Banner of Victory over Berlin.
The offensive on Berlin began on April 16 and ended on May 2 1945. For the Berlin operation the Soviet Supreme Command had concentrated a great force: 2500000 men 42000 field guns and mortars more than 6200 tanks and 7500 combat planes. Hiding out in strongly fortified underground shelters, the nazi ringleaders ordered their soldiers to stand to death. Day and night the battle was fought on land and in the air and in April 25, 1945 our troops completed the encirclement of the Berlin grouping on fascist troops… The Soviet troops took one city block after another. For ten days violent battles to shook Berlin. At down on April 30, the Soviet troops began to storm Reichstag.
At two o‘clock the Red Banner of Victory
was hoisted on that building by Soviet lieutenant Alexei Prokopevich Berest and
two sergeants Meliton Varlamovich
Kantaria and Mikhail Alexeevich Yegorov.
When the Red Banner was raised over Reichstag, it was more than the banner of military victory. It was the immortal banner of October Revolution. It was the great banner of Lenin. It was the invincible banner of socialism, the bright symbol of hope for all oppressed peoples. On the May 2 Berlin capitulated. A week later, on May 8 the German Command signed an unconditional surrender. In the course of the Berlin operation the Soviet forces routed 93 enemy divisions, captured 480000 prisoners and large quantities of weapons. After the capture of Berlin, on May 9, the Soviet troops liberated Prague. That day is celebrated in our country as Victory Day. It was a historic day for which hundreds of millions of people all over the world had waited. The Soviet Union had won a great victory over fascist Germany. And on June 24, a victory parade was held in Moscow in the Red Square. The victorious troops threw the banners if the routed nazi army to the foot of the Lenin Mausoleum. The war in Europe was over. And we can proudly say that the outcome of the Second World War was decided on the Soviet-German front. There the fascist aggressor sustained more than 70 per cent of all its losses.
