2nd Belorussian Front

The Battle of Berlin was one of the final battles[1] of the European Theatre of World War II. A massive Soviet army attacked Berlin from the east. The battle lasted from late April 1945 until early May. Before it was over, Adolf Hitler committed suicide, and Germany surrendered five days after the battle ended. Battle of Berlin - Background. At the start of 1945 the Eastern Front had been relatively stable s ...

Including:

• Battle of Berlin - Background
• Battle of Berlin - The East German offensive
• Battle of Berlin - Preparations
• Battle of Berlin - The battle of the Oder-Neisse
• Battle of Berlin - The encirclement of Berlin
• Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Berlin
• Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Halbe
• Battle of Berlin - Conclusion
• Battle of Berlin - Note

Read more here: » Battle of Berlin: Encyclopedia - Battle of Berlin

Marshal Georgy Zhukov was appointed commander of the 1BF for its last two great offensives of World War II. After the capture of Poland and East Prussia from January-March 1945, the Soviets redeployed their forces during the first two weeks of April. Marshal Georgy Zhukov concentrated 1BF, which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights. The 2nd Belorussian Front moved into the positions being vacated by the 1BF north of the Seelow Heights. While this redeplo ...

See also:

1st Belorussian Front, 1st Belorussian Front - Commander Zhukov, 1st Belorussian Front - Commanders, 1st Belorussian Front - Commissars, 1st Belorussian Front - Time Line, 1st Belorussian Front - 1943, 1st Belorussian Front - 1944, 1st Belorussian Front - 1945

Read more here: » 1st Belorussian Front: Encyclopedia II - 1st Belorussian Front - Commander Zhukov

On April 9, 1945 Königsberg in East Prussia finally fell to the Red Army. This freed up General Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front (2BF) to move west to the east bank of the Oder river. During the first two weeks of April the Russians performed their fastest Front redeployment of the war. General Georgy Zhukov concentrated his 1st Belorussian Front (1BF) which had been deployed along the Oder river from Frankfurt in the south to the Baltic, into an area in front of the Seelow Heights. The 2BF moved into the positions being vacated by the 1 ...

See also:

Battle of the Seelow Heights, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Buildup, Battle of the Seelow Heights - The battle, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Conclusion, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Notes

Read more here: » Battle of the Seelow Heights: Encyclopedia II - Battle of the Seelow Heights - Buildup

Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941. ██ to 9 July 1941 ██ to 1 September 1941 ██ to 9 September 1941 See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Operations

Konstantin Rokossovsky was born in the town of Velikie Luki near Pskov in northern Russia, the son of a Polish railway worker and a Russian mother. Soon after his birth the family moved to Poland (then a part of the Russian Empire) and he grew up in Warsaw. Orphaned at 14, he worked as a stonemason. Konstantin Rokossovsky - Early military career. When World War I broke out in 1914 he joined the Russian Army. Rokossovsky served as a non-commissioned officer in a dragoon regiment until the Russian Revolution ...

See also:

Konstantin Rokossovsky, Konstantin Rokossovsky - Biography, Konstantin Rokossovsky - Early military career, Konstantin Rokossovsky - Great Purge, Konstantin Rokossovsky - World War II, Konstantin Rokossovsky - Postwar, Konstantin Rokossovsky - External link

Read more here: » Konstantin Rokossovsky: Encyclopedia II - Konstantin Rokossovsky - Biography

The village was probably founded some time in 14th century. In 1390 it was acquired by the Vilnius bishopric chapter and soon became the main supplier of bricks to the nearby city. It shared the fate of the nearby city. After the Partitions of Poland in 1795 it became a part of Imperial Russia. During the November Uprising, on June 19, 1831, a Battle of Ponary took place near the village, in which the forces of Dezydery Chłapowski and Antoni Giełgu ...

