The Battle of the Reichstag 1945 - Animated

it's the early morning of the 30th of april 1945 in berlin in the captured interior ministry building on the northwestern side of the kernix plant a young soviet battalion commander captain neustroyev pours over his maps perplexed he turns to his regimental superior and asks what the grey building between him and his objective is nostraev he replies that is the reichstag at 6 am following an intense bombardment the attack begins two battalions are hurriedly sent out into the kearney's plat before proper recon of the enemy's positions can be completed according to a journalist present they had hardly gone 50 meters when a hurricane of fire from the enemy cut them down withering fire comes from the reichstag and its defenses but also from the kroll opera house behind the attack the soviets don't stand a chance those who survive are pinned down and unable to move all of the german-held buildings facing the square have been turned into mini fortresses every window is bricked up with holes left for small artillery pieces and machine guns the opera house in particular contains much of the remnants of the ss arnold designated to defend the diplomatic quarter and the konig splats the failure of this first attack and the brutality with which it was repulsed convinces shatilov commanding the 150th rifle division and his superior officer commander of the 79th rifle corps perovertkin who are watching from the customs house over the bridge that they have to think again from the fields of kursk onto the reichstag has been the soviet battle cry despite having lane in disrepair since the fire of 1933 the building had been chosen by senior members of the party as the final symbol of the victory of the soviet communism over fascist nazism it has also been decided that the building should be captured in time for the may day or international workers day celebrations in moscow the race to get a soviet flag on the top of the reichstag is on there is of course an ulterior motive between april 23rd and 28th the soviet armies near berlin had worked to surround the defenders in an ever-tightening pocket closing off access to the city in the west 47th army part of zhukov's first belarussian front had fought their way south to meet 4th guard's tank army part of konev's first ukrainian front which eventually occurred after hard fighting on the 25th near ketzen the river havel in the northwest of the city is used as a cork in the bottle to keep the germans in the pocket and prevent the western allies reaching them from the outside it was this move that mattered most to stalin despite what has been claimed the reichstag to stalin was likely just another building in berlin there are more games afoot however on the 24th members of the 8th guards tank army part of zhukov's force spot soviet troops to their south and west these are members of the third guard's tank army part of konev's forces it was then apparent to zhukov that stalin is lining up his favorite konev to take the rice stack himself and deny the charismatic field marshal the prize he had been promised the russian generals were no longer just racing time and the western allies they were racing each other in the end it became obvious that konef was stretched too thin and that zhukov would have his prize after all and the honours would go to perovertkin's 79th rifle corps the 28th had seen the corps make up for some of its losses by freeing prisoners of war who were handed a submachine gun or rifle and simply absorbed into the attack on the 29th they crossed the mulker bridge and captured the interior ministry but not without great loss that nullified the reinforcements from the day before on the afternoon of the 28th perovertkin had set up his headquarters in the customs building from where he had watched the failure of his early morning attack on the 30th by 11 30 on the 30th perovertkin's core is ready in preparation for the attack the 207th division is tasked to clear out the crawl opera house source of so much of the fire that morning from the north despite costing the 597th and 598th rifle regiments many casualties this attack also gives perovertkin time to ready his artillery the bombardment when it comes is awe-inspiring the sheer power of soviet production is now ranged against the old building and its grounds the ground itself begins to shake under the weight of fire dust and acrid smoke hangs low in the air blotting out the sun to those on the ground it is as if the apocalypse has arrived the 90 artillery barrels from tanks to howitzers are positioned around the ministry building with some even placed in the top floors of the building itself in order to have clearer target pictures rocket launchers are placed in the courtyard firing directly at the building shatterlove's divisions the 674th and 756th are sent in again this time they fight their way through the german positions in front of the flooded anti-tank ditch but can advance no further more attacks and more lives are needed to capture the building before midnight at 1 pm the amass soviet artillery begins a bombardment that lasts half an hour once again the sun is hidden by clouds of debris and smog some soldiers would later claim that they did not see the sun at all that day pieces that are knocked out by the counter-battery fire from across the tiergarten are simply replaced from the rear in the chaos some soviet infantrymen grab panzerfaust abandoned in the captured german positions and begin firing them blindly in the direction of the reichstag itself on the eastern flank the 171st have finished pushing their way through the cronsprinsen buildings and are at the wall closest to the reichstag this creation of a clear passage allows tanks and assault guns to be brought up to try and protect the infantry in another frontal assault at 1 30 the attack begins again with the 150th division attacking from the front and the 171st to the right of the building the 200 yards of ground between them and the building itself are a mess of temporary structures trenches and barbed wire nonetheless the soviets hope sheer weight of numbers will overwhelm the defenders it is now however that ss obersturmfuhrer babbik commanding the reichstag defense plays his trump card as well as the two 88 millimeter flat guns placed in front of the reichstag itself babic has the support of the guns of the zoo flak tower on the other side of the tier garden which he directs via radio link faced with this weight of fire shatterlove's division are pinned down and the tanks swamped those who can pull back do but it is clear that another attack during the daytime will be a bloody affair with limited success they must wait for darkness shatilov meanwhile is realizing that he has made a grave mistake at 2 25 pm he reported up the chain of command that he had seen a red banner flying from the rice stack this caused zhukov to announce the same which was duly passed on to moscow recognizing the scale of his political blunder shatilov becomes demented aside from the political glory of hoisting a flag it is now obvious that his political career and perhaps life depends on raising that banner and he is willing to sacrifice many men to do it