What the slogan ‘surround, close in, destroy’ really meant, Weidling discovered in the summer of 1944, when, already a general and commander-in-chief of the 9th German Army, he was with his troops in the Bobruisk cauldron. Our tanks cut through his army’s communications, his staff became prisoners and he himself escaped by a miracle.
Near Berlin occurred the third decisive encounter of the 1st Guards Tank Army with the German 9th Army’s XVIth Panzer Corps. Beaten back by us, its commander withdrew to Berlin with the remains of his troops. Now he too was in the column of prisoners of war. With him went the whole of the Fascist Wehrmacht.
That evening I drove with Shalin and Nikitin through the still-smoking city. Unimaginable scenes in the streets. Everywhere hugging, kissing, laughing and singing. Berlin had fallen. Here and again the cracking of shots. The soldiers were firing their victory salutes. Soldiers were dancing next to their tanks. For four long, bloody years the people had had to wait for this hour. Now the hour of victory had arrived. A red flag waved over the Reichstag.
At a crossroads Shalin suddenly grasped my arm: ‘Look there!’ Corpses were hanging from a lamppost.
‘Volkssturm,’ explained Shalin. ‘Gestapo victims. They wanted to end the senseless fighting, so they were hanged as a warning.’
At this time a question was being repeatedly asked: ‘What’s happened to Hitler?’ The suggestion that he had committed suicide was not convincing. One thought was that his companions had got this rumour going to obliterate his traces. The desire to capture Hitler and publicly try him was in everyone’s mind.
Naturally Hitler’s remains were also discussed by us. Nikitin suggested that we visit the Führerbunker at the Reichs Chancellery.
‘Where is Hitler? Show us him!’ we asked of the commandant of the Reichs Chancellery, Colonel Shevzov.
‘He’s gone, the swine. He was here but he’s gone. Only a charred corpse is left,’ he replied.
We went down some steep steps into the bunker. Stale air hit us. We entered a long corridor, turned left and then right and finally stood in front of a massive door, similar to that of a treasury.
‘This is where he lived,’ said Shevzov and stood aside to let us through. We inspected Hitler’s reception room, his bedroom, his dining room and his bathroom. Shevzov told us that immediately above Hitler’s quarters lay massive iron plates for protection against bomb and shell attacks.
All these years we had sworn to enter the Fascist cave and now we stood in our goal. It really was a cave, the description of a living bunker was out of place.
In a neighbouring room was the corpse of a man in a general’s uniform. ‘The chief of the army staff, General of Infantry Krebs,’ explained Schevzov. It was the same man that had brought to the bunker the news that the Soviet Supreme Command was sticking to the unconditional surrender and refusing all dealings with the Fascists. This information led to several suicides in the bunker.
We thanked Shevzov for his trouble and left the Reichs Chancellery.
The street fighting in Berlin was finished. The formations and units of the army paraded in front of the Reichstag. According to orders we had to leave the city and redeploy in a new area.
In Berlin peaceful life returned while in other sectors the Soviet–German war still raged. Our troops continued to fight against the armies of Schörner, Manteufel and other Fascist generals, in all over 1.5 million men. Daily came reports of German units surrendering en masse to our western allies, but others continued to fight determinedly against us.
On the morning of the 3rd May our fighting companions, those who had lost their lives in the last fighting in Berlin, were buried. Silent and bare-headed, the Guardsmen thought about their comrades. They were buried at the Brandenburg Gate and in Treptow Park, covered in spring flowers and garlands.
Chapter 2
Main Striking Force
By High Marshal of Tank Troops Amasasp Chatshaturovitch Babadshanian
Babadshanian commanded the 11th Guards Tank Corps of the 1st Guards Tank Army with the rank of major general.
The headquarters of the 1st Byelorussian Front was sited on the edge of the little town of Birnbaum. On the 5th April 1945 were assembled there the commander-in-chief, the members of the War Councils and chief of staff of the armies as well as the commanders of the tank and mechanised corps. Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov was escorted by the Member of the War Council of the Front, Telegin, and the Chief of Staff, Malinin.
Zhukov informed us that he had just come from the Supreme Commander in Chief. The situation had developed in such a way that he had to summon us urgently, as the Berlin operation had to commence earlier than planned.
The marshal was quiet for a minute and then explained the reasons for this to us. Since our Allies had dealt with the German group quickly, they were now planning an attack on Leipzig and Dresden, and we must accept that they wanted to reach Berlin before us. This all went under the pretext that they wanted to help us. Our headquarters had also discovered that two parachute divisions were being hastily prepared for an attack on Berlin. That suited the Fascists. While they conducted fierce resistance against us even in the smallest villages, they surrendered whole cities to the western Allies on the western front.
‘That forces the Supreme Headquarters to hurry,’ resumed Zhukov. ‘The exact details of the offensive you will learn later. Now it is necessary to explain the task.’
A curtain was removed, revealing a map on which the enemy defensive sectors were shown exactly. They extended at distances of from 10 to 15 kilometres from the Oder River to the Seelow Heights.
A second curtain slipped aside. Before us hung a relief map of Berlin. Streets, buildings, fortifications, barriers, fixed firing positions, even the destroyed city districts were shown. The important objectives were numbered.
‘Direct your attention, please, to Object Number 105.’ The Field Marshal pointed with his stick to a large square. ‘That is the Reichstag. Who will be the first to reach it? Katukov? Chuikov? Perhaps also Bogdanov or Berzarin?’ Without waiting for a reply, he went on: ‘And that is Number 106, the Reichs Chancellery.’
In this way he presented the future objectives to us.
Chaos reigned in Berlin. The leading circles of Fascist Germany were disintegrating. Out of anxiety for their crimes to be accounted for they turned to total mobilisation. Old men, invalids and young lads were to save them from their certain downfall. Simultaneously the Fascist leadership sought a political way out by negotiating with the Allies for an honourable peace. But it was all in vain; the Fascist rulers could no longer save anything.
On the Oder and Neisse Rivers were concentrated the 1st and 2nd Byelorussian and the 1st Ukrainian Fronts. In this concentration were four tank armies, numerous independent tank and mechanised corps, as well as a vast number of guns and aircraft. We were stronger than ever before.
But the task awaiting us was not an easy one. In the Berlin direction, especially where he expected our main thrust, the enemy had organised a strong defence in depth. All the lines of defence had been occupied by their troops in time. Apart from this it was hilly terrain with numerous rivers, streams, canals, lakes and villages, all ideal for defence purposes.
During the conference with Marshal Zhukov we were entrusted with the basic idea for the coming operation.
The main thrust was to be conducted from the Küstrin bridgehead with five infantry and two tank armies. The infantry armies would break through the tactical defensive zones and take suitable preparatory measures for the introduction of the tank armies. Working on the flanks of the main thrust, the tank armies would thus have the necessary room for manoeuvre and for the decisive thrust into the enemy’s rear. The infantry armies would lighten the future development of the attack. The tank thrusts would go round the north and south of Berlin and, with the 1st Ukrainian Front, close the ring around the city in the Potsdam–Brandenburg area.