Insider guides, Michael and Mike, meet
to discuss the plan of attack for the Battle of Berlin,
following the lines of the 8th Guards Army from Seelower Heights in
to the "Zitadelle" the name given to the heavily fortified
government quarter. The race is on. May 1st is the deadline, the
Reichstag must be taken by then!
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Lines of German defence. The
Teltower canal was a tough obstacle for the Soviets to get through.
Michael in full flight here discussing the artillery attack on the
23rd of April, or was he explaining the origins of his original
basque beret „it is a soft, round,
flat-crowned version, usually of woven, hand-knitted wool or
crocheted cotton“.
Get up to the top floor of
the Ullsteinhaus for a better appreciation of the importance of
the building for German defences, radio communications and 360 degree
visuals for the defenders. It was harder than we thought to get
up there, after pushing a few door bells, a computer company on the
top floor let us in......briefly.
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After the soviets broke through the
defensive position of Teltower canal it was off to the second
co-centric line of German defences, the S-Bahn (city train/overhead
rail) ring around Berlin. "The dogs head" had to be broken.
First through the Tempelhof Airport, artillery on the roof,
interlocking fields of machine gun fire, dug in tanks on
the southern and eastern flanks, and approximately 2 kilometers of
open terrain to navigate before the airport itself!
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Artillery started hitting the airport
on April 22nd, but the battle proper for the airport started on the
evening of the 25th, continuing on to about noon on the
26th. With the soviets taking the airport it was now on to the next
obstacle, the landwehr canal. Mike and Michael head to the front of
the Tempelhof airport, still a bombastic and imposing building today.
Also, this airport was pivotal for the Berlin airlift in 1948/49.
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A bit of fire damage from the war still
can be seen on the facade of the airport.
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This eagle's head was cut off its 4.5
meter high body, and given to the United States military academy at
West Point NY, who then returned it to Berlin in 1985.
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The surrender of the Berlin garrison
took place on the 2nd of May 1945 in this house. General
Weidling signs the surrender, in the same apartment where the current
Mayor of Berlin grew up, his dad still lives there today.
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On to Anhalter train station to
discussed the air raids, and the shelters in Berlin. Gotta love the
art on the wall of the bunker - "those who build bunkers drop
bombs"!
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Then the Bendler Block, site of the OKH
where Hitler informed the army on February 3rd 1933 the Nazi case for
"lebensraum" and the Germanistaion of Eastern Europe. It
was from this site that Weiding left to sign the surrender of Berlin
forces in 1945. Here also many German army officers who plotted to
assasinate Hitler in 1944 in Operation Walküre were executed.
Then off to the Reichstag........
Next up, Seelower Heights.
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