2. Continuing the offensive the troops of Colonel-General Kuznetsov’s 3rd Shock Army overcame enemy resistance, took the main building of the Reichstag and today, on April 30, 1945, raised our Soviet flag on it. Major-General Perevertkin’s 79th Rifle Corps and Colonel Negoda’s 171st Rifle Division and Major-General Shatilov’s 150th Rifle Division won particular distinction in the fighting for the district and the main building of the Reichstag.
3. Congratulating with the victory won, I commend all the men, sergeants, officers and generals of the 171st and the 150th Rifle Divisions and the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major-General Perevertkin, who personally directed the fighting for the daring they displayed, and skilful and successful fulfilment of their combat mission. The privates, sergeants, officers and generals who won particular distinction in the fighting for the Reichstag will be selected for government awards by the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army.
4. The hour of the final victory over the enemy is nearing. The Soviet flag is already flying over the main building of the Reichstag in the centre of Berlin.
‘Comrade soldiers, sergeants, officers and generals of the 1st Belorussian Front! Forward against the enemy – with our last swift blow let us finish off the Nazi beast in its lair and bring the hour nearer of final and complete victory over Nazi Germany.
‘The order is to be read in all companies, squadrons and batteries of the front’
Stirring words. However, raising the banner of victory did not in itself signal the end of the battle, as substantial numbers of German troops still held out in the basement. With complete victory over Hitler’s Germany imminent, the decision was made to sit on the German defenders holed up in the basement and wait until they inevitably saw sense and surrendered.
Chapter Ten
Surrender
The suicide of Adolf Hitler left Goebbels as the senior political figure in Berlin. On his authority, plans for a break-out were cancelled and General Weidling was summoned to the bunker. After a difficult journey across Berlin’s moonscape, Weidling arrived at the bunker where he was met by Goebbels, Bormann and General Krebs. Soon after, he was notified of Hitler’s death which was for the time being to remain a secret pending negotiations with the Soviet forces in Berlin. The main thrust of these negotiations would be to buy time in order to bring Hitler’s political testament into force by means of Soviet recognition of the new Doenitz administration.
Lieutenant-Colonel Seifert (commanding Sector Z of the Berlin defence zone) was empowered by Goebbels to to make contact with the Soviet command in Berlin in order to make arrangements for General Krebs to discuss a request for an armistice. At 23.30hrs Seifert crossed the suspension bridge over the Landwehr Canal, carrying with him a packet containing papers for the attention of the Soviet command. Seifert explained his mission to Lieutenant-General V.A. Glazunov (commander of 14th Corps). Wasting no time, Glazunov contacted General Chuikov to inform him of this startling development. Chuikov had been enjoying a rare moment of relaxation in the company of the war correspondents Vsevolod Vishnevsky and Konstantin Simonov, the poet Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky and the composers Tikhon Khrennikov and Matvei Blanter when the call came. He instantly recognised the importance of this historic development, issuing orders for a ceasefire in the sector designated for the German envoys to cross. Chuikov set off for his command post, and once there, waited. As he did so, he ruminated on the past:
Through my mind flash recollections of days and nights of battle from all four years of the war. Episodes then lived through pass before my eyes. There it lies, our Volga, distant now yet at the same time so close; over it spreads the burning petroleum, and the raging flames devour everything – barges, timber, boats… There are Goebbels’ propaganda leaflets, in which the Nazi’s threatened that they would treat as deserters all those who did not surrender on the west bank of the Volga, and list as wilful deserters all those who crossed to the east bank… There is Zaporozhye and its capture by night. There is Nikopol, Odessa, Lublin, Lodz… And finally, Berlin. Having fought for and held the sacred ground by the Volga, our warriors have come to the Spree. Now, our arms lowered for the time being, we await envoys who will parley in the name of the Wehrmacht’s leaders – of those same men who not only dreamt of a speedy end to the Soviet state, but were sure they would achieve it. Envoys coming to parley for the leaders of the Third Reich. Were they perhaps imagining, those leaders, that our memories were short, and that we had already forgotten the millions of dead, the tens of millions of widows and orphans?
The waiting played on the nerves of Chuikov who chain-smoked whilst pacing back and forth around his gloomy command post. As it approached 03.30hrs, the tension heightened even further. In Berlin it was still dark, whilst in Moscow, celebrations for May Day had already begun.
Finally, at 03.50hrs, General Krebs arrived, accompanied by a Latvian SS officer named Neilands. Krebs had no need of an interpreter as he spoke good Russian. However, he chose to take Neilands with him in order to give himself extra thinking time during the negotiations. Krebs began the talks without any preamble (nor formal introductions). The first phase of the talks proceeded as follows:
Krebs: I shall speak of exceptionally secret matters. You are the first foreigner to whom I give the information that on 30 April Hitler passed from us of his own will, ending his life.
Chuikov: We know that.
Krebs: According to the Fuhrer’s testament… (reads from document). The aim of this declaration – to find the most favourable way out for those peoples who have borne the greatest loses in the war. The document may be passed to your command.
Chuikov: Is this document concerned with Berlin or with the whole of Germany?
Krebs: I am empowered to speak on behalf of the entire German Army. I am Goebbels’ plenipotentiary.
Chuikov: I shall report to Marshal Zhukov.
Krebs: My first question: there will be no firing during the talks?
Chuikov: You are introducing yourself in two capacities as: a military representative of an army which has been defeated; and a representative of a government which is seeking talks with my government. I am a military man and I see no other way out for your army but for it to lay down its arms forthwith, to surrender, in order that blood shall not be shed in vain. In the given situation Goebbels and Bormann are not strengthening your army or its fighting capacity. Therefore would it not be better for you and Goebbels to give orders to your troops to cease all resistance?
Krebs: There are other possibilities for ending the war. For it is essential to make possible a meeting of the new government, headed by Doenitz, which will decide this question by means of talks with the Soviet government.
Chuikov: What government can there be if your Fuhrer has ended his life and thus admitted the invalidity of the regime he headed? It may be that he leaves behind him one of his deputies, who has the right to decide whether or not there shall be further bloodshed. Who is now in Hitler’s place?
Krebs: Now Goebbels is in Hitler’s place. He has been appointed Chancellor. But before his death, Hitler created a new government, headed by Grand-Admiral Doenitz.
At this point, Chuikov contacted Marshal Zhukov with news of these developments. Zhukov in turn contacted Stalin, rousing him from the much needed sleep he required before the May Day parade. Always a man of few words, Stalin responded to the news of Hitler’s death by saying, ‘So – that’s the end of the bastard. Too bad that we did not manage to take him alive’. With regard to the negotiations, Stalin insisted on unconditional surrender.