The final battle in the Great Patriotic War was the Battle of Berlin, or the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation, which was conducted from April 16 to May 8, 1945.

On April 16, at 3 o'clock local time, aviation and artillery preparation began in the sector of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. After its completion, 143 searchlights were turned on to blind the enemy, and infantry, supported by tanks, went into the attack. Not encountering strong resistance, she advanced 1.5-2 kilometers. However, the further our troops advanced, the stronger the enemy's resistance grew.

The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front carried out a swift maneuver to reach Berlin from the south and west. On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts united west of Berlin, completing the encirclement of the entire Berlin enemy grouping.

The liquidation of the Berlin enemy grouping directly in the city continued until May 2. Every street and house had to be taken by storm. On April 29, battles for the Reichstag began, the capture of which was entrusted to the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front.

Before the storming of the Reichstag, the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army presented its divisions with nine Red Banners, specially made according to the type of the State Flag of the USSR. One of these Red Banners, known as the Victory Banner No. 5, was transferred to the 150th Infantry Division. Similar homemade red banners, flags and flags were in all forward units, formations and subunits. They, as a rule, were handed over to assault groups, which were recruited from among volunteers and went into battle with the main task of breaking into the Reichstag and installing the Victory Banner on it. The first - at 22 hours 30 minutes Moscow time on April 30, 1945, hoisted the assault red banner on the roof of the Reichstag on the sculptural figure "Goddess of Victory" artillery reconnaissance officers of the 136th army cannon artillery brigade senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov and Sergeant A.P. Minin from the assault group of the 79th Rifle Corps, commanded by Captain V.N. Makov, the assault group of artillerymen acted together with the battalion of Captain S.A. Neustroeva. Two to three hours later, on the roof of the Reichstag, on the sculpture of an equestrian knight - Kaiser Wilhelm - by order of the commander of the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division, Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, the Red Banner No. 5 was installed, which later became famous as the Banner of Victory. Red Banner No. 5 was hoisted by scouts sergeant M.A. Egorov and junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria, accompanied by Lieutenant A.P. Birch bark and machine gunners from the company of senior sergeant I.Ya. Syanova.

Fighting for the Reichstag continued until the morning of May 1. At 6:30 am on May 2, the chief of the Berlin defense, General of Artillery G. Weidling, surrendered and ordered the remnants of the Berlin garrison to end the resistance. In the middle of the day, the resistance of the Nazis in the city ceased. On the same day, the encircled groupings of German troops southeast of Berlin were eliminated.

On May 9 at 0:43 Moscow time, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, as well as representatives of the German Navy, who had the appropriate authority from Doenitz, in the presence of Marshal G.K. Zhukov from the Soviet side signed the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender. A brilliantly carried out operation, coupled with the courage of Soviet soldiers and officers who fought to end the four-year nightmare of war, led to a logical outcome: Victory.

Taking Berlin. 1945 year. Documentary

PROGRESS OF BATTLE

Berlin operation began soviet troops... Objective: to complete the defeat of Germany, capture Berlin, unite with the allies

Infantry and tanks of the 1st Belorussian Front launched an attack before dawn, illuminated by anti-aircraft searchlights, and advanced 1.5-2 km

With the onset of dawn on the Seelow Heights, the Germans came to their senses and are fighting with fierceness. Zhukov introduces tank armies into battle

Apr 16 45g. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of Konev meet less resistance on the way of their offensive and immediately force Neisse

Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front Konev orders the commanders of his tank armies Rybalko and Lelyushenko to attack Berlin

Konev demands from Rybalko and Lelyushenko not to get involved in protracted and frontal battles, to move boldly forward towards Berlin

In the battles for Berlin, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, the commander of a tank battalion, Guards. Mr. S. Khokhryakov

The 2nd Belorussian Front of Rokossovsky joined the Berlin operation, covering the right flank

By the end of the day, the Konev front completed the breakthrough of the Neissen defense line, crossed the river. Spree and provided conditions for the encirclement of Berlin from the south

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of Zhukov all day break the 3rd line of the enemy defense on the Oderen Seelow Heights

By the end of the day, Zhukov's troops completed the breakthrough of the 3rd strip of the Oder line at the Seelow Heights

On the left wing of Zhukov's front, conditions were created to cut off the Frankfurt-Guben group of the enemy from the district of Berlin

Directive of the Supreme Command Headquarters to the commander of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts: "It is better to treat the Germans." , Antonov

Another directive of the Headquarters: on identification marks and signals when Soviet armies and allied troops meet

At 13.50, the long-range artillery of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army was the first to open fire on Berlin - the beginning of the assault on the city itself

Apr 20 45g. Konev and Zhukov send almost identical orders to the troops of their fronts: "Be the first to break into Berlin!"

By the evening, formations of the 2nd Guards Tank, 3rd and 5th Shock Armies of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the northeastern outskirts of Berlin

8th Guards and 1st Guards Tank Armies wedged into the city defensive bypass of Berlin in the Petershagen and Erkner districts

Hitler ordered the 12th Army, previously targeted against the Americans, to turn against the 1st Ukrainian Front. She now has the goal of joining the remnants of the 9th and 4th Panzer Armies, making their way south of Berlin to the west.

Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army broke into the southern part of Berlin and by 17.30 is fighting for the Teltows - Konev's telegram to Stalin

Hitler refused to leave Berlin for the last time while there was such an opportunity. Goebbels moved with his family to a bunker under the Reich Chancellery ("Fuehrer's bunker")

Assault flags were presented by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army to the divisions storming Berlin. Among them is the flag that became the banner of victory - the assault flag of the 150th rifle division.

In the area of \u200b\u200bSpremberg, Soviet troops liquidated the encircled group of Germans. Among the destroyed units, the Panzer Division "Fuhrer's Guard"

Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front are fighting in the south of Berlin. At the same time, they reached the Elbe River northwest of Dresden

Goering, who left Berlin, addressed Hitler on the radio, asking him to be approved as head of the government. Received an order from Hitler to remove him from the government. Bormann ordered the arrest of Goering for high treason

Himmler unsuccessfully tries to offer the Allies surrender on the Western Front through the Swedish diplomat Bernadotte

Shock formations of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts in the Brandenburg region closed the circle of encirclement of German troops in Berlin

Forces of the German 9th and 4th tank. armies are surrounded in the forests southeast of Berlin. Units of the 1st Ukrainian front reflect the counterstrike of the 12th German army

Report: "There are restaurants in the Berlin suburb of Ransdorf, where they" willingly sell "beer to our fighters for the occupation marks." The head of the political department of the 28th Guards Rifle Regiment, Borodin, ordered the owners of Ransdorf's restaurants to close them for a while until the battle ends.

In the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Torgau on the Elbe, Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian fr. met with the troops of the 12th American Army Group of General Bradley

Forcing the Spree, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front of Konev and the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front of Zhukov rush to the center of Berlin. The rush of Soviet soldiers in Berlin can no longer be stopped

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front in Berlin occupied Gartenstadt and the Gerlitsky railway station, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front - the Dahlem district

Konev turned to Zhukov with a proposal to change the line between their fronts in Berlin - to transfer the city center to the front

Zhukov asks Stalin to salute the capture of the center of Berlin to the troops of his front, replacing Konev's troops in the south of the city

The General Staff orders the troops of Konev, who have already reached the Tiergarten, to transfer their offensive zone to the troops of Zhukov

Order No. 1 of the military commandant of Berlin, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General Berzarin on the transfer of all power in Berlin into the hands of the Soviet military commandant's office. It was announced to the population of the city that the National Socialist Party of Germany and its organizations were being disbanded and their activities were prohibited. The order established the order of behavior of the population and determined the basic provisions necessary for the normalization of life in the city.

The battles for the Reichstag began, the mastery of which was entrusted to the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front

During the breakthrough of the obstacles on the Berlin Kaiserlee, N. Shendrikov's tank received 2 holes, caught fire, the crew was out of order. The mortally wounded commander, having gathered his last strength, sat down at the control levers and threw a flaming tank at the enemy's cannon

Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun in a bunker under the Reich Chancellery. The witness is Goebbels. In his political testament, Hitler expelled Goering from the NSDAP and officially named Grand Admiral Dönitz as his successor.

Soviet units are fighting for the Berlin metro

The Soviet command rejected the attempts of the German command to start negotiations about the time. ceasefire. There is only one demand - surrender!

