Urgent.. How did the Red Army seize the headquarters of the German Parliament 79 years ago?
A bloody battle took place in the area of the headquarters of the German National Assembly at the end of April 1945 when the Soviet Red Army was determined to attack and seize this place, while the German fascist soldiers tried to defend themselves together.
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In 1945, the German Parliament building no longer had any military or political importance, but both Germany and the Soviet Union considered this a great symbol of the Nazi regime, so one side decided to keep it, and the other side decided to attack and seize it at any cost.
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Intense bombardment
The force guarding the former headquarters of the German Parliament included soldiers from the armed forces of the Third Reich (the Wehrmacht), the armed SS, the Volkssturm militia, And even students of the Rostock Naval School – a total of more than 1,000 people.
Nearby German units, including armored vehicles, were ready to support the garrison at any time.
At noon on April 30, 1945 The Soviet Third Shock Army began bombing the Reichstag.
Dozens of guns and tanks fired directly at the building and directed their weapons at the windows that served as enemy firing points.
There was a gun battle inside the Reichstag. Red Army Colonel Zinchenko wrote: “The infantry is preparing for the attack, choosing support for their legs and elbows and arranging their personal weapons in suitable positions.
And inside this building, neither tanks nor heavy artillery will help them, everything will be decided by Machine guns, rifles and grenades, emphasizing that having an extra magazine and a grenade is an added advantage."
The bombardment to clear the road continued for 30 minutes, and at 14:30 the Soviet infantry attack began.
>As soon as the Red Army soldiers rushed into the building, heavy German weapons fire rained down on them from inside the Reichstag, from nearby embassies, and from the Brandenburg Gate.
The distance between the Red Army position and the front entrance to the building was The German Parliament was only 250 meters away, but the Red Army soldiers could not advance more than 100 metres.
German suppressive fire pinned them to the ground, unable to raise their heads This confrontation continued for several hours.
Soviet soldiers moved step by step to respond to the German forces. They crawled close to the ground and hid in bomb craters, shell holes, or hid behind damaged armored vehicles and thus gradually approached the building and achieved Final breakthrough.
Infantry soldier Mikhail Bondar recalls: “The Nazis fired like rain at our formation, but this did not mean that our attack was weakened, as all the soldiers volunteered massively at once.”
Only 50 meters, 30 meters and 20 meters to go and we recently reached the wide staircase leading to the main entrance of the Reichstag.
The wounded soldiers called military doctors for help, and those who were hit by bullets fell backwards…".
< span style="color:#c0392b;">A bloody battle inside the German Parliament headquarters
Soviet soldiers focused on dealing with both sides of the entrance and repeatedly threw grenades at the entrance and then rushed inside, and by the evening of April 30, fierce fighting began inside the building.
Colonel Zinchenko continued: “The corridors, halls and rooms inside were filled with gunfire, grenade explosions, and the screams of soldiers from both sides in a life-or-death battle. Fires were burning everywhere, and smoke escalating.
German soldiers fought fiercely inside the Reichstag, and German forces from the Brandenburg Gate area launched a counterattack to support their comrades.
However, The Red Army soldiers managed to hold on to the first floor. Inside the former room of the German Emperor’s aides, the Red Army troops set up a command center and installed telephone wires. They also set up a small field hospital next to it.
It was one of the main tasks set for the Red Army troops. The Red Army’s mission to seize the headquarters of the German Parliament was to hang the red military flag on the roof of the building.
To achieve this goal, the Red Army assault groups sought to secretly move to the second floor and climb directly to the roof.
Finally, at dusk, under German weapons fire from nearby buildings, Red Army soldiers planted a red flag on the roof of the Reichstag.
The official Victory Flag was raised by scouts Mikhail Egorov and Meliton Kantaria from 756th Rifle Regiment.
The flag of the Soviet Army is placed near the group of statues on the roof, and after the end of hostilities there, it was moved to a higher position on the dome.
Surrender of the Nazi regime
After a short break in the night, heavy fighting continued on May 1, creating a thick layer of smoke and dust in the Parliament building The German soldiers were forced to gradually retreat to the basement, and the fire was not extinguished after it broke out until 3:00 pm that day, perhaps due to fighting or Which was deliberately lit by the German side to prevent the Soviet forces.
At seven o’clock in the evening on May 1, the Red Army completed the siege of the Reichstag building and the German forces stationed there no longer had any hope of receiving support. The German side proposed to negotiate and bargain the terms of surrender, but the Red Army gave a decisive answer – they only accepted Germany’s complete and unconditional surrender.
The 300 German soldiers surrendered. "Of a total of more than 1,000 soldiers defending the Reichstag" Early in the morning of May 2, 1945.
At that time, almost all German forces stationed in the capital, Berlin, stopped resisting.
More than 2,500 German soldiers were killed in the Battle of the Reichstag. And the surrounding area, but there are still no statistics on the losses of the Red Army in these battles.
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