Soviet Conquest: Berlin 1945

Chapter 4 Battle Comrades ^{By Army-General Stanislav Poplavski}

Born in the Ukraine of Polish parents, Poplavski was conscripted into the Soviet Army in 1923 and promoted sergeant upon completion of basic training a year later. He later graduated in the top ten from the Military School for Red Cadres, where he remained as a major and instructor in general tactics and the Polish language. In mid-1940 he was posted as chief of staff to the 720th Regiment.

When the Germans attacked and his regimental commander was wounded, Poplavski took over the command and was later awarded the Order of the Red Banner before being posted as chief of staff to the newly raised 363rd Rifle Division; shortly afterwards he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. In January 1943 Poplavski was appointed commander of the 185th Rifle Division of the 29th Army, six months later becoming commander of the 45th Rifle Corps. In October 1943 he watched the newly raised Polish Kosciuszko Division going into action for the first time near Lenino. At the end of August 1944 he was summoned to Moscow and transferred to the Polish Army.

The Polish Army raised by the Soviets consisted in fact almost entirely of Soviet citizens except for those young Poles who had reached military age during the war.

Poplavski continued to serve with the Polish Army until his retirement in 1956, when he returned to Moscow, as did several of his compatriots who had served in the Polish Army while retaining Soviet citizenship.

On the afternoon of the 5th April I was summoned to the telephone. I was still thinking about the tactical exercises that I had been going through with the 3rd Division, from which I had just returned to Greifenberg [Pomerania].

I recognised the well-known voice of Colonel-General Malinin. ‘What is your army doing?’ As I knew that headquarters did not like long accounts, I replied briefly. Malinin listened to me and then posed the question: ‘And what do your soldiers think about Berlin?’ I got up from my chair. ‘All our soldiers and officers are waiting impatiently for the order to attack Berlin!’

This impatience, which was also apparent from my voice, seemed to impress the Front chief of staff. Jokingly he remarked: ‘And I thought that you enjoyed doing coastal defence.’ Then in a serious tone he went on: ‘Orders are on their way to you. From them you will see your next task.’

I immediately summoned my staff officers and our new chief of staff, Rotkievicz. They came apprehensively, not realising that I was hiding my overwhelming delight. Eventually I said solemnly: ‘Friends, I have invited you to give you some highly unpleasant news. The Polish Army will be participating in the Berlin operation!’ A roar of sheer delight erupted.

On the same day I was summoned to a conference at Front headquarters. There I learned that our army would be part of a group on the right flank of the 1st Byelorussian Front that would be conducting a secondary thrust. On the premise that one could expect a three-day training course for the army commanders, the fighting tasks of the various formations were discussed. This concerned cooperation during the attack, and possible variations in the conduct of the battle.

After returning to Greifenberg, I first went to visit the Polish airmen. The 4th Mixed Air Division under Colonel Romeyko was located on the airfields in the Märkisch–Friedland area, and the preparations for the Berlin operation were already in full swing. From early until late intensive fighting training for all personnel was under way.

In the name of the government of the People’s Republic of Poland, I decorated those who had conducted themselves especially well in the previous fighting. Most of them were Poles who had come from the Soviet Union. There were also younger Air Force members that had come directly from Poland, and felt themselves closely connected with the ‘veterans’. The whole Polish Army already knew about these young experts who flew machines bearing the Polish national emblem. There were also those to whom I gave fighting decorations. Next to them stood their loyal companions, the Polish technicians, who set an example in air safety.

Back in Greifenberg I immediately dealt with a difficult problem: the regrouping of the Polish troops on the right flank of the 1st Byelorussian Front. To be precise, within six days (8th–13th April) we had to conduct a march of 200 kilometres and concentrate in the Königsberg area. The redeployment had to be conducted secretly, so only night marches were envisaged.

According to the operational plan, the 1st Polish Army and the 61st Army, with which we had cooperated in the liberation of Warsaw, had the task of expanding the breakthrough by the Front’s main forces and simultaneously securing it against a possible counterattack from the north. The 1st Byelorussian Front had already gone on the offensive on the 16th April, while the 2nd Byelorussian Front further right would attack four days later. The enemy could use this opportunity to transfer strong reserves to strike the main body of Soviet troops in the flank.

