more Russian Army groups – the Second and Third White Russian – probably will smash across the Oder in the Stettin area and clear Western Pomerania and Mecklenburg for a junction with Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery’s 21st Army Group Moscow said.

With the completion of these drives, the Battle of Europe will enter the mop-up stage.

The snapping shut of the last escape gap out of Berlin was reported both by the French Telegraph Agency, quoting the Luxembourg radio, and by the Stockholm Bureau of the London Daily Mail.

The Daily Mail said the encirclement was completed at Spandau in eastern Berlin. The Nazi radio last night said the Russians had reached Spandau but claimed there still was a four-mile gap open between that district and Neider Neundorf.

Issues two orders

The more cautious Soviet High Command, whose reports in recent days have trailed one to three days behind the actual fighting, placed the two arms of the pincers at Hennigsdorf and Marienfelde, 17 miles apart.

Premier Marshal Stalin, in two ringing orders of the day, revealed that his First White Russian and First Ukrainian Armies, already had cleared 21 metropolitan districts – 125 square miles – inside Berlin by yesterday.

The inner city’s main defense line, based on a railway embankment ringing in the city, was shattered, Marshal Stalin said, and Soviet troops captured gas works within two miles of Potsdamer Platz, Berlin’s Times Square.

A Soviet communiqué said that the Russians had intercepted a German radio order to artillery units to fire on their own infantry with shrapnel whenever they retreated.

Briefing given Soviet units before the battle left no doubt that the Russians were taking full measure of vengeance upon the arrogant SS in its own capital.

Stockholm dispatches said the entire government quarter between Unter den Linden and the Leipziger Station had been leveled by artillery fire and bombs.

Potsdam’s fall reported

Other European sources said the Red Army was battling along Unter den Linden and the Wilhelmstrasse and had reached the Stettiner Station. A London Daily Telegraph dispatch from Stockholm said the Russians were smashing through SS defenses near Alexanderplatz.

Another Stockholm dispatch, this one to The Daily Express, said Berlin’s southwestern suburb of Potsdam had been captured.

First to break into Berlin, Marshal Stalin revealed, was Marshal Zhukov’s First White Russian Army. While his main forces were smashing into the capital from the east and northeast, Marshal Zhukov’s southern wing toppled the anchor stronghold of Frankfurt, 33 miles east-southeast, and Cottbus, 53 miles southeast.

58

First eyewitness story –
Berlin streets found deserted

By Roman Karmen

The following dispatch is the first eyewitness story from inside blazing Berlin. It was written exclusively for the United Press by the famed Russian war reporter, Roman Karmen. Veteran reporter of the Spanish and Chinese wars, Karmen has followed the Red Army through every big battle, including Leningrad, Stalingrad and Warsaw.

BERLIN, Germany (April 23, delayed) – The deeper we penetrate Berlin, the fiercer the battle rages.

But already the victorious Red banner flies over the Nazi capital.

I am writing this inside tank T-34, which the command placed at my disposal to enter Berlin with the vanguard units.

We rode across the suburbs of Blankenburg and the Malchow and Weissensee districts on Berlin streets cleared of the enemy. On Birkenstrasse and Berliner Allee heavy enemy artillery and mortars pound incessantly.

The streets are deserted. Our infantry, clinging to the house fronts, advances chain-wise. Furious battles rage in neighboring streets.

We run into a group of captured Volkssturmers (home guards) unescorted. Our assault units, consisting of a tank group, anti-tank guns and self-propelled guns together with sappers, smash toward the center of the city, storming each house, cellar and balcony turned into fortresses.

Barricades constructed from the wreckage of houses block our way. There is heavy cannonading from the northern eastern and southern districts.

These are unforgettable minutes. It is a long way from the grim day of the Battle of Moscow. I remember famished, besieged Leningrad and Stalingrad.

The tank unit which I am accompanying battled ahead 15 kilometers in ousting the enemy from several fortified villages on the way to Berlin.

Before retreating, the Germans hurled against us huge artillery and tank forces, counterattacking on each defense line established on favorable terrain. Our tank units were compelled to build their own bridges and roads.

Our advance was a continuous mass of materiel relentlessly sweeping ahead like an avalanche. Thousands of motorized vehicles were rolling on several lanes on a dozen parallel highways.

Around the clock hundreds of fighters, bombers and assault planes swept the skies. Fires blazed everywhere. The artillery cannonade did not cease for a single minute. Motors roared over our heads carrying tons of deadly gifts westward.

The Luftwaffe was also active, dropping parachute flares over our lines. But they dared to fly only at night, our air superiority being so overwhelming.

There was great enthusiasm among our soldiers as they drove within sight of their four years goal. Their lips burned with one word, “Berlin.”

Planes grounded

Two days ago, at 6 p.m., I stood on the eastern edge of Bernau. In the course of that night, Bernau was cleared and our tank forces were ordered to proceed.

The next morning was rainy and foggy. Aircraft were grounded but the tanks smashed on without all support.

I rode a jeep right behind the tank column which entered the northwestern city limits of Berlin. The whole way panzers burned like torches and heaps of German corpses littered the roads.

At practically each halt there were heavy barricades, which tank-borne sappers demolished under murderous enemy fire. All the roads and fields were densely mined.

Shell bridges

I inspected Col. Grekov’s battery, which opened fire on Berlin at 12:30 p.m., shelling bridges spanning the Spree and the Stettin northern railway stations.

