Fear of Soviet power encouraging Italian Communists.
Churchill's concern about Soviet influence in Denmark and urged pushing to Prague.
Eisenhower consulted with the Stavka, The refusal was immediate.
Hitler's Propaganda and Reality
Hitler's Order of the Day threatened traitors.
Referenced defeat of Turks outside Vienna in 1683, ignoring Polish cavalry's role.
Goebbels: 'Berlin remains German and Vienna will be German again.'
Majority of Germans were no longer affected by propaganda.
Preparing for Onslaught in Berlin
Women were offered pistol-shooting practice.
Volkssturm constructed barricades with captured French helmets, trams, and rubble.
Housewives stored water.
Teenage Reichsarbeitsdienst members inducted en masse, forced to witness executions.
Oder Front and Soviet Propaganda
German troops dug in on the Seelow Heights.
Soviet propaganda messages and music.
Nine armies of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front poised to attack.
Chuikov's 8th Guards Army pushed back the 20th Panzergrenadier Division.
Hitler ordered medals stripped until re-earned.
Zhukov and Chuikov's Deteriorating Relationship
Zhukov took over Chuikov's command post.
Relations deteriorated due to criticism over delayed push to Berlin.
Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front
Lined the Neisse with seven armies.
Message of revenge: 'There will be no pity. They have sown the wind and now they are reaping the whirlwind.'
Stalin's Understanding of German Resistance
Vengeance rhetoric intensified German resistance.
Germans preferred surrendering to Allied armies in the west.
Increased risk of Americans taking Berlin before the Red Army.
Shift in Soviet Propaganda
Georgii Aleksandrov published an article in Pravda, attacking Ilya Ehrenburg's calls for revenge.
Quoted Stalin: 'Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the Germans remain.'
Ehrenburg devastated, but most soldiers ignored the change.
Lack of Trust in Soviet Troops
Officers told to name 'morally and politically unstable' men to SMERSh.
General Serov alarmed by 'unhealthy moods' in 1st Polish Army.
Polish soldiers excited about the rapid advance of the British and American armies in the west and were listening illegally to : the BBC.
Nearly 2,000 men arrested before the offensive.
German Disaffection and Propaganda
German officers concerned about disaffection.
Confiscated white handkerchiefs to prevent surrender.
Men caught deserting forced into no-man's-land to dig trenches.
Commanders resorted to lies about tanks, miracle weapons, and Allied support.
Junior officers ordered to shoot wavering men, and themselves if all men ran away.
Fear on the Eve of Battle
Luftwaffe Oberleutnant expressed fear to his senior NCO.
Red Army soldiers shaved and wrote letters.
Sappers removed mines.
Chuikov angered by Zhukov's convoy arriving with headlights on.
Zhukov's Offensive Begins
At 05.00 hours Moscow time on 16 April, Zhukov's artillery opened fire with 8,983 guns.
1,236,000 rounds fired on the first day.
Intensity vibrated walls sixty kilometres away.
Housewives emerged, wondering if Americans would reach Berlin first.
Searchlights and Artillery Ineffectiveness
Searchlights dazzled the enemy but silhouetted advancing infantry.
Ground churned up by craters slowed progress.
Artillery concentrated on the first line of defence.
Failure to Reconnoiter and Seelow Heights
Zhukov failed to reconnoiter and relied on air-reconnaissance photographs.
Images did not reveal the defensive strength of the Seelow Heights.
Chuikov's 8th Guards Army and Berzarin's 5th Shock Army advanced quite well at first.
Devastation of German Defenses
Shturmovik ground-attack aircraft bombed German defenses.
German Ninth Army's ammunition depot exploded.
German survivors and local farmers fled towards Berlin.
Zhukov's Frustration and Change of Plans
Zhukov became nervous as the advance slowed, cursing and swearing at Chuikov.
Threatened to strip commanders of rank and send them to a shtraf company.
Decided to send Colonel General Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army in ahead of the infantry.
Stalin's Criticism and Konev's Success
Zhukov explained the situation to Stalin, who criticized him for underestimating the enemy.
Stalin noted Konev's more successful start.
Confusion and Chaos
Change of plan caused massive jams with tanks trapped behind other vehicles.
Tanks were picked off by 88mm guns and ambushed by infantry with Panzerfausts.
Mud on the Seelow Heights slowed the heavy Stalin tanks and T-34s.
Desperate Situation in Berlin
Telephone calls were constantly being made to OKH headquarters.
Zossen was vulnerable if Marshal Konev's forces broke through.
