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Related Works Chapter 203 The Sorrow of Soldiers

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    At this time, Berlin was no longer a beautiful city. Its streets were narrow and filled with obstacles, ruined subways, and vehicles.  <->The house was empty and everyone hid in the basement.  Of course, the tactics adopted by the Soviet tank troops at first were not very clever and resulted in heavy casualties.  Marshal Zhukov was eager to speed up, so he directly dispatched two tank armies to attack the city, which caused a row of tanks in the middle of the street.  Even Chuikov's 8th Guards Army, which had always been proud of its brilliant street fighting record in the Battle of Stalingrad, made mistakes initially.  As a result, many Soviet tanks were destroyed, and few crew members survived.

    The war-hardened German SS simply did not believe that temporary barriers built near Berlin street corners would have any defensive effect. They knew that these vulnerable barriers would be the first targets of Soviet artillery fire.  Ambushing riflemen in attic windows or on rooftops is very effective because tanks cannot elevate their guns that high.  If there are anti-tank grenades, they can fortify themselves in cellars or basements, because anti-tank grenades fired from above are difficult to accurately strike.  Members of the Hitler Youth frantically imitated the SS, and soon those Volkssturm members who had fought in World War I and were still serving were adopting the same tactics.

    These ambushes from rooftops and cellars caused the Soviet soldiers to suffer a lot. As long as they were not careful, they would become dead bodies in an instant.  Whether it was the Hitler Youth or the Volkssturm, under the guidance of the German SS, the Soviet army began to officially regard these German auxiliary troops as German regular troops for the first time. The Soviet army re-planned them as the "German Armed Forces"  , because they were the product of Germany's "total mobilization."  Wehrmacht officers called them a "hodgepodge" because they were a mixture of "stale meat" and "green vegetables."

    The losses of the Soviet tank units, especially the tanks of the 1st Guards Tank Army, prompted the Soviet army to begin a rapid reflection on tactics.  The first "new tactic" is to deploy submachine gunners on the tank. As the tank moves, these people will attack the first window and firing hole in the front.  However, because there were so many soldiers on the tank, the tank could hardly move the turret.  They later added spring mattresses and other metal objects to the tanks to make anti-tank grenades explode earlier.  at last.  They are increasingly using heavy artillery, especially 152 and 203 mm howitzers, to destroy obstacles and buildings in open areas.  This tactic is almost the same as that of the American and British troops, using artillery to clear the way.

    The Soviet infantry mainly used Chuikov¡¯s tactics, which originated from the Battle of Stalingrad and were quickly improved after the capture of Poznan.  Chuikov first realized that "the offensive tactics of large corps in normal combat environments have no chance of winning in street fighting." This was exactly the tactic that the two group armies began to adopt.  Then, he emphasized the need to conduct precise reconnaissance of the attack of his own troops and the enemy's possible escape routes. The infantry should make full use of smoke and night cover before approaching the target thirty meters, otherwise the casualties will be alarmingly high. This is also the German *  A tactic often used by the * troops during the war.  <h1></h1>

    Chuikov¡¯s infantry tactics stipulate that 6 to 8 people should serve as the main attack group, and of course there must be reinforcement groups and reserve groups for support.  In order to cope with the German counterattack.  The attack team is mainly equipped with grenades, submachine guns, daggers and sharp bayonets to prepare for close combat.

    The reinforcements would need heavy equipment such as machine guns and anti-tank weapons, as well as sappers equipped with rifles and pickaxes in order to blow up the walls of the room. The danger was that once they opened a hole in the wall, the German soldiers would first exit through the hole.  Throw a grenade over and it explodes instantly, enough to kill or injure people around you.

    However, Soviet soldiers soon discovered that the anti-tank grenade discarded by the German Volkssturm was one of the best "side attack" weapons, and its explosive power was enough to kill anyone in the back room.

    Some members of the Soviet attack group rushed from room to room on the ground.  Some people climbed on the roof, while others rushed from one basement to another and mainly used grenades to eliminate the German soldiers ambushing nearby.  Flamethrowers were also used by the Soviets to great destructive effect.  Often after being sprayed, the German soldiers inside would escape from bunkers and cellars like a burning man, and their ending would be self-evident.

    Enter the city.  The appearance of civilians in Berlin did not have the slightest impact on the Soviet offensive. No matter how strong the crossfire or bombings were, the Soviet army simply drove the civilians from the basement into the streets at gunpoint. As for whether these people would  Killed by enemy soldiers.  The Soviet army won't care.

    Although the International Red Cross and other organizations in the West asked the Soviet Union to treat civilians with caution, these civilians were mainly the elderly, women and children.  There are also many Soviet officers who really want to forcibly evacuate all civilians.  But the urgency and pressure of combat left them no time to differentiate between civilians and military personnel.

    &nbsp; "We had no time to differentiate between civilians and military personnel," one officer said. "Sometimes we just threw a grenade into the basement and moved on."