At 12:40, I was told the vanguards had broken into the northeastern limits of Berlin in the Weissensee district. Germans were firing intensively from the houses.

On high buildings dominating the capital’s skyline, tankmen unfurled the Red Flag.

I saw the massive preparations which preceded the Berlin offensive. In the past few days, I witnessed great masses of military equipment streaming to the Oder River.

Tanks massed

In the area of the projected blow were concentrated hundreds of giant Stalin and some Sherman tanks and an extraordinary quantity of artillery. Thousands of motors roared at the Oder crossings.

Heavy tanks and self-propelled guns blanketed the jumping off place on a small patch of land on the west bank of the Oder. The battle for this bridgehead raged furiously for many days.

At some points, the width of the bridgehead did not exceed three kilometers. Facing us were numerous rifle and tanks divisions protecting the Nazi capital.

Suddenly, an unparalleled barrage loosened the enemy positions. Hundreds of planes simultaneously dropped their bombloads. Guns of all calibers standing hub-to-hub covered the field as far as I could see.

I saw the first group of prisoners, all of whom told of the hysterical appeals of their commanders to fight to the last drop of blood and under no circumstances admit the Russians to Berlin.

59

Berlin victory fails to excite weary Reds

Capture means end of war to Russians
By M. S. Handler, United Press staff writer

MOSCOW, USSR – Vodka glasses clinked in toasts to the Red Army today as the Battle of Berlin neared its end.

But the big celebrations were yet to come, and the Soviet capital remained amazingly calm.

The Polish Embassy last night celebrated the fact the first infantry division to storm into Berlin with Red tanks was a Polish one.

Soviet Vice President Nikolai Shvernik, Marshal Semyon Budenny, Foreign Vice Commissars Andrey Y. Vyshinsky and Solomon A. Lozovsky. Polish President Boleslaw Bierut and Premier Edward Osobka-Morawski exchanged toasts and congratulations.

Stalin to get ovation

Premier Joseph Stalin was not present, but he was expected to get the greatest ovation of his life at the coming opening session of the Supreme Soviet. His son, Col. Vasily Stalin, commander of an air squadron, was cited as among the heroes of the Battle of Berlin.

The only outward sign in Moscow streets of reaction to the tremendous victory was a slightly larger number of people than usual in the center of the city. Pedestrians also seemed more animated than usual.

No dancing, shouting

But there was nothing resembling America’s boisterous welcome of the news of the liberation of Paris. There was no dancing, no shouting in the streets. No happy drunks weaved their way along the boulevards.

The outward calm, however, did not reveal the true feelings of the people of Moscow. After four years of hard work and great personal losses, these people are war-weary.

They are happy their troops are in Berlin because to them, Berlin means the end of the war. And they seem to be willing to let it go at that.

60

Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 25, 1945)

Schöne Abwehrerfolge im Osten und Westen

oz. Berlin, 24. April – Die gesamtmilitärische Lage ist gekennzeichnet durch erfreuliche Abwehrerfolge unserer Stoßdivisionen gegen die vorgeprellten Panzerkeile der Feinde im Süden der Ostfront und im bayrischen Raum und durch unsere Angriffserfolge am Semmering einerseits, durch eine Verschärfung der Lage um Berlin und den Vorstoß der Gegner im südlichsten Teil der Westfront.

Die Anwesenheit des Führers in der Reichshauptstadt auf dem Höhepunkt des Abwehrkampfes gibt der fanatischen Entschlossenheit der deutschen Truppen und der Berliner Bevölkerung einen unvergleichlichen Schwung. Berichte aus Berlin schildern die Härte der Kampfe, die geführt werden von Verbänden der Wehrmacht, der Waffen-SS, Alarmeinheiten, Panzer-Jagdverbänden der Hitler-Jugend und der Einwohnerschaft. Die Bolschewisten versuchten, Ihren nördlichen Offensivflügel weiter vorzutreiben mit dem Ziel der Umfassung der Reichshauptstadt. Sie drücken am ostwärtigen Havel-Ufer nach Süden und wurden von unseren Truppen abgestoppt. Bolschewistisches Artilleriefeuer liegt auf dem Spandauerforst. Der Feind versuchte weiter, unseren Sperrriegel durch einen Flankenangriff über die Havel zu durchbrechen, wurde aber durch unsere tapfere Verteidigung abgewehrt. Daraufhin stellten sie ihre Angriffsversuche wieder ein. Mit Unterstützung von Schlachtfliegern gingen sie zum Angriff auf das Gebiet von Tegel-Neuendorf und Hakenfelde-Schönewalde über. Diese Angriffe wurden von unserer Artillerie niedergeschlagen, bevor der feindliche Ansturm zum Einsatz kam. Im südlichen Vorfeld gehen die Kämpfe um die Linie Luckenwalde und Ransdorf. Der Schwerpunkt der Kämpfe lag bei Luckenwalde und an der von Zossen nach Norden Verlaufenden Reichsstraße 96. Im Südosten Berlins verteidigte unsere tapfere Abwehr den Raum bei Köpenick und im Spreeabschnitt bei Oberschöneweide.