The storming of the Reichstag building itself began, which was defended by more than 1000 Germans and SS men from different countries

In different places of the Reichstag, several red banners were fixed - from regimental and divisional to homemade

The scouts of the 150th division, Yegorov and Kantaria, were ordered to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag at about midnight

Lieutenant Berest from the Neustroev battalion led the combat mission to install the Banner over the Reichstag. Installed at about 3.00, May 1

Hitler committed suicide in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery, taking poison and shooting in the temple with a pistol. Hitler's corpse is burnt in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery

As Reich Chancellor, Hitler leaves Goebbels, who will commit suicide the next day. Before his death, Hitler appointed Bormann Reich Minister for Party Affairs (previously such a post did not exist)

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured Bandenburg, in Berlin they cleared the Charlottenburg, Schöneberg and 100 neighborhoods

In Berlin, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide after having killed their 6 children

At the headquarters of Chuikov's army in Berlin arrived early. German General Staff Krebs, reported Hitler's suicide, offered to conclude a truce. Stalin confirmed his categorical demand for unconditional surrender in Berlin. At 18 o'clock the Germans rejected it

At 18.30, in connection with the rejection of surrender, a fire strike was struck at the Berlin garrison. The mass surrender of the Germans began

At 01.00, the radio of the 1st Belorussian Front received a message in Russian: “Please cease fire. We send parliamentarians to the Potsdam Bridge "

A German officer, on behalf of the commander of the defense of Berlin Weidling, announced the readiness of the Berlin garrison to end resistance

At 6.00 General Weidling surrendered and an hour later signed an order for the surrender of the Berlin garrison

Enemy resistance in Berlin has completely ceased. The remnants of the garrison surrender en masse

In Berlin, Goebbels' deputy for propaganda and press, Dr. Fritsche, was taken prisoner. Fritzsche testified during interrogation that Hitler, Goebbels and Chief of the General Staff, General Krebs, committed suicide

Stalin's order on the contribution of the Zhukov and Konev fronts to the defeat of the Berlin group. By 21.00, 70 thousand Germans had already surrendered.

Irrecoverable losses of the Red Army in the Berlin operation - 78 thousand people. Enemy losses - 1 million, incl. 150 thousand killed

Soviet field kitchens are deployed throughout Berlin, where "wild barbarians" feed hungry Berliners

From April 28 to May 2, 1945 by forces The 150th and 171st Infantry Divisions of the 79th Infantry Corps of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front carried out an operation to capture the Reichstag. To this event, my friends, I dedicate this collection of photos.
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1. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.

2. Fireworks in honor of the Victory on the roof of the Reichstag. Soldiers of the battalion under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union S. Neustroev.

3. Soviet trucks and cars on a destroyed street in Berlin. The Reichstag building is visible behind the ruins.

4. The head of the River Emergency Rescue Directorate of the USSR Navy, Rear Admiral Foti Ivanovich Krylov (1896-1948), awards the diver with an order for clearing the Spree River in Berlin. In the background is the Reichstag building.

6. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.

7. A group of Soviet officers inside the Reichstag.

8. Soviet soldiers with a banner on the roof of the Reichstag.

9. Soviet assault group with a banner moving to the Reichstag.

10. Soviet assault group with a banner moving to the Reichstag.

11. The commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues.

12. Heavy tank IS-2 against the background of the Reichstag

13. Soldiers of the 150th Rifle Idritsko-Berlin, Order of Kutuzov, 2nd degree division on the steps of the Reichstag (among the depicted scouts M. Kantaria, M. Egorov and the division's Komsomol organizer Captain M. Zholudev). In the foreground is the regiment's 14-year-old son, Zhora Artemenkov.

14. The Reichstag building in July 1945.

15. The interior of the Reichstag building after the defeat of Germany in the war. On the walls and columns there are inscriptions of Soviet soldiers left in memory.

16. The interior of the Reichstag building after the defeat of Germany in the war. On the walls and columns there are inscriptions left by Soviet soldiers. The photo shows the southern entrance of the building.

17. Soviet photojournalists and cameramen at the Reichstag building.

18. The wreckage of an overturned German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter in the background of the Reichstag.

19. Autograph of Soviet soldiers on the Reichstag column: “We are in Berlin! Nikolay, Peter, Nina and Sashka. 05/11/45 ".

20. A group of political workers of the 385th Infantry Division, headed by the head of the political department, Colonel Mikhailov, at the Reichstag.

21. German anti-aircraft guns and a killed German soldier at the Reichstag.

23. Soviet soldiers in the square near the Reichstag.

24. Red Army signalman Mikhail Usachev leaves his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag.

25. British soldier leaves his autograph among the autographs of Soviet soldiers inside the Reichstag.

26. Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria come out with a banner on the roof of the Reichstag.

27. Soviet soldiers plant a banner over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. This is one of the banners installed on the Reistag in addition to the official hoisting of the banner by Yegorov and Kantaria.

28. The famous Soviet singer Lydia Ruslanova sings Katyusha against the background of the destroyed Reichstag.

29. The regiment's son Volodya Tarnovsky puts an autograph on the Reichstag column.

30. Heavy tank IS-2 in front of the Reichstag.

31. A captured German soldier at the Reichstag. A famous photograph that was often published in books and on posters in the USSR under the name “End” (German for “End”).

32. Fellow soldiers of the 88th separate guards heavy tank regiment at the wall of the Reichstag, in the assault of which the regiment took part.

33. Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.

34. Two Soviet officers on the steps of the Reichstag.

35. Two Soviet officers on the square in front of the Reichstag building.

From the very beginning, the real events around the storming of the Reichstag were carefully hushed up and distorted by official Soviet historiography. There were more than enough reasons for this. First, the "infallible" leader, Comrade Stalin, was mistaken. He indicated the Reichstag as the main target in the capital of the enemy and the place over which it was necessary to hoist the banner of Victory. Not without incidents. Panzer Corps Babajanyan received a combat mission to break through to the Reichstag. At the same time, the corps was supposed to rush along the street past the Reich Chancellery, where Hitler was still living.

By May 1945, almost nothing remained of the former splendor of the Reichstag. For more than one year it housed the most ordinary office - the medical archive, which had to share the living space with the hospital, the maternity ward of the Charite clinic and the kindergarten. The territory in front of the Reichstag was built up with various unprepossessing office and household buildings. The once posh Königsplatz square, lying between the Reichstag and the opera house, has been disfigured by unfinished construction. An open-cut metro line formed a ditch filled with rainwater, and in place of an unfinished excavation for a new, straightened channel of the Spree River, a whole lake was formed. A shaft of rock taken out during the digging was piled up along the ditch. The once impressive fountains have long ceased to work and were half-filled with various debris.

A photo. You can clearly see how dirty the square in front of the Reichstag is with household buildings.

In order not to lower the dignity of the leader, military historians had to somehow emphasize the strategic and political importance of the Reichstag. Therefore, it was told with what persistence numerous SS men defended the Reichstag, although the old men and boys from the Volkssturm held the defense there.

After the "Victory Banner" was tied by close ties with the Reichstag, the "den of the beast", all political agencies, military and civilian, tirelessly repeated about the great importance of taking this building by storm. The "banner of Victory" could not fly over a tertiary object! Soviet writers were also thrown into the solution of this important ideological task.

Veterans, participants of the assault, contributed to the fogging. First of all, those who received the stars of heroes for the assault and for the banner. And even the most honest and decent veterans, who saw what was happening from one single point, from the place where they were personally, resolutely denied others, no less honest and decent, but who were in a completely different place and saw something different.

Therefore, some historians, contrary to the pointing finger of the CPSU, tried to collect information from the participants in the storming of the Reichstag, while they are still alive and well. The efforts of Ivan Dmitrievich Klimov, a member of the team of authors who worked on the six-volume "History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945", are known. Head of the Memoir Group of the Press Department of the Main Political Directorate Soviet army and the Navy, Colonel A. G. Kashcheev cited this very argument (while the direct participants can tell something) in favor of writing a detailed and scientifically grounded version of the storming of the Reichstag.

The commander of the 150th division, General V.M. Shatilov, also collected information from the participants in the assault. He sent letters to his former soldiers and officers with a request to describe their personal impressions, indicating at least an approximate time when what happened.

For both Klimov and Kashcheev, their struggle for historical truth cost dearly. The nervous energy spent in an unequal struggle with the ideological overseers from the Communist Party led both historians to premature death. General Shatilov was not threatened with this - his version fit into the Procrustean bed of the plot developed at the GlavPU.

Nevertheless, be that as it may, the veterans of the storming of the Reichstag left a lot of memories of varying quality and varying degrees of reliability. Many have managed to bypass censorship in some key episodes. And even following the instructions of the Communist Party overseers in a disciplined manner, the authors of the memoirs made "punctures" that shed light of truth on certain events.

Let's try to reconstruct how the storming of the Reichstag developed, at least in general terms. But at the beginning it is necessary to say a few words about some of the architectural features of this extraordinary building, which significantly influenced the course of the battle.

Features of the architecture of the Reichstag.

The Reichstag in the plan resembles the letter "F", only not rounded, but "angular". Two courtyards-wells provide natural illumination of the halls and rooms, whose windows overlook these courtyards. The sitting room of the parliament was located on the central axis of the "letter", approximately in the middle. It was illuminated through a large and technically sophisticated glass ceiling that culminated in a grand dome. Also glazed. Lighting through the so-called skylights in the Reichstag was used quite widely for rooms without external walls. So on the glass, to a large extent, the roof does not run much. Moreover, by the time of the assault the glass had been broken. Still, most of the rooms had windows along the outer perimeter of the building, through which one could admire the views of the capital. When preparing the building for defense, the windows were bricked up.