Konev's Successful Offensive
Konev's artillery and aircraft kept Germans deep in their trenches.
A wide smoke-screen was also laid.
Bridgeheads were established and tanks were ferried across.
Konev sent his leading tank brigades straight through the German lines with orders not to stop. The infantry would mop up behind them.
Stalin's Warning and Konev's Diversion
Zhukov admitted his troops had not taken the Seelow Heights.
Stalin told him it was his fault for having changed the plan of attack.
Then asked if he was sure he would secure the heights by the next day and also warned him that he would tell Konev to divert his two tank armies northwards towards the southern side of Berlin.
Zhukov said that it was easier to destroy the German forces in the open than in Berlin itself, so time would not be lost in the long run.
Turning Rybalko [3rd Guards Tank Army] and Lelyushenko [4th Guards Tank Army] towards Zehlendorf.'
Stalin's choice of Zehlendorf
Zehlendorf was the most southwestern suburb of Berlin and the closest to the American bridgehead across the Elbe.
Perhaps it was also no coincidence that it adjoined Dahlem, with the nuclear research facilities of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.
The Soviet forces were simply ‘undertaking a large-scale reconnaissance on the central sector of the front for the purpose of finding out details of the German defenses'. Never before had a reconnaissance been carried out by forces 2.5 million strong.
Konev forced on his tank brigades to satisfy his ambition to beat his rival to the glorious prize.
Battle Conditions and German Resistance
On the Seelow Heights the chaotic battle continued under clearer skies.
The collapse of the 9th Fallschirmjäger Division eased the situation for Katukov's tank units but they still faced counter-attacks, both by the Kurmark Division with Panther tanks and by soldiers and Hitler Youth fighting with Panzerfausts at close range.
Conditions in German dressing stations and field hospitals were gruesome.
On the Soviet side, things were little better.
German Suicide Attacks and Soviet Mistake
German aircraft of the Leonidas Squadron based at Jüterbog imitated the Japanese kamikaze pilots in mostly vain attempts to destroy the bridges over the Oder.
This sort of suicide attack was termed a Selbstopfereinsatz - 'a self-sacrifice mission'.
The insane scheme was soon halted by the advance of the 4th Guards Tank Army towards the squadron's airfield.
reports revealed that the soldiers of the 5th Shock : Army began shelling Katukov's tank brigades by mistake.
Konev's Tank Brigades and the Road to Zossen
Konev's tank brigades raced for the River Spree south of Cottbus, in order to cross it before the Germans could organize any defense.
General Rybalko simply ordered the first tank straight into the Spree.
The Germans had no anti-tank guns in the area. The road to OKH headquarters in Zossen lay open.
Fighting on the Seelow Heights
On the morning of 18 April, the fighting on the Seelow Heights reached a new intensity because Stalin had told Zhukov that Konev's tank armies were forging ahead to Berlin, and that if his 1st Belorussian Front did not make better progress he would tell Rokossovsky to the north to turn his 2nd Belorussian Front towards Berlin as well.
One of Katukov's tank brigades charged through along the Reichsstrasse I. Generaloberst Theodor Busse's Ninth Army was split.
Casualties and Advancements
The 1st Belorussian Front had lost more than 30,000 men killed, as opposed to 12,000 German soldiers.
Konev's two tank armies managed to advance between thirty-five and forty-five kilometres.
Nazi Interference and Defence Preparations
Goebbels tried to act as a military commander, ordering all the Volkssturm units in the city should march out to create a new defence line.
General Helmuth Weidling was distracted by visits from Ribbentrop and Artur Axmann, who offered to send in more of his teenagers armed with Panzerfausts.
Nazi Regime's Murders and Hypocrisy
Another thirty political prisoners were beheaded in Plötzensee Prison that day.
SS patrols in the city centre did not arrest suspected deserters, but hanged them from lamp-posts with placards round their necks announcing their cowardice.
Heinrich Himmler and senior officers of the Waffen-SS were secretly planning to disengage their units and pull them back to Denmark.
Ninth Army's Retreat
On 19 April the Ninth Army, irretrievably split in three, reeled back.
The 1st Guards Tank Army supported by Chuikov's 8th Guards Army reached Müncheberg in their advance along Reichsstrasse 1.
While they headed for the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Berlin, Zhukov's other armies began to advance around the northern edge of the city.
American troops were entering Leipzig that day and took Nuremberg after heavy fighting, but Simpson's divisions on the Elbe remained where they were as Eisenhower had ordered.
