Battle in Berlin

Battle in Berlin
Part of the Battle of Berlin
The Reichstag after the battle, June 1945
Date 23 April – 2 May 1945 (1 week and 2 days) Location Berlin, Germany 52°31′7″N 13°22′34″E / 52.51861°N 13.37611°E / 52.51861; 13.37611 Result Soviet victory End of World War II in Europe
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union Poland
Commanders and leaders
Helmuth Reymann Helmuth Weidling [a]	Georgy Zhukov Ivan Konev Vasily Chuikov
Strength
Inside the Berlin Defence Area: approximately 45,000 Army soldiers and Schutzstaffel, supplemented by the Berlin Police, Hitler Youth, Kriegsmarine sailors[1] and 40,000 Volkssturm[b]	For the investment and assault on the Berlin Defence Area about 1,500,000 soldiers[2] In Berlin: 464,000 soldiers[3]
Casualties and losses
Unknown (100,000 soldiers killed in the entire Battle of Berlin) 125,000 civilians dead[4]	Unknown, total Soviet casualties during the Battle of Berlin were 81,116 dead or missing and 280,251 sick or wounded[5]

The battle in Berlin was an end phase of the Battle of Berlin. While the Battle of Berlin encompassed the attack by three Soviet fronts (army groups) to capture not only Berlin but the territory of Germany east of the River Elbe still under German control, the battle in Berlin details the fighting and German capitulation that took place within the city.

The outcome of the battle to capture the capital of Nazi Germany was decided during the initial phases of the Battle of Berlin that took place outside the city. As the Soviets invested Berlin and the German forces placed to stop them were destroyed or forced back, the city's fate was sealed. Nevertheless, there was heavy fighting within the city as the Red Army fought its way, street by street, into the centre.

On 23 April 1945, the first Soviet ground forces started to penetrate the outer suburbs of Berlin. By 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the outside world. The battle in the city continued until 2 May 1945. On that date, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, General Helmuth Weidling, surrendered to Lieutenant-General Vasily Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, a component of Marshal Georgiy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front.

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