When Zhukov Ordered The Final Attack on Berlin | WW2 Story скачать в хорошем качестве

When Zhukov Ordered The Final Attack on Berlin | WW2 Story

This narrative chronicles Marshal Georgy Zhukov's order to launch the final Soviet offensive on Berlin on April 16, 1945—the culminating operation of the Great Patriotic War that would destroy Nazi Germany and establish Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe. The story opens with 143 searchlights illuminating the pre-dawn darkness along the Seelow Heights, their beams sweeping across the battlefield to blind German defenders as over 20,000 Soviet artillery pieces began a bombardment of unprecedented intensity, consuming more ammunition in twenty minutes than the entire Red Army possessed in 1941. The assault on Seelow Heights would be the opening phase of the final offensive to capture Berlin, end the Third Reich, and conclude the European war with the Red Flag flying over the Reichstag. Stalin had summoned Zhukov and Marshal Ivan Konev to Moscow on April 1st to coordinate the offensive and make clear his expectations. Stalin was concerned Western Allied forces might reach Berlin first, denying the Soviet Union the symbolic and political victory. Stalin deliberately created competition between Zhukov and Konev by drawing the boundary between their fronts in a way allowing either to claim Berlin if they advanced quickly enough, ensuring both would drive forward with maximum speed. Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front was positioned directly east of Berlin with over 900,000 troops, 3,000 tanks, and massive artillery support giving overwhelming superiority over German defenders.