Im Brennpunkt der Abwehrschlacht zwischen Donau und Thaya haben die deutschen Verbände den Sowjets in den letzten Tagen hohe Verluste zugefügt und den Durchbruch des Feindes in Richtung auf Znaim und das Protektorat verhindert. Innerhalb weniger Tage büßten die Sowjets 150 Panzer ein. Während die Sowjets südlich des Wienerwaldes von Nordosten und Süden Vordringen, kam der deutsche Gegenangriff südlich des Semmering weiter voran. Der Kampf ging dort in den letzten Tagen um die Ortschaften Waldbach, Mönichwald und das durch den Sitz einer nationalpolitischen Erziehungsanstalt bekannte Vorau.

Die deutschen Soldaten an der Westfront leisten nicht nur auf einer Frontlänge von 1.000 Kilometer, sondern auch in einer Fronttiefe von 1.000 Kilometer einen fanatischen und erbitterten Widerstand. Eine besondere Charakteristik unserer Kampfführung bildet der Widerstand weit hinter den feindlichen Linien. Die Ruinen-Verteidigung kostet dem Gegner viel Blut. Unsere Kampfgruppen fügen dem Feind einen Schaden zu, dessen Verhältnis zu unseren Verlusten als sehr groß zu bezeichnen ist. In Nürnberg z.B. vernichteten unsere Soldaten in den letzten Tagen noch 24 schwere nordamerikanische Panzerwagen. In Fürth, Erlangen und Magdeburg war es ebenso. Aber auch in anderen Gebieten, wie z.B. dem Harz, bewähren und bewährten sie sich als Wellenbrecher gegen die feindlichen Angriffsspitzen. Als hervorragendes Merkmal der deutschen Abwehrtaktik an der Westfront ist die Kühnheit und Schnelligkeit, mit der die deutschen Jagdkommandos ihre Angriffe gegen die Flanken des Gegners führen, hervorzuheben. Die deutschen Panzerjagdverbände tragen Ihren Namen zu Recht, denn sie, sind es, die die feindlichen Panzerrudel, die in das deutsche Hinterland vorzustoßen versuchen, regelrecht jagen und zur Strecke bringen. Die Panzerfaust, das kleine Wunderwerk der Panzervernichtung, ist die Waffe, mit der sie hart und unerbittlich zuschlagen. Immer wieder erlebt man in den verschiedenen Abschnitten der Front, dass auch die jüngsten Freiwilligen, 16- und 17-jährige, sich zu den Panzerjagdkommandos gemeldet haben, deren Taten erst später gewürdigt werden, können. In der augenblicklichen Stunde der Gefahr kennen sie nur eine Aufgabe, die Spitzen der feindlichen Panzerkeile zu zerschlagen und ihre Flanken schwer zu verwunden. Diese Aufgabe aber bildet für die Führung einen Faktor von operativer Bedeutung.

61

Führer HQ (April 25, 1945)

Kommuniqué des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht

Beiderseits der unteren Weser und im Frontbogen zwischen Elbekanal und Delmenhorst behaupteten sich unsere Divisionen bei geringen Geländeverlusten. An der Elbe rannten die Engländer und Kanadier vom Süden südlich Bremen und bis Delmenhorst an. Bei Horneburg hielten die schweren Abwehrkämpfe mit gleicher Stärke an. Die Stadt Horneburg wurde wiedergewonnen.

In der Schlacht um Berlin wird um jeden Fußbreit Boden gerungen. Im Süden drangen die Sowjets bis zur Linie Babelsberg-Zehlendorf-Neukölln vor. Im östlichen und nördlichen Stadtgebiet dauern die heftigen Straßenkämpfe an. Westlich der Stadt erreichten sowjetische Panzerspitzen den Raum Nauen. Nordwestlich Oranienburg wurde das Nordufer des Stettiner Kanals gegen starke Angriffe gehalten. Wiederholte Angriffe des Feindes auf Eberswalde führten zu Einbrüchen in südlichen Stadtteilen.

Während die Amerikaner an der Mulde und im sächsischen Raum weiter verhalten, erreichten sowjetische Angriffsspitzen die Linie zwischen Riesa und Torgau.

Im Nordteil des Bayrischen Waldes durchgebrochene amerikanische Panzerkampfgruppen erreichten Kamen und fühlten weiter nach Süden vor.

In Italien hat sich der Schwerpunkt der Schlacht durch vorgeschobene feindliche Infanterie- und Panzerverbände zwischen Miglia und Ferrara in die Po-Ebene verlagert. Angriffe der 5. amerikanischen Armee im ligurischen Küstenabschnitt und im westetruskischen Apennin blieben in der Masse vor unseren Stellungen liegen.

Starke kommunistische Bandenkräfte haben sich im kroatischen Berggelände bis Fiume vorgeschoben und stehen am Stadtrand im Kampf mit unseren Truppen.

Im Südabschnitt der Ostfront hat sich die Lage weiter gefestigt Der Schwerpunkt lag gestern bei Brünn, wo die Bolschewisten einen tiefen Einbruch erzielten. Nordwestlich Mährisch-Ostrau wurden erneute Durchbruchsversuche des Feindes zerschlagen.

Die tapfere Besatzung, von Breslau hielt wieder allen Angriffen in vorbildlicher Kampfgemeinschaft von Wehrmacht, Volkssturm und Zivilverwaltung stand. Die Festung steht seit 17. Februar gegen einen ungeheuerlichen Ansturm weit überlegener sowjetischer Kräfte.