The Reichstag had 4 floors: "Erdgeshos" - the ground floor. By our standards, a full-fledged first floor with large windows and high ceilings. In the memoir, he figures as "basements", for which there were reasons, as you will see later. "Hauptgeshos" - main floor. The name speaks for itself. This floor housed the meeting room of the Reichstag - the German parliament. "Obergeshos" - top floor. (According to our third). Some of the large halls of the "Hauptgeshos" had high ceilings, ending at the level of the ceilings of the "Obergeshos". And, finally, the last floor - "tsvishengeshos", which is most often translated as mezzanine. Our fighters mistook Tsvishengeshos for an attic. It is worth recalling that the Germans, like the British, call the second floor the first, the third second, and so on. And the first floor is called "earthen". In order not to conflict with the memoirs, in which the second floor is called the first, and the third - the second, we take the German names of the floors for this chapter.

The Reichstag had 3 entrances and 2 transport entrances. The main entrance was located on the western facade. A large staircase led visitors who arrived from the direction of Königsplatz, past beautiful fountains, and immediately to the "Hauptgeshos" - the main floor. After passing through a large circular lobby, in the center of which was a huge Bismarck sculpture, visitors entered the meeting room. Two more entrances, less pompous, albeit with chic staircases lined with figures of ancient warriors inside, were from the east and south facades. The southern entrance was considered a parliamentary one. Here, in order to climb the "Hauptgeshos", there were also stairs, which, unlike the main entrance, were hidden in the back of the building. On the north side of the building there was a transport passage to the inner courtyard. Our soldiers called it "arch". Another transport passage, to another courtyard, was on the east side of the building, closer to the Tiergarten.

The Reichstag employed a large number of service personnel. The construction of the building was conceived in such a way that the servants, moving around in the performance of their duties, did not intersect with the gentlemen deputies. Therefore, the Reichstag had a large number of service ladders and ladders, through which it was possible to reach almost any point of the building without disturbing the chosen people. And the basement floor (erdgeshos), where the bulk of plumbers, electricians, cleaners, etc. were based, was reliably isolated from the upper floors. In the building there were 150-200 rooms of various sizes and purposes.

In his memoirs, the commander of the 756th regiment F.M. Zinchenko described his thoughts before the assault:

... Of the four entrances to the Reichstag, the main one is the western one. It led, as it turned out, into an oval vestibule, from which was the entrance to the meeting room.

In total in the Reichstag, in addition to a large conference room and meeting rooms for factions, there were more than 500 different rooms and premises, spacious basements.

... On the morning of April 30, a significant part of the city center was still in the hands of the Nazis. In the 79th Corps offensive zone, the Reichstag, the Krol-Opera theater, the Brandenburg Gate area, the northeastern part of the Tiergarten and the quarter of foreign embassies remained the most serious centers of resistance. All these points were still quite effectively interacting with each other.

... It would be most convenient to get into the Reichstag, of course, through one of the four entrances available in it - west, north, south or east. The southern entrance was covered with strong flanking fire from large buildings located forty meters from this entrance and somewhat east of it. The approaches to it were also under fire from tanks and direct-fire guns. Our artillery and tanks could not suppress the firing points in these buildings, since they were covered by the walls of the Reichstag itself.

There was no point in attacking the northern entrance either. The 380th regiment has not yet reached the Reichstag from this side. In addition, the enemy units that recently counterattacked us, from here, with the support of the foreign embassy quarter, could make a new sortie at any time..

As for the eastern entrance, it went to the opposite side of the Reichstag from us, to an area still completely in the hands of the Nazis. It is clear that this entrance was inaccessible for our fire weapons.

The western main entrance remained, it is also the main entrance. In the proposed plan, it was supposed to break into the Reichstag through this very entrance. Its location provided our units with a wide front of attack and the most complete fire support. In addition, for the case on which we ended up here, only the front door was suitable, as someone joked.

The balance of forces.

Before describing the assault, let's try to determine the balance of forces. S.A. Neustroev in his memoirs told how the surrendered Germans left the Reichstag. In total, the battalion commander counted 100-120 people. Taking as a basis the average losses of the Germans in Berlin, reaching 50%, it can be assumed that the garrison of the Reichstag totaled 200-240 people before the assault. According to the report of the chief of staff of the 79th rifle corps, the Reichstag was defended by the remnants of the 617, 403, 407th and 421th battalions of the Volkssturm.

Map. A rather rough diagram of the storming of the Reichstag.

A photo. one of the 88 mm anti-aircraft guns at the Reichstag.

On April 26, 5 anti-aircraft guns were transferred to the Reichstag, which proved to be a formidable anti-tank weapon. But after the capture of the "Himmler house" by the morning of April 30 by the Soviet troops, some of them became useless, tk. their positions were too close to our infantry and the crews were not at all protected from machine gun fire. Two guns were located behind the ditch, and one not far from the northeastern corner of the Krol-opera. According to A. Bessarab, despite their very disadvantageous position, the German artillerymen created many problems for the advancing Soviet troops.

On April 28, a team of SS men appeared in the Reichstag, who caught and shot deserters. They "inspired" the Volkssturm for stubborn defense.

With what forces did the Red Army storm the Reichstag? The chairman of the Council of Veterans of the 150th Division, General (in 1945 junior lieutenant) V.S. Ustyugov recalled:

At this time, the infantry (70-80 soldiers and officers) lined up in the courtyard of "Himmler's house". Received ammunition, commanders set tasks, accepted replenishment. There were regiments - one name: in 756, there were 35 people in Captain Neustroev's battalion, in our 674th Lieutenant Colonel Plekhodanov there were a little more - 75-80. In one of the battalions there was only a battalion commander, Major Logvinenko, and two soldiers. The other battalions weren't much better. But combat missions were set, and they had to be fulfilled.

However, in the memoirs of the commander of the 674th regiment, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhodanov, other figures appear. According to him, there were 75 fighters in Neustroev's badly battered battalion. And before the assault, Plekhodanov sets the task not only to Davydov, but also to Logvinenko. This means that he did not have two fighters in the battalion, as Ustyugov writes. Most likely, not all soldiers were present at the formation.

SA Neustroev writes in his memoirs that on the morning of April 30, his battalion was accommodated in three large rooms of "Himmler's house". And if we rely on his conclusion that the garrison of the Reichstag was approximately equal in number to his battalion, then Neustroev should have had 200-250 fighters by the beginning of the assault. By 20.00 on April 30, Neustroev's battalion received a replenishment, a whole company - 100 people. Stepan Andreevich appointed senior sergeant I.Ya.Syanov to command the company.

The battalion of K. Samsonov from the 380 regiment of the 171st division also had no more people than in the battalion of Davydov. In addition, two perfectly equipped groups consisting of experienced scouts, created by order of the commander of the 79th corps, General S.N. Perevertkin, took part in the storming of the Reichstag. Groups of 25 people each were commanded by Major M.M. Bondar and Captain V.N.Makov.

Based on the above contradictory data, it turns out that about 350 to 600 soldiers attacked the Reichstag on foot. But the Red Army had a colossal advantage in artillery, including heavy self-propelled guns, and tanks. There were 89 guns on direct fire alone. We could have put more, but there was not enough space. The 79th corps had more than 1000 guns at its disposal. If we take into account the shooting from closed positions, then the assault on the Reichstag was supported by about 130 guns.

Storm.

On the morning of April 30, after night battles, the 674th regiment completely occupied the "Himmler house" and almost without a pause the first assault on the Reichstag began. The artillery has not yet pulled up, people are very tired. I really wanted to sleep. The fact is that Zhukov ordered the fighting in Berlin day and night. Of course, the units replaced each other, but, nevertheless, fatigue accumulated.

A big advantage for the defenders was the vast open space in front of the Reichstag. The first assault was carried out by the battalions of Davydov and Logvinenko from the 674th regiment.

The time of the beginning of the first assault on the Reichstag also differs in the memories of different participants. The platoon leader L. Litvak, from P. Grechenkov's company (Davydov's battalion), recalled that the first assault began in the early morning. The Reichstag was practically invisible in the morning fog. Only the outline of the transformer box, located on this side of the ditch, loomed vaguely. But the commander of the 674th regiment, A. Plekhodanov, indicates in his article the time of the beginning of the first assault: 12.15 - 12.20. At the same time, informing that he moved his command post to the "Himmler house" only at 11.00.

V. Ustyugov says that they went to the first assault without any artillery preparation, at dawn. L. Litvak, on the contrary, claims that there was an artillery preparation. And not one, but two! The second was carried out when his platoon lay down in the square before reaching the ditch. Nevertheless, the result is the same - the soldiers of two battalions of the 674th regiment lay in the square, hiding in craters and behind other shelters in the square in front of the Reichstag.

