Lieutenant-Colonel Gassenko and the reserve company stayed with the tank corps headquarters. Communication with the companies was by radio and despatch rider.
These methods showed their value best in the introduction of the tanks into the breach. The enemy had generally not laid any mines previously in the depth of his defence, but first laid them during the fighting, mainly under pressure of time, openly and only scantily camouflaged. Mines found like this were disarmed or blown relatively easily by our men.
During the breakthrough of the enemy defences in the Wriezen–Altfriedland sector, the 9th Guards Tank Corps pushed on in order to go round Berlin from the north. Our Guards Engineers also advanced with the tank troops. On the night leading to the 20th April the 1st Company of the 2nd Battalion found itself at the head of the 65th Tank Brigade. Shortly before dawn vehicles with infantry hanging on drew into a wood next to the sappers. In the half-darkness and still moving forward, no one was interested in who was driving at the back of the column.
As it grew light in the east the column stopped. The leading battalion had become engaged in the fight for a village. In this stressed situation the company commander, Captain Schimarovski, noticed that some vehicles were following his unit with their headlights on. He ordered his sergeant-major to immediately get them switched off and get things in order.
A soldier hurried to the rear. But before he reached the vehicles he was shot from the first vehicle. At the same moment the other vehicles opened fire on our column. Germans!
The tank-men turned the turrets of their T-34s and fired. Our sappers also fired. Within a short time the enemy column was defeated. Twenty-six vehicles and dozens of soldiers and officers were squashed flat by the tank tracks; the remainder fled into the wood leaving eight guns behind.
Mines at the Brandenburg Gate
On the morning of the 21st April a cheerful atmosphere reigned at brigade headquarters. Our troops had broken through the outer defence zone and were now fighting on the Berlin city boundary.
The first were elements of General Bessarin’s 5th Shock Army storming the Fascist capital from the east. In their ranks were our 2nd and 7th Guards Engineer Battalions. Lieutenant-Colonel Assonov’s operational group coordinated the management of the battalions.
Berlin had been reached! How long had we yearned for this day, now it was here at last! But we also knew that the Fascists would not willingly give up a foot of earth and that expensive street fighting lay ahead of us.
We had long since prepared our troops for this fighting. On the way from the Vistula to the Oder, during the short gaps in the fighting the theme of fighting in built-up areas had arisen. The staffs at all levels studied the experiences of street fighting in Schneidemühl and Poznan, leading to the rationalisation of the assault teams and the battalions that would play the decisive roles in the street fighting. Cooperation between the various arms was also practised.
Normally an assault team consisted of a rifle platoon, a sapper section with two or three flame-throwers, two to four guns, and sometimes also one or two tanks or self-propelled guns. An assault battalion had up to an infantry battalion, a sapper platoon, a flame-thrower team, as well as the corresponding reinforcement with artillery and tanks.
Our brigade also prepared itself for dealing with assault battalions and groups. In the technical battalion Tregub and Kuberski investigated suitable charges for blowing walls, barriers and barricades. Within the units there was training in the demolition of various objects.
On the afternoon of the 21st April we received a radio message from Lieutenant-Colonel Golub. Laconically he told me: ‘Find me at point 17–24.’
‘The 3rd Shock Army is fighting in the north-eastern suburbs of Berlin,’ remarked Sokolov after he had checked the coded map. ‘Golub’s group is already in Karow.’
The street fighting became more and more bitter from hour to hour. The nearer our troops got to the city centre, the more ferociously the enemy fought. He fired from dug-in tanks, from tank turrets and from bunkers. Machine guns fired from windows and rooftops, and machine-pistols in the streets. In the entrances of buildings and behind barricades Panzerfausts lay in wait. Numerous natural and artificial obstacles obstructed our movement.
The commitment of tanks and self-propelled guns in the streets was difficult, because within the city their manoeuvrability, their most important fighting asset, was limited. Thick clouds of smoke hung over the city and hindered the use of aircraft. Thus the artillery played an especially important role in the street fighting. Guns of all calibres, from the little 45mm to the heavy 203mm howitzers fired point-blank.
The significance of the sappers also grew by bounds. The sappers, ensuring the advance of the infantry, blew up everything that the gunners and tank-men could not destroy. But this had to take place in close cooperation with the other arms.
My task consisted above all of organising the cooperation and the exchange of experiences in the fighting until then. This is why I drove to the 7th Battalion fighting in Falkenburg, where Issaiev, the youngest of our battalion commanders, was still assessing his fighting experiences. We only got forward with difficulty in the vehicle. There were heaps of rubble everywhere; bomb craters and burnt-out tanks blocked the way. Twice we had to change tyres before reaching the headquarters of the 7th Battalion.
‘How’s it going, Michail Jakovlevitch?’
‘As usual, Comrade Colonel! The sappers are dealing with the assaults by platoons, blowing up barricades and fire positions.’
‘Have you come across mines?’
‘None so far. It looks strongly as if the Fascists have run out of equipment. Perhaps they also no longer have the time. Apart from that, the streets are asphalted, which is not very helpful.’
I could see an unspoken question in Issaiev’s eyes.
‘And what else is there?’
‘The commander of the 89th Rifle Division is demanding a company from me to send in. If I were to fulfil all his orders, a whole brigade would not suffice.’
Yes, that was the unfortunate problem with this cooperation. When it came to the laying or removal of mines we had, even when also under difficulties, fought for the right to decide for ourselves how and with what forces to deal with it. Here under street-fighting conditions we had to start apparently from the beginning all over again. What should I say to this battalion commander? Advice was quickly given, but Issaiev must also be able to translate it into action.
‘Let yourself formulate exactly every task. Decide yourself how many men you can deploy to it. If a company is too much, send only a platoon.’
In my notebook I wrote: ‘Speak to the 5th Shock Army’s Chief Engineer about the proper use of sappers.’
At that moment the deputy battalion commander, Major Ogurzov, came pounding down the cellar steps. His face was beaming. He was holding a Panzerfaust in his hand. The enemy had placed great hopes in this weapon. Its hollow charge could penetrate 150 to 200 millimetres of strong armour and it had a range of about 100 metres.
‘A fine piece of equipment,’ said the major. ‘Our boys have quickly learnt how to use it.’
That morning we had captured an ammunition dump with several hundred Panzerfausts. Ogurzov had familiarised himself with and trained the men on the weapon. Later our sappers used the Panzerfausts successfully in the street fighting. One shot in a window was sufficient to silence the enemy firing point, and three Panzerfausts were sufficient to break through a slate or thin wooden wall.