Unsere Angriffe im Raum Görlitz-Bautzen machen weiter gute Fortschritte. Weißenberge wurde wieder vom Feind befreit. Die Bolschewisten hatten in diesen Kämpfen sehr hohe blutige Verluste. Umfangreiche Beute wurde eingebracht.

An der westnorwegischen Küste brachten Sicherungsfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine neun britische Jagdbomber zum Absturz. Bei Tage warfen schwere Kampfverbände Bomben im süddeutschen Raum. Anglo-amerikanische Tiefflieger setzten ihren Terror gegen die Bevölkerung mit Bomben und Bordwaffen fort. Nachts war Kiel das Ziel britischer Kampfflugzeuge.

image

Ein von Korvettenkapitän Kremer geführter Panzervernichtungstrupp der Kriegsmarine eines U-Boot-Stützpunktes vernichtete in wenigen Tagen 24 Panzer.

62

Soviet Information Bureau (April 25, 1945)

Оперативная сводка за 25 апреля

Войска 3-го БЕЛОРУССПОГО фронта 25 апреля овладели последним опорным пунктом обороны немцев на Земландском полуострове – городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ – крупным портом и военно-морской базой немцев на Балтийском море, а также заняли населённые пункты ЛОХШТАДТ, НОЙХОЙЗЕР, ХИММЕЛЬРАЙХ, ПЛАНТАГЕ, КАМСТИГАЛЛ.

Войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта перерезали все пути, идущие из БЕРЛИНА на запад, и 25 апреля соединились северо-западнее ПОТСДАМ с войсками 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, завершив, таким образом, полное окружение БЕРЛИНА.

В ходе боёв войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта овладели городами ЭЛЬШТАЛЬ, РОРБЕН, МАРКВАРДТ и заняли пригороды БЕРЛИНА ФАЛЬКЕНЗЕЕ, ФАЛЬКЕНХАГЕН, ЛАГЕР-ДЕБЕРИЦ. Одновременно войска фронта продолжали вести уличные бои в северной, восточной и юго-восточной части БЕРЛИНА, заняв при этом городские районы ТРЕПТОВ и БРИЦ. Юго-западнее ФРАНКФУРТА на ОДЕРЕ войска фронта с боем заняли города МЮЛЛЬРОЗЕ и ФРИДЛАНД. В боях за 24 апреля войска фронта взяли в плен более 3.500 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили следующие трофеи: самолётов – 297, полевых орудий – 110, автомашин – 1.130, паровозов – 16, железнодорожных вагонов – 1.311.

Войска 1-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта с боями заняли город КЕТЦИН и в юго-западной части БЕРЛИНА заняли городские районы ЛИХТЕРФЕЛЬДЕ, ЦЕЛЕНДОРФ. Севернее города КОТТБУС войска фронта заняли более 40 населённых пунктов, в том числе город ПЕЙТЦ и крупные населённые пункты ДИССЕН, БУРГ, КРАУСНИН, БРИЗЕН. Северо-западнее ДРЕЗДЕНА войска фронта форсировали реку ЭЛЬБА и на западном берегу реки заняли город РИЗА. В районе БАУЦЕН наши войска отбивали контратаки крупных сил пехоты и танков противника и нанесли ему большие потери. В боях за 24 апреля войска фронта взяли в плен более 3.000 немецких солдат и офицеров и захватили 22 самолёта и 70 полевых орудий.

Западнее БЕРЛИНА войска 1-го Украинского фронта освободили из немецкого плена бывшего премьер-министра Французской республики ЗРРИО.

На территории Чехословакии северо-западнее города ГОДОНИНА войска 2-го УКРАИНСКОГО фронта, продолжая наступление, заняли более 50 населённых пунктов и среди них МИЛЕШОВИЦЕ, ЛИНГАРТСКЕ-ВАЖАНИ, БЛАЖОВИЦЕ, ТВАРОЖНА, ЛИШЕН, ЧЕРНОВИЦЕ, ПРЖИЗЖЕНИЦЕ, ОСТОПОВИЦЕ, ОМИЦЕ и завязали бой на окраинах города БРНО. На аэродроме юго-восточнее. БРНО войска фронта захватили 18 самолётов противника.

На других участках фронта – бои местного значения и поиски. разведчиков.

За 24 апреля на всех фронтах подбито и уничтожено 76 немецких танков и самоходных орудий. В воздушных боях и огнём зенитной артиллерии сбито 99 самолётов противника.

63

ПРИКАЗ
Верховного Главнокомандующего

Командующему войсками 1-го Белорусского фронта
Маршалу Советского Союза ЖУКОВУ

Начальнику штаба фронта
Генерал-полковнику МАЛИНИНУ

Командующему войсками 1-го Украинского фронта
Маршалу Советского Союза КОНЕВУ

Начальнику штаба фронта
Генералу армии ПЕТРОВУ

Войска 1-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта перерезали всё пути, идущие из БЕРЛИНА на запад, и сегодня, 25 апреля, соединились северо-западнее ПОТСДАМА с войсками 1-го Украинского фронта, завершив, таким образом, полное окружение БЕРЛИНА.

В ходе боёв войска 1-го Белорусского Фронта овладели городами НАУЕН, ЭЛЬШТАЛЬ, РОРБЕК, МАРКВАРДТ, а войска 1-го Украинского фронта заняли город КЕТЦИН.

