The Battle Of Berlin: April 27th 1945 – The Red Army Reaches Wilhelmstrasse

As Soviet forces moved throughout the city from district to district, breaking through defensive lines and clambering through the tenements and courtyards, the unit commanders were faced with the task of moving behind their troops and struggling to keep up with the pace of the crooked advance.

The previous day, Berlin Defence Area Commandant, General Weidling, had been forced to abandon his headquarters on Hohenzollerndamm and move to a new command post in the cellars of the Bendlerblock army buildings, south of the Tiergarten. Shortly afterwards he would have to move again to the cramped Army Signals bunker outside when a shell crashed through the floors above, causing a heavy safe to smash down into the cellar and kill a young Bund-Deutscher-Mädel girl working there as a volunteer nurse.

Hitler Youth leader, Artur Axmann would also move his headquarters from Kaiserdamm 86 in the west to Wilhelmstrasse 64 in Defence Sector Z, where he could be closer to the Nazi leader.

After taking Tempelhof airport on April 26th, Vasily Chuikov – head of the Soviet 8th Guards Army – moved his field headquarters from Johannisthal Airfield in south-eastern Berlin to a traditional Berlin apartment on Schulenburgring 2 in Tempelhof on April 27th. Previously occupied by a lady named Anni Goebbels – no relation to the Nazi party Propaganda Minister of the same name.

He would remain here until for the rest of the battle for the city – and importantly use this apartment to accept the surrender of Berlin on May 2nd.

Chuikov decided to dedicate the next 24hrs to resting his troops and consolidating the territory already taken, in preparation for crossing the Landwehr Canal. The 28th Guards Rifle Corps having established a firm base for launching the forthcoming operation by securing the areas around Nollendorfplatz and Lützowplatz – although these two squares would remain in German hands until the end of the battle of Berlin.