The regiments moved in accordance with the timetable to the south-west. At night I drove along the roads where the 3rd, 4th and 6th Divisions were marching. Discipline and order were being strongly adhered to by them, as were the camouflage instructions. The columns only used the right-hand side of the roads, leaving the left-hand side available to traffic in the opposite direction.

The following night I inspected the cavalry brigade. For the first time they were conducting their move by horse, the Uhlans sitting well on their horses. Not for nothing were the Poles known as born cavalrymen. The remainder of the night I spent in Stargard so that early in the morning I could call on the 77th Rifle Corps, which was to relieve us. I was just about to leave when I saw a Soviet general in the neighbouring yard. He recognised me, and I went towards him, and in fact it was an acquaintance from the academy, Stepan Kinosian. He immediately recognised me in my Polish uniform and looked me over before opening his arms for a welcoming greeting.

Kinosian was chief of staff of the 49th Army and was awaiting the arrival of Rokossovski. As I had not seen this famous army commander since 1941, and would very much like to see him again, I stayed on for a while with Kinosian.

On the road appeared several cars. In front was a big Mercedes, out of which Rokossovski climbed. Energetic and elegantly clad, he joked and laughed. I stood to one side, waiting for a suitable moment. Rokossovski had already glanced in my direction, when I finally went up to him.

‘Was that your cavalry I saw on the march?’ asked the Front commander, after I had saluted him.

‘Indeed. They are Uhlans of the 1st Independent Cavalry Brigade!’ I answered.

‘A fine brigade! Judging by their appearance, the cavalry men are not badly trained. Their bearing on the horses is exemplary, and the horses are magnificent.’

With this approving remark from the mouth of an experienced rider, and that was from Rokossovski himself, one could be really happy.

‘The Polish soldier is a good soldier,’ went on the Front commander-in-chief. ‘I am Polish myself and know the bravery of my people in war. In the liberation of Gotenhafen and Danzig the tank troops fought excellently, even though that is the youngest branch of the army. The members of the Soviet tank troops have spoken very laudably of them.’

Rokossovski was in a hurry. He wished our army success and went on to a commanders’ conference.

I hurried to get to the commander of the 77th Rifle Corps, General Posniak. I found the corps commander in Gross Wuhbiser. He too was an old acquaintance of mine, as we had both taught at the Frunze Academy before the war. But there was no time now to recall those days. I had to familiarise myself with the terrain in which my army had to engage.

We began on the right wing near Alt Rüdnitz and gradually approached the Oder. The east bank, being higher than the west bank, enabled us to overlook the enemy defences to a depth of almost 5 kilometres. We defined the actual lines of the rifle and communications trenches on the maps, as well as the situation of the firing points and the minefields.

The Fascists had had enough time to construct their positions, having been here for about three months. The open flat countryside extended up to the Alte Oder and was cut through by numerous high water dykes and road embankments. The enemy had arranged a strong anti-tank defence here, and the Oder itself, which had over-flowed its banks for almost a kilometre, formed a serious obstacle.

Then we went to the Güstebiese area to General Pozniak’s observation point. The place was especially well selected. One could see the whole of the enemy defences. Even the bridgehead that our left-hand neighbour, the 47th Soviet Army, had formed on the western bank of the Oder was visible. What interested me most was that we too had to force the river.

‘What do you think?’ I asked Posniak. ‘Is the bridgehead adequate for the 47th, at least to take a Polish division in the northern part?’

‘I think so, yes,’ replied Posniak, convincingly.

I then went to see the commander-in-chief of the 47th Army, General Perchorovitch, but he was afraid that our troops would cramp his own regiments.

I was obliged to take my concern straight to Marshal Zhukov. Perchorovitch then showed himself agreeable. He said that he was ready to take not one but two Polish divisions in the bridgehead. Later other elements were also deployed there.

Hardly anyone doubted any more that approaching catastrophe awaited Fascist Germany. Even Hitler concerned himself with winning time in the hope of at least evolving a separate agreement with the Western Allies, so that the Anglo-American troops would occupy the greater part of Germany, including Berlin.

