At the end of April our headquarters were in a suburb, although our troops were already fighting in the city centre. We had to change position as soon as possible. General Joffe tasked Lieutenant-Colonel Golub and myself with finding another place for our headquarters. We selected one near the stadium in Weissensee.
The street fighting was getting ever harder. Fighting broke out for every street, every building and every barricade. Our 2nd and 4th Battalions were fighting with the 3rd Shock Army and the 5th and 7th were with the 5th Shock Army.
On the night leading to the 29th April General S.N. Perevertkin’s 79th Rifle Corps crossed the Moltke Bridge under a hurricane of fire and reached the entrances to the Reichstag. When we heard this news we immediately reached for our maps. We were less than a kilometre from the Reichstag!
Also fighting in this area was Lieutenant-Colonel Eiber’s 4th Battalion, which belonged to Lieutenant-Colonel Golub’s operational group. I drove to his command post at Plötzensee on the morning of the 30th April. Golub had established himself in a cellar and reported that the 4th Battalion had taken part in the storming of Ministry of the Interior, where the men had had a hard time.
Suddenly anti-aircraft guns thundered nearby and bombs exploded.
‘Comrade Colonel, would it not be better if we took cover?’ suggested Golub. Without waiting for my assent, he ordered his radio operators: ‘Forward, men!’
In the comfortable trench, covered and lined with planks, we waited in safety for the air attack to end. A machine sped low over us. At the same moment there was a crash. It was dark in front of my eyes. When I came to several seconds later I could not hear anything, but that came back very quickly. We had all come through with our skins intact, but a nasty surprise awaited us in the cellar. The ceiling had collapsed from the bomb explosion nearby. Had we remained in the cellar, it would have been bad for us.
Golub continued his interrupted talk. ‘Do you know, Viktor Kondratievitch, that the storm battalion is a mixture of infantry, sappers, gunners, tank-men and flame-thrower teams working together. The men come from various units and hardly know each other. Even the commanders can hardly find time to know each other. But as we all know, only a precise cooperation guarantees success.’
I had already applied some thought to this. During the fighting for Poznan and Prague it had become clear to me that the street-fighting structures were not really suitable. Even the engineers’ assault brigades that had been trained for breaching strongly fortified defensive strips and for fighting in towns had neither artillery nor tanks. In our brigade there was not even a single heavy machine-gun. The fighting in Berlin showed that street-fighting demanded assault regiments or brigades. They should consist principally of infantry units to which sufficient sappers, depending on the situation of either a company or a battalion size for every rifle battalion, should be attached. Naturally flame-throwers, its own artillery, self-propelled guns and tanks also went with it. With this composition the cooperation would be far better organised.
On the afternoon of the 30th April we heard that the fighting for the Reichstag had begun. As Golub’s operation team had no exact details, I decided to sort out everything on the spot. Between Plötzensee and the Moltke Bridge were only a few kilometres in a straight line. But the attempt to get through by a direct route failed. Rubble, bomb craters and burning buildings blocked the streets. Finally we reached the Moltke Bridge.
Near the approach to the bridge stood a smoke-blackened T-34.A traffic controller waved us to drive on or the enemy would immediately shoot up the vehicle. We crossed the bridge at walking pace, turned right and found ourselves in front of a large building complex – the Ministry of the Interior. The windows on the Spree side were either bricked in or barricaded with sandbags.
In the inner courtyard I unexpectedly came across Major Tschernov. The deputy political adviser looked exhausted. He reported briefly to me on the state of the 4th Battalion. He had participated in the fighting for the Ministry of the Interior and blown up several barricades.
‘How’s the political work going?’
‘Before the battle we held several meetings on the significance of the fighting in Berlin. In Captain Kanaschin’s company the Communists took sponsorships of the recently joined young soldiers. This initiative was also copied in the other companies.’
While making some notes, it occurred to me that no better form of Party political work could be done than in this situation.
‘Would you like to take a glimpse of the Reichstag?’ Tschernov asked.
The Reichstag could be seen clearly through a hole in the wall. Behind the windows on the first floor shots flashed from time to time.
‘The ground floor is already in our hands,’ explained Tschernov. ‘Now we are driving the Fascists out of the upper storeys. It won’t be long before they are finished.’
But the fighting continued. On the morning of the 1st May the deputy battalion commander, Major Poleshtchuk, came to Lieutenant-Colonel Eiber’s observation post.
‘The enemy are attacking with tanks and self-propelled guns from the Tiergarten and want to break through to the Reichstag!’
Immediately the companies of Captains Kanashin and Suchanishvili were alerted. In all haste they laid a hundred mines in the Tiergarten. Shortly afterwards a self-propelled gun lost a tank track. Several shells penetrated its side. Our heavy IS tanks had opened fire. Then the other enemy tanks and self-propelled guns withdrew, still firing. The counterattack had been beaten back.
On the evening of the 1st May the resistance eased off. Only here and there submachine-guns let rip. Towards midnight it became quiet. The 6th Battalion had accommodated itself in a school. Lieutenant-Colonel Roshdestvenski lay with his staff in a former administrative building. Not far off was also the 1st Battalion. Late that evening Lieutenant-Colonel Frolov and Lieutenant-Colonel Roshdestvenski reported on the de-mining of the city. Finally they went off to rest.
Towards 0400 hours the sentries of the 6th Battalion heard engine noises and the rattling of tank tracks. Apparently a strong enemy group was trying to break out of the enclosed part of Berlin. The sentries opened fire and raised the alarm. The sappers took up defensive positions. Meanwhile the battalion’s chief of staff, Major Rebrov, made contact with the brigade staff by radio and told them what was happening. Lieutenant-Colonel Frolov radioed his battalion for help. Behind the 6th Battalion lay an anti-aircraft gun regiment. The crews brought their guns into position and engaged the enemy with heavy fire. Now came the moment for Captain Stalev’s company. His men blocked the enemy’s route with mines. The sappers also successfully used Panzerfausts in this fighting. They destroyed one tank and a self-propelled assault gun. In this fighting the enemy lost one tank, two assault guns, several vehicles and about fifty men.
As dusk fell the 1st Battalion attacked the enemy in the flank. Almost 200 men and officers were taken prisoner.
On the morning of the 2nd May powerful loudspeakers conveyed the appeal by the commanding general of the LVIth Panzer Corps and battle commandant of Berlin, General Weidling, to surrender unconditionally. For hours afterwards short bursts of fire came from here and there, but these outbursts were quickly quelled. Peace finally came at about 1500 hours. The capital of Fascist Germany was in our hands.