Hitler's Last Birthday and Nazi Leaders' Betrayal
The dawn of 20 April, Hitler's birthday, followed the tradition of Führerwetter by providing a beautiful spring day.
Allied air forces marked the day with their own greeting. Göring spent the morning supervising the evacuation of his looted paintings and other treasures from his ostentatious country house of Karinhall north of Berlin.
It was clear to even his most devoted colleagues that the Führer was in no state to think rationally.
All the others were simply finding excuses to get out of Berlin before it was completely surrounded and its airfields seized by the Red Army.
That day marked what became known as 'the flight of the Golden Pheasants', as senior Nazi Party members shed their brown, red and gold uniforms to escape Berlin with their families while routes to the south remained open.
Desperate Measures and Soviet Advance
Housewives queued for a last issue of ‘crisis rations'. They could clearly hear the sound of guns in the distance.
That afternoon heavy artillery from the 3rd Shock Army opened fire on the northern suburbs of Berlin.
Zhukov knew that Konev's 3rd Guards Tank Army was heading for the southern edge of the city.
German Retreat and Looting
The German retreat from the Oder front into the city was greatly hampered by the thousands of civilians trying to flee in panic from the advancing enemy.
German soldiers indulged in looting houses on the way, and some sought oblivion in the alcohol they found.
Deserters Executed
Squads of Feldgendarmerie and SS guarded crossroads, not against the enemy but to seize stragglers to form into improvised detachments. Any who had thrown away their weapon, pack and helmet were arrested and shot.
Soviet Artillery's Impact and Civilian Casualties
On 21 April the last Allied air raid on Berlin ended early in the morning. An unnatural silence settled over the city, but a few hours later Soviet artillery was now within range of the city centre.
Housewives still queueing for rations were the main casualties, for few wanted to lose their place when this was clearly their last chance to stock up. The intensity of the shelling soon forced most of them back into cellars and air-raid shelters.
Stalin's Paranoia and Zhukov's Push
Although the circle round Berlin was almost closed, Stalin's paranoia still infected the NKVD's 7th Department interrogators.
Zhukov was just as interested in blocking Konev's advance on the city. He pushed Katukov's 1st Guards Tank Army and Chuikov's 8th Guards Army further round towards the south-west.
Zossen, Adlon Hotel, and Suicides
One of Konev's tank spearheads was sighted approaching Zossen.
The staff and customers of the Adlon Hotel were listening to the sound of artillery shells. In the dining room, the few guests were overwhelmed by the readiness of waiters to pour the wine in a constant stream. They did not want to leave any for the Russians.
The city was divided into eight sectors, with the Landwehr Canal on the south and the River Spree on the north of the central district forming the last defence lines.
Hitler's Orders
Resorting to fantasy, Hitler gave orders that the Ninth Army should hold its positions on the Oder front.
Recalling that Heinrici had a reserve, the III SS Germanische Corps, Hitler had a call put through to Obergruppenführer Steiner. He told him to launch a major counter-attack against the 1st Belorussian Front's northern flank. Steiner was speechless with disbelief.
Model's Suicide and British Advance
The refusal to face reality was even more striking since he already knew that Model's army group in the Ruhr pocket had surrendered with 325,000 men. Model went off into a wood and shot himself.
In northern Germany the British 7th Armoured Division was approaching Hamburg, while the 11th Armoured Division advanced rapidly ahead towards Lübeck on the Baltic. This followed Churchill's secret instruction to Field Marshal Montgomery to prevent the Red Army from seizing Denmark.
Himmler's Negotiations
Himmler had a secret meeting in Lübeck with Count Folke Bernadotte of the Swedish Red Cross, asking him to approach the Americans and British about a surrender in the west.
Hitler's rage
Hitler became feverish with impatience for news of Steiner's attack. He screamed and yelled in fury during the midday situation conference, then collapsed weeping in a chair. For the first time he said openly that the war was lost.
Wenck's counter-attack
Seizing on Jodl's suggestion that Wenck's Twelfth Army facing the Americans on the Elbe should be brought back to Berlin in a counter-attack.
Goebbels' family goes to the bunker
Magda Goebbels believing that a Germany without Hitler was a world not worth living in, brought her six children down into the bunker that night. Staff officers gazed in horror, sensing immediately the end in store for them.
*
Leaflets and Surrender Message.
Rybalko's 3rd Guards Tank Army had reached the Teltow Canal on the southern edge of Berlin, leaflets dropped on the city addressed to the women of Berlin, urging them to persuade officers to surrender reflecting the change of party line.