Influential Anglo-American circles did not balk at breaching the Yalta Conference agreements. Germany’s unconditional surrender and the shared occupation of its territory – especially Berlin – by the Red Army did not correspond with their political views. According to the decisions of the Yalta Conference, there was a demarcation line between the Soviet and Anglo-American troops. But on the 2nd February 1945 Churchill informed Eisenhower by telegram that ‘I regard it especially important that we meet as far east as possible.’ The British standpoint in this matter was emphasised by the English military historian Fuller with brazen openness as follows: ‘… for the Americans and British lies the only possibility of saving what remains of middle Europe by occupying Berlin before the eastern Allies can get there.’

The Fascist leaders did not neglect to exploit this convenient situation. In compliance with their hints, the German high command opened the central sector of their western front and concentrated all their efforts in the east on the defence of the Oder–Neisse River line.

I will not try to describe all the positions that the enemy erected on the Oder and Neisse Rivers. I only want to point out that this line consisted of three strongly constructed lines of defence. The enemy wanted to hold up the Soviet troops here long enough for the Anglo-Americans to be able to get to the capital of the Fascist Reich and negotiate a separate peace treaty. Altogether there were more than a million men defending the approaches to Berlin. They had more than 10,000 guns and mortars, over 1,500 tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as 3,300 aircraft.

For once and for all to put an end to Fascist Germany and simultaneously finish the intrigues about Berlin, the Soviet high command decided to conduct the Berlin operation as quickly as possible.

Also participating was the 2nd Polish Army under Divisional-General Karol Swierczevski. With its five infantry divisions, an artillery division, a tank corps, two anti-tank brigades, two self-propelled artillery regiments, an independent heavy tank regiment as well as other elements, it was a powerful, well equipped operational formation. It would be superfluous to say that it was the Soviet Union that had equipped these troops with modern weapons. During the war the People’s Poland had the following equipment at its disposal: 302,994 rifles and carbines, 106,531 machine-pistols, 18,799 light and heavy machine-guns, 6,768 anti-tank rifles, 4,806 mortars and 3,898 guns. 630 aircraft were handed over to the Air Force. A tank corps and two independent tank brigades were equipped for the Polish armed forces.

Up to the 9th April the 2nd Army was concentrated north of Bunzlau. It came under the 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in a thrust on Dresden.

Two German infantry divisions defended the strip to be attacked by the 1st Polish Army. One of them – the 5th Light Division – had been torn apart by us in Pomerania, but here it had been necessarily replenished. We first had to deal with the 606th Infantry Division. Apart from this, reconnaissance in the Wriezen area had established the presence of the 5th Motorised Infantry Division and a group of tanks. The gunners had discovered about eighteen enemy artillery and mortar batteries.

The 2nd and 3rd Divisions would lead the main thrust out of the bridgehead with the 47th Army. Alongside our 1st Infantry Division, which had to force the Oder in the Christiansaue area, they would drive forward via Neurüdnitz to the Alte Oder and take the river crossings.

The first reconnaissance in force was made by the 2nd Infantry Regiment in the Zäckerick area. However, it was badly prepared and ended in failure. Where the Oder had to be forced was a submerged high water dyke that the boats could not cross. Before this problem had been discovered, and a suitable position found, it was daylight. I had to reprimand the regimental commander, Sienicki, and got a deserved reproof from the Front commander-in-chief myself. But this reprimand applied to me as much as Bewziuk and Sienicki, for example. All had now understood that the crossing of the Oder had to be prepared much more carefully.

At this point the army’s sappers and bridge-building elements were operating with initiative. For the beginning of the offensive they had constructed 200 boats and arranged for the necessary equipment to be taken across the river. During the forcing of the Oder the sappers twice erected a pontoon bridge under fire, the first time south of Güstebiese and then – the same bridge again – 6 kilometres downstream. Apart from that they set up several ferry crossing points and a 200 metre long 30-ton bridge on piles. This bridge was the main traffic link for the Rear Services, not only of the 1st Polish Army, but also our right-hand neighbour, the 61st Soviet Army.

