Battle of Berlin: The beginning of the end, Soviet Union’s tactic

Battle of Berlin: The beginning of the end, Soviet Union’s tactic

By: Isabella Ponce de Leon

The Battle of Berlin was the final Battle between Germany and the USSR. It started the 26th of April of 1945 and finished two days later, the 28th of April This battle caused the surrender of the Nazi Army before the Red Army of the Soviet Union.

The purpose of the Allies Counterattack was to finish the war that the Nazi power started, and finally recover the lands lost between it. They wanted to enter to Germany, to Berlin, its capital and most important city, Hitler was there. In the 1930's and 1940's was the largest city in Europe and for twelve years capital of the Third Reich.

"The enemy knows I am here. That could provide the best opportunity to for us to lead him in to a trap".

Adolf Hitler

Hitler was conscious of the battle for Berlin coming, but he felt proud of his country and even thought that he had chances to defeat his enemies. But the truth was that his most important armies weren’t available for the defense of Berlin, instead they were several divisions left of young soldiers without much experience, the police and veterans.

It was very easy for the USSR to enter Polish territory and then, arrive to Germany. The Soviets managed to encircle the city of Berlin.

Soviet armies complete the encirclement of Berlin and continued to press the attack into the city of Berlin. Most of the city was occupied within a matter of days.

Towards the 25^th of April the Soviets had entered several Berlin's districts, while German troops moved back to the area of ​​government buildings, followed by the Soviet’s bombing.

On April 27 the Soviets finally penetrated the German defensive ring based on the Berlin subway and only the central areas of it were held by the Germans, whose troops were in a critical situation without external reinforcement options, and a growing shortage of weapons, ammunition and medical supplies.

Finally on April 28^th the Soviets advanced from the north of Berlin, getting dangerously near to the Reichstag, and to the bunker where Hitler was hidden. The place where the fight was more intense and bloody was the central territory of Berlin that surrounded the Reichstag. The precise place were the war was declared lost for the Germans.

Against Hitler’s assumptions, German armies were unprepared for an attack of the magnitude of the Red army and soviets did not stop until the city surrender and the war was finally over. Germans lost the war because of this surprise encirclement tactic of the Soviet Union, Hitler never thought that the USSR will press the borders of Germany and force his army to surrender, the Battle of Berlin was finally over on April 28, and with it all Hitler’s dream of making his country a great European power.

The battle of Berlin was a real nightmare for the Berlin citizens and for the entire Germans, while for the entire continent, it meant the end of the terrible World War II that Hitler started with the ambition and desire of turning his country into a powerful empire.

A witness of the horror lived by the citizens of Berlin, Dorothea von Schwanenfluegel, was a 29 year old wife and mother who lived in Berlin when the Battle took place. She and her daughter along with friends and neighbors hid in a department building during the battle, and her husband was recruited to fight in the SS, the Shutzstaffel.

Dorothea says that during the war, people were starving and if you left your house was certainly possible that you couls never come back:

‘’The city was already in ruins from Allied air raids, food was scarce, the situation desperate - the only hope that the Allies would arrive before the Russians.’’

After the war finished, Berlin was in ruins, local innocent people were dead and Germany was left in a terrible crisis after Hitler’s death. And all because of the ambition and radical ideology of one strong-minded man leading a country full of revenge.