Russia at war 1941-1945

This was a bit of West Berlin—under the Russians. It almost had a whiff of Isherwood!

*

A few days later, Marshal Zhukov gave his famous press conference on the verandah of his villa overlooking the Wannsee. Vyshinsky was also there. With Zhukov, one felt in the presence of a very great man. Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, and now the offensive which had started on the Vistula on January 12, and had ended here, in Berlin—Zhukov's name was inseparable from them all. But his manner was simple, and full of bonhomie.

He spoke of the Battle of Berlin:

This was not like Moscow or Leningrad, or even Stalingrad... During the first years of the war, we often had to fight against fearful odds; nor did our officers and

soldiers have as much experience as they have now. In this Battle of Germany we

had great superiority in men, tanks, aircraft, guns and everything. Three-to-one, sometimes even five-to-one. But the important thing was not to take Berlin— that

was a foregone conclusion—but to take it in the shortest possible time. The

Germans were expecting our blow and we had to think out how to introduce the

important element of surprise.

I attacked along the whole front, and at night. As prisoners later told us, the great artillery barrage at night was what they had least expected. They had expected night attacks, but not a general attack at night. After the artillery barrage, our tanks went into action. We had used 22,000 guns and mortars along the Oder, and 4,000 tanks

were now thrown in. We also used 4,000 to 5,000 planes. During the first day alone there were 15,000 sorties.

The great offensive was launched at 4 a.m. on April 16, and we devised some novel features: to help the tanks to find their way, we used searchlights, 200 of them.

These powerful searchlights not only helped the tanks, but also blinded the enemy, who could not aim properly at our tanks.

Very soon we broke through the German defences on the Oder along a wide front.

Realising this, the German high command threw what reserves it had outside Berlin into the fray, and even some reserves from inside Berlin. But it was no good. These reserves were smashed from the air or by our tanks, and when our troops broke into Berlin, the city was largely denuded of troops. Most of Berlin's antiaircraft guns hadbeen thrown into the Oder Battle, and the city was defenceless against air attack.

More than half-a-million German soldiers took part in the Berlin operation. 300,000

were taken prisoner even before the capitulation, 150,000 were killed; the rest fled.

And he concluded this brief story in characteristically professional fashion:

It was an interesting and instructive battle, especially as regards tempos and the technique of night-fighting on such a scale.