The Battle Of Berlin Tour
Explore what remains of this important urban battlefield with our Battle of Berlin Tour & retrace the route of the 'Race to the Reichstag'.
16 April – 2 May 1945
The Battle of Berlin 1945, day by day.
The Battle of Berlin is usually dated to the seventeen days between 16 April and 2 May 1945, when the Red Army fought its way from the Oder to the Reichstag. For the people of the city it had begun years earlier. From 1940 the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force bombed Berlin more than 350 times, and raids such as those of 22 November 1943 and 3 February 1945 stayed in Berliners' memories long after the war.
By April 1945 some 2.5 million Soviet soldiers were gathered outside the city, after a winter offensive that had carried them from the Vistula to the Oder. The defenders were vastly outnumbered. Much of the battle was decided before the Red Army reached the streets: the fight for the Seelow Heights, about 90 kilometres east of Berlin, sealed the city's fate in the first days.
What followed was the largest battle between the Allies and Germany fought on German soil. Our account follows it one day at a time, from the opening barrage on the Oder to the surrender of the city, with the commanders, the civilians and the places where it happened.
The full account, day by day, is published on our dedicated site, Battle of Berlin 1945.
Day by day
Every day of the account.
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April 16th 1945 – The Soviet Offensive BeginsOn 16 April 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front faced General Theodor Busse's 9th Army on the Seelow Heights, some 90 km east of Berlin. Zhukov had promised Stalin the battle would be over by nightfall, while Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front waited on the Neisse to the south. The fight for the 'Gates of Berlin' was about to begin.
April 17th 1945 – Zhukov Struggles To Break OutOn 17 April 1945, Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front was still stuck at the Seelow Heights, struggling through minefields and flooded ground towards the second German line, as Luftwaffe pilots flew suicide missions against the Oder bridges. Further south, Konev was having better luck. In Berlin, millions waited to learn how long the front could hold.
April 18th 1945 – Zhukov & Konev AdvanceBy 18 April 1945, Konev's tanks had crossed the Spree near Cottbus and were heading for Lübben, where Stalin's dividing line between his two Marshals simply stopped. Zhukov, 48 hours behind his own deadline, faced SS Nordland and Nederland counterattacks and the Wotan line beyond the Seelow Heights. Could Konev reach Berlin first?
April 19th 1945 – The Fight For Berlin’s Eastern ApproachesOn 19 April 1945, Zhukov's tanks surged off the Seelow Heights towards Müncheberg and Strausberg, and the 'Gates of Berlin' began to buckle. Gotthard Heinrici of Army Group Vistula faced Hitler's order to hold at all costs, while Busse's 9th Army risked encirclement. Near Prötzel, King Tigers of SS Panzer Abteilung 503 lay in wait.
April 20th 1945 – Soviet Artillery Reaches BerlinOn 20 April 1945, Hitler's 56th birthday, Göring blew up Carinhall and drove to the Reich Chancellery, Berliners queued for 'crisis rations' in fine 'Führer weather', and the Zoo lost its electricity. Hitler ordered Operation Clausewitz, turning the capital into a frontline city, as Soviet long-range guns of the 3rd Shock and 47th Armies came within range.
April 21st 1945 – Red Army Troops Reach BerlinAt 9:30am on 21 April 1945, Hitler woke in the Führerbunker to news that Soviet shells were landing on Mitte. Party officials queued for exit passes in the 'Flight of the Golden Pheasants', Sachsenhausen's prisoners were driven west on death marches, and 3,000 Hitler Youth gathered at the Olympic Stadium to meet the Red Army.
April 22nd 1945 – The Red Army Grinds Into Berlin’s SuburbsSunday 22 April 1945 was the date Stalin had set for Berlin's fall, but Zhukov's armies were only grinding into Weissensee, Pankow and Lichtenberg while Konev closed on the Teltow Canal. In the Führerbunker, Hitler spent the morning demanding news of Felix Steiner's relief attack. North of the city, Soviet and Polish troops neared Sachsenhausen.
April 23rd 1945 – Stalin Changes The PlanOn 23 April 1945, General Helmuth Weidling was summoned to the Führerbunker at 6pm to answer charges of defeatism, and possibly face execution. At 4am that day Stalin had moved the boundary between Zhukov and Konev to the Anhalter Bahnhof, within reach of the Reichstag. In Bavaria, Hermann Göring was weighing a telegram to Hitler.
