Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front penetrated the Berlin, Germany suburbs from the east and north.
Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front penetrated the Berlin, Germany suburbs from the east and north.
In the city, at the conference at 1500 hours, Adolf Hitler learned that the counterattack he ordered on the previous day was never carried out by SS General Felix Steiner and grew furious; when he was told by Wilhelm Keitel that Soviet tanks were now entering the city, Hitler conceded that the end was near, and decided for certain that he was to remain in Berlin.
The most important papers stored at the bunker were now being burned. On the same day, Albert Speer entered Hitler's bunkers and met with him for the last time before Speer would leave Berlin.
Goebbel's Propaganda Ministry was describing Berlin as 'Fortress Berlin'. While the city had been preparing for a siege since January, the defences were still rudimentary and makeshift due to the lack of resources – certainly no match for the forces that were about to assault them but the defending forces could muster almost 90,000 troops (including the LVI Panzer Corps, reinforced by the 18th Panzergrenadier and 11th SS ‘Nordland’ Panzergrenadier Divisions) in a variety of makeshift formations. These troops also included, Police, Volkssturm, Hitler Youth, as well as countless foreign nationals who had joined German forces.
Certainly the urban terrain, with its many canals and rivers and damage done by bombing and artillery fire, naturally favoured the defence.
The main attack started the next day, with the Germans fighting tenaciously, making skilful use of rubble to conduct sniping, counterattacks and ambushes, while many of the high flak towers were able to fire down onto the advancing Soviet forces.
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