In the spring of 1945, the armies of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and France had reached the German mainland. Among them, the Soviet army was only 60 kilometers away from and Berlin , and was ready to give the German army a final annihilating blow. The leading troops of the US and British troops have arrived at Elbe River , only 100 to 120 kilometers away from Berlin. The main force of the German army was still concentrated on dealing with the Soviet army at this time.
As of April 16, the German troops fighting on the Soviet-German battlefield had a total of 214 divisions and 14 brigades. At that time, the German army fighting against the US and British forces had only 60 divisions with incomplete personnel and equipment, including 5 tank divisions , but only about 200 tanks . The two army groups of the German army defending Berlin totaled 48 infantry divisions, 9 motorized divisions, 6 tank divisions, plus other troops, a total of about 1 million people, artillery and mortars 10,400 tanks, and 1,500 assault artillery vehicles and 3,300 combat aircraft. In addition, the Army Headquarters Reserve has 8 divisions, and more than 200 national assault battalions have been established in Berlin.
The Soviet army participating in the Battle of Berlin consisted of 162 infantry and cavalry divisions, 21 tank corps and mechanized corps, 4 air force armies , with a total of 2.5 million people, about 42,000 artillery and mortars, tanks and There are more than 26,250 self-propelled artillery pieces and 7,500 combat aircraft. In contrast, the Soviet army had several times the advantage over the German army. The leaders of the United States and Britain still wanted to occupy Berlin before the Soviet army. Berlin became a hotbed, and everyone wanted it. But to get the porcelain job, you need to have diamond . The U.S. and British Allied Forces were a little unable to conquer Berlin, because this would definitely be a costly and difficult battle with countless casualties. As a result, the Allied High Command abandoned this action plan, and Eisenhower ordered the Allied forces to occupy as much German territory as possible.
At this time, Hitler was still having unrealistic fantasies. He said to his generals: The situation will get better. All autocratic systems will have a negative consequence - subordinates only report good news but not bad news to their superiors. Hitler reaped the consequences. The German generals reported good news but not bad news, so that their head of state had no idea that the Ninth Army had been divided and surrounded by the Soviet army, and the Twelfth Army was unable to advance due to the obstruction of the Allies. Hitler, who was almost isolated from the outside world, stayed in the underground bunker of the Chancellery, like a deaf and blind man, blindly deploying his troops. Some German generals no longer resolutely carried out Hitler's orders.
At 1 o'clock in the night on April 29, 1945, Hitler announced his wedding to Eva Braun. At 3:30 pm on the 30th, Hitler and his wife, who had been married for only one day, committed suicide by taking poison in the dormitory of the underground bunker. While Hitler was taking the poison, he also raised the gun to his own temple and pulled the trigger. In this way, Hitler, the head of the German Third Reich, met his demise. In fact, the Nazi Reich only existed for 12 years. Over the past 12 years, it has set countless cities ablaze, and now it has set Germany's own cities ablaze.
