Berlin Falls to Soviets

The battle ended after a week of heavy fighting because the Germans ran out of men and matériel. The German supply dumps were located outside the outer defence line (the Inner Ring) and were captured quite early in the battle by the Soviets. In the battle for the city the Soviets lost about 2,000 armoured vehicles, in good part due to an effective shoulder-firing rocket known as a Panzerfaust, mass numbers of which were supplied to German civilians, though countermeasures such as armor and wire skirts were being deployed. The Germans had only a few tanks.

On the morning of 2 May the Soviets stormed the Reich Chancellery. In the official Soviet version, the battle was similar to that of the battle for the Reichstag, there was an assault over Wilhelmplatz and into the building with a howitzer to blast open the front doors and several battles within the building. Major Anna Nikulina of Lieutenant-General Rossly's 9th Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army commanded the assault group which unfurled the red flag on the roof. However, Beevor suggests that the official Soviet description is probably an exaggeration, because as most of the German combat troops had left in the breakouts the night before, the resistance must have been far less than that inside the Reichstag.

At 01:00 hours the Soviets picked up radio message from the German LVI Corps requesting a cease-fire and stating that emissaries would come under a white flag to Potsdamer bridge. General Weidling surrendered with his staff at 06:00 hours. He was taken to see Lieutenant-General Chuikov at 8:23 am. Chuikov (who had commanded the successful defence of Stalingrad), asked: "You are the commander of the Berlin garrison?" Weidling replied: "Yes, I am the commander of the LVII Panzer Corps." Chuikov then asked: "Where is Krebs?" Weidling replied: "I saw him yesterday in the Reich Chancellery." Weidling then added: "I thought he would commit suicide." In the discussions that followed, Weidling agreed to an unconditional surrender of the city of Berlin. He agreed to order the city's defenders to surrender to the Soviets. Under the direction of Chuikov and Soviet General Vasily Sokolovsky (Chief of staff of the 1st Ukrainian Front), Weidling put his order to surrender in writing.

The 350-strong garrison of the Zoo flak tower finally left the building. There was sporadic fighting in a few isolated buildings where some SS still refused to surrender. The Soviets simply blasted any such building to rubble. Most Germans, soldiers and civilians, were grateful to recei...