(1939-1945) With the end of World War II, Germany, especially, suffered significant devastation alongside the countries that participated in the war. While Hitler and the Nazis fought against the Allies on the Western Front, they also engaged in a war with the USSR on the Eastern Front through the Barbarossa operation. The battles were fierce, and as the Germans weakened on both fronts, they began to retreat from the territories they had occupied. The Allies and the Russians were launching attacks on the Germans from two sides in order to end the war as soon as possible. Both armies were trying to neutralize the Germans as quickly as possible.
In early 1945, during the Vistul-Oder Battle on January 17th, the Russians broke through the German lines and came 60 kilometers east of Berlin. The Russians, temporarily stationed, defeated the Germans consecutively in their positions. The target was now the central Berlin, where preparations for the Berlin battle by the Russians began on March 20, 1945.
Aware of the Russian attack on Berlin, the Germans made preparations at crucial positions. After the Helbe and Seelow battles conducted by the Russians, these strategically important positions were captured, completing the siege of Berlin. Then, on April 20th, under Marshal Zhukov's command, artillery units began to bombard Berlin. The Germans attached great importance to the defense of Berlin. They blew up the bridges since there were many canals in the city, buried tanks in the roads, and prepared defensive barriers with stone.
After the bombardment, Russian forces entered Berlin, and street battles ensued. Towards the end of the war, there were no longer elite Nazi soldiers, and Hitler's order for a total people's defense meant that the German army was mainly composed of volunteers, including child soldiers. After bloody street battles, the Red Army reached the city center on April 30, 1945, and captured the Reichstag, the German parliament building. The Red Army was the first to raise its flag on the Reichstag.
Dagestani Abdülhakim Ismailov, who planted the USSR flag on the German Parliament Building in Berlin, passed away in 2010 at the age of 94.
On April 30, 1945, when Hitler realized that the war was lost, he and his lover Eva Braun committed suicide by shooting themselves in the bunker. The next day, Joseph Goebbels and some other high-ranking officials also committed suicide in the following days. The battles in Berlin continued until May 2, 1945. On the same day, German Commander General Helmth Widling surrendered to the Soviet army, marking the end of the Berlin battle. As a result of the German retreat that began in 1944, by May, with the capture of Berlin by the Russians, the war officially ended. The unconditional surrender of Germany in World War II took place on May 8, 1945, and this day, known as Victory in Europe Day, was named the day the war ended.
Why didn't the Western Front capture Berlin?
In September 1944, the Allies reached the German border, and after intense battles on both sides, in March 1945, Western allies crossed the Rhine River. General Eisenhower and his army were advancing full speed towards Berlin, but they encountered heavy German resistance. Later, when the Western Allied forces were 200 kilometers from Berlin, they stopped. Eisenhower ordered all units to halt. The units had reached the Elbe River and remained stationary in their positions for about three weeks until Berlin fell.
General Eisenhower of the United States did not consider advancing to Berlin. He foresaw that heavy losses could be incurred. Moreover, he did not want to engage in a friendly conflict with the Russians, who were advancing almost simultaneously with them, if Berlin were entered. However, the British, especially Churchill, wanted to enter Berlin at all costs. The famous American commander Patton also considered advancing to Berlin. It has even been suggested that Patton had a diabolical plan to place Nazi soldiers in his ranks after capturing Berlin (after sidelining Hitler and his staff) and then launching an attack on the Russians. Despite all this, Eisenhower believed that destroying the targets in West Berlin was more important. Additionally, Eisenhower and U.S. President Roosevelt had agreed to leave Berlin to the Russians. Considering the losses of the Russians after the Berlin battle, it can be understood that the U.S. refrained from taking the risk of Berlin, incurring casualties, and facing off with the Russians. It has also been claimed that Stalin wanted to take Berlin at any cost to seize an atomic bomb that Hitler was said to have prepared at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany.
The Russians and Western Allies acted jointly in the Berlin battle. When the Russians entered Berlin on the night of April 20th, the British halted the air raid. Additionally, the greatest benefit of the Westerners in the occupation of Berlin was the air raids. Throughout 1945, Berlin was continuously bombed by the Western allies. Hitler, after the Allies crossed the Rhine, went into a frenzy and ordered the collapse of all infrastructure systems (bridges, roads, etc.). Particularly, the destruction of bridges posed a major obstacle to the progress of the Allies.
It is estimated that 2 million people participated in the Berlin battle on the side of the Red Army. Hitler appeared before the public for the last time on his 56th birthday, April 20, 1945. After that, he never came out of the Führerbunker shelter. Although it was initially claimed that Russian soldiers were involved in mass rape and massacre incidents in Berlin after the war, it was later denied. On the contrary, it is recorded that the Russians treated the civilian population in Berlin quite well and provided food aid. After the Berlin battle, it was made propaganda material about the civilian population, and debates continue to this day. According to Soviet sources, it was announced that around 450,000 German soldiers were killed, about 470,000 were captured, about 81,000 Russians were killed, and about 280,000 were injured. However, the numbers may vary according to German sources. There is no clear information about civilian losses.
Before committing suicide, Hitler gave the order to make Prague the second Berlin (there was a considerable number of Nazi soldiers in Prague), but it was not successful. It was predicted that Hitler might commit suicide in the event of a possible defeat, as a detailed report prepared by the British suggested. It was known that the Führer was more afraid of being locked up and paraded street by street, humiliated than anything else. It is known that from 1941 onwards, he took drugs containing narcotics and became addicted. On April 12, 1945, during the Berlin Siege, Hitler was very hopeful when he received the news of the death of U.S. President Roosevelt. Although he believed it was a miracle, in the end, Truman took over the task urgently and made more destructive decisions (such as dropping an atomic bomb on Japan).
It fell to the famous commander Zhukov to occupy the important centers for the Nazis, the Reich Chancellery, and Hitler's bunker, the Führerbunker. After the Russians captured Berlin, other German armies in various theaters in Europe surrendered one after another, and World War II ended on the European continent. The state of actual war continued on paper after the war, and the Berlin Wall was built. The date when all Allied soldiers left Germany was in 1994.
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