‘I have even received a radio message from our regimental commander.’
‘Check the information immediately on the spot.’
I despatched several staff officers to the given area. They not only confirmed Mussatov’s message but brought back further good news. Advance detachments of General Leliushenko’s 4th Guards Tank Army had already approached Potsdam and were in contact with our 47th Army and 2nd Guards Tank Army. Thus both Fronts, the 1st Byelorussian and the 1st Ukrainian, were closing the ring around the German capital. Apart from this, the main forces of the Frankfurt group – the 9th German Army and the 4th German Panzer Army – were now cut off from Berlin and surrounded in the woods southeast of the city. Another few days and Berlin would fall. No one doubted that the capitulation of the German capital would end the war.
Primarily, however, the Fascist leadership was trying to fight its way out of being surrounded. Dremov’s men were involved in heavy fighting at the Anhalter railway station. At his command post the news reached me of the severe wounding of the commander of the 1st Guards Brigade, Colonel Temnik, who died next day in an army hospital.
Usually the sappers and infantry cleared the way for the tanks. Attempts to commit the tanks without cover merely led to high losses from artillery fire and Panzerfaust men. As the brigades only had a limited number of infantry for their protection, the tank soldiers had to clear the way themselves. In narrow streets, however, only two tanks could advance at the same time. The first opened fire, being covered by the second. Thus metre by metre our Guardsmen smashed a breach in the dense enemy defences.
As the ranks of our infantry and sappers had suffered so much, Temnik assembled the members of his staff and ordered them to arm themselves with machine-pistols. He put himself at the head of the assault team he had formed. For a whole hour the brigade commander fought like a common soldier. No sooner had a housing quarter been cleared of the enemy than a mine exploded. Wounded by a splinter in his lower body, Temnik was taken to hospital, but all aid proved unsuccessful. We buried Temnik in the vicinity of the Reichstag building where today the memorial for the Soviet soldiers who died in the last battle stands.
I had seen many comrades die during the Great Fatherland War, and suffered deeply from every new loss. One does not get accustomed to death. Who can forget all those who are no longer with us?
Towards noon on the 25th April the Berlin group, consisting of six divisions of the 9th German Army, an SS-guards brigade, several police units, ten artillery divisions, an anti-aircraft division, a self-propelled artillery brigade, three tank-hunting brigades, six anti-tank artillery brigades as well as several Volkssturm battalions, was completely surrounded. All these units and troop elements were supported by the inhabitants.
Our troops involved in the capital – the 47th Army, 3rd and 5th Shock Armies, 8th Guards Army, part of the 28th Army and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies – considerably outnumbered the enemy in strength. To every reasonably thinking statesman it would have been obvious that further resistance was futile and would only lead to further unnecessary casualties and destruction. But Hitler sought fanatically to extend the Reich’s fight to the death.
Our soldiers and commanders knew that the war was coming to an end. Everyone wanted to survive, to witness the end of the war. But also in these hours no Guardsman took care to spare his life. Without regard for the death lurking step by step in the street fighting, they all fought on determinedly obstinate and bold.
On the morning of the 27th April, as I was on my way to the 11th Guards Tank Corps command post, the writer Michail Bragin appeared. ‘Take me to the command post with you?’ he asked after a short chat.
‘For a writer it is senseless driving there where things are hot,’ I said, trying to talk him out of it. But as he remained stubborn about accompanying me, I finally agreed. The way was not so far, but there could not have been more damned a street. From everywhere shells, mortars and bullets roared and whistled over our heads. Nevertheless we eventually got to our destination. Among the staff of the 11th Guards Tank Corps, which was located in the cellar of a former office building, we met the chief of staff, Colonel Vedenitshev, a veteran of the 1st Guards Tank Army. I had experienced so many dangerous situations together with him. Before we could greet each other, dust fell on our heads. German aircraft had attacked the building.
‘Damn it, leave me in peace!’ swore Vedenitshev. ‘Every ten minutes three or four aircraft fly over and bomb just this building. They have surely heard that our staff is in the cellar. We must find another place to stay straight away.’
Several minutes later the duty officer reported that five men had been killed in the attack and two guns of the anti-aircraft artillery had been damaged. Straight afterwards there was another hefty explosion. The shock was so great that the cellar shook and we were thrown to the ground. Filing cabinets, shelves and dust fell on us. We could only free ourselves with difficulty. We looked at one another and brushed the dust off each other. Fortunately it seemed no one was hurt. But our faces were so black that our teeth shone unnaturally white. A bomb had broken through the thick masonry and had exploded in a neighbouring cellar. We would probably not have got off so lightly had not the filing cabinets protected us. We now discussed why the enemy was constantly bombarding this building so precisely. His determination seemed suspicious.
‘There must be an aiming point here somewhere,’ said Vedenitshev. ‘The Germans know there are headquarters here. Order the building to be searched.’
Several soldiers set off immediately to search every corner of the extensive cellars. Behind an out of the way partition they eventually found a German civilian with a radio. From his interrogation we discovered that he was the deputy director of this establishment and a member of the Nazi Party. He had been directing the aircraft here from his hiding place by radio.
Vedenitshev unfolded a map of Berlin. Red arrows pointed to important railway junctions. The 29th Guards Rifle Corps was fighting with the 11th Guards Corps in a quarter bordering this area.
‘Here,’ Vedenitshev pointed to the map, ‘the remains of the Müncheberg Panzer Division are defending themselves. Apart from them there are also Volkssturm people engaged.’
Vedenitshev had to interrupt his speech when, as smart as ever, noisily and impetuously, every inch of compressed energy, Babadshanian burst in.
‘How is it, Arno? It seems to be somewhat hot here!’
‘That is not the point, Comrade Commander-in-Chief. All hell is let loose. The Fascists are behaving frantically today. They have counterattacked five times. And what have they not offered. Youths, still half children, and old men! Things are bad for Hitler!’
‘We’ll talk about Hitler later. How does it look with you?’
‘All attacks have been repelled. We are advancing. But the barriers and barricades in the streets give us much to do. Neither tanks nor guns can get through. The sappers cannot get to the barriers because of the firing. But Chuikov’s men have given us some practical assistance by smoking out the vermin with flamethrowers.’
Despite all these difficulties, the 11th Guards Tank Corps, together with the 29th Guards Rifle Corps, took the railway junction, and the corps staff moved up closer to the leading troops.
In these days the Fascists fought not only on the ground and in the air but especially underground. Although we knew there was an underground railway in the city, in the heat of battle we either forgot or simply underestimated the military significance of the underground connections. These, however, gave the Fascists excellent manoeuvrability. By means of the U-Bahn they were able to conduct attacks on troops that had already thrust into the centre of the city.