April 1945

Eastern Front

The German forces in Berlin suffer massive losses during the ferocious fighting. Potsdam station falls and Wilmersdorf is attacked. The Moltke Bridge falls to the 3rd Shock Army. Bitter fighting rages in the Interior Ministry Building and the City Hall while the Flak Towers resists all attempts at capture. Inside these massive structures hundreds of civlians lay alongside wounded soldiers while all around shells burst. Bloody battles are being fought along the Potsdammerstrasser, in Belle Allianz Platz and around the Chancellery, underneath which Hitler directs the movement of his imaginary armies. Gen Weidling, commanding the LVI Panzer Corps near the Reichstag, reports that his men are almost out of ammo and that food and water have run out. Hitler orders Weidling to fight on to the last man.

With Soviet forces just yards away, Hitler writes his last will and testament. He blames the German defeat upon the Jews and appoints Adm Karl Doenitz his successor. Even from the grave he meddles in the pointless politics of a ruined and defeated Germanly, naming the ministers of the new government. As a final act he marries Eva Braun.

The Frankfurt-Guben Group launches another desperate counterattack, this time near Beelitz while the 12th Army attacks at Belzig. The 12th is able to inflict heavy casualties upon the 4th Guards Tank Army and advances east, leading elements entering Potsdam late in the day. The attacks of the Frankfurt-Guben Group has been partially successful as minor elements link up with the 12th Near Beelitz. Over the next 2 days more than 30,000 men make a dash for the west.

The 2nd Shock Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front captures Anklam. The 49th, 70th and 65th Armies are pursuing the retreating 3rd Panzer Army and taking huge chunks of Mecklenburg as they surge forward. The battle is developing into a race to outrun the Soviets in order to surrender to the advancing British.

In Moravia the 38th Army is involved in fierce fighting at Moravska Ostrava, units breaking into the town. The 1st Guards Army moves down from the north to support the attack. As it does so the German defenses begin to collapse.