Fighting inside the Reichstag

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timppa79
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Joined: 08 Jun 2007, 12:40
Location: Finland

Fighting inside the Reichstag

#1

Post by timppa79 » 08 Aug 2008, 13:12

Did any of the defenders survive the fighting inside the Reichstag? Did they fight to the last man or did they eventually surrender?

I've never found any accounts of the fighting from the Axis side: what was it like and how did it proceed. I've been wondering if it is because no one was left to tell the story.

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VALLOIS OLIVIER
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Location: DUNKIRK - FRANCE

Re: Fighting inside the Reichstag

#2

Post by VALLOIS OLIVIER » 08 Aug 2008, 13:53

check "race for the reichstag" by Tony Le Tissier.

as far as I remember, fightings lasted after the raising of the red flag on top of the building.

It is true that it seems quite difficult to trace the fightings inside the building and outside of it actually as the "Kampfgruppe Babick" was deployed around the building itself. If my memory is right, the command post of the Kampfgruppe was in a building nearby, but not in the Reichstag itself.

Anyone has got something to propose?


kalsby
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Location: Spain

Re: Fighting inside the Reichstag

#3

Post by kalsby » 13 Aug 2008, 00:36

Dear Mr. timppa79.

I've been checking some of my books and this is what I gathered during my slightly investigation:

- "Berlin: the downfall", by Antony Beevor.

According to Mr. Beevor, 300 (three hundred) soldiers surrendered; besides, there were 200 (two hundred) dead germans inside the Reichstag and 500 (five hundred) soldiers wounded, a lot of them having been injured before soviet storming of the Reichstag. Mr. Beevor gives no explicit date for the surrender, but allegedly was during 2st May. See chapter 25, "The Chancellery and the Reichstag"; according to footnote 6, source for this information may be (it is not quite clear, because the footnote appears right before this information speaking about surrendered germans) Yelena Rzhevskaya "Berlin, Mai 1945".


- "Race for the Reichstag", by Tony Le Tissier.

For the book proposed by Mr. Olivier Vallois, chapter 10 "Ultimate victory" says:

Gradualy the upper storeys of the building [the Reichstag] were cleared, but the defence fought on from the cellars (which also accommodated a hospital), and it was not until General Weidling's order to surrender was received that the survivors laid down their arms at 1300 hours on 2 May.

[...]

In accomplishing this particular mission [storming the Reichstag] the [soviet] 79th Rifle Corps claim to have taken some 2.600 prisioners and counted 2.500 enemy dead, but these numbers exceed the defenders known to have been fielded in this area about tenfold.
Mr. Le Tissiers sources for these assertions:

-"The great patriotic war of the Soviet Union 1941-5", Progress Publishers.

-"The russians and Berlin", by Erich Kuby.

-"The battle for Berlin", by John Strawson. I own this book but I've been unable to find anything related to the surrender of Reichstag. I will check again tomorrow.


- "The battle for Berlin", by Tony Le Tissier.

In chapter 11 "Ultimate victory" (not the same book as "Race for the Reichstag", this one was published several years before), says 1.500 (fifteen hundred) survivors surrendered at 1300 hours on 2nd May.

Sources for this:

-"The russians and Berlin", by Erich Kuby.

-"Der Todeskamp der faschistichen Clique in Berlin aus der Erinnerung des Generals Weidling", by general Helmut Weidling, last commander of Berlin garrison.


-Neither "The fall of Berlin" by Anthony and David Fisher nor "The last battle" by Cornelius Ryan say a word about the subject.


Besides, there is a book coming soon which looks promising: "Bloody Streets: The Soviet Assault on Berlin, April 1945" by Stephen Hamilton.

http://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Streets-So ... 097&sr=8-2

Maybe this books will contain further information about the subject.


It seems that there were survivors inside the Reichstag on the time of surrender but, due to the fact that german captives were taken inside Soviet Union, I guest a lot of them died in captivity and that is the reason for the absence of accounts. By the way, IIRC, there is an account of a german infantryman who fought near Reichstag (but outside, not inside) in "With our backs to Berlin", by Tony Le Tissier.

Best regards.

SergioDV
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Joined: 26 Dec 2008, 16:52
Location: Italy

Re: Fighting inside the Reichstag

#4

Post by SergioDV » 11 Feb 2013, 01:52

I revive this old topic because I don't want start another one on the same theme. I'm also looking for some kind of account of the battle for the Reichstag. Someone can put in this discussion some info from "Bloody Streets" by Stephen Hamilton?
----

Yes, I'm just 27 years old.

will_b
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Joined: 18 Jun 2012, 20:31

Re: Fighting inside the Reichstag

#5

Post by will_b » 11 Feb 2013, 05:20

There was also something in Beevors Berlin book, I recall reading something along the lines of a Russian soldier seeing many Russian soldiers huddled around as if they were looking at something on the floor. He then saw them pull pins on hand grenades which were then tossed down a hole in the floor.

Just a little snippet of the fight

SergioDV
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Joined: 26 Dec 2008, 16:52
Location: Italy

Re: Fighting inside the Reichstag

#6

Post by SergioDV » 12 Feb 2013, 00:30

Thank you will_b I'm looking for more "snippet" like this.
----

Yes, I'm just 27 years old.

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