В боях по завершению окружения БЕРЛИНА и за овладение названными городами отличились войска генерал-лейтенанта ПЕРХОРОВИЧА, 1-ой польской армии генерал-лейтенанта ПОПЛАВСКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта ЛУЧИНСКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта ЛУКЬЯНЧЕНКО, генерал-лейтенанта ПОЗНЯКА, генерал-лейтенанта АНДРЕЕВА, генерал-майора РОГАЧЕВСКОГО, генерал-майора РОТКЕВИЧА, генерал-майора АНАШКИНА, генерал-майора БАТИЦКОГО, генерал-майора ГОРШЕНИНА, генерал-майора ВЫДРИГАНА, генерал-майора КЕНЕВИЧА, генерал-майора БЕВЗЮКА, полковника ПАВЛОВСКОГО, полковника МУЗЫКИНА, полковника ГЕРВАСИЕВА, полковника ИВАНОВА, полковника ШЕЙПАКА, полковника ЗАЙКОВСКОГО; кавалеристы генерал-лейтенанта КОНСТАНТИНОВА, генерал-майора БЕЛОВА, генерал-майора КОБЛОВА, полковника РЫШКОВА; танкисты генерал-полковника ЛЕЛЮШЕНКО, генерал-полковника РЫБАЛКО, генерал-лейтенанта танковых войск БЕЛОВА, генерал-лейтенанта танковых войск СУХОВА, генерал-майора танковых войск ВЕДЕНЕЕВА, генерал - майора танковых войск УПМАНА, генерал-майора танковых войск БАХМЕТЬЕВА, полковника КАРЕЦКОГО, генерал-майора танковых войск ЕРМАКОВА, генерал-майора танковых войск МИТРОФАНОВА, полковника ПОТАПОВА, полковника КОПЫЛОВА, генерал-майора танковых войск НОВИКОВА, полковника ФЕДОРОВА, полковника СЕЛИВАНЧИКА, полковника ТУРКИНА, полковника ЖУРАВЛЕВА, подполковника БАБЕНКО, подполковника ЩЕРБАКА, подполковника РЫБНИКА, подполковника ХОЧКАРЕНКО, подполковника ГУРЕНКО, подполковника БЕЛОБОРОДОВА, подполковника ШАМИНА, подполковника ЯНЧЕЛЕНКО, подполковника САВЧЕНКО, майора ЦУРОЧКИНА, майора КОНСТАНТИНОВА; артиллеристы генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии ГОДИНА, генерал-майора артиллерии МОДЗЕЛЕВСКОГО, генерал-майора артиллерии МЕНТЮКОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ИЗУМРУДОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии МИХАЙЛОВА, генерал-майора артиллерии ПЫЛИНА, генерал-майора артиллерии КЕРП, генерал-майора артиллерии ПЕТРОПАВЛОВСКОГО, генерал-майора артиллерии НИКОЛЬСКОГО, полковника ЧЕВОЛА, полковника ГУДИМОВА, полковника ВОИНОВА, полковника КОЗУБЕНКО, подполковника ШУЛЬЖЕНКО, полковника МИХЕЕВА, полковника МАКСИМОВА, полковника ИВАНОВА, полковника ВИКЕНТЬЕВА, полковника ЛЯШКО, полковника ШУБИНА, полковника ЕЛОВАТСКОГО, полковника ПЕШАКОВА, ‘подполковника ПУЗИКА, подполковника БИРЮКОВА, подполковника ЯЦЕНКО, полковника МИХАЙЛОВА, подполковника ПОГОДСКОГО; лётчики генерал-полковника авиации КРАСОВСКОГО, генерал-майора авиации ПРОНИНА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации РЯЗАНОВА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации САВИЦКОГО, генерал-лейтенанта авиации УТИНА, генерал-майора авиации КОМАРОВА, генерал-майора авиации ЗАБАЛУЕВА, полковника ИСАЕВА, полковника ТУРЫКИНА, подполковника ДОНЧЕНКО; сапёры генерал-майора инженерных войск КОМАРОВА, генерал-майора инженерных войск БОРДЗИЛОВСКОГО, генерал-майора инженерных войск ЖИРОВА, полковника КАМЕНЧУКА, полковника ЛЮБАНСКОГО, полковника МАСИКА, полковника ПОЛУЭКТОВА, подполковника СКОРОХОДА, подполковника НАЗАРЕНКО, подполковника КЕБЕРОВА, майора ЗАМЧАЛОВА, майора СОТАНОВСКОГО, майора КАФАНОВА, майора ЧИСТЯКОВА; связисты полковника СОЛОВЬЕВА, полковника ОСТРЕНКО, полковника ПЛОТКИНА, полковника БОРИСОВА, подполковника ВИННИКА, подполковника КОГАНА, подполковника МАСЛОВА, подполковника ЗАРУДСКОГО, подполковника ОЙЦЕВА, майора УЛЬЯНЕНКОВА, подполковника государственной безопасности ГРИБ.

В ознаменование одержанной победы соединения и части, наиболее отличившиеся в боях по завершению окружения БЕРЛИНА и за овладение поименованными: городами, представить к награждению орденами.