meanwhile less than a kilometer away in the basement of the reich chancellery the fuhrer's monstrous political career is at an end at 3 20 pm on april the 30th he kills his dogs new wife ava and finally himself unconfirmed reports state that at some point in the afternoon two fighters from 115th fighter wing attempt to save shatterlove's bosses by dropping a six meter pennant on the roof of the reichstag with the word pabirda or victory emblazoned in gold letters under heavy fire from the building however they miss their target the race is still on and they are running out of time throughout the afternoon nistroyev shatilov and perovertkin are inundated with requests to form the banner party and achieve soviet immortality his nkvd detachment puts forward a group with a georgian as a special favor to stalin however the expectation that the successful banner party would be made heroes of the soviet union means that certain ethnic groups such as chechens and cowmix are forbidden from taking part as they would not be able to receive the award in the end however it is a group of party members led by sergeants jagorov and kantaria that are chosen to represent the 150th division also seeking glory rival parties also spring up hoping to seize the moment for themselves a detachment of artillerists under v n markov give up their positions on heavy guns for infantry weapons and a banner of their own the dust and smoke from the battle means that darkness comes early by 6 pm the soviet commanders reckon they have enough cover from darkness to commence another attack after a short bombardment the troops of the 150th division interspersed with tanks including a single british-supplied valentine tank that has found its way across the entire eastern front begin their advance the battle is bloody and hard fought but progress is now being made at night the heavy weapons and machine guns of the germans are less effective in stopping the red tide inside the reichstag waiting are members of the home guard sailors from grand admiral dernetz's honor guard and the remnants of the ss brigades nordland and hitler's personal troops the liber standard ssah these troops know that retreat or surrender are not options the building two is imposing pranksters had taken the fallen heads of statues from the roof and placed them on ledges and walls at ground level to create a creepy graveyard of stone the soviets however are prepared the weeks of street fighting in berlin have made them more efficient in urban warfare even if this has cost thousands of lives a reporter attached to the battle tells how he was pulled in front of his sergeant to hand in his pistol terrified he was being sent home he approached with some trepidation instead the older man simply took his pistol and handed him a submachine gun telling him frankly anyone going inside the rice stag will need one eventually troops from the lead battalion of the 150th division reached the steps of the reichstag as a defensive measure the doorways in between the columns have been bricked up luckily the troops have with them two light mortars placing them as horizontally as possible they are fired into the barricades creating a hole for the infantry to pour through once through the door the soviets initially pushed their way into the main hall they are met by a deadly hail of submachine gun fire from surrounding runes as well as members of the liber standard on the balconies firing panzerfaust and throwing grenades down onto their position causing the advance to pause one soviet soldier later recalls that the large columns beside the point of the soviet entrance became covered in blood fighting spills out into the adjoining rooms and hand-hand combat breaks out as with every building attacked thus far the foremost battalion have carried their own banner into the building among the lead troops it is this banner that initially rallies the troops to it as they try to fight it up to the roof and claim the glory of the moment for themselves around them fires begin in some of the downstairs spaces as grenades and panzerfaust use at close range ignite what flammables remain in the building with the initial rooms cleared soviet troops make their way to the large staircases at which point the defenders part some recruiting into the basement and some to the upper floors the staircase battles are some of the most intense with both soviet and german troops using the large stone banisters for cover and firing their submachine guns through them at brutally close range the infantry's regimental banner is fought up the stairs until it reaches the second floor however as the first troops reach the top of the stairs a machine gun set up to cover the corridor pins them down some are able to make it into the first runes but no further field telephones are set up to communicate with the anxious chatelov as the radios have been malfunctioning inside the massive building now aware that his men are on the second floor and close to the roof chatelov gives the green light to special banner party number five to enter the building the banner carried by party members is ceremonial and pointedly has a large hammer and sickle emblem to better display the soviet victory the inside of the building is almost pitch black worse than this the banner party are in a building they have never been in before and therefore have no idea where to go disoriented it takes some time to find the staircase up to the second floor once there igorov and cantaria use the men around them and the other members of the banner party as distractions in the ensuing firefight they slipped their way comparatively unnoticed along the corridor to the stairs at the rear of the building the official soviet history states that it was the communist party members yagorov and kantaria of special banner party number five who fly their flag on the roof of the reichstag at 10 50 p.m on the 30th of april just beating their mayday deadline communist party members jagorov and kantaria are later to be given their hero of the soviet union medals and duly celebrated by the communist state however the reality is that when the heroic sergeants arrive on the roof it is likely well past midnight and instead of a great feeling of accomplishment and pride the two heroes of the soviet union find the competing banner party led by non-party member vn markov and his gunners their banner already wedged into the victory statue in the center of the roof but when the soviet history books are later written having non-party members being celebrated for planting the soviet victory banner will simply not do chatelov's embarrassment has been prevented and the victory banner is in place so that the soldiers below surrounded by the thousands of dead and wounded comrades that got it there can see that their sacrifice was worth it or at least they could have if it wasn't dark [Music] you

Channel: The Operations Room

Views: 474,009

Rating: 4.9438424 out of 5

Keywords: Time-Lapse, History, Second World War, ww2, Documentary, time lapse, animated, war, red army, soviet union, reichstag, battle of the reichstag, t-34 tank, german army, USSR

Id: bJ5IeOR0A2M

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 07 2021