Second assault.

In the second assault, after the artillery preparation, which began at 13.00 and lasted half an hour, in addition to the already mentioned battalions of Davydov and Logvinenko, Samsonov's battalion from the 171st division and a reconnaissance platoon of the 674th regiment took part. By the end of the artillery barrage, A. Plekhodanov ordered his chemists to put up a smoke screen. The massive front doors of the Reichstag were knocked out with a lucky shot.

The first to break into the Reichstag, at 13.35-13.40, were soldiers of two battalions who lay down on the square after the first assault. Leon Litvak recalled that he and his platoon from the lobby turned right into the great hall. So it was agreed before the assault: Plekhodanov's regiment was storming the enemy in the right (southern) part of the building. Zinchenko's regiment - advancing in the center. And the 380th regiment of the 171st division (acting commander Major V.D. Shatalin) occupies the left side of the building.

The German troops defending Berlin adhered to the following tactics: they took refuge on the lower floors of buildings so as not to incur unnecessary losses during shelling. At the end of the artillery bombardment, they needed to quickly take up positions in order to meet our advancing infantry with fire. Therefore, the vital task of our soldiers was to break into the building as soon as possible after the artillery barrage, so that the Germans did not have time to reach their line of defense. This is how Leon Litvak described it:

After the artillery preparation, they again went on the attack. Amicably, without rushes. Obviously, the Nazis were shaken there. The distance to the Reichstag passed quickly. Individual centers of resistance were unable to stop us.
Having reached the steps of the Reichstag, the battle formations of the platoons were mixed. Running on them, they saw that the front door was carried out by a shell. We rushed into it. The stunned Nazis did not have time to offer decisive resistance. My platoon immediately rushed to the right side of the first floor. Pressing the Nazis with fire and grenades deep into the building, the platoon burst into a huge hall.

And here is how A. Bessarab saw all this, leading his anti-tank battalion from the command post in the “Himmler's house”:

A whole sheaf of red rockets scattered in front of the front entrance -signal ceasefire for direct fire guns. The storming men rushed to the wide staircase from all sides. I remember the picture for the rest of my life: a Soviet officer appeared at the columns first. He turned to face the soldiers running after him, raised his hand with a machine gun up and, dragging people along with him, disappeared into the Reichstag building.

The Red Army men, who ran up the landing, just like their commander, saluted with machine guns, then disappeared one by one into the opening of the door. Another group. And more ... Hurray! Ours in the Reichstag!

Soon the first red banners appeared on the Reichstag. The combat leaflet of the political department of the army wrote shortly after the assault:

“Among the attackers were M. Eremin and G. SavenkoThe banner, presented by the battalion commander Samsonov at the Komsomol meeting, was at Eremin under his tunic. They were the first to reach the Reichstag building and at 2:25 pm they hoisted a red flag on one of the columns. "

A photo. Soldiers of Sorokin's platoon make a reconstruction of the hoisting of the banner for photojournalists on the afternoon of May 2.

On May 3, the newspaper of the 150th Infantry Division "The Warrior of the Motherland" was published, which placed in the corner, under the heading "They distinguished themselves in battle", a small modest note entitled "The Motherland with deep respect pronounces the names of the heroes." It was about a platoon of scouts who planted the first flag on the roof of the Reichstag at 14.25. Here is the text of this note:

“Soviet heroes, the best sons of the people. Books and songs will be written about their outstanding feat. They hoisted the banner of victory over the citadel of Hitlerism. LET'S REMEMBER THE NAMES OF THE CHARLES : lieutenant Rakhimzhan Koshkarbaev, Red Army soldier Grigory Bulatov... Other glorious warriors fought shoulder to shoulder with them Pravotorov, Lysenko, Oreshko, Pochkovsky, Bryukhovetsky, Sorokin. THE HOMELAND WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR FEAT... GLORY TO THE HEROES! (We tried to reproduce the size and weight of the fonts this note was printed with.)

The Germans quickly came to their senses and, opening strong fire, prevented reinforcements from entering the Reichstag. Our soldiers, trapped in the Reichstag, held their defenses in a large hall with high (two storey) ceilings and windows overlooking the courtyard. The reconnaissance platoon of Lieutenant Sorokin, including Lieutenant Koshkarbayev, who joined them, after installing the banner on the sculpture towering above the front door, went down and repelled German attacks together with L. Litvak's soldiers.

Both sides began to prepare for the next assault. The Germans restored the broken doors of the main entrance and threw down the red banners installed on the Reichstag. The Soviet command decided to conduct a third assault in the dark to reduce losses and set the time for the decisive assault at 22.00 after an intensive half-hour of artillery preparation. By this time, the 756th regiment received a replenishment (about 100 people) from which Neustroev formed a new company and appointed Sergeant I.Ya. Syanov to command this company. In the third assault, three regiments took part in their battalions: 674, 756 and 380, as well as two groups of scouts: V.N. Makov and M.M. Bondar. In one of the large halls of the Reichstag, the soldiers of the 674th regiment, who burst into it during the second assault, held their defenses. In this room, facing the courtyard, they were reliably protected from the shells of their artillery.

Third assault on the Reichstag.

At the command of V.N. Makov, his group rushed to the Reichstag 5 minutes before the end of the artillery preparation. They ran up the steps first and stopped at the boarded-up doors. More and more fighters ran up, but the doors did not budge. Finally, a log found nearby managed to knock out the doors and the soldiers rushed inside the building, completing their assigned tasks. Neustroev's battalion rushed through the lobby into the meeting room. Samsonov's battalion turned left from the lobby, into the northern wing of the building. The soldiers of the Davydov battalion joined up with their comrades, who fought off the Germans for almost 8 hours in the southern wing of the Reichstag.

Four scouts from the 136th cannon brigade, at the direction of Makov, without getting involved in battle, rushed to the roof of the Reichstag along the stairs they discovered. (Around the lobby, on the building layout, 4 service stairs are visible). And at 22.40, the banner of the 79th corps was inserted into the crown of the giantess sculpture that personified Germany.

After a chaotic night skirmish, the Germans retreated to the basement. Ours took up defense in several rooms without trying to build on the success, because in the pitch darkness that reigned in the Reichstag, one could shoot each other. The huge building began to resemble the "Wild Field" - empty and dangerous. And only the scouts of Makov's group scurried back and forth along the ladder they had mastered. The scouts perfectly understanding the significance of the established banner, not least for them personally, organized its careful protection, periodically replacing each other. The raising of the banner was immediately reported to General Perevertkin by radio. (The battalions did not have radios, but the groups of Makov and Bondar had them!).

At 3-4 o'clock in the morning (already on May 1), by order of the commander of the 756th regiment, Lieutenant A.P. Berest led a group of fighters to the roof of the Reichstag, including M. Egorov and M. Kantaria, who were selected by political agencies for installation of a banner made by the order of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army. Berest led the soldiers along the route laid by Sorokin's reconnaissance platoon during the day. Those. passing through a large multifunctional hall, defended by Davydov's battalion, they came out onto a wide staircase and had to climb it and go to the roof through southwest corner tower. The sculptural group "Germany", the central element of the front facade of the Reichstag, would have been about fifty meters away.

But on this sculpture the flag of the 79th Corps was already fluttering, and it was carefully guarded. Several soldiers lay around the sculpture, who came from a completely different direction. In a nervous atmosphere, in complete darkness, hearing the cautious steps of a group of people walking ... In general, misfortune could have happened and the history of the "Victory Banner" would have looked completely different today.

But fortune that day was clearly on the side of Alexei Prokopovich and his group. Berest made a mistake in complete darkness, walked an extra 60 meters and took his soldiers to the roof of the Reichstag through southeast tower. Looking around, they saw a large equestrian figure not far away and Berest ordered the soldiers to cling the banner to this figure.

The commander of the 756th regiment, Colonel F.M. Zinchenko, left the Reichstag and, taking Egorov and Kantaria with him, went to his NP in "Himmler's house". At 5 o'clock in the morning, a command came from the headquarters of the 79th corps to the groups of Makov and Bondar to report to Perevertkin. Banners (at about 24.00 their banner on the same sculpture of the German "motherland" were attached by the soldiers of Cooper) remained unguarded and soon disappeared in the most mysterious way. Nobody touched the banner of the Military Council and it hung safely until the morning of May 2, although no one guarded it. The utterly unreasonable urgent call of the scouts Makov and Bondar at 5 o'clock in the morning (!!!) to the headquarters of the corps, where General Perevertkin did not even invite the soldiers to personally say at least thank you, arouses great suspicion. A very bad idea suggests itself that the political department of the 3rd Shock Army was simply eliminating dangerous competitors of its "native" banner No. 5.

Fight in the Reichstag. German counterstrike.

