Battle for Berlin: April – May 1945

Eisenhower's strategy had always favoured a broad front advance but there was a lack of decision on what would happen once the Allied forces had rejoined and created a unified front again, roughly in the area of Kassel, apart from a vague notion of making a "great thrust to the eastward". (Strawson, p. 104) The British had always viewed Berlin as the central objective and had envisaged that their forces, 21st Army Group, would be the ones to make the main thrust to the north and east. Indeed, Montgomery had already issued orders that after the encirclement of the Ruhr was complete, the British 2nd and US 9th Armies would advance with maximum speed to the River Elbe via Hamburg and Magdeburg while the Canadian 1st Army cleared Holland. Eisenhower effectively demolished this plan by continuing to plan for a broad front offensive with the US 9th Army reverting to Bradley's command in order to help conduct mopping up operations in the Ruhr and then advance eastwards to an Erfurt – Leipzig – Dresden line with Montgomery's 21st Army Group protecting the northern flank and General Jacob Devers' 6th Army Group protecting the southern flank. Eisenhower thus intended to concentrate the Western Allies' advance in the centre with Bradley in order to meet the Soviet advance around Dresden and cut Germany in two – as far as he was concerned, Berlin had become "nothing but a geographical location; I have never been interested in those. My purpose is to destroy the enemy forces and his power to resist." While it is easy to see Eisenhower's decision in light of the fact that at the time it was made, Montgomery's 21st Army Group was still 300 miles from Berlin and the Soviets, who had reached the River Oder, were less than 50 miles from the city; that Model's Army Group B in the Ruhr should be properly dealt with so that there was no chance of them breaking out and reforming a coherent defensive line in the centre; or that Hitler might retire to the 'National Redoubt' in the Bavarian and Austrian mountains that might require many months and the expenditure of large resources to reduce. What is not so easy to understand is that, given Eisenhower's insistence that military operations should be in pursuit of political aims (and therefore in line with Clausewitz's dictum of "war is the continuation of state policy by other means"), and given Berlin's enormous importance as a political objective, why he suddenly made a complete turnabout and pronounced it as having no significance, as well as it having the one military objective that would destroy the German will to resist with its capture or demise – Adolf Hitler.

The pleasure with which this change of mind was received (in a communication sent to Stalin, the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff on 28 March) in Moscow was equal to the consternation in London. The British Chiefs of Staff were upset as they thought that:

Firstly, by communicating directly with Stalin, he had usurped the authority of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, their Governments and their Chiefs of Staff.

Secondly, the threat of a National Redoubt in Bavaria / Austria was exaggerated.

Thirdly, the Baltic and North Sea ports were of greater importance to eliminate the dangers of another U-Boat offensive as well as the liberation of Denmark and Norway which contained substantial enemy forces, or might more realistically harbour the enemies last main point of resistance.

Firstly, the Red Army and Western Allies should meet on the line of Erfurt – Leipzig – Dresden.

Secondly, Berlin had lost its strategic importance and only secondary forces would be allotted to its capture.

Thirdly, the main thrust by Soviet forces would begin in the second half of May.

Fourthly, the Germans were reinforcing the eastern front with the 6th SS Panzer Army, as well as three divisions from Italy and two from Norway.

The attack was renewed at 18.00 with the support of armour and artillery and after heavy casualties, Soviet infantry managed to make it to the front steps of the building with its still intact bricked-up doorways. Fortunately, they carried two light mortars with them and so managed to blast a small hole in the brickwork allowing them in. What followed was desperate hand-to-hand fighting as the Soviets sought to expand the bridgehead. By the time they had established telephone communications with regimental headquarters, they had managed to fight their regimental and battalion standards up to the second floor. As more and more Soviet troops broke in, close quarters fighting spread out over the whole building with the Germans putting up very stiff resistance, using every weapon they could lay their hands on and the Soviets trying to find their way in the darkened, unfamiliar rooms. Finally, the special banner party with Red Banner No. 5 containing Sergeants M. A. Yegorov and M. V. Kantaria managed to find their way around to the rear of the building where there was a stairway up to the roof. Finding a mounted statue, they wedged the staff of their banner into a convenient crevice and thus the Red Flag, at 22.50 on 30 April 1945, finally flew over the Reichstag (Red Army Target No. 105), and therefore Berlin. Bitter German resistance continued however, and it would not be until the morning of 2 May that fighting finally ceased in the Reichstag, with the remaining 2,500 defenders surrendering to Soviet forces.