See also:

Paneriai, Paneriai - History, Paneriai - Massacre

Read more here: » Paneriai: Encyclopedia II - Paneriai - History

Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941.    to 9 July 1941 See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Operations

Battle of Berlin - Preparations. The Soviet offensive into what was to become East Germany (GDR) had two objectives. Because of Stalin's suspicions about the intentions of the Western Allies to hand over territory occupied by them in the post war Soviet zone of occupation, the offensive was to be on a broad front and was to move as rapidly as possible to the west, to meet the Western Allies as far west as possible. But the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two were complementary because possession o ...

See also:

Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - Background, Battle of Berlin - The East German offensive, Battle of Berlin - Preparations, Battle of Berlin - The battle of the Oder-Neisse, Battle of Berlin - The encirclement of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Halbe, Battle of Berlin - Conclusion, Battle of Berlin - Note

Read more here: » Battle of Berlin: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Berlin - The East German offensive

The battle ended after a week of heavy fighting because the Germans ran out of men and material. The German supply dumps were located outside the outer defence line (the Inner Ring) and were captured quite early in the battle by the Soviets. In the battle for the city the Soviets lost about 2,000 armoured vehicles, in good part due to an effective shoulder-firing rocket known as a Panzerfaust, mass numbers of which were supplied to German civilians, though countermeasures such as armor and wire skirts were be ...

See also:

Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - Background, Battle of Berlin - The East German offensive, Battle of Berlin - Preparations, Battle of Berlin - The battle of the Oder-Neisse, Battle of Berlin - The encirclement of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Halbe, Battle of Berlin - Conclusion, Battle of Berlin - Note

Read more here: » Battle of Berlin: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Berlin - Conclusion

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact of August 1939 had established a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret protocol described how Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania would be divided between them. In the Polish September Campaign of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and in June 1940 the Soviet Union, threatening to use force if her demands are not fulfilled, won the diplomatic wars against Romania and three Baltic states which de jure allowed it to ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Background

The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of her war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. The Stalinist five year plans of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialization of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, the trains that shipped troops to the front were used to evacuate thousands of factories from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. The Germans could also call upon huge masses of slave labour fr ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output

(source) The Eastern Front was unparalleled for its high intensity, ferocity, and brutality. The fighting involved millions of German and Soviet troops along a broad front. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of war in World War II, with over 5 million deaths on the Axis Forces, Soviet military deaths were about 8.7 million (another 4 million Soviets died in German captivity), and civilian deaths were about 14 to 17 million. The genocidal death toll was attributed to several factors, including brutal mistreatment of POWs and captured ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

The defensive line on the Seelow Heights was the last major defensive line outside Berlin. Following April 19, the road to Berlin (90 kilometers westward) lay open. By April 23 Berlin was fully encircled and the Battle for Berlin entered its last stage. Within two weeks Hitler was dead and the war in Europe was effectively over. Following the war, Zhukov's critics claimed that he should have diverted 1BF from the main highway to Berlin, circumventing the strong German defences at Seelow Heights by way of the 1UF's route over the Neiss ...

See also:

Battle of the Seelow Heights, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Buildup, Battle of the Seelow Heights - The battle, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Conclusion, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Notes

Read more here: » Battle of the Seelow Heights: Encyclopedia II - Battle of the Seelow Heights - Conclusion

The war between Germany and the Soviet Union began on 22 June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet-occupied portion of Poland, and ended on 8 May 1945, when Germany's armed forces surrendered unconditionally following the Battle of Berlin. Germany was able to call on the manpower of three other Axis Powers - Italy, Hungary and Romania - to support them at the front and the subsequently occupied territories, with some assistance from anti-communist partisans as well as a Spanish division. The Soviet Union had help from partisans in many coun ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Overview

The Soviet victory owed a great deal to the ability of her war industry to outperform the German economy, despite the enormous loss of population and land. The Stalinist five year plans of the 1930s had resulted in the industrialization of the Urals and central Asia. In 1941, the trains that shipped troops to the front were used to evacuate thousands of factories from Belarus and Ukraine to safe areas far from the front lines. As the Soviet Union's manpower reserves ran low from 1943 onwards, the great Soviet offensives had to depend ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output