On the morning of May 1, at about 10:00 am, the Germans made a serious attempt to drive our troops out of the Reichstag. By 12.00, the premises of the northern wing of the building were on fire. Then the fire spread to a boardroom filled with shelves of millions of medical records. There was nothing to put out the fire with. Leaving the building means being under machine gun fire almost point-blank. Nevertheless, with great difficulty, they managed to repel the counterattack and drive the enemy back to the basement. Besides the fire, the second big problem was thirst. Water was extracted with great danger to life. The sources of water were under constant sight of snipers.

The German command tried to help its battalions in the Reichstag by organizing a counter strike from the outside. But the Germans were clearly not strong enough. After all, it was the last day of the Berlin operation. The Fuhrer was no longer alive, but the German soldiers did not know this and stubbornly fought back. Somewhere around 14.00, a soldier ran up to the platoon commander L. Litvak and said that he was crawling towards them from the Tiergarten german tank... Taking with him the calculation of the PTR (anti-tank rifle) Litvak went to the windows facing south. It turned out that this was not a tank, but a self-propelled gun with a powerful cannon, but without a full-fledged turret. The crew was protected by armor only from the front and sides. They opened continuous fire on the self-propelled gun from machine guns and anti-tank rifles. The self-propelled gun fired, missed, and began to back away. Immediately, two shells hit it one after the other and the self-propelled gun began to smoke.

A photo. Volkssturm - German people's militia.

The night from first to second was also nervous. The Germans, who knew the building well, used this advantage either by appearing in a completely unexpected place, or by throwing grenades through the ventilation ducts. At about one o'clock in the morning, the Germans threw a thermite ball into the great hall of the southern wing. It did not work to throw it out - it was intensively splashing with streams of fire. By three o'clock in the morning on May 2, the fire had gained such strength that it was impossible to be in the hall. We had to withdraw our troops from the southern wing of the building.

Goebbels has already committed suicide. The Nazi bosses, including Bormann, had already fled from the Reich Chancellery like rats. Already the SS from the "Monke" detachment, Hitler's last guard, made an attempt to break out of blazing Berlin. And the old Volkssturmists who defended the Reichstag, where the medical archive was now located, still did not give up. Finally, just as dawn broke, Neustroev's fighters saw a white flag.

Neustroev, Berest (disguised as a colonel) and a soldier-translator went to negotiations. After brief negotiations for surrender, the Germans said they would think about it. At 7:00 am, the commander of the defense of Berlin, General Weidling, signed the order of surrender. A. Bessarab wrote in his memoirs:

On May 2 at 10 o'clock in the morning everything suddenly fell silent, the fire stopped. And everyone realized that something had happened. We saw white sheets that were "thrown away" in the Reichstag, the Chancellery and the Royal Opera House and the cellars that had not yet been taken. Whole columns were thrown down from there. A column passed in front of us, where there were generals, colonels, then soldiers behind them.Probably, they walked for three hours.

I have shared with you the information that I "dug up" and systematized. At the same time, he has not become poorer at all and is ready to share further, at least twice a week.

If you find errors or inaccuracies in the article, please report. My e-mail address: [email protected] . I'll be very thankful.

From April 28 to May 2, 1945, the forces of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front carried out an operation to capture the Reichstag. This event is dedicated to this collection of facts, old photos and videos.

Everyone has heard about the capture of the Reichstag by Soviet soldiers. But what do we really know about him? We will tell you about who was sent against the Red Army, how they were looking for the Reichstag and how many banners there were.

Who goes to Berlin

There were more than enough people wishing to take Berlin in the Red Army. Moreover, if for the commanders - Zhukov, Konev, Rokossovsky it was, among other things, a matter of prestige, then for ordinary soldiers who were already "one foot at home" this is another terrible battle. The participants in the assault will remember it as one of the most difficult battles of the war.

Nevertheless, the thought that their detachment would be sent to Berlin, in April 1944, could cause only jubilation among the soldiers. The author of the book: "Who took the Reichstag: heroes by default," N. Yamskaya talks about how they waited for a decision on the composition of the offensive troops in the 756th regiment:

“Officers have gathered at the headquarters dugout. Neustroev burned with impatience, offering to send someone for Major Kazakov, who was to arrive with the results of the decision. One of the officers joked: "Why are you, Stepan, turning in place? I would take off my boots - and go ahead! During the time that you run back and forth, you should have been near Berlin!"

Soon the cheerful and smiling Major Kazakov returned. And it became clear to everyone: we are going to Berlin! "

Attitude

Why was it so important to take the Reichstag and plant a banner on it? This building, where the highest legislative body of Germany has sat since 1919, did not play any role during the Third Reich, de facto. All legislative functions were performed in the Krol-Opera, the building opposite. However, for the Nazis, this is not just a building, not just a fortress. For them, this was the last hope, the capture of which would demoralize the army. Therefore, during the storming of Berlin, the command focused precisely on the Reichstag. Hence Zhukov's order to the 171st and 150th divisions, which promised gratitude and government awards to those who set up a red flag over a gray, unsightly and half-destroyed building.
Moreover, its installation was the primary task.

“If our people are not in the Reichstag and the banner has not been installed there, then take all measures at any cost to plant a flag or a flag at least on the column of the front entrance. At any price!"

- there was an order from Zinchenko. That is, the banner of victory should have been erected even before the actual capture of the Reichstag. According to eyewitnesses, when trying to fulfill the order and set up a banner on a building still defended by the Germans, many "single volunteers, the bravest people" died, but this is what made the act of Kantaria and Yegorov heroic.

"Sailors of the SS Special Forces"

Even as the Red Army moved towards Berlin, when the outcome of the war became obvious, Hitler was seized by either panic, or wounded pride played a role, but they issued several orders, whose essence boiled down to the fact that all of Germany should perish along with the defeat of the Reich. The "Nero" plan, which implied the destruction of all cultural values \u200b\u200bon the territory of the state, was carried out, and the evacuation of residents was made difficult. Subsequently, the high command will utter the key phrase: "Berlin will defend itself to the last German."

So, for the most part it was all the same who sent to death. So, in order to detain the Red Army at the Moltke Bridge, Hitler deployed the "SS Special Forces" sailors to Berlin, who were ordered to delay the advance of our troops to government buildings at any cost.

They turned out to be sixteen-year-old boys, yesterday's cadets of the naval school from the city of Rostock. Hitler spoke to them, calling them the heroes and hope of the nation. His order itself is interesting: “to discard the small group of Russians that broke through to this bank of the Spree and not allow them to reach the Reichstag. You need to hold out quite a bit. Soon you will receive new weapons of great power and new aircraft. Wenck's army approaches from the south. The Russians will not only be driven out of Berlin, but also driven back to Moscow. "

Did Hitler know about the real number of the "small group of Russians" and the state of affairs when he gave the order? What was he counting on? At that time, it was obvious that an entire army was needed for a productive battle with Soviet soldiers, and not 500 young Maltsov who did not know how to fight. Perhaps Hitler expected positive results from separate negotiations with the allies of the USSR. But the question of what secret weapon was in question remained in the air. One way or another, hopes were not justified, and many young fanatics died without bringing any benefit to their homeland.

Where is the Reichstag?

During the assault, there were also incidents. On the eve of the offensive, at night it turned out that the attackers did not know what the Reichstag looked like, and even more so where it was.

This is how the battalion commander, Neustroev, who was ordered to storm the Reichstag, described this situation: “The Colonel orders:

"Come out quickly to the Reichstag!" I hang up. Zinchenko's voice is still ringing in my ears. And where is he, the Reichstag? God knows! Ahead it is dark and deserted. "

Zinchenko, in turn, reported to General Shatilov: “Neustroev's battalion took up its initial position in the basement of the southeastern part of the building. Only here is some house bothering him - the Reichstag is closed. We will go around it on the right. "He answers in bewilderment:" What other house? A rabbit opera? But he should be to the right of the “Himmler house”. There can be no building in front of the Reichstag ... ”.

However, the building was there. A squat two and a half stories high with towers and a dome at the top. Behind it, two hundred meters away, could be seen the outlines of a huge, twelve-story building, which Neustovev took for the ultimate goal. But the gray building, which they decided to bypass, unexpectedly met with an oncoming continuous fire.

Correctly they say, one head is good, but two is better. The mystery of the location of the Reichstag was solved upon arrival at Neustroev Zinchenko. As the battalion commander himself describes:

“Zinchenko looked at the square and at the lurking gray building. And then, without turning around, he asked: "So what prevents you from going to the Reichstag?" “This is a low-rise building,” I replied. "So this is the Reichstag!"