Two days remained before the attack was to begin, and during this time the idea arose of also moving the 4th Infantry Division into the bridgehead to create a stronger striking force. I consulted with Karakoz and Bordzilovski. They supported me, although the undertaking was naturally risky. If there was room for another division in the bridgehead, the density of troops would result in heavy casualties in an air attack. Colonel Romeyko assured us that his pilots would dependably cover our infantry.

So Kienevice moved his regiment to the west bank of the Oder by night, inserting them between the 2nd and 3rd Divisions. That concluded our preparations for the operation.

The War Council of the 1st Byelorussian Front addressed an appeal to the soldiers and officers of the 1st Polish Army in which was said among other things: ‘Through your famous victories you have won the right of participating in the attack on Berlin with your sweat and blood. Fulfil your fighting tasks, brave fighters, with your usual decisiveness and dexterity, with honour and fame. Upon you depends that with a mighty attack you will break through the last enemy defensive positions and destroy them. To Berlin!’

On the 14th and 15th April the Front’s various armies carried out powerful reconnaissances. This confused the enemy. A captured officer made the following statement: ‘At first one thought that the attack would begin on the 14th April, then one estimated the 15th April. Finally one was convinced that the Soviet troops had actually postponed their attack.’

The change in the weather may have contributed to this conclusion. Thick fog lay over the ground and the bed of the Oder River was completely covered. Karakoz and I did not leave the command post all night. There was already enough excitement, and now came the bitter blow played by the weather!

But finally it took pity on us. At dawn on the 16th April a fresh wind arose and the fog dispersed. Before daybreak the thunder of the guns announced that the 1st Byelorussian Front had begun the Berlin operation. Following a half-hour artillery preparation, the 1st Polish Army went into the attack at 0615 hours.

It seemed as if the enemy had never and nowhere defended themselves so bitterly as at the Oder. From the start our troops had to repel one counterattack after another. Nevertheless they still broke through the enemy defence and advanced 5 or 6 kilometres. In doing so the 1st Division remained somewhat behind the other units. It had to cross the river fighting. A small gap opened between our army and the 61st Army, and the 1st Division had to keep an eye on their right flank the whole time. Under these circumstances I placed the 6th Infantry Division in the gap during the night leading to the 17th April and ordered it to secure the Army against thrusts from the north. Communications with the divisions worked well and the reports on the progress of the fighting arrived at the command post on time.

The 3rd Infantry Division had the greatest success, its commander, Zaikovski, having been promoted brigadier-general meanwhile. Its units advanced 7 kilometres and took Altwriezen, Altmädewitz and Neukietz, the regiment on the left flank reaching the northern edge of Wriezen.

Members of the 47th Army had already penetrated the town from the south. In order to speed things up, I had the 4th Infantry Division drive into the sector between Zaikovski’s division and the 47th Army. The enemy now gave up Wriezen and quickly withdrew his units, our troops hard on his heels.

Once the 5th Light Division had been driven back to the Alte Oder, our units made an advance of 15 kilometres. Then they came up against a new enemy, a training formation thrown against us, the 156th Infantry Division. Once our units had repulsed six of their counterattacks one after the other, they advanced a further 10 kilometres and reached the line Trampe–Danewitz–Schmetzdorf.

The gap between us and the 47th Army was now almost 10 kilometres, so the Front introduced the 7th Guards Cavalry Corps at this juncture. As the situation consolidated straight away, it was possible to increase the speed of attack.

Late on the evening of the 20th April our Army and the 61st Army resumed the attack. I let fresh forces – the 6th Infantry Division and the cavalry brigade – into the attack. This developed immediately. Towards noon on the 23rd April, our units, in close collaboration with the Soviet cavalry, forced the Oder–Havel Canal in the Oranienburg area and hit the 3rd Naval Division that the enemy had hastily thrown in here from other sectors of the front.

The Army headquarters crossed over to Birkenwerder, an idyllic corner. Surrounded by woods, the whole place was submerged in greenery. The first flowers of spring adorned the gardens of fine-looking villas. Everything invited rest and recuperation, but that was not for us. We soon moved the headquarters on to another place.

