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Soviet troops take Berlin May 2nd 1945

Pilots and tankers

Special - From 14:00 GMT 3rd May 2014 - 23:59 GMT 4th May 2014

30% Discount on FW-190 D9 (Soviet Captured)

Soviet troops take Berlin May 2nd 1945

Hitler was dead and now everyone knew it. The end was immediate, apart from a handful of fanatical holdouts, resistance in the city had crumbled. The 28th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 2nd Army of the 1st Belorussian Front came together on the Charlottenburg Chaussee, the main civic artery from central Berlin to the west at the Charlottenburg Palace.

Berlin 1945.

German forces seeking to escape had attempted a breakout the night before. The remaining Wehrmacht forces, low on ammunition, food and morale desperately attempted to flee, while berlin was now nothing but rubble and ruins and with Soviet armour and infantry pouring into the cracks of the failing German units, it was this night in a last ditch effort to escape, a small group of infantry supported by a lone panther tank made a break out to the west using the bombed out and wrecked features of the gardens, this small group would be the last of berlins forces to escape encirclement. Only those who passed through the Tiergarten had success evading capture or death amongst the Soviet lines, several other attempts were made that night but all but the attempt at the tiergarten failed horribly. Though a few of those successfully escaped to the Western front only to fall into the hands of the western allies.

At dawn, forces of the Soviet Union captured the Reich Chancellery, Clearing it room by room, it was a bloody battle to the last. When victorious they hoisted the Flag of the Soviet union above the ruins. The Russian forces had to break into small units and tackled each room as a separate strongpoint. the remaining german defenders fought desperately amongst the burning rooms but were finally overcome.

Meanwhile Assault guns closed in on the last vestiges of resistance destroying whole city blocks in order to cleanse the streets of holdouts. At the same time small bands of Wehrmacht tank hunter units stalked the rubble, most of these were boys of the Hitler youth pressed into a last desperate defence amongst the shattered remnants of berlin, even the thick soviet armour of the latest IS2 tanks could not defeat a Panzerfaust at a distance of just a few yards. but it was to no avail, in comparison to the ragged remnants of the defenders of Berlin the forces of the Soviet Union where inexhaustible. the last remaining tiger tanks in the corners of the tiergarten protecting the approaches to the reichstag, were soon overcome, or broke down and abandoned by their crews.

By 6am at the Reichstag, Soviet forces had cleared the building it was only now after two days of some of the fiercest fighting in Berlin that Victory banner number 5 could be lifted above the obliterated remains of the reichstag, the battle had been unrelenting, tanks and assault guns unable to support the advancing infantry as fire from the surrounding Flak towers plunged down and prevented movement by armoured forces, the heavy guns of the russian artillery units failed to suppress the fire from the towers and the reichstag was taken with a fury and resolve not often encountered before in the battle.

The encirclement was complete, most German forces had now run out of ammunition, with no fuel and nothing but the last remnants of the Wehrmacht and Hitler youth to fight, the defence of Berlin was over and it was official, General Weidling, commander of the defences of Berlin had ordered the unconditional surrender of all forces in the city. General Zhukov had formally accepted the surrender by General Weidling. It was on the Palatial grounds of the Charlottenburg palace and the Chaussee that the Armies of the Soviet union now Celebrated their final victory in Berlin.

The War Thunder Team