35002 LAST BATTLE OF BERLIN 2

The Battle of Berlin, or the Battle of Berlin, is the last World War II land battle to be fought in Europe. Its main goal was to seize the capital of the Third Reich by the Red Army and thus bring the end of hostilities. This gigantic battle began on April 16, 1945 and ended on May 9 of the same year. It is estimated that about 750,000 people on the German side took part in it. soldiers, 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns and approx. 2.2 thousand. aircraft. About 2.5 million fought on the Soviet side. soldiers, 6.3 thousand tanks and assault guns and approx. 7.5 thousand. aircraft. The Red Army also concentrated an incredible number of around 42,000 for this operation. cannon and mortars! The beginning of the operation began with the battles for the Seelow heights and the battles at Halbe. Soviet troops approached Berlin within a few days of starting the operation, starting bloody and heavy street fighting. Finally, the battle ended in a complete victory for the USSR, symbolized by both the suicide of Adolf Hitler on April 30, 1945 and the planting of the Soviet banner on the Reichstag. It is worth adding that Polish troops operating as part of the 1st Polish Army also took part in the operation.The beginning of the development of German self-propelled artillery can be considered in the mid-1930s, when the concept of creating an assault gun (German: Sturmgeschütz - in short StuG ) intended to support the offensive activities of the German infantry. Very often the author of this idea is considered to be the later field marshal Erich von Manstein. The first prototypes of such vehicles were created in 1937, and when they entered mass production, they received the designation StuG III. They were used for the first time during the French campaign in 1940. In the course of this campaign, the Bison guns (sometimes referred to as Sturmpanzer I) were also used, i.e. the 150 mm sIG guns mounted on the Panzer I chassis. During the further part of World War II, the German army introduced more and more perfect self-propelled guns on a large scale. The armored and mechanized units were equipped with vehicles such as the Wespe or the very successful Hummel, which allowed for a significant improvement in the mobility of artillery in these units. The StuG III carts were also developed and the StuG IV cart was introduced to production. At the end of the war, a small number of Sturmtiger vehicles armed with a 380 mm rocket mortar appeared.