Immediately before leaving, three German workers approached us. I invited them inside a house and offered them Havana cigars that we had captured. Each one gratefully took a cigar, but did not light them, pocketing them instead. The visitors had come to thank us for their liberation. The oldest – he must have been well into his sixties – affirmed that they greeted the defeat of Fascist Germany with all their hearts. ‘I am a Communist,’ he said, ‘and these two are both partyless Anti-Fascists. Threatened with death, we have had to hide ourselves. Your victory has given us the opportunity to breathe freely again.’

‘And what do the other workers of Birkenwerder think?’ I asked.

‘The whole population is frightened by Goebbels’ propaganda, but many are gradually beginning to understand that you are bringing us peace, progress and democracy, of which, General, you may be convinced.’

The words of the German workers sounded sincere and strengthened my hope that the fate of future Germany would lie in the hands of such Anti-Fascists. The German Communist gave me a tobacco pipe that I still have today.

I told Jaroszevic about the encounter with the German workers. He was also of the view that the German population would recognise the deceitfulness of the Fascist propaganda more every day.

And so it happened. Gradually the ice in the relationships between the population and our troops began to melt. The people were more communicative. They chatted with the soldiers more often, and asked questions about Poland and the Soviet Union. They offered their help in repairing the roads and crossing places. Children and old folk lined up at the field kitchens with eating utensils in their hands.

On the 24th April the units of our army, which had advanced 80 kilometres fighting, had reached the line Kremmen–Flatow–Börnicke–Nauen and had gone onto the defensive as instructed. They had to cover the right flank of the Front’s main group, which was completing the encirclement of Berlin.

Already the next day it became obvious that the enemy had in no way been beaten. At daybreak elements of the 25th Motorised Infantry, the 3rd Naval and the 4th Police Divisions undertook a counterattack. Especially strong was the pressure on the junction between the 5th and 6th Polish Infantry Regiments. The regiments were unable to stand the pressure and withdrew 3 kilometres. In doing so the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, Colonel Surzyc, made a mistake, enabling the enemy to make a small bridgehead on the south bank of the Ruppiner Canal.

The attackers were stopped thanks to the heroism and resourcefulness of the gunners of the 2nd Howitzer Brigade under Colonel Wikientiev and the anti-tank brigade of Colonel Dejniechovski firing at point-blank range.

In the end we needed two days to clear the area of the enemy. Surzyc’s failure had cost us dear. Certainly he was a young commander and took the failure to heart, as also did Rotkievicz, who had commanded this division shortly before.

We established ourselves temporarily on a 40 kilometre wide sector and prepared for a thrust towards the Elbe River, the Army headquarters moving to Marwitz.

On the way to Paaren, where the operational staff were located, we came across Ribbentrop’s country mansion. It lay in a thick wood of ancient oak and beech trees on a picturesque lake. A high iron fence shielded it from the outside world. Within the mansion was an underground bunker reached by a lift with upholstered walls and benches.

I visited room after room fully astounded over the unusual luxury, cut across the sports room with wall bars and rings, and looked at the treatment room with its most modern medical apparatus and the air conditioning engine room. I looked at the expensive crockery, crystal vessels, weapons and hunting trophies, and thought of the Goebbels-like pomposity that I had seen from afar as I drove past Lanke. There, rising above a lake before a background of a cloudless sky, and particularly picturesque to look at, stood a still more luxurious palace than Ribbentrop’s, the summer residence of the Fascist Reichs Minister for Propaganda, with its turrets and much ornamentation.

In view of all this luxury in which the Fascists criminals lived, I had to think of the sea of blood and tears that had accompanied their rule. I instinctively thought of the many death camps that we were liberating every day.

Imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen Camp near Oranienburg were people from various European countries and German Anti-Fascists. There were many Polish girls among the prisoners. The Fascists had carried them off as forced labourers in the armaments industry, putting them behind barbed wire for the slightest offence.