Fights for rooms

How was the Reichstag taken? The usual reference literature does not go into details, describing the assault as a one-day "swoop" of Soviet soldiers on the building, which, under this pressure, was just as quickly surrendered by its garrison. However, this was not the case. The building was defended by selected SS units, which had nothing more to lose. And they had the advantage. They knew very well about his plan and the location of all his 500 rooms. Unlike Soviet soldiers, who had no idea what the Reichstag looked like. As the private of the third company IV Mayorov told: “We knew practically nothing about the internal disposition. And this made the fight with the enemy very difficult. In addition, from the continuous automatic and machine-gun fire, grenades and faust cartridges, such smoke and dust from the plaster rose in the Reichstag that, mixing, they obscured everything, hung in the rooms in an impenetrable veil - nothing is visible, as in the darkness. " About how difficult the assault was, one can judge that the Soviet command set the task on the first day to capture at least 15-10 rooms out of the aforementioned 500.

How many flags were there

The historical banner hoisted on the roof of the Reichstag was the assault flag of the 150th Infantry Division of the Third Shock Army, erected by Sergeant Yegorov and Kantaria. But this was far from the only red flag over the German parliament. The desire to reach Berlin and plant the Soviet flag over the destroyed enemy lair of the fascists dreamed of many, regardless of the order of the command and the promise of the title "Hero of the USSR". However, the latter was another useful incentive.

According to eyewitnesses, there were neither two, nor three, or even five victory banners in the Reichstag. The entire building was literally "reddened" from Soviet flags, both homemade and official. According to experts, there were about 20 of them, some were shot down during the bombing. The first was installed by senior sergeant Ivan Lysenko, whose detachment built a banner from a mattress of red cloth. Ivan Lysenko's award list reads:

“On April 30, 1945 at 2 pm Comrade Lysenko was the first to break into the Reichstag building, destroyed more than 20 German soldiers with grenade fire, reached the second floor and hoisted the banner of victory. For his heroism and courage in battle, he deserves the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Moreover, his detachment fulfilled its main task - to cover the standard-bearers, who were instructed to hoist the victorious banners on the Reichstag.

In general, each detachment dreamed of planting its own flag on the Reichstag. With this dream, the soldiers went all the way to Berlin, every kilometer of which cost their lives. Therefore, is it really so important, whose banner was the first, and whose "official". They were all equally important.

The fate of autographs

Those who did not manage to hoist the banner left reminders of themselves on the walls of the captured building. As eyewitnesses describe: all the columns and walls at the entrance to the Reichstag were covered with inscriptions in which the soldiers expressed feelings of the joy of victory. They wrote to everyone - with paints, coal, a bayonet, a nail, a knife:

"The shortest way to Moscow is through Berlin!"

“And we girls were here. Glory to the Soviet soldier! ”; "We are from Leningrad, Petrov, Kryuchkov"; “Know ours. Siberians Pushchin, Petlin "; “We are in the Reichstag”; “I walked with the name of Lenin”; "From Stalingrad to Berlin"; Moscow - Stalingrad - Oryol - Warsaw - Berlin; "I got to Berlin."

Some of the autographs have survived to this day - their preservation was one of the main requirements during the restoration of the Reichstag. Nevertheless, today their fate is often called into question. For example, in 2002, representatives of the conservatives Johannes Zinghammer and Horst Gunther proposed to destroy them, arguing that the inscriptions "burden modern Russian-German relations."

1. Fireworks in honor of the Victory on the roof of the Reichstag. Soldiers of the battalion under the command of the Hero of the Soviet Union S. Neustroev.

2. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.

3. Soviet trucks and cars on a destroyed street in Berlin. The Reichstag building is visible behind the ruins.

4. Head of the River Emergency Rescue Directorate of the USSR Navy Rear Admiral Foti Ivanovich Krylov (1896-1948) awards the diver with an order for clearing the Spree River in Berlin. In the background is the Reichstag building.

6. View of the Reichstag after the end of hostilities.

7. A group of Soviet officers inside the Reichstag.

8. Soviet soldiers with a banner on the roof of the Reichstag.

9. Soviet assault group with a banner moving to the Reichstag.

10. Soviet assault group with a banner moving to the Reichstag.

11. The commander of the 23rd Guards Rifle Division, Major General P.M. Shafarenko in the Reichstag with colleagues.

12. Heavy tank IS-2 against the background of the Reichstag

14. The Reichstag building in July 1945.

15. The interior of the Reichstag building after the defeat of Germany in the war. On the walls and columns there are inscriptions left by Soviet soldiers.

17. Soviet photojournalists and cameramen at the Reichstag building.

18. The wreckage of an overturned German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter in the background of the Reichstag.

19. Autograph of Soviet soldiers on the Reichstag column: “We are in Berlin! Nikolay, Peter, Nina and Sashka. 05/11/45 ".

20. A group of political workers of the 385th Infantry Division, headed by the head of the political department, Colonel Mikhailov, at the Reichstag.

21. German anti-aircraft guns and a killed German soldier at the Reichstag.

23. Soviet soldiers in the square near the Reichstag.

24. Red Army signalman Mikhail Usachev leaves his autograph on the wall of the Reichstag.

25. British soldier leaves his autograph among the autographs of Soviet soldiers inside the Reichstag.

26. Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria come out with a banner on the roof of the Reichstag.

27. Soviet soldiers plant a banner over the Reichstag on May 2, 1945. This is one of the banners installed on the Reistag in addition to the official hoisting of the banner by Yegorov and Kantaria.

28. The famous Soviet singer Lydia Ruslanova sings Katyusha against the background of the destroyed Reichstag.

29. The regiment's son Volodya Tarnovsky puts an autograph on the Reichstag column.

30. Heavy tank IS-2 in front of the Reichstag.

31. A captured German soldier at the Reichstag. A famous photograph that was often published in books and on posters in the USSR under the name “End” (German for “End”).

32. Fellow soldiers of the 88th separate guards heavy tank regiment at the wall of the Reichstag, in the assault of which the regiment took part.

33. Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.

34. Two Soviet officers on the steps of the Reichstag.

35. Two Soviet officers on the square in front of the Reichstag building.

36. Soviet mortar soldier Sergei Ivanovich Platov leaves his autograph on the Reichstag column.

37. Banner of Victory over the Reichstag. A photograph of a Soviet soldier hoisting the Red Banner over the captured Reichstag, which later became known as the Victory Banner - one of the main symbols of the Great Patriotic War.

38. The commander of the 88th separate heavy tank regiment P.G. Mzhachikh against the background of the Reichstag, in the assault of which his regiment also took part.

39. Fellow soldiers of the 88th separate heavy tank regiment at the Reichstag.

40. The soldiers who stormed the Reichstag. The reconnaissance platoon of the 674th rifle regiment of the 150th rifle Idritsa division.

41. Mikhail Makarov, infantry soldier who reached Berlin. In front of the Reichstag.

How fascist Germany surrendered

The last act of the Great Patriotic War stretched out in time, from which there are some discrepancies in its interpretation.

So how did Nazi Germany actually surrender?

German disaster

By the beginning of 1945, Germany's position in the war had become simply catastrophic. The swift offensive of the Soviet troops from the East and the armies of the Allies from the West led to the fact that the outcome of the war became clear to almost everyone.

From January to May 1945, the agony of the Third Reich actually took place. More and more new units rushed to the front not so much with the aim of turning the tide, but with the aim of delaying the final catastrophe.

Under these conditions, an atypical chaos reigned in the German army. Suffice it to say that there is simply no complete information about the losses suffered by the Wehrmacht in 1945 - the Nazis no longer had time to bury their dead and draw up reports.

On April 16, 1945, Soviet troops launched an offensive operation in the direction of Berlin, the purpose of which was to capture the capital of Nazi Germany.

Despite the large forces concentrated by the enemy, and its deeply echeloned defensive fortifications, in a matter of days, Soviet units broke through to the outskirts of Berlin.

Preventing the enemy from being drawn into protracted street battles, on April 25, Soviet assault groups began advancing towards the city center.

On the same day, on the Elbe River, Soviet troops joined up with American units, as a result of which the Wehrmacht armies continuing to fight were divided into groups isolated from each other.

In Berlin itself, units of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced to the government offices of the Third Reich.

Parts of the 3rd Shock Army broke through into the Reichstag area on the evening of April 28. At dawn on April 30, the building of the Ministry of the Interior was taken, after which the path to the Reichstag was opened.

Capitulation of Hitler and Berlin

Adolf Hitler, who was at that time in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery, "surrendered" in the middle of the day on April 30, committing suicide. According to the Fuehrer's associates, in recent days he most of all feared that the Russians would fire shells with soporific gas at the bunker, after which they would put him in a cage in Moscow for the amusement of the crowd.

At about 21:30 on April 30, units of the 150th Infantry Division captured the main part of the Reichstag, and on the morning of May 1, a red flag was raised over it, which became the Banner of Victory.

The fierce battle in the Reichstag, however, did not stop, and the defending units ceased resistance only on the night of 1 to 2 May.

On the night of May 1, 1945, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces, General Krebs, arrived at the location of the Soviet troops, who reported Hitler's suicide and requested an armistice at the time of the entry into the powers of the new government of Germany. The Soviet side demanded an unconditional surrender, which was refused at about 18:00 on May 1.