By then, German resistance in the city as a whole was crumbling with elements of the 5th Shock Army, 8th Guards Army and 1st Guards Tank Army approaching the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker having crossed Potsdamer Strasser and reached Potsdam Station to the southwest, crossed Kopenicker Strasse and the Landwehr Canal to the southeast and having crossed Lanberger Strasse to the east, were advancing down the Unter Den Linden. With no possibility of relief, Hitler had vowed to take his own life, rather than be captured by the Soviets. He named Admiral Dönitz his successor and stripped Göring and Himmler of their offices, the former for trying to take power, the latter for putting out peace feelers. After dictating his will and political testament, Hitler and Eva Braun, his wife for one day, retired to their quarters in the Führerbunker and committed suicide. The exact manner of their deaths and what happened immediately afterwards has always been something historians have argued over, but the general consensus being that Hitler shot himself and Eva Braun took poison, their bodies being hastily cremated just outside the bunker. Goebbels followed suit on the 1 May and Weidling drafted an order for the remainder of the garrison to lay down its arms on the morning of 2 May 1945, and signalled such to Col Gen V. I. Chuikov. A number of refugee groups, including both civilian and military personnel managed to break out and flee westwards, but at 15.00 the Soviet artillery stopped firing, the sudden silence as they say, was deafening. The Battle for Berlin was over.

Although the time between the various signings was short, hundreds of thousands of German troops managed to make their way west to surrender to the Western Allies, and the Kriegsmarine evacuated its Baltic positions. The Allied armies had exercised their 'right of pursuit' and followed the retreating German forces well past the demarcation line as set out in the Yalta Agreement, Montgomery by about forty-five miles and Bradley by about 125 miles. The day after the signing of the official surrenders, Stalin insisted on the implementation of the undertakings given at Yalta. Had he kept his own promises though? Clearly the Soviet NKVD were in the process of eliminating any possible opposition to the setting up of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, particularly in respect of Poland, where the commission set up in the Kremlin after Yalta to oversee the reorganisation of the Government was paralysed by Molotov's obstruction. In these circumstances, Churchill wrote on 4 June to the new US President, Harry Truman, indicating that the retreat of the Western Allied armies to their demarcation lines should not be undertaken without having a number of these outstanding issues between the Great Powers resolved. The behaviour of the Soviet occupation authorities in Austria and the interference with the missions of the Western Powers caused Churchill to write again on 9 June. Truman ignored these arguments and decided that the US Army would start withdrawing on 21 June while the military chiefs would sort out the quadripartite occupation of Berlin and the access to it by road, rail and air. On 15 July 1945 when the Potsdam conference had begun, the Red Army had already taken up its advanced positions thirty miles from the centre of Hamburg, within artillery range of Kassel and less than eighty miles from Mainz on the Rhine. Churchill wrote "It was a fateful decision". (Bauer, p. 618)

Battle for Berlin Beevor, Anthony,

In the Ruins of the Reich , Botting, D., Grafton, London, 1986. , Botting, D., Grafton, London, 1986.

The Russo-German Conflict 1941 – 1945 , Clark, A. Barbarossa, Hutchinson & Co, London, 1965 (Reprinted by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995 and Cassell Military, 2002). A classic work by Alan Clark, later to become a Conservative MP famous for his diaries.

Fallen Eagle , Cross, R., Michael O’Mara Books, London, 1995. , Cross, R., Michael O’Mara Books, London, 1995.

Red Storm on the Reich , Duffy, C., Routledge, London. 1991. , Duffy, C., Routledge, London. 1991.

The Road to Berlin , Erickson, J., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983 (Reprinted by Grafton Books, 1985 and Cassell Military, 2003). , Erickson, J., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1983 (Reprinted by Grafton Books, 1985 and Cassell Military, 2003).

The Last Days of Hitler , Joachimsthaler, A., Cassell Military, London, 2000. , Joachimsthaler, A., Cassell Military, London, 2000.

Atlas of the Second World War , Keegan, J. (Ed), Times Books / Guild Publishing, London, 1989. , Keegan, J. (Ed), Times Books / Guild Publishing, London, 1989.

The Russians and Berlin 1945 , Kuby, E., Heinemann, London, 1968. , Kuby, E., Heinemann, London, 1968.

Race for the Reichstag , Le Tissier, T., Frank Cass, London, 1999. , Le Tissier, T., Frank Cass, London, 1999.

