Tony Le Tissier - The Battle of Berlin, 1945

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the active encouragement and assistance of many people, among them Tom Bonas, Michael Craster, Prof. Christopher Donnelly, David Dunkelly, the late David Forrer, Dr Jrgen Freymuth, Prof. Dr Werner Knopp (late of the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbestiz in Berlin), Otto Spitz of the Berlin Verlag, and Oberstleutnant Dr Rohde of the Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt in Freiburg. I am especially grateful to my good friends Peter Georgi, who did so much to promote my efforts, and the late Dorothe Freifrau von Hammerstein-Equord for all her invaluable assistance over the years.

For much of the material on which the maps are based, I am indebted to the friendly cooperation of the staffs of the Institt fr Geodsie, Abteilung V of the Senator fr Bau- und Wohnungswesen, the Landesbildstelle (since incorporated with the Landesarchiv), Firma Rhl, and the former Soviet Army Museum at Karlshorst (now the Deutsch-Russisches Museum), all of Berlin, as well as the Air Photo Library of the University of Keele, the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, and the Imperial War Museum in London.

I am also grateful to Colonel (retired) Pierre Rocolle for his kind permission to include translations of French eyewitness statements taken from his Gtterdmmerung La Prise de Berlin; to Helmut Altner for permission to quote the Oranienburg Hitler Youths story from his Totentanz Berlin (Berlin Dance of Death), and to the Chief of the Military History Office, HQ USAREUR, for permission to include quotations from William Willemers The German Defense of Berlin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO THE 2007 EDITION

The request from Tempus Publishing to produce a revised version of my first book came within days of learning from the Ullstein Verlag that they were about to withdraw the German version of that same book from the market after a run of 15 years in various editions. The success of the German edition was due to the general consensus of opinion that it gave a fair and unbiased account of this episode in German history.

A.H. Le T
Lymington, 2006

Appendices

ORGANISATION OF A RED ARMY RIFLE DIVISION 1945

ORGANISATION OF RED ARMY TANK AND MECHANISED FORMATIONS 1945

SOVIET STRENGTHS FOR OERATION BERLIN

(Front-line strengths, excluding reserves and Rear Area Troops)

NOTES

* The full total is given as: 2,500,000 men & women; 6,250 tanks & self-propelled guns; 41,650 guns & mortars; 7,500 aircraft.

** Excluding the 4th, 5th and 10th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Corps defending the Rear Areas.

*** Excluding the 800 long-range bombers of the 18th Air Army operating with the 1st Byelorussian Front.

SOVIET ORDER-OF-BATTLE FOR OPERATION BERLIN

Drawn from F.D. Vorbeyev, I.V. Propotkin and A.N. Shimanskys The Last Storm with additional information on units identified in the encirclement of the city. The armies are listed in order of deployment from north to south.

2ND BYELOURUSSIAN FRONT

(MARSHAL K.K. ROKOSSOVSKY)

19th Army

40th Gds Rifle Corps (only)

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

107th & 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 Divs

Air Forces

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

4th Air Aslt, 5th Air Bomber & 8th Air Fighter Corps

1ST BYELORUSSIAN FRONT

(MARSHAL G.K. ZHUKOV)

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

9th Gds Rifle Corps (Lt-Gen G.A. Halyuzin/Lt-Gen A.D. Shtemenko)

12th & 75th Gds, 415th Rifle Divs

80th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen V.A. Vyerzhbitsky)

212th, 234th & 356th Rifle Divs

89th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen M.A. Siyzov)

23rd, 311th & 397th Rifle Divs

312th, 1811th & 1899th SP Aslt Arty Regts

7th Gds Cav Corps (Maj-Gen M.P. Konstantinov)

14th, 15th & 16th Gds Cav Divs

1816th Sp Aslt Arty Regt

7th Gds R/L Bn

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

1st Pol Inf Div Tadiuscz Kosciusko (Maj-Gen W. Bevziuk)

2nd, 3rd, 4th & 6th Pol Inf Divs

1st Pol Cav Bde

4th Pol Hy Tk Regt

13th Pol SP Aslt Arty Regt

7th Pol SP Aslt Arty Bn

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

77th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen/Lt-Gen Y.s. Vorobyev)

185th, 260th & 328th Rifle Divs

125th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen/Lt-Gen A.M. Andreyev)

60th, 76th & 175th Rifle Divs

129th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen M.B. Anaskin)

82nd, 132nd & 143rd Rifle Divs

70th Gds Ind Tk Regt

334th, 1204th, 1416th, 1825th & 1892nd SP Aslt Arty Regts

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

7th Rifle Corps (Maj-Gen V.A. Christov)

146th, 265th & 364th Rifle Divs

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

23rd Gds Rifle Div

63rd Gds Rifle Regt

52nd Gds & 33rd Rifle Divs

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

150th Rifle Div

469th, 674th & 756 Rifle Regts

171st Rifle Div

380th, 525th & 713th Rifle Regts

207th Rifle Div

594th, 597th & 598th Rifle Regts

9th Tank Corps

23rd, 95th & 108th Rifle Bdes

8th Mot Rifle Bde

1455th & 1508th SP Aslt Arty Regts

286th Gds M/C Regt

88th Gds & 85th Ind Tk Regts

1049th, 1203rd, 1728th &1818th SP Aslt Arty Regts

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

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

230th Rifle Div (Col D.V. Shiskov)

248th Rifle Div (Maj-Gen N.Z. Galai)