By this time, only the Tiergarten and the government quarter remained under German control in Berlin. The refusal of the Nazis gave the Soviet troops the right to restart the assault, which did not last long: at the beginning of the first night of May 2, the Germans requested a ceasefire by radio and declared their readiness to surrender.

At 6 a.m. on May 2, 1945, the commander of the defense of Berlin, General of Artillery Weidling, accompanied by three generals, crossed the front line and surrendered. An hour later, while at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army, he wrote an order for surrender, which was multiplied and, with the help of loud-speaking installations and radio, communicated to the enemy units defending in the center of Berlin. By the end of the day on May 2, resistance in Berlin ceased, and individual groups of the Germans, which continued the hostilities, were destroyed.

However, Hitler's suicide and the final fall of Berlin did not yet mean the surrender of Germany, which still had more than a million soldiers in the ranks.

Eisenhower's Soldier Honesty

The new German government, headed by Gross Admiral Karl Doenitz, decided to "save the Germans from the Red Army", continuing the fighting on Eastern Front, simultaneously with the flight of civilian forces and troops to the West. The main idea was capitulation in the West, while there was no capitulation in the East. Since, due to agreements between the USSR and the Western allies, it is difficult to achieve surrender only in the West, a policy of private surrenders should be pursued at the level of army groups and below.

On May 4, in front of the army of British Marshal Montgomery, a German group surrendered in Holland, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein and North-West Germany. On May 5, Army Group G surrendered to the Americans in Bavaria and Western Austria.

After that, negotiations began between the Germans and the Western allies for a complete surrender in the West. However, the American General Eisenhower disappointed the German military - the surrender should take place both in the West and in the East, and german armies must stop where they are. This meant that not everyone would be able to escape from the Red Army to the West.

The Germans tried to protest, but Eisenhower warned that if the Germans continued to play for time, his troops would forcefully stop everyone fleeing to the West, be they soldiers or refugees. In this situation, the German command agreed to sign an unconditional surrender.

General Susloparov's improvisation

In this form, the act of surrender of Germany was signed from the German side by the chief of the OKW operational headquarters, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl, from the Anglo-American side by Lieutenant General of the US Army, Chief of the General Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Walter Smith, from the USSR - by the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters under Allied command by Major General Ivan Susloparov. French Brigadier General François Sevez signed the act as a witness. The act was signed at 2:41 on May 7, 1945. It was supposed to come into force on May 8 at 23:01 CET.

The signing of the act was to take place at General Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims. On May 6, members of the Soviet military mission, General Susloparov and Colonel Zenkovich, were summoned there, and they were informed about the upcoming signing of an act of unconditional surrender of Germany.

No one would envy Ivan Alekseevich Susloparov at this moment. The fact is that he did not have the authority to sign the surrender. Having sent a request to Moscow, he did not receive an answer by the beginning of the procedure.

In Moscow, however, they rightly feared that the Nazis would achieve their goal and sign a surrender to the Western allies on terms favorable to them. Not to mention the fact that the very execution of the surrender at the American headquarters in Reims categorically did not suit the Soviet Union.

The easiest way for General Susloparov was not to sign any documents at that moment. However, according to his recollections, an extremely unpleasant collision could have developed: the Germans surrendered in front of the allies by signing an act, and with the USSR they remain at war. Where this situation will lead is not clear.

General Susloparov acted at his own peril and risk. In the text of the document, he made the following note: this protocol on military surrender does not exclude the signing of another, more perfect act of surrender of Germany in the future, if any allied government declares it.

In this form, the act of surrender of Germany was signed from the German side by the chief of the OKW operational headquarters, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl, from the Anglo-American side by Lieutenant General of the US Army, Chief of the General Staff of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Walter Smith, from the USSR - by the representative of the Supreme Command Headquarters under Allied Command Major General Ivan Susloparov. French Brigadier General François Sevez signed the act as a witness. The signing of the act took place at 2:41 on May 7, 1945. It was supposed to come into force on May 8 at 23:01 CET.

Interestingly, General Eisenhower avoided participating in the signing, citing the low status of the German representative.

Temporary effect

After the signing, an answer came from Moscow - General Susloparov was forbidden to sign any documents.

The Soviet command believed that 45 hours before the entry into force of the document, German forces would be used to flee to the West. This, in fact, was not denied by the Germans themselves.

As a result, at the insistence of the Soviet side, it was decided to hold another ceremony of signing the unconditional surrender of Germany, which was organized on the evening of May 8, 1945 in the German suburb of Karlshorst. The text, with a few exceptions, repeated the text of the document signed in Reims.

On behalf of the German side, the act was signed by Field Marshal General, Chief of the High Command Wilhelm Keitel, Air Force representative - Colonel General Stupmf and the Navy - Admiral von Friedeburg. The unconditional surrender was accepted by Marshal Zhukov (from the Soviet side) and the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, British Marshal Tedder. US Army General Spaatz and French General de Tassigny put their signatures as witnesses.

It is curious that General Eisenhower was going to come to sign this act, but was stopped by the objection of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: if the allied commander had signed the act in Karlshorst, without signing it in Reims, the significance of the Reims act would have seemed insignificant.

The signing of the act in Karlshorst took place on May 8, 1945 at 22:43 CET, and it entered into force, as agreed back in Reims, at 23:01 on May 8. However, Moscow time, these events took place at 0:43 and 1:01 on May 9.

It is this discrepancy in time that caused the Victory Day in Europe to become May 8, and in the Soviet Union - May 9.

To each his own

After the act of unconditional surrender came into force, the organized resistance of Germany finally ceased. This, however, did not prevent individual groups solving local problems (as a rule, a breakthrough to the West) from engaging in battles even after May 9. However, such battles were short-term and ended with the destruction of the Nazis, who did not fulfill the terms of surrender.

As for General Susloparov, Stalin personally assessed his actions in the current situation as correct and balanced. After the war, Ivan Alekseevich Susloparov worked at the Military Diplomatic Academy in Moscow, died in 1974 at the age of 77, and was buried with military honors at the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Moscow.

The fate of the German commanders Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, who signed the unconditional surrender in Reims and Karlshorst, was less enviable. The International Tribunal in Nuremberg recognized them as war criminals and sentenced them to death. On the night of October 16, 1946, Jodl and Keitel were hanged in the gym of the Nuremberg prison.

That's how it ended. But it was very interesting for me to look at these photographs - the final point of the route to the West for our soldiers.

On May 1, 1945, the Victory flag was hoisted on the Reichstag building. On May 2, after fierce fighting, the Red Army completely cleared the building of the enemy. Over the next weeks, thousands of soldiers of the Soviet Army and many of the allies signed there.

After the unification of the two Germany in 1990, it was decided to move the united parliament to the Reichstag.

The English architect Norman Foster, who carried out the reconstruction, decided to keep some of the Red Army graffiti along with the construction of a new glass dome. The inscriptions on the outer walls were erased, leaving several fragments in the gallery around the plenary hall and on the ground floor - with a total length of about 100 meters. The Germans claim that, using a unique technology, they transferred the original inscriptions to the inner walls of the Reichstag.

In the early 2000s, conservative deputies from the Christian Social Union tried to pass a decision to eliminate some of the inscriptions, but did not succeed. "These are not heroic monuments created by order of the authorities," the Social Democrat Eckard Bartel noted on this occasion, "but a manifestation of the triumph and suffering of a little man."

April 30, 1945... the storming of the building of the German parliament began. For any Russian, this phrase looks even shorter - the storming of the Reichstag. It means the end of the war, Victory. And, although complete victory came a little later, it was this assault that became the apogee of the whole long war ...

The storming of the Reichstag is a combat operation of the Red Army units against German troops to seize the building of the German parliament. It was carried out at the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation from April 28 to May 2, 1945 by the forces of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front.

In preparation for repelling the Soviet offensive, Berlin was divided into 9 defense sectors. The central sector, which includes government buildings, including the Reich Chancellery, the Gestapo and the Reichstag, was well fortified and defended by select SS units.

It was to the central sector that the armies of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts strove to break through. As the Soviet troops approached specific institutions, the command of the front and the armies set tasks for mastering these objects.

On the afternoon of April 27, the 11th Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army was assigned the task of capturing the Reichstag. However, the next day, the tankers failed to complete it due to strong resistance from German troops.

Operating as part of the 1st Belorussian Front, the 3rd Shock Army under the command of V.I.Kuznetsov was not originally intended to storm the central part of the city. However, as a result of seven days of fierce fighting, it was she on April 28 that was closest to the Reichstag area.