Last Days of the Reich , Lucas, J., Grafton, London, 1987. , Lucas, J., Grafton, London, 1987.

The Berlin Bunker , O'Donnell, J., Arrow, London, 1979. , O'Donnell, J., Arrow, London, 1979.

The Fall of Berlin , Read, A & Fisher, D., Hutchinson / BCA, London, 1992. , Read, A & Fisher, D., Hutchinson / BCA, London, 1992.

The Russo-German War 1941 – 45 , Seaton, A., Arthur Baker Ltd, London, 1971. , Seaton, A., Arthur Baker Ltd, London, 1971.

Battlefield Berlin: Siege, Surrender and Occupation 1945 , Slowe, P & Woods, R., Robert Hale, London, 1988. , Slowe, P & Woods, R., Robert Hale, London, 1988.

The Last Thirty Days: The War Diary of the German Armed Forces High Command from April to May 1945 , Schultz-Nauman, J., Madison Books, London, 1991. , Schultz-Nauman, J., Madison Books, London, 1991.

Atlas of the Second World War , Young, Brig P. (Ed), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1973. , Young, Brig P. (Ed), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1973.

Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East , Ziemke, E., US Army Center of Military History, Washington DC, 1968. , Ziemke, E., US Army Center of Military History, Washington DC, 1968.

Berlin – Dance of Death , Helmut Altner, Casemate, Havertown, PA, 2002. , Helmut Altner, Casemate, Havertown, PA, 2002.

Great Battles of World War II , Macdonald, John, Guild Publishing (BCA), London, 1986. , Macdonald, John, Guild Publishing (BCA), London, 1986.

Other Books

2ND BYELORUSSIAN FRONT (Marshal K. K. Rokossovsky)

2nd Shock Army (Col Gen I. I. Fedyurinsky)

108th & 116th Rifle Corps

65th Army (Col Gen P. I. Batov)

18th, 46th & 105th Rifle Corps

70th Army (Col Gen V. S. Popov)

47th, 96th & 114th Rifle Corps

49th Army (Col Gen I. T. Grishin)

70th & 121st Rifle Corps

191st, 200th & 330th Rifle Divisions

19th Army

40th Guards, 132nd & 134th Rifle Corps

5th Guards Tank Army

29th Tank Corps

1st Tank & 4th Mechanised Bdes

4th Air Army (Col Gen K. A. Vershinin)

4th Air Assault, 5th Air Bomber and 8th Air Fighter Corps

1ST BYELORUSSIAN FRONT (Marshal G. K. Zhukov)

61st Army (Col Gen P. A. Belov)

9th Guards, 80th & 89th Rifle Corps

1st Polish Army (Lt Gen S. G. Poplowski)

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 6th Polish Infantry Divisions

1st Polish Cavalry Bde

4th Polish Heavy Tank Bde

13th Polish SP Assault Artillery Bde

7th Polish Assault Artillery Btn

47th Army (Lt Gen F. I. Perkhorovitch)

77th, 125th & 129th Rifle Corps

70th Guards Independent Tank Regt

334th, 1204th, 1416th, 1825th & 1892nd SP Assault Artillery Regts

3rd Shock Army (Col Gen V. I. Kutznetsov)

7th Rifle Corps (Maj Gen V. A. Christov / Col Gen Y. T. Chyervichenko)

146th, 265th & 364th Rifle Divisions

12th Guards Rifle Corps (Lt Gen A. F. Kazanin / Maj Gen A. A. Filatov)

23rd Guards, 52nd Guards & 33rd Rifle Divisions

79th Rifle Corps (Maj Gen S. I. Perevertkin)

150th Rifle Division (Maj Gen V. M. Shatilov)

469th, 674th & 756th Rifle Regts

171st Rifle Division (Col A. P. Negoda)

380th, 525th & 783rd Rifle Regts

207th Rifle Division (Col V. M. Asafov)

594th, 597th & 598th Rifle Regts

9th Tank Corps (Lt Gen I. F. Kirichenko)

23rd, 95th & 108th Tank Bdes

8th Motorised Rifle Regt

1455th & 1508th SP Assault Artillery Regts

5th Shock Army (Gen / Col Gen N. E. Berzarin)

9th Rifle Corps (Maj Gen / Lt Gen I. P. Rossly)

230th, 248th & 301st Rife Divisions

26th Guards Corps (Maj Gen P. A. Firsov)