The enormous territorial gains of 1941 presented Germany with vast areas to pacify and administer. Some Soviet citizens, especially in the non-Russian republics, greeted their conquerors as liberators from Stalinist repression. But they were soon to learn that their new masters were every bit as repressive and brutal as the old. Nascent national liberation movements among Ukrainians and Cossacks, and other were viewed by Hitler with suspicion; some were co-opted into the Axis armies and others brutally suppressed. None of the conquered terri ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression

At the start of 1945 the Eastern Front had been relatively stable since August 1944 in the aftermath of Operation Bagration. Romania and Bulgaria had been forced to surrender and declare war on Germany. The Germans had lost Budapest and most of the rest of Hungary. The Polish plain was open to the Soviet Red Army. The Soviet commanders, after their inaction during the Warsaw Uprising, took Warsaw in January 1945. Over three days, on a broad front incorporating four army Fronts, the Red Army began an offensive across the Narew River an ...

See also:

Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - Background, Battle of Berlin - The East German offensive, Battle of Berlin - Preparations, Battle of Berlin - The battle of the Oder-Neisse, Battle of Berlin - The encirclement of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Berlin, Battle of Berlin - The Battle of Halbe, Battle of Berlin - Conclusion, Battle of Berlin - Note

Read more here: » Battle of Berlin: Encyclopedia II - Battle of Berlin - Background

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 had established a non-aggression agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and a secret protocol described how Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania would be divided between them. In the Polish September Campaign of 1939 the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland, and in June 1940 the Soviet Union, threatening to use force if her demands are not fulfilled, won the diplomatic wars against Romania and three Baltic states which de jure allowed it to peacefully occupy Est ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Background

The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were ideologically driven totalitarian states in which the leader had near-absolute power. The character of the war was thus determined by the leaders and their ideology to a much greater extent than in any other theatre of World War II. Adolf Hitler exercised a tight control over the war, spending much of his time in his command bunkers (most notably at Rastenburg in East Prussia, at Vinnitsa in Ukraine, and under the garden of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin). At crucial periods in the war he held d ...

See also:

Eastern Front World War II, Eastern Front World War II - Overview, Eastern Front World War II - Background, Eastern Front World War II - Operations, Eastern Front World War II - Invasion: Summer 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Moscow and Rostov: Autumn 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Soviet counter-offensive: Winter 1941, Eastern Front World War II - Don Volga and Caucasus: Summer 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Stalingrad: Winter 1942, Eastern Front World War II - Kursk: Summer 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Fall and Winter 1943, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Front in Summer 1944, Eastern Front World War II - Eastern Europe: January–March 1945, Eastern Front World War II - End of War: April–May 1945, Eastern Front World War II - Leadership, Eastern Front World War II - Occupation and repression, Eastern Front World War II - Industrial output, Eastern Front World War II - Casualties

Read more here: » Eastern Front World War II: Encyclopedia II - Eastern Front World War II - Leadership

In the early hours on April 16 the offensive began with a massive bombardment by thousands of artillery pieces, and Katyusha rockets which sustained the barrage for days. Shortly afterwards, and well before dawn, the 1BF attacked across the Oder. The 1UF attacked across the Neisse before the dawn the same morning. The 1BF was the stronger force but it had the more difficult assignment and was facing the majority of the German forces. The initial attack by the 1BF was a disaster. Heinrici and General Theodor Busse, the commander of IX ...

See also:

Battle of the Seelow Heights, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Buildup, Battle of the Seelow Heights - The battle, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Conclusion, Battle of the Seelow Heights - Notes

Read more here: » Battle of the Seelow Heights: Encyclopedia II - Battle of the Seelow Heights - The battle