Eastern Front

1945: The Battle of Berlin

April – May 1945 · 2 battles

On 16 April 1945 the Red Army set out from the Oder and the Neisse on the last great operation of the war in Europe. Zhukov’s and Konev’s fronts, supported by the 1st and 2nd Polish Armies, broke through the defences on the Seelow Heights and along the Neisse and within ten days closed the ring around Berlin. In the besieged city, defended by the remnants of the Wehrmacht, SS units, the Volkssturm and the Hitler Youth, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery, and on 2 May the garrison capitulated. Meanwhile American and Soviet troops met on the Elbe, cutting the Reich in two. The fall of Berlin sealed Germany’s unconditional surrender a few days later.