89th Guards, 94th Guards & 266th Rifle Divisions

32nd Rifle Corps (Lt Gen D. S. Zherebin)

60th Guards, 295th & 416th Rifle Divisions

11th, 67th Guards & 220th Tank Bdes

92nd Independent Tank Regt

396th Guards & 1504th SP Assault Artillery Regts

8th Guards Army (Col Gen V. I. Chuikov)

4th Guards Rifle Corps (Lt Gen V. A. Glazonov)

35th Guards, 47th Guards & 57th Guards Rifle Divisions

28th Guards Rifle Corps (Lt Gen V. M. Shugeyev)

39th Guards, 79th Guards & 88th Guards Rifle Divisions

29th Guards Rifle Corps (Maj Gen P. I. Zalizyuk)

27th Guards, 74th Guards & 82nd Guards Rifle Divisions

7th Guards Tank Bde

84th Guards, 65th & 259th Independent Tank Regts

371st, 374th Guards, 694th, 1026th, 1061st, 1087th & 1200th SP Assault Artillery Regts

69th Army (Col Gen V. Y. Kolpakchi)

25th, 61st & 91st Rifle Corps

117th & 283rd Rifle Divisions

68th Tank Bde

12th SP Assault Artillery Bde

344th Guards, 1205th, 1206th & 1221st SP Assault Artillery Regts

33rd Army (Col Gen V. D. Svotaev)

16th, 38th & 62nd Rifle Corps

2nd Guards Cavalry Corps

95th Rifle Division

257th Independent Tank Regt

360th & 361st SP Assault Artillery Regts

16th Air Army (Col Gen S. I. Rudenko)

6th & 9th Air Assault Corps

3rd & 6th Air Bomber Corps

1st Guards, 3rd, 6th & 13th Air Fighter Corps

1st Guards, 240th, 282nd & 286th Air Fighter Divisions

2nd & 11th Guards Air Assault Divisions

113th, 183rd, 188th & 221st Air Bomber Divisions

9th Guards & 242nd Air Night Bomber Divisions

16th & 72nd Air Reconnaissance Regts

93rd & 98th Air Observation Regts

176th Guards Air Fighter Regt

226th Air Transport Regt

18th Air Army (AVM A. Y. Golovanov)

1st Guards, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Air Bomber Corps

45th Air Bomber Division

56th Air Fighter Division

742nd Air Reconnaissance Regt

1st Guards Tank Army (Col Gen M. Y. Katukov)

8th Guards Mechanised Corps (Maj Gen I. F. Drygemov)

19th, 20th & 21st Guards Mechanised Bdes

1st Guards Tank Bde

48th Guards Tank Regt

353rd & 400th Guards SP Assault Artillery Regts

8th Guards M/C Btn

11th Guards Tank Corps (Col A. H. Babadshanian)

40th, 44th & 45th Guards Tank Bdes

27th Guards Mechanised Bde

362nd, 399th Guards & 1454 SP Assault Artillery Regts

9th Guards M/C Btn

11th Tank Corps (Maj Gen I. I. Jushuk)

20th, 36th & 65th Tank Bdes

12th Motorised Rifle Bde

50th Guards Tank Regt

1461st & 1493rd SP Assault Artillery Regts

64th Guards Tank Bde

19th SP Assault Artillery Bde

11th Guards Independent Tank Regt

12th Guards M/C Btn

2nd Guards Tank Army (Col Gen S. I. Bogdanov)

1st Mechanised Corps (Lt Gen S. I. Krivosheina)

19th, 35th & 37th Mechanised Bdes

219th Tank Bde

347th Guards, 75th & 1822nd SP Assault Artillery Regts

57th M/C Btn

9th Guards Tank Corps (Maj Gen A. F. Popov)

47th, 50th & 65th Guards Tank Bdes

33rd Guards Mechanised Bde

341st, 369th & 386th Guards SP Assault artillery Regts

17th Guards M/C Btn

12th Guards Tank Corps (Maj Gen M. K. Teltakov / Col A. T. Shevchenko)

48th, 49th & 66th Guards Tank Bdes

34th Guards Mechanised Bde

79th Guards Tank Regt

387th & 393rd Guards SP Assault Artillery Regts

6th Guards Independent Tank Regt

5th Guards M/C Regt

16th Guards M/C Btn

3rd Army (Col Gen A. V. Gorbatov)