In one barrack block languished a Spaniard who had been incarcerated in Fascist torture chambers for almost five years. He looked as if he was over seventy, and was so weak that he could not even speak. Fellow sufferers gave his name: Largo Caballero, former prime minister of Republican Spain. Largo Caballero was immediately taken to the medical battalion of the Kosciuszko Division, where doctors and nurses tended him day and night. When I was able to get away from my work for a little I went to see him. Caballero was already getting better and he told me about the last days of the fighting against Franco, how he had fallen into the hands of his enemies in France and how the Fascists had mocked and abused him. Once restored to health, Largo Caballero was flown to Moscow.

On the 23rd April a group of political workers who had visited Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp sent me a written report. Although this was not the first statistical report about cruelty and death that I got to read, it made my blood cold. There had been about 200,000 prisoners in the camp. They were weak from hunger and exhausted by sickness, having been forced to work fifteen hours a day, beaten with whips and kicks. Dogs were set on them, and they were shot and hanged. The army’s political apparatus saw to it that these deeds, these bestial acts of Fascism, were brought to the attention of all elements of the troops.

On the 27th April the 1st Polish Army and its neighbour took part in the war for the last time along the Rhin Canal. The heavy fighting lasted until the 30th April.

The XXXXII Panzer Corps tried to assert itself against all logic and reason. Prisoners said that the losses in men and equipment in the units amounted to 70 per cent. One German officer declared despondently: ‘This counterattack was the last. There are no longer sufficient forces to hold out.’

And in reality the Fascists withered away. Our divisions conquered Fehrbellin, Hern, Landin, Strohdene and many other places. The last enemy troops withdrawing towards the Elbe River in our sector were defeated.

The following episode is reported here. On their retreat the Fascists had blown the bridge west of Rhinow. Tanks and guns were jammed together [waiting to cross]. The sappers had not arrived in time on this occasion.

I climbed into my car and went to the bridge. Its metal girders had been thrown from the central pillars by the explosion, but their ends were still fast in the embankment, forming a deep saddle, whose lower part hung in the water. How could one sort this out? I looked around. Wooden beams were stacked on the river bank. The thought hit me: fill the saddle with the beams! With the help of some soldiers I carried the first beam across. The tank soldiers assembled on the bank understood me without a word. They immediately joined in and soon the crossing point was ready. The convoy of vehicles moved off.

Meanwhile the Fascist command hastened to get the remainder of their troops across the Elbe. They stuck to their intention of rather being prisoners of the Americans or British than the Russians, but we got ahead of them first and pushed them out of the way.

The 1st May had arrived with a clear, sunny morning. There were no clouds to be seen. As usual, I was up very early. Suddenly my adjutant, Captain Huszcza, entered the room. ‘General Zymierski has arrived.’

Buckling my belt, I hastened to meet him.

The commander-in-chief listened attentively to my report on the fighting by the 1st Polish Army, checking with his hand on the map the situation of every formation and unit. Afterwards he summoned the divisional commanders and wished them well on the 1st May. He had them pass on to the regiments his thanks for having conducted their military duties so selflessly. Then we drove to the 4th Infantry Division, whose allocated tanks were already over the canal.

The commander-in-chief stopped at the front line in the soldiers’ trenches, at the battalion command posts and the artillery’s firing positions. Everywhere he spoke to the soldiers and officers about the fighting and the future of Poland. It was the 2nd May by the time we returned to army headquarters. Captain Huszcza was waiting for me on the doorstep. He gave me a radio message. I looked at him and my breath stopped. Rola-Zymierski noticed this and asked me with a concerned voice: ‘Has something happened?’

‘Berlin has capitulated!’ I said, inwardly excited.

Officially the surrender of Berlin had yet to be confirmed, but the historically important event was already being discussed by the troops. Everyone was certain that the war could end any day. And we were proud that Polish soldiers had participated in the defeat of the enemy’s Berlin group.

The 1st Infantry Division ‘Tadeusz Kosciuszko’ – pride and ornament of the Polish armed forces – fought in Berlin during the last days of the war. Already on the 29th April the Front commander-in-chief had called me at an unusual hour, about 1500 hours, and asked for a situation report. I usually reported to him at 1800 hours. As I reported to Zhukov what positions the troops had taken at 1300 hours, he interrupted me with the question: ‘How is that, Stanislav Hilarovicz? Don’t you still want to partake in the storming of Berlin?’