    For the massacre of civilians in Berlin, the Soviet army's usual excuse was that German officers or soldiers were wearing civilian clothes and mixed with women and children.  However, according to civilians in Berlin, if any German officers or soldiers wanted to hide in the basement, they would not only be forced to take off their uniforms, but also throw away their weapons. Therefore, during the entire Battle of Berlin, there were almost no incidents of German troops hiding among civilians.  A real example of attacking the Soviet army in the middle and from the rear.  In fact, the German army itself was unwilling to hide behind civilians and use civilians as hostages to attack their enemies!

    Regarding the attack on Berlin, Chuikov said about the requirements for infantry tactics: "You must use a cruel house-clearing tactic against the hateful Germans, throw out the grenades in your hands, and then continue to move forward. What you need is speed, a sense of direction,  With great offensive spirit and stamina, there are bound to be surprises in combat. You might find yourself in a maze of dangerous rooms and corridors, which would be too bad. Throw a grenade in every corner and continue  Move forward. Machine-gun the remaining ceiling of the room, and when you enter another room, throw in another grenade, then use the submachine gun to strafe. Don't waste a moment."

    In fact, the experienced troops of the Soviet Army were very familiar with all this, but the young officers who had just participated in the short-term training were at a loss for this situation and did not know how to train or control their subordinates in an unfamiliar environment.  Just after the Battle of the Oder River and being ordered by Chuikov to conduct a "24-hour" continuous march, most of the Soviet frontline troops were exhausted.  Fatigue dangerously slowed the troops' reaction times: mortar fuzes were sometimes connected incorrectly, causing bombs to explode in the barrel; soldiers who attempted to use German grenades often maimed themselves and their comrades.

    Self-inflicted casualties among group armies occur even more frequently.  Although the U-2 biplane had the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance for the Soviet artillery units, as the Soviet units began to approach the city center and were about to rendezvous, the artillery and Katyusha rocket batteries supporting one army group would usually bombard the other.  Army group.

    "Damn it, it's our Katyusha! We were attacked by our own firepower!" The infantrymen cursed sadly and angrily under their own artillery.

    Because the urban environment was shrouded in thick smoke, the Soviet infantry units advanced quite quickly. Therefore, the three aviation groups under the command of Zhukov and Konev often bombed other Soviet units.  The situation was even worse in the south of the city, where the aviation regiment used to provide combat support to the 1st Ukrainian Front frequently attacked the 8th Guards Tank Army.  For this reason, Chuikov made suggestions to Zhukov and requested that "friendly" troops be withdrawn from the battlefield.

    The battle between the 8th Guards Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army to capture Tempelhof Airport lasted for most of the day on April 26.  The German Panzer Division "Muensheberg" organized a counterattack, but because there were so few tanks left, they had to fight alone, supported by infantry equipped with anti-tank grenades and members of the Hitler Youth.  Those who survived did not withdraw from the fighting until evening.

    SS-Stumbannf¨¹hrer Zalbach evacuated most of the vehicles of the "Nordland" reconnaissance battalion to the Anhalt station. All other armored vehicles of the division, including "Hermann von Schur"  Eight "Tiger" tanks of the "Tiger" battalion and several attack artillery vehicles of other units were ordered to retreat to the Tiergarden area.

    The next morning began with a massive artillery bombardment.

    ¡°Poor city centre,¡± a woman in the Prenzlauer Berg district wrote in her diary as the rumble of artillery fire faded away.

    Teal Gardens was particularly badly bombed and was almost turned upside down by artillery fire. It seems hard to imagine that it was once a favorite playground for children.

    Chuikov and Katukov ordered their troops to continue to advance towards Anhalt Station, which served as the operational dividing line between the two fronts.  Ironically, the Place des Allies de Bellet, named after the Battle of Waterloo, is now defended by French SS volunteers.  The competition between Zhukov's troops and Konev has heated up, but both sides are trying to hide this with light-hearted jokes.  <h1></h1>

    "What we fear now should not be the enemy troops, but our friendly neighboring troops." One of Chuikov's army commanders said to Wesley Grossman, "I have ordered the use of burned tanks to block the friendly neighboring troops.  Arriving at the Reichstag. There was nothing more depressing for us in Berlin than hearing the news of the victory of our friendly forces."

    Chuikov did not take this problem so lightly. Over the next two days, he quickly inserted his left wing troops in front of the 3rd Guards Tank Army to divert the latter from its route to the Reichstag.  He did not even inform Rybalko of the news, which undoubtedly made a large number of his troops unnecessary victims of artillery shells and rockets from the First Front.  (To be continued.)

    ??Directions to the Capitol Building.  He did not even inform Rybalko of the news, which undoubtedly made a large number of his troops unnecessary victims of artillery shells and rockets from the First Front.  (To be continued.)

    ??
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