35th, 40th & 41st Rifle Corps

1812th, 1888th & 1901st SP Assault Artillery Regts

2nd, 3rd & 7th Guards Cavalry Corps

3rd & 8th Guards Tank Corps

244th Independent Tank Regt

31st, 39th, 51st & 55th Independent Armoured Train Btns

1ST UKRAINIAN FRONT (Marshal I. S. Koniev)

3rd Guards Army (Col Gen V. N. Gordov)

21st, 76th & 120th Rifle Corps

25th Tank Corps

389th Rifle Division

87th Guards Independent Tank Regt

938th SP Assault Artillery Regt

13th Army (Col Gen N. P. Phukov)

24th, 27th & 102nd Rifle Corps

88th Independent Tank Regt

327th, 372nd Guards, 768th & 1228th SP Assault Artillery Regts

5th Guards Army (Col Gen A. S. Zhadov)

32nd, 33rd & 34th Guards Rifle Corps

4th Guards Tank Corps

2nd Polish Army (Lt Gen K. K. Swiersczewski)

5th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th Polish Infantry Divisions

1st Polish Tank Corps

16th Polish Tank Bde

5th Polish Independent Tank Regt

28th polish SP Assault Artillery Regt

52nd Army (Col Gen K. A. Koroteyev)

48th, 73rd & 78th Rifle Corps

7th Guards Mechanised Corps

213th Rifle Division

8th SP Assault Artillery Bde

124th Independent Tank Regt

1198th SP Assault Artillery Regt

2nd Air Army (Col Gen S. A. Krasovsky)

1st Guards, 2nd Guards & 3rd Air Assault Corps

4th & 6th Guards Air Bomber Corps

2nd, 5th & 6th Air Fighter Corps

208th Air Night Bomber Division

98th & 193rd Guards Air Reconnaissance Regts

222nd Air Transport Regt

3rd Guards Tank Army (Col Gen P. S. Rybalko)

6th Guards Tank Corps (Maj Gen V. A. Mitrofanov)

51st, 52nd & 53rd Guards Tank Bdes

22nd Guards Motorised Rifle Bde

385th Guards, 1893rd & 1894th SP Assault Artillery Regts

3rd Guards M/C Btn

7th Guards Tank Corps (Maj Gen V. V. Novikov)

54th, 55th & 56th Guards Tank Bdes

23rd Guards Motorised Rifle Bde

384th Guards, 702nd & 1977th SP Assault Artillery Regts

4th Guards M/C Btn

9th Mechanised Corps (Lt Gen I. P. Suchov)

69th, 70th & 71st Mechanised Bdes

91st Tank Bde

383rd Guards, 1507th & 1978th SP Assault Artillery Regts

100th M/C Btn

16th SP Assault Artillery Bde

57th Guards & 90th Independent Tank Regts

50th M/C Regt

4th Guards Tank Army (Col Gen D. D. Lelyushenko)

5th & 6th Guards Mechanised Corps

10th Guards Tank Corps

68th Guards Tank Bde

70th Guards SP Assault Artillery Bde

13th & 119th Guards Independent Tank Regts

7th Guards M/C Regt

28th Army (Lt Gen A. A. Luchinsky)

20th, 38th Guards & 128th Rifle Corps

31st Army

1st Guards Cavalry Corps (Lt Gen V. K. Baranov)

152nd Tank Bde

98th Independent Tank Regt

368th Guards, 416th & 1976th SP Assault Artillery Regts

21st, 45th, 49th & 58th Independent Armoured Train Btns

OKW RESERVE (later allocated to the LVI Panzer Corps, 9th Army)

18th Panzergrenadier Division (Maj Gen Josef Rauch)

30th & 51st Panzergrenadier Regts

118th Panzer Regt (part)

18th Artillery Regt

ARMY GROUP ‘VISTULA’ (Col Gen Gotthard Heinrici)

III SS ‘Germanic’ Panzer Corps (SS Lt Gen Felix Steiner)

(divisions later allocated to the 9th Army)

11th SS ‘Nordland’ Panzergrenadier Division (SS Maj Gen Jurgen Ziegler / SS Maj Gen Dr Gustav Krukenburg)

23rd ‘Norge’ Panzergrenadier Regt

24th ‘Danmark’ Panzergrenadier Regt

11th SS ‘Hermann von Salza’ Panzer Btn

503rd SS Heavy Tank Btn

11th SS ‘Nordland’ Armoured Reconnaissance Btn

23rd SS ‘Nederland’ Panzergrenadier Division (SS Maj Gen Wagner)

(divisions later allocated to the 3rd Panzer Army)

27th SS ‘Langemarck’ Grenadier Division

28th SS ‘Wallonien’ Grenadier Division

3rd Panzer Army (Gen Hasso von Manteuffel)

‘Swinemunde’ Corps (Lt Gen Ansat)

402nd & 2nd Naval Divisions

XXXII Corps (Lt Gen Schack)

‘Voigt’ & 281st Infantry Divisions

549th Volksgrenadier Division

Stettin Garrison

‘Oder’ Corps (SS Lt Gen von dem Bach / Gen Hörnlein)

610th & ‘Klossek’ Infantry Divisions

XXXXVI Panzer Corps (Gen Martin Gareis)

547th Volksgrenadier Division

1st Naval Division

9th Army (Gen Theodor Busse)

156th Infantry Division

541st Volksgrenadier Division

404th Volks Artillery Corps

406th Volks Artillery Corps

408th Volks Artillery Corps

CI Corps (Gen Wilhelm Berlin / Lt Gen Friedrich Sixt)

5th Light Infantry Division

606th Infantry Division

309th ‘Berlin’ Infantry Division

25th Panzergrenadier Division

111th SPG Training Bde

‘1001 Nights’ Combat Group

LVI Panzer Corps (Gen Helmuth Weidling)

9th Fallschirmjäger Division (Gen Bruno Braüer / Col Harry Herrmann)

25th, 26th & 27th Fallschirmjäger Regts

9th Fallschirmjäger Artillery Regt

20th Panzergrenadier Division (Col / Maj Gen Georg Scholze)

76th & 90th Panzergrenadier Regts

8th Panzer Btn

20th Artillery Regt

‘Müncheberg’ Panzer Division (Maj Gen Werner Mummert)

1st & 2nd ‘Müncheberg’ Panzergrenadier Regts

‘Müncheberg’ Panzer Regt

‘Müncheburg’ Armoured Artillery Regt

920th SPG Training Bde

XI SS Panzer Corps (SS Gen Mathias Kleinheisterkamp)

303rd ‘Döberitz’ Infantry Division

169th Infantry Division

712th Infantry Division

‘Kurmark’ Panzergrenadier Division

502nd SS Heavy Tank Btn

Frankfurt an der Oder Garrison (Col / Maj Gen Ernst Biehler)

V SS Mountain Corps (SS Gen Friedrich Jackeln)

286th Infantry Division

32nd SS ’30. Januar’ Volksgrenadier Division

391st Sy Division

561st SS Tank Hunting Btn

ARMY GROUP CENTRE (Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner)

4th Panzer Army (Gen Fritz-Herbert Gräser)

(later transferred to the 9th Army)

V Corps (Lt Gen Wagner)

35th SS Police Grenadier Division

36th SS Grenadier Division

275th Infantry Division

342nd Infantry Division

21st Panzer Division

12th Army (Gen Walter Wenck)

XX Corps (Gen Carl-Erik Koehler)

‘Theodor Körner’ RAD Division

‘Ulrich von Hutten’ Infantry Division

‘Ferdinand von Schill’ Infantry Division

‘Scharnhorst’ Infantry Division

XXXIX Panzer Corps (Lt Gen Karl Arndt)

(12 – 21 April 1945 under OKW with the following structure)

‘Clausewitz’ Panzer Division

‘Schlageter’ RAD Division

84th Infantry Division

(21 – 26 April 1945 under 12th Army with the following structure)

‘Clausewitz’ Panzer Division

84th Infantry Division

‘Hamburg’ Reserve Infantry Division

‘Meyer’ Infantry Division

XXXXI Panzer Corps (Lt Gen Holste)

‘von Hake’ Infantry Division

199th Infantry Division

‘V-Weapons’ Infantry Division

1st HJ Tank Destroyer Bde

‘Hermann Göring’ Jagdpanzer Bde

XXXXVIII Panzer Corps (Gen Maximillian Reichsherr von Edelscheim)

14th Flak Division

‘Leipzig’ Battle Group

‘Halle’ Battle Group



Ungrouped Formations

‘Friedrich Ludwig Jahn’ RAD Division (Col Gerhard Klein / Col Franz Weller)

‘Potsdam’ Infantry Division (Col Erich Lorenz)

How to cite this article:Antill, P., Battle for Berlin: April – May 1945, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_berlin.html

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