‘We having been waiting impatiently for such an order to arrive from you, Georgi Konstantinovitch. We are ready to undertake this honourable task,’ I replied, moved and hopeful.

‘Which division would you deploy?’

‘The 1st Infantry Division, the Kosciuszko Division!’

‘I approve your choice’, the Marshal said, ‘See to it that a regiment of this division is moved immediately to the Reinickendorf area, where it is to be at the disposal of the commander-in-chief of the 2nd Guards Tank Army. The remaining elements must be there by 1800 hours on the 30th April. The Kosciuszko Division’s sector will be taken over by the 61st Army. General Belov has already been informed.’

From these words I gathered that the participation of the Polish division in the assault on Berlin was already decided. Yes, we ourselves had already more than once disturbed the Front commander and his member of the war council, Lieutenant-General Telegin, with this matter. Thus had our request been met.

Rotkiewicz then set to preparing the appropriate orders, whilst I discussed with Jaroszewicz the significance of this event to our army. We were agreed that the participation of the Kosciuszko Division in the storming of the Fascist capital was a perfect example of the brotherhood in arms of the Polish and Soviet peoples and their armed forces that must be valued.

‘Should one not prepare and distribute a pamphlet appealing to the soldiers of the 1st Division?’ suggested Jaroszewicz.

‘Not a bad idea,’ I agreed. ‘The division’s political department can deal with it.’

Early next morning I drove to the 1st Infantry Division to assist with the move of the regiment and wish the soldiers and officers success in the forthcoming operation. The units were already in the trucks provided by Zukanov’s soldiers, and the political department’s assistants were bringing them what they had printed on freshly coloured leaflets. I still have a sample today as a valuable momento. The text read:

The soldiers read the pamphlets several times as if they wanted to learn these impressive words. Finally the column of Kosciuszko fighters moved off towards Berlin.

Next, the 3rd Regiment took up the fight, attacking from the Charlottenburger Chaussee. To the right of it operated the division’s 2nd Regiment and to its left the 12th Soviet Tank Corps. The tanks had already penetrated as far as the Englische Strasse area, but individual enemy groups remained in their rear trying to stop fuel and ammunition supplies. Now Polish troops came to the aid of the tank soldiers, battalions of Colonel Archipovicz’s 3rd Regiment. They had to fight for every building and every floor. The attacking infantry were supported by gunners. With their accurate fire they opened up the way for the infantry through the city district. Finally the Soviet tanks could be seen, fighting half-surrounded.

The tanks were topped up with fuel by the tankers brought forward and the fight was resumed after a short pause. Covered by the fire from the Soviet tanks, the Polish infantry’s assault groups entered the buildings and cleared them of the enemy.

Soldiers of the 2nd Regiment took part in the storming of a housing complex near the Landwehr Canal. The fighting did not ease off for a minute during the night. Enemy resistance was first broken towards morning as the Soviet tanks and Polish infantry appeared on Berliner Strasse. But there they were checked by a housing block in which the Fascists had established themselves. Frontal attacks brought no success, but a group of our soldiers managed to get in from the rear. They reached the first floor up a staircase and threw down grenades, causing panic among the Fascists. Now our shock troops made a resolute attack on the next building and then the whole block. Almost 200 prisoners were taken in the fighting.

The Technical High School, surrounded by barricades, was strongly defended. The Fascists covered them with the fire from guns that had been installed in neighbouring buildings. The soldiers of the 2nd Regiment were sent sappers to assist and explosives came on request.

The infantry stood beside the gunners. Often they dragged the guns after they had dismantled them – carriage, barrel and wheels – into the upper storeys of the buildings, thus becoming able to fire in retaliation over the heads of the Fascists.

The Technical High School could not be taken until the morning of the 2nd May. Afterwards the soldiers crossed the S-Bahn and railway lines and penetrated the Zoological Gardens. On the Budapester Strasse they met up with soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front who were storming Berlin from the south. It is difficult to describe the pleasure that seized the combatants at that moment. The soldiers of both brotherly connected armies clasped each other, threw their hats into the air and gave loud cheers. This was the long foreseen moment of triumph over the Fascist beast!

Nevertheless it was a little premature