It should be said about the aspect ratio in this operation:

The Soviet group included:
79th Rifle Corps (Major General Perevertkin S.N.) consisting of:
150th Infantry Division (Major General V.M. Shatilov)
756th Rifle Regiment (Colonel F. Zinchenko)
1st battalion (captain S.A. Neustroev)
2nd Battalion (Captain Klimenkov)
469th Rifle Regiment (Colonel Mochalov M.A.)
674th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Plekhodanov A.D.)
1st battalion (Captain Davydov V.I.)
2nd battalion (Major Logvinenko Ya.I.)
328th Artillery Regiment (Major Gladkikh G.G.)
1957th anti-tank regiment
171st Infantry Division (Colonel Negoda A.I.)
380th Infantry Regiment (Major Shatalin V.D.)
1st battalion (senior lieutenant Samsonov K. Ya.)
525th Infantry Regiment
713th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Mukhtarov M.G.)
357th Artillery Regiment
207th Rifle Division (Colonel Asafov V.M.)
597th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Kovyazin I.D.)
598th Rifle Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Voznesensky A.A.)

Attached parts:

86th Heavy Howitzer Artillery Brigade (Colonel N.P.Sazonov)
104th High Power Howitzer Brigade (Colonel P.M. Solomienko)
124th High Power Howitzer Brigade (Colonel Gutin G.L.)
136th Cannon Artillery Brigade (Colonel Pisarev A.P.)
1203rd self-propelled artillery regiment
351st Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment
23rd tank brigade (Colonel Kuznetsov S.V.)
tank battalion (Major Yartsev I.L.)
tank battalion (Captain Krasovsky S.V.)
88th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment (Lieutenant Colonel Mzhachikh P.G.)
85th Tank Regiment

The Reichstag was defended by:

Part of the forces of the 9th defense sector of Berlin.
Consolidated battalion of cadets of the naval school from Rostock
In total, the Reichstag area was defended by about 5,000 people. Of these, the garrison of the Reichstag was about 1000 people

We can talk about the capture of the Reichstag by the minute, since each of them was accomplished by the soldiers who performed a feat! I will try to restore the chronology by day ..

So:

By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, the Krol-Opera theater, the Swiss embassy and a number of other structures were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they constituted a powerful node of resistance.

The task of capturing the Reichstag was set on April 28 at the combat disposal of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major General S.N.Perevertkin:

... 3. 150th rifle division - one rifle regiment - defense on the river. Spree. Two rifle regiments continue the offensive with the task of crossing the river. Spree and seize the western part of the Reichstag ...

4. 171st Infantry Division to continue the offensive within its borders with the task of crossing the river. Spree and take over the eastern part of the Reichstag ...

Another water obstacle lay in front of the advancing troops - the Spree River. Its three-meter reinforced concrete banks excluded the possibility of crossing on improvised means. The only way to the southern coast was through the Moltke Bridge, which was blown up by German sappers when the Soviet units approached, but did not collapse, but only deformed.

At both ends, the bridge was covered with reinforced concrete walls one meter thick and about one and a half meters high. It was not possible to capture the bridge on the move, since all approaches to it were shot through with multi-layered machine-gun and artillery fire. It was decided to re-assault the bridge after careful preparation. Powerful artillery fire destroyed the emplacements in the buildings on the Kronprinzen-ufer and Schlieffen-ufer embankments and suppressed German batteries that were shelling the bridge.

By the morning of April 29, the forward battalions of the 150th and 171st Infantry Divisions under the command of Captain S. A. Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant K. Ya. Samsonov crossed over to the opposite bank of the Spree. After the crossing, the Soviet units began fighting for the block located southeast of the Moltke Bridge.

Among other buildings in the quarter was the building of the Swiss Embassy, \u200b\u200bwhich faced the square in front of the Reichstag and was an important element in the general system of German defense. On the same morning, the building of the Swiss embassy was cleared of the enemy by the companies of Senior Lieutenant Pankratov and Lieutenant MF Grankin. The next target on the way to the Reichstag was the building

Ministry of the Interior, nicknamed by Soviet soldiers "Himmler's House". It was a huge six-story building that occupied an entire block. The solid stone building was additionally adapted for defense. To capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning, a powerful artillery preparation was carried out, immediately after which Soviet fighters rushed to storm the building.

The next day, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and by dawn on April 30 captured it. The road to the Reichstag was opened.

The assault on the Reichstag began before dawn on 30 April. The 150th and 171st rifle divisions, commanded by General V.M. Shatilov, rushed to the building of the German parliament. and Colonel Negoda A.I. The attackers were met with a sea of \u200b\u200bfire from various types of weapons, and soon the attack was drowned.

The first attempt to take possession of the building on the move ended in failure. Thorough preparations for the assault began. To support the infantry attack only for direct fire, 135 guns, tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts were concentrated. Dozens of other cannons, howitzers and rocket launchers fired from covered positions. From the air, the attackers were supported by squadrons of the 283rd fighter aviation of the division of Colonel Chirva S.N.

At 12 o'clock, artillery preparation began. Half an hour later, the infantry went to the assault. She had only 250 m left to overcome the target, and it seemed that success was already assured.

“Everything around was roaring and roaring,” recalled Colonel FM Zinchenko, whose regiment was part of the 150th rifle division. goals ... So the reports flew at the command. After all, everyone so wanted to be the first! .. "

General Shatilov V.M. first by phone, and then in writing, he informed the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, General Perevertkin S.N., that at 2:25 pm the rifle battalions under the command of captains S.A. Neustroev. and Davydov V.I. broke into the Reichstag and hoisted a banner on it. At this time, the units continue to clear the building of the Germans.

So long-awaited news rushed further - to the headquarters of the 3rd Shock Army and the 1st Belorussian Front. This was reported by Soviet radio, followed by foreign radio stations. The Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front, by order of April 30, already congratulated the soldiers on their victory, declared gratitude to all the soldiers, sergeants, officers of the 171st and 150th Infantry Divisions and, of course, General Perevertkin S.N. and ordered the Military Council of the army to present the most distinguished for awards.

After receiving news of the fall of the Reichstag, military cameramen, photojournalists, journalists rushed to him, among them the famous writer B.L. Gorbatov. What they saw disappointed: the assault battalions were still fighting on the outskirts of the building, where there was not a single Soviet soldier and not a single flag.

The third attack began at 6 pm. Together with the attacking battalions of the 674th and 380th rifle regiments, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhanov, F.M. and the battery commander of the corps artillery commander, Captain Makovetsky V.N. On the initiative of the command and the political department of the corps, these groups were created specifically for hoisting flags made in the corps over the Reistag.

"This attack was crowned with success: battalions of captains S. Neustroev, V. Davydov, senior lieutenant K. Samsonov and a group of volunteers broke into the building, which F. M. Zinchenko reported to General V. M. Shatilov. in the afternoon, he repeatedly demanded to break into the Reichstag and, what worried him most of all, to plant a banner on it.

The report made the division commander happy and at the same time upset: the banner was still not installed. The general ordered to clear the building of the enemy and "immediately place the banner of the Army Military Council on its dome!" To speed up the task, the division commander appointed F.M. Zinchenko. commandant of the Reichstag ". (R. Portuguese V. Runov" Boilers of the 45th ", M.," Eksmo ", 2010, p. 234).

However, Colonel F.M. Zinchenko understood, as he wrote after the war, "that neither in the evening, nor during the night the Reichstag cannot be completely cleared, but the banner must be erected at any cost! ..". He ordered before dark to recapture as many rooms as possible from the enemy, and then give the personnel a rest.

The banner of the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army was instructed to hoist the scouts of the regiment - M.V. Kantariya and M.A. Egorov. Together with a group of fighters led by Lieutenant Brest, with the support of Syanov's company, they climbed onto the roof of the building and at 9.50 pm on April 30, 1945, hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag.

M.V. Kantaria

Two days later, the banner was replaced with a large red banner. The removed flag was sent to Moscow on a special plane flight with military honors on June 20.

On June 24, 1945, the first parade of the troops of the active army, the Navy and the Moscow garrison took place in Moscow on Red Square to commemorate the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War. After participating in the parade, the Victory Banner is still kept in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.

It should also be noted that in addition to the banner of the Military Council of the Army, many other flags were attached to the Reichstag building. The first flag was hoisted by the group of Captain Makov V.N., which attacked together with the battalion of Neustroev. Led by the captain, the volunteers senior sergeants A.P. Bobrov, G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko. and sergeant Minin M.P. immediately rushed to the roof of the Reichstag and fixed the flag on one of the sculptures on the right tower of the house. It happened at 22 hours 40 minutes, which is two to three hours before the hoisting of the flag, which history was destined to become the Banner of Victory.

For the skillful leadership of the battle and heroism, V.I. Davydov, S.A. Neustroev, K.Ya. Samsonov, as well as M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, who hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The battle inside the Reichstag continued with great tension until the morning of May 1, and individual groups of fascists who had lodged in the cellars of the Reichstag continued to resist until May 2, when Soviet soldiers finally finished with them. In the battles for the Reichstag, up to 2,500 enemy soldiers were killed and wounded, 2,604 prisoners were captured.

1945 units of the red army began the assault on the Reichstag. Storming of the Reichstag. An unwanted truth. Eisenhower's Soldier Honesty