April 24th 1945 – The Red Army Reaches The S-Bahn RingOn 24 April 1945, Helmuth Weidling became the third commander of the Berlin Defence Area in two days, with about 45,000 soldiers and 40,000 Volkssturm men spread across eight sectors. Konev opened his assault over the Teltow Canal at 6am, Zhukov's 5th Shock Army pressed towards the S-Bahn ring, and Busse's 9th Army fought on in the Spree Forest.
April 25th 1945 – Berlin Is Encircled & The Allies MeetOn 25 April 1945, Zhukov's and Konev's Fronts converged on the small Havel town of Ketzin, west of Berlin, while Soviet and American troops closed on the Elbe near Torgau. Busse's 9th Army was trapped in the Halbe Pocket, and in Dahlem NKVD agents swarmed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in search of uranium.
April 26th 1945 – The Red Army Takes TempelhofEarly on 26 April 1945 a thunderstorm broke over Berlin as Chuikov's 8th Guards Army fought for Tempelhof airport against the remnants of the Müncheberg Panzer Division. Hanna Reitsch flew Ritter von Greim towards the Führerbunker, Red Army soldiers entered the U-Bahn tunnels, and Zhukov's tanks pushed into ground Stalin had allotted to Konev.
April 27th 1945 – The Red Army Reaches WilhelmstrasseOn 27 April 1945, captured tanks covered in swastikas led a Soviet column towards the Reich Chancellery, as SS General Mohnke placed howitzers on Gendarmenmarkt and Pariser Platz. The defenders were squeezed into a corridor ten miles long, Konev still eyed the Reichstag, and in the Führerbunker Hitler asked where Hermann Fegelein had gone.
April 28th 1945 – Stalin Redraws The BattlelinesOn 28 April 1945, Luftwaffe ace Hans Rudel circled a burning Berlin but could not land, and men of the 79th Rifle Corps glimpsed the Reichstag through the smoke from Alt Moabit. The question of who would take it, Zhukov or Konev, came before Stalin once more, while Wenck's cadet divisions made a last push from the south-west.
April 29th 1945 – The Assault On The ReichstagIn the early hours of 29 April 1945, Hitler married Eva Braun in the Führerbunker and dictated his political testament to Traudl Junge. Outside, the 79th Rifle Corps attacked across the Moltkebrücke towards the 'Himmler House' and the Reichstag, Chuikov's men readied to cross the Landwehr Canal, and Weidling reckoned he had 48 hours left.
April 30th 1945 – The Red Banner Flies HighOn 30 April 1945, Weidling warned Hitler that his defenders would run out of ammunition by evening, and in the Führerbunker the Nazi leader summoned Bormann, Günsche and Kempka. Across the Königsplatz, three Soviet rifle divisions threw themselves at the Reichstag, while Zhukov sent Moscow a report of its capture that was not yet true.
May 1st 1945 – The Storming Of The ZitadelleAt around 3:30am on 1 May 1945, General Hans Krebs reached Chuikov's headquarters at Schulenburgring to ask for a ceasefire, carrying news from the Führerbunker. While Moscow paraded for May Day, Soviet assault groups fought through the Zitadelle, from the State Opera to Unter den Linden, and in the bunker Joseph Goebbels weighed Chuikov's terms.
May 2nd 1945 – The End Of Nazi BerlinAt 8:30am on 2 May 1945, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts met on Savignyplatz in Charlottenburg. General Helmuth Weidling, last commander of the Berlin Defence Area, sat down at Chuikov's headquarters to decide the fate of the city's remaining defenders, as SS men fled towards Potsdam and SMERSH began searching for Hitler's body.
November 22nd 1943On the evening of 22 November 1943, more than 700 RAF Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos descended on Berlin from the west, carrying a record tonnage for a raid on any capital city. Beneath them lay the Tiergarten, Unter den Linden and Albert Speer's war ministry. Arthur Harris believed this campaign could cost Germany the war.Explore in person
Walk the ground with a historian.
Our Battle of Berlin Tour follows the race to the Reichstag through the government quarter and the site of Hitler's Führerbunker.
Go deeper
More on our history websites.
Battle of Berlin 1945Battle of Berlin 1945 The battle reconstructed day by day, from the Oder to the surrender of the city.Battle of Berlin 1945The Battle of Berlin map on Battle of Berlin 1945 Follows the front lines across the city and its approaches.Battle of Berlin 1945Battle of Berlin on this day on Battle of Berlin 1945 Shows what happened on each date of the battle.