Paths of Vengeance ETO (id:#67402)

(ASL Journal #17 ID: J282)   [next]   [previous]

Berlin, Germany 1945-04-28 (34 others)

No balance information available

Overview:

Late in the day of 26 April, elements of 29th Guards Rifle Corps, 8th Guards Army, 1st Belorussian Front broke through the central defense line around Hermann Bahnhof, captured Tempelhof Airport, and by the end of day were fighting in the city blocks northwest of the airport. On the following day, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, commander of the Front, ordered elements of 8th Guards Army to move west with the intent of crossing the boundary between his Front and that of 1st Ukrainian Front commanded by Marshal Ivan Konev. This action was specifically intended to impede Konev's forces from easily crossing the Landwehr Canal, denying them the ability to directly assault the Reichstag. Leading the 8th Guards Army assault on the Anhalt er Bahnhof were elements of 82nd Guards Rifle Division under the command of Major General Mikhail Ilich Duka. By 1500 hours, the forward elements of 242nd Guards Rifle Regiment, advancing on the division's right flank, reached the intersection of the Wartenbergstraße and the Mockernstraße. Groups armed with assault weapons crossed the latter and attempted to climb the railroad embankment but were forced to fall back due to heavy fire from the station. An attempt by the left-flank regiments to cross the railroad hub to the south around Yorckstraße was also unsuccessful. General Duka realigned the division's front to the north to force a crossing of the Landwehr Canal to its south and begin fighting for the blocks adjacent to the station from that direction. The 242nd Guards Rifle Regiment first cleared the Grossbeerenstraße to reach the canal south of Belle-Alliance-Platz where it made a difficult crossing on a broad front despite the width of the obstacle, the lack of intact bridges, and the stone and brick buildings on the north side. Artillery and tanks of the 9thTank Corps were later able to join via a bridge in the Alte Jakobstraße area. By the end of the day, parts of the 29th Guard Corps were battling for the Germans' last central defensive line along the sector from Belle-Alliance-Platz to Anhalter Bahnhof.

Defender: German/German (SS) (Kompanie III, SS-Polizei-Bataillon, and SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11, SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 "Nordland" and Kampfgruppe Müncheberg, Kriegsmarine Kampfgruppe, and SS-Füsillier Battalion 15, SS-Waffen-Grenadier-Division 15)  

Errata (source)