Table Of Contentsovietconquest-prelimpagei-Press
SOVIET
CONQUEST
Berlin 1945
Translated by
Tony Le Tissier
Featuring the memoirs of
Marshal Katukov, Marshal Babadshanian,
Marshal Chartshenko, General Poplavski,
Lieutenant-Colonel Mironov and General Dragunski
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Contents
ListofMapsandIllustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
ListofPlates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1. Spearhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
MarshalofTankTroopsMichaelYefimovitchKatukov
2. MainStrikingForce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
HighMarshalofTankTroopsAmasaspChatshaturovitchBabadshanian
3. SpecialDuties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
MarshalofEngineersVictorKondratievitchChartshenko
4. BattleComrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Army-GeneralStanislavPoplavski
5. TheSteelGuard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Lieutenant-ColonelWenjaminBorissovichMironov
6. YearsinTanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
GeneralDavidAbramovichDragunski
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
sovietconquest-prelimpageiv-Press
List of Maps and Illustrations
TheSovietPlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
TheMainBattlefortheSeelowHeights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
TheRacetoBerlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
BerlinSurrounded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
TheBerlinCityCentreBattlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
TheKu¨strinBattlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The1stPolishArmy’sAreaofOperations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
TheJSU-152 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Ku¨strin-Altstadt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
TheT-34/85 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
TheSouthernSuburbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
SovietAttacksonRuhleben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
sovietconquest-prelimpagev-Press
List of Plates
ZhukovathisSeelowHeightscommandpost.
Sovietarmourandartilleryintheruins.
ASovietself-propelledguninaction.
Soviethowitzersinaction.
ALend-LeaseShermantankinaction.
CarryingofftheSovietinjured.
TheZooFlak-towerwiththeVictoryColumninthedistance.
ASoviettankandjeepattheBrandenburgGate.
DestroyedSovietarmouroutsidetheTechnicalUniversity.
PreparingtoattacktheReichstag.
ThewreckageoftheReichstagafterthebattle.
Deadinthestreets.
Germantroopssurrenderingfromtheundergroundrailway.
Theendofthebattle:Germanprisonersbeingmarchedoutofthecity.
TheRedFlagtriumphantlybutprecariouslydisplayedfromtheroof
oftheReichstag.
CelebratingSovietvictoryattheGermanVictoryColumn.
sovietconquest-prelimpagevi-Press
sovietconquest-prelimpagevii-Press
Introduction
The Second World War ended in Europe as a triumph for the Allies,
but especially for the Soviets with their taking of Berlin. Of course
thingshad not goneassmoothlyasthe Sovietswouldhave likedand,
as always, involved massive casualties. One would have expected a
flood of Soviet literature about the Second World War, but Stalin
steered away from this course by banning the publication of personal
accounts and having an official Soviet history compiled by a team of
historians promoting Stalin’s own status as the supreme commander-
in-chief. Then in 1972 Marshal Chuikov’s book was published as a
critical attack on Marshal Zhukov’s handling of the battle for Berlin.
InfactZhukovhadblunderedearlyintheinitialstagesofthebattle
for Berlin. When Stalin had taunted him with his lack of success in
contrast to his rival Marshal Koniev’s crossing of the Neisse River to
thesouth,Zhukov’sreactionhadbeentoorderhistankarmiesintothe
Seelow Heights battle, contrary to the original plan of reserving them
for the breakthrough to Berlin once these forward German positions
had been destroyed. The result was complete confusion on the
cramped battlefield as the tanks belatedly tried to intervene; instead
of the anticipated one-day breakthrough battle, it took Zhukov’s
1st Byelorussian Front four whole days and enormous numbers of
casualties to complete this first stage. The follow through to Berlin
consequently involved considerable readjustment to the plan of battle
as the exhausted infantry struggled to keep up with the advancing
armour.
Meanwhile, unknown to Zhukov, Stalin had permitted Koniev to
intrude on the Berlin battlefield with his 3rd and 4th Guards Tank
Armies. Stalin further banned the Red Air Force from informing
Zhukov of Koniev’s participation, while the latter urged his forces to
beat his rival into Berlin.
Nevertheless it was the 2nd Guards Tank Army of Zhukov’s Front
that first broke into the eastern suburbs of Berlin on the morning of
21April,closelyfollowedthateveningbythescoutsofthe3rdGuards
sovietconquest-prelimpageviii-Press
viii SovietConquest
Tank Army. Next day Koniev ordered the 3rd Guards Tank Army to
prepare to assault across the Teltow Canal, which formed part of the
city’s southern boundary, on the morning of the 24th, adding con-
siderable artillery and air support to the operation. Allegedly Zhukov
did not learn of the presence of Koniev’s troops until the evening of
that day, when he had officers sent to confirm who and what was
involved and what their objectives were.
OncebothFrontswereengagedwithinthecity,Stalinwasobligedto
drawandadjusttheirboundariesasthefightingcontinued.However,
when Koniev launched a massive attack on the morning of the 28th,
with the aim of occupying the Tiergarten, it was soon discovered that
his troops were firing into the rear of Chuikov’s troops, occupying an
areaalreadytaken.ItwasKoniev’sturntobehumiliated.Mortified,he
left the 3rd Guards Tank Army to continue the battle on a modified
lineofadvance,whileZhukovwentontocapturetheprestigiousgoal
of the Reichstag.
ThefallofBerlinbroughtZhukovhisthirdgoldstarasaHeroofthe
Soviet Union, an honour Stalin could not deny him. Zhukov repre-
sented the Soviet Union at the surrender ceremony conducted at
Karlshorst on 8 May, with his co-signatory Air Chief Marshal Sir
Arthur Tedder of the UK and witnesses General Carl Spaatz of the
US Strategic Air Force and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny of the
1st French Army. The reviewing officer at the victory parade on Red
Square should have been Stalin as commander-in-chief, but Zhukov
later learned that Stalin had been unable to control the magnificent
horse selected for the role, so Zhukov was given the task.
Later in the year Stalin’s henchman, Viktor Abakumov, appeared
in the Soviet Zone of Germany and started arresting members of
Zhukov’s staff – a distinctive sign of Stalin’s lack of favour for his
deputy. Shortly afterwards Stalin accused Zhukov, in his absence, of
claiming the credit for Red Army victories during the war and
belittling the role of the Stavka, the Soviet high command.
In March 1946 Zhukov was recalled to Moscow and appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, but promptly came into
conflict with Bulganin, the First Deputy Commissar for Defence, who
blocked Zhukov’s access to Stalin. From then on, Zhukov was gradu-
ally stripped of all his offices and appointments. When Stalin died in
March 1953, his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, reinstated Zhukov as
Minister of Defence and in 1956 had Zhukov awarded his fourth star
as Hero of the Soviet Union on his 60th birthday, but a year later
sovietconquest-prelimpageix-Press
Introduction ix
relieved him of all his duties with the accusation of being inclined to
adventurismintheSovietUnion’sforeignpolicyandoveralllackingin
the Party spirit.
Deprived of his position as a member of the Presidium and the
Central Committee and as Minister of Defence, Zhukov withdrew to
the dacha outside Moscow that Stalin had given him for life during
the war. Pravda then published an article by Marshal Koniev that
amounted to a scathing attack on Zhukov’s role both during the war
and as Minister of Defence. In March 1958 Zhukov was further
humiliated by his contrived retirement as a Marshal of the Soviet
Union; this was an unprecedented step, for marshals were normally
transferred to the Group of Inspectors, whose occasional duties justi-
fied the continuation of their active duty perquisites, such as an aide-
de-camp and a chauffeur-driven car. Zhukov was now fair game for
his old antagonists, and in March 1964 Marshal Chuikov attacked
Zhukov for not going on to take Berlin in February 1945, his book
The End of the Third Reich being the first of the senior commanders’
memoirs allowed to be published after the war.
In1965,undertheBrezhnevregime,Zhukovwasinvitedtoattenda
celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the victory over Germany,
at which he received a great ovation. The next day he joined his old
colleagues in reviewing the victory parade from the top of Lenin’s
mausoleum.
Stalin’s clampdown on personal accounts of experiences in the
Second World War continued long after his death in 1953, and it was
only in 1967 that that of Marshal Chuikov became to be the first to be
published,eventhenintendedasasnubtoZhukov,whoseattemptsto
publish his own account had been repeatedly turned down.
Other accounts, including Zhukov’s at last in 1974, then followed,
adding some light to the otherwise strictly Communist Party con-
formist theme.
Despite the length of this introduction, which I believe to be neces-
sary for the overall comprehension of the reader, this book has been
produced with a view to providing some interesting details and a
widerviewofthefinalbattleforBerlinin1945.Itconsistsofthetrans-
lationsofsixpersonalaccountstakenfromtheEastGermaneditionsof
the original Soviet publications, omitting those of Marshals Chuikov,
Koniev and Zhukov,whose autobiographieshave long been available
in the English language.