Сегодня, 25 апреля, в 22 часа столица нашей Родины МОСКВА от имени Родины салютует доблестным войскам 1-го Белорусского и 1-го Украинского фронтов, в том числе 1-ой польской армии генерал-лейтенанта ПОПЛАВСКОГО, завершившим окружение БЕРЛИНА – двадцатью артиллерийскими залпами из двухсот двадцати четырёх орудий.

За отличные боевые действия ОБ’ЯВЛЯЮ БЛАГОДАРНОСТЬ руководимым Вами войскам, участвовавшим в боях по завершению окружения БЕРЛИНА и за овладение названными городами.

Вечная слава героям, павшим в боях за свободу и независимость нашей Родины!

Смерть немецким захватчикам!

Верховный Главнокомандующий
Маршал Советского Союза И. СТАЛИН
25 апреля 1945 года. № 342.

64

ПРИКАЗ
Верховного Главнокомандующего

Командующему войсками 3-го Белорусского фронта
Маршалу Советского Союза ВАСИЛЕВСКОМУ

Начальнику штаба фронта
Генерал-полковнику ПОКРОВСКОМУ

Войска 3-го БЕЛОРУССКОГО фронта сегодня, 25 апреля, овладели последним опорным пунктом обороны немцев на Земландском полуострове – городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ – крупным портом и военно-морской базой немцев на Балтийском море.

В боях за овладение городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ отличились войска генерал-полковника ГАЛИЦКОГО, генерал-майора ЛЕДНЕВА, генерал-майора ГУРЬЕВА, генерал-лейтенанта СЕМЕНОВА, генерал-лейтенанта КОШЕВОГО, генерал-лейтенанта ЗАВАДОВСКОГО, генерал-майора ТОЛСТИКОВА, генерал-майора ПЕТЕРСА, генерал-майора ЦЫГАНОВА, генерал-майора ПРОНИНА, генерал-майора КАРИЖСКОГО, генерал-майора ЧЕРНОВА, генерал-майора БУРМАКОВА, генерал-майора ЩЕРБИНА, генерал-майора МАСЛОВА; артиллеристы генерал-лейтенанта артиллерии СЕМЕНОВА, полковника КУЗНЕЦОВА, полковника СТРУЕВА, полковника СЕРДОБОЛЬСКОГО, полковника МИРОНОВА; танкисты полковника ЛЕСОВОГО, полковника КОЗИКОВА, подполковника КИСЕЛЕВА, подполковника РОЖКОВА, подполковника КАЙДАШ, подполковника КАРТАШЕВА, подполковника ЕМЕЛЬЯНОВА; лётчики генерал-полковника авиации ХРЮКИНА, генерал-полковника авиации ПАПИВИНА, генерал-полковника авиации САМОХИНА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации БЕЛОВА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации ДАГАЕВА, генерал-майора авиации СМИРНОВА, генерал-лейтенанта авиации УШАКОВА, генерал-майора авиации ИВАНОВА, генерал-майора авиации ПРУТКОВА, генерал-майора авиации ХАТМИНСКОГО, генерал-майора авиации ШЕВЧЕНКО, генерал-майора авиации ЧУЧЕВА, генерал-майора авиации НЕЧИПОРЕНКО, генерал-майора авиации ЗАХАРОВА, генерал-майора авиации МОЛОКОВА, генерал-майора авиации САНДАЛОВА, генерал-майора авиации КОТЛЯРА, генерал-майора авиации АНДРЕЕВА, генерал-майора авиации АЛЕКСАНДРОВА, полковника ШИНКАРЕНКО, полковника ФОКИНА, полковника КУРБАТОВА, полковника КУЧМА, полковника МАНЖОСОВА, полковника КУРОЧКИНА, подполковника СЛЕПЕНКОВА, подполковника ЗАКЛЕПА, подполковника САЖНЕВА, майора ДЕЛЬФИНО; моряки вице-адмирала ВИНОГРАДОВА, капитана 1 ранга КУРНИКОВА, капитана 2 ранга КРОХИНА; сапёры полковника ГРИГОРЕНКО, полковника СОКОЛОВА, подполковника КАЛЬНИЦКОГО, майора СТЕПУКА, майора БРАДУЛИНА, капитана ИВАНОВА; связисты полковника ДАВЫДЕНКО.

В ознаменование одержанной победы соединения и части, наиболее отличившиеся в боях за овладение городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ, представить к награждению орденами.

Сегодня, 25 апреля, в 23 часа столица нашей Родины МОСКВА от имени Родины салютует доблестным войскам 3-го Белорусского фронта, овладевшим городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ – двадцатью артиллерийскими залпами из двухсот двадцати четырёх орудий.

За отличные боевые действия ОБ’ЯВЛЯЮ БЛАГОДАРНОСТЬ руководимым Вами войскам, участвовавшим в боях за овладение городом и крепостью ПИЛЛАУ.

Вечная слава героям, павшим в боях за свободу и независимость нашей Родины!

Смерть немецким захватчикам!

Верховный Главнокомандующий
Маршал Советского Союза И. СТАЛИН
25 апреля 1945 года. № 343.

65

The Pittsburgh Press (April 25, 1945)

Chaos, panic in Berlin

Nazi leaders flee as Russians overrun two-thirds of capital

BULLETIN

LONDON, England (UP) – Two Red armies completed the encirclement of Berlin today, snapping a trap on its fanatical Nazi defenders and dooming them to surrender or stand and die without hope of reinforcement. Marshal Stalin announced the encirclement.

LONDON, England (UP) – High Nazi officials were reported fleeing by air today from siege-wracked Berlin.

Moscow dispatches said chaos and panic were rampant in the German capital and the climax of the war’s most spectacular battle was near.

A half to two-thirds of Berlin had been overrun and ground to rubble by two Russian armies which now had joined forces in the city for the final onslaught.

The Luxembourg radio quoted Moscow dispatches as saying that the topmost ranks of the Nazi hierarchy had begun to leave Berlin by air.

The great Tempelhof Airport and perhaps one other takeoff base apparently were still in German hands.

The report coincided with some indications that Adolf Hitler – himself persistently reported by the Germans to be directing the defense of Berlin – was pouring in the last remnants of his almost vanished fighting power for a last stand by Nazism in the ruins of the city where it flowered.

Gain in South Berlin

The German High Command admitted that in South Berlin, the Russians had reached a line through Neukoelln, in which the Tempelhof Airport is situated; Zehlendorf, five miles southwest of Potsdamer Platz, and Babelsberg, the “Hollywood” of Germany and site of the big UFA studios 2½ miles east of Potsdam.

A communiqué said other Soviet forces were in the area of Ketzin, on the Havel 10 miles northwest of Potsdam, indicating that whatever gap the Nazis still had out of Berlin was shrinking fast.

Emerge from subways

Red Star, the Soviet Army journal, said Russian assault units were smashing block by block to the center of Berlin, and German machine-gunners were emerging from subway tunnels for their last gasps of fanatical resistance.

Another Moscow report said the desperate Germans were shifting troops around Berlin in subway trains in frantic attempts to stem the Red Army threats erupting in widespread and unexpected quarters.

Russian forces were reported detached to burrow underground and slash the subway lifelines, and Moscow said the battle underground was raging with unabated fury even as the fate of the city was being decided on the surface.

‘Days are numbered’

Military observers recalled that in February a Nazi commentator, Max Krull, said that the “situation will not be desperate until the German soldiers ride to the front line on Berlin’s subway.”

In Moscow, the Communist Party newspaper Pravda said in an editorial:

Berlin is aflame. Chaos and panic have seized the capital. The denouement is approaching. Its days are numbered.

The Moscow News reported that as a result of Anglo-American bombing, little was left of Unter den Linden, Alexander Platz, and other historics of Berlin.

Junction reported

A junction of U.S. and Russian forces south of Berlin was expected to be announced momentarily by Washington, Moscow and London.

A United Press dispatch from Moscow yesterday said the junction had already occurred, but a staff officer for the U.S. First Army denied the report. First Army quarters expected the junction today.

Marshal Konev’s First Ukrainian Army closed up to or near the Elbe River opposite the U.S. First Army along a 54-mile front yesterday. Grossenhain, 15 miles northwest of Dresden, was captured by the Russians.

Link up in Berlin

Marshal Konev’s army linked up with Marshal Zhukov’s First White Russian Army in eastern Berlin yesterday. Together they cleared 12 more districts of the city to bring 180 of Berlin’s 332 square miles under Soviet control.

Marshal Zhukov’s forces also whipped 15 miles around the northern outskirts of Berlin and cut the capital’s last railway and superhighway to Hamburg and the northern redoubt along the North Sea. They pushed to within three miles of a secondary, roundabout railway to Hamburg after capturing Nauen, 23 miles due west of the center of Berlin.

Soviet accounts indicated the Germans still held a 10-mile-wide corridor open west of Berlin yesterday, but it was being churned into a death trap by a deluge of shells and bombs.

Told to hold on

Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister and Gauleiter of Berlin, appealed by radio to its inhabitants to hold on until “considerable” reinforcements en route could join the battle and turn the tide.

There was some speculation that Goebbels’ speech was a transcription made several days ago. Neutral sources reported earlier this week that he had fled Berlin, possibly to Norway.

The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said Hitler was directing the defense of Berlin from a subterranean fortress under the high command building on Bendlerstrasse, already under Soviet artillery fire.

Take station

Marshal Zhukov’s First White Russian Army drove seven miles inside Berlin yesterday and captured the big Schlesisches (Silesian) railway station on the east bank of the Spree River 2½ miles east of Potsdamer Platz, geographical center of the capital, and a mile from Alexander Platz.

The First Army also captured the district of Horst Wessel and the northern districts of Tegel, Wittenau and Reinickendorf, the latter three miles above Potsdamer Platz.

Smashing across the Dahme River, Marshal Zhukov’s troops cleared Adlershof, Rudow, Altglienicke and Bohnsdorf districts and linked up with Marshal Konev’s First Ukrainian Army.

Near Berlin airport

The southern districts of Mariendorf, Lankwitz, Osdorf and Stahnsdorf fell to the Ukrainian Army. Mariendorf is three miles south of Potsdamer Platz and is separated from Tempelhof Airport only by the Tetlow Canal.

A late Hamburg broadcast said the Germans had only two remaining highways out of Berlin, those leading to Mecklenburg and Wittenburg.

The junction of the two armies in Berlin also completed the encirclement of a 2,000-square-mile German pocket looping across the lake and river-laced southeast approaches of the capital.

66

Hitler reported severely injured

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (UP) – Unconfirmed press reports said today that Adolf Hitler had been injured severely in a “serious accident” in Berlin.

No details of the supposed accident were available, but the German radio announced earlier this week that Hitler was remaining in the “main defense line” in Berlin.

The Nazi-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said Hitler was directing the defense of Berlin from a subterranean fortress under the High Command building on Bendlerstrasse, already under Soviet artillery fire.

67

Berlin afire from end to end, flight over city shows

Reporter in U.S. plane sights artillery battles raging in German capital
By Lowell Thomas, NBC war correspondent

PARIS, France – Berlin is in flames from one end to the other. Dense clouds of smoke hide most of the city.

I flew to Berlin yesterday in a P-51 Mustang with a crack pilot of the 67th Reconnaissance Group of the Ninth Air Force.

I saw the city in flames saw the bombardment going on between the Russians and Nazis, and then I raced back across half Europe to Paris last night.

‘When do we join?’

My flight came about this way: For two days I had been with the ground troops near the advancing Russians – with Gen. Terry Allen and his 104th Division Timberwolves, on the Mulde River, with the Russians only 18 miles away, and the Germans in between.

All along the front, the one thought had been: When do we join up with the Russians? An Allied pilot with the Timberwolves brought word that the Russians, some miles to the north, were driving west at top speed. It looked as though the 2nd Armored Division of the Ninth Army would be the first to make it.

Flies piggyback

So, I decided to try to find a fighter pilot who would like to take a look all up and down the front. When I was back with the 67th Reconnaissance Group, they had invited me to do this. So, there I flew in a light artillery plane – and in no time two fast Mustangs were on the line.

In one, alone, was the officer in command, Lt. Col. Dick Leghorn of Winchester, Massachusetts. His job was to fly cover, as they call it – protect us from enemy aircraft. My pilot was Lt. Col. Carl Kraft of Clarks, Louisiana, No. 2 in command of the 67th. Both were in single-seater fighter planes, with me squeezed in behind Col. Kraft. Piggyback, they call that – the most cramped position so far devised by man.

Sees artillery battle

Here are some of the things we saw.

Berlin in flames, but not entirely. Potsdam and the southern side of the city seemed comparatively undamaged. The rest was in flames, from one end to the other.

An artillery battle was going on, heavy guns on both sides going all out – dense columns of smoke blowing over Berlin, concealing much of it.

Recrossing Nazi territory – following the Elbe, and then the Mulde, to where the two join at Dessau – we saw fires every mile or so, indicating that the Russians had advanced to the middle of the German-held corridor between the rivers, or that the fires were started by Russian artillery.

68

Oberdonau-Zeitung (April 26, 1945)

Bedeutende Kräfte zur Unterstützung Berlins

Der Führer im Mittelpunkt der Verteidigung – Arbeiterschaft ist vorbildlich

oz. Berlin, 25. April – In dem Kampf um die Reichshauptstadt gegen den bolschewistischen Ansturm trifft der Führer selbst die notwendigen Entscheidungen über den Einsatz der Kräfte und die Heranführung der Verstärkungen. In nahezu stündlichen Besprechungen melden die verantwortlichen Männer dem Führer die Lage. Der Führer lässt die Männer, die sich besonders ausgezeichnet haben, direkt von ihrem Einsatz zu ihm kommen.

Die Berliner Arbeiterschaft steht in einmütiger Entschlossenheit Schulter an Schulter mit den Kameraden der Wehrmacht unerbittlich am Werk, die Waffen für den entscheidungsvollen Kampf zu liefern. So wurde in einem Rüstungswerk unermüdlich weitergearbeitet, unbehindert vom Feindbeschuss die Waffen geschmiedet und sofort an die kämpfenden Truppen abgeliefert.

Als Gauleiter von Berlin wandte sich Dr. Goebbels in einem neuen Aufruf an die Berliner Bevölkerung. Dr. Goebbels sagte u.a.:

Die Schlacht um die Reichshauptstadt nimmt ihren Fortgang. Die Kämpfe in den Außenbezirken wogen hin und her. Sie werden von Angreifern und Verteidigern mit großer Erbitterung geführt. Die Verluste der Bolschewisten an Menschen und Material sind außerordentlich hoch.

Weiter erklärte Dr. Goebbels:

Euer Verhalten, Berliner, eure Kriegsmoral verdient höchste Anerkennung. Das Leben in Berlin geht zwar kriegsmäßig, aber, soweit irgend möglich, in geordneten Formen weiter. Alle Dienststellen arbeiten Tag und Nacht zum Wohle der Bevölkerung.

Der Aufruf schließt:

Ich brauche nicht zu betonen, dass es unser heißerstrebtes Ziel ist, Berlin wieder freizukämpfen vom bolschewistischen Weltfeind. Bolschewisten in der Reichshauptstadt – das wäre ein Schrecken ohne Ende. Ich bin überzeugt, dass es der Führung und der Bevölkerung Berlins in gemeinsamer Anstrengung gelingen wird, den neuen Mongolensturm wieder zurückzuwerfen. Bedeutende Kräfte zur Unterstützung der Verteidigung Berlins werden herangeführt. Bis zu ihrem Eintreffen haben wir alle Kräfte und allen Mut zusammenzufassen, um dem Feind standzuhalten. Es muss unser Stolz und unser Ehrgeiz sein, den bolschewistischen Massenansturm an den Mauern der Reichshauptstadt zu brechen.