Monday, April 16, 1945
This Monday is one of the worst days of the war for the German Reich!
Eastern Front:
In the early morning hours at exactly 5:00 a.m. Moscow time (3:00 a.m. German time), the strongest drum fire that knows the history of war sets in from beyond the Oder!
40,000 Soviet artillery pieces - a tube every eight meters ...
... about a quarter of which are the dreaded "Katjusha" rocket launchers, which the Germans call "Stalinorgel" ("Stalin Organ") ...
... pulverize the front lines of the German defenders!
The great attack of the Red Army on Berlin feared by the Germans has begun!
An hour after the start of the barrage - it is still dark - Marshal Konev's 1st Ukrainian Army south and Marshal Zhukov's 1st Belarusian Front north are attacking.
For Konjew ...
... who has the more demanding task (he should not only attack Berlin, but also divide his troops and shield the city from the west against the "allies" USA and Great Britain, so that they cannot get their piece of the cake Berlin!) it is going well!
Before the attack, his pioneers built a total of 32 bridges over the Oder - most of them about a meter below the waterline, making them invisible to German aerial reconnaissance!
The tanks of Konjew's Elite Association, the 3rd Guard Panzer Army under General Rybalko (now on the next picture in the middle!) roll over these bridges ...
... supported by the infantry of the 5th Guard Army ...:
The Red Army soldiers quickly break through the lines of the Germans, who have practically no artillery.
Hardly over the river Rybalkos tanks with mounted infantry rush northwest, towards Berlin!
In the evening the peaks have already reached the Spree!
The complex of the Wehrmacht High Command in Zossen is also on its way, and Rybalko wants to dig this nest as you drive past!
The Soviets do not know that only staff members and a small guard with light weapons remained and that the top personnel of the Wehrmacht leadership had already been evacuated to Berchtesgaden (or is sitting in the bunker in Berlin).
This guard, not 50 men with a few machine guns and armored personnel carriers - led by a lieutenant - will still stand in the way of the approaching troops in an act of despair. It are grounded to dust by Rybalko's tanks ...
In the north meanwhile the things are going worse for Shukow, if you look closely, very bad!
Because the marshal miscalculated in several ways.
On the one hand, he underestimated the terrain difficulties that the "Seelow Heights" lying in front of him:
His tank groups are already equipped with summer chains without ice grabs and therefore do not come up the steep heights!
The tanks either get stuck on the wet ground or "smear", i.e. H. they slide down the slopes again.
Second, Zhukov's new idea, of which he had convinced Stalin, turns out to be a fatal idea!
The Marshal had - it is still dark - set up hundreds of anti-aircraft lights behind his lines, which should be switched on at the moment of the attack and should blind the German defenders!
But smoke, explosion gases and powder smoke reflect the spotlight that now blinds your own troops! Against this bright background, the Soviet soldiers stand out like dark silhouettes for the German defenders - easy targets. Thousands of Red Army soldiers fall victim to the German defensive fire.
Shukow, a choleric, tries to force the breakthrough with more and more tanks and orders his reserves forward - the result is a real traffic chaos on the "Reitweiler Sporn", the Soviet bridgehead west of the Oder.
And third, the Soviet Marshal underestimated his counterpart, the experienced Colonel General Heinrici!
The German general ...
... had taken his troops back on a second line shortly before the start of the Soviet drum fire as we have read - the artillery fire of the Russians only destroyed empty trenches!
When the fire subsides and the actual attack begins, Heinrici sends his soldiers back to the front - and what no one has expected to happen happens: The actually hopelessly defeated Germans achieve a defensive success on this day!
In the late afternoon, Stalin called and asked for reports - Zhukov had to admit the failure, for better or worse.
But the Soviet dictator remains calm:
"I thought you were already rolling to Berlin, but I see that you are still in front of the Seelower Heights. Konjew started better."
It will take Zhukov two more days to clear his way to Berlin.
What Stalin Shukow DOESN'T say is that he previously spoke to Konjev on the phone. He said to him only briefly:
"Very good - march on Berlin!"
The dictator has thus switched roles between the two rival marshals, who are deeply reluctant to relate to each other.
Originally, Shukov's - stronger and better equipped - 1st Belarusian front was the main role (the direct attack) and Konkev's 1st Ukrainian front was the assisting role (shielding) ...:
Now Konjev's front is suddenly declared the main actor. Stalin swapped the roles of the two marshals!
**continued next post**
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