THE FALL OF BERLIN

Before the collapse of the Western Front of German area, the Germans had kept the Soviets from crossing the Oder River. During April of 1945, however, Stalin made a quick and strong fight across the Oder in preparation for the final blow against Germany. Eight small groups were located in this small area and they were then massed into two great and powerful armies. They were send to take Berlin before the Americans could.

The final chapter in the destruction of Hitler's Third Reich began on April 16, 1945 when Stalin unleashed the brutal power of 20 armies, 6,300 tanks and 8,500 aircraft with the objective of crushing German resistance and capturing Berlin. By prior agreement, the Allied armies (positioned approximately 60 miles to the west) halted their advance on the city in order to give the Soviets a free hand. The depleted German forces put up a stiff defense, initially repelling the attacking Russians, but ultimately succumbing to overwhelming force.

By April 24 the Soviet army surrounded the city slowly tightening its stranglehold on the remaining Nazi defenders. Fighting street-to-street and house-to-house, Russian troops blasted their way towards Hitler's chancellery in the city's center.

Inside his underground bunker Hitler lived in a world of fantasy as his "Thousand Year Reich" crumbled above him. In his final hours the Fuehrer married his long-time mistress and then joined her in suicide. The Third Reich was dead.

The beginning of the end

On April 16-17, the Soviets struck in a quick and furious way. No one in Berlin really thought that they would be able to survive this final attack. Yet they knew that if they surrendered, they would be treated like vicious war criminals.

Hitler kept the specter of unconditionally surrender going to the German people and they fought till the bitter end. As the Americans and British forces were rapidly advancing from the west, German's immensely outnumbered army fought desperately to beat back the rapidly approaching Soviet Army. It took the Red army six days to smash their way to the outskirts of Berlin. In three days, on April 25, a band of Soviet soldiers cut off the German capital from the rest of Nazi-controlled Germany.

Hitler stayed in Berlin so as to take control of the German soldiers there. Although many said this was a stupid mistake since Berlin would fall within in days but all reports say that Hitler was basically dead. Why Hitler would want to the capital of his empire just to die anyway? Hitler was stricken with with paralyses that would effect his mind and his whole nervous system was disintegrating. Hitler's last act of brutality was having his SS troops blow up a German damn and drowned thousand of citizens. As the Russian troops moved in quickly, Hitler decided that he would give the reins over power to someone else.

On April 30, Hitler transferred all power to his second-in-command. Later that day, Hitler gave poison to his wife an dog. After watching their horrible death, he decided that he should shot himself instead of taking the poison. As Hitler took his last breath, the end of the Battle for Berlin was just beginning. After many days of hand to hand combat in Berlin and the suicide of Hitler and his second in command, the day for the unconditionally surrender of Germany came.

On May 2, 1945, General Zhukov, the Soviet in command of the forces that took Berlin, accepted the German surrender.

In the days immediately before and after May 2, the Soviets took 2,000 prisoners.
Stalin was now more concerned with gain as much land as possible and moved his forces towards the Czechoslovakian capital of Prague. After a few days the capital fell into Stalin’s hands and it quickly turned Communist. The War in Europe ended officially on May 8, 1945 with the surrender of the Northern German Army to the Allies.

A superb movie was made on the last days of Hitler in the hell-hole Berlin was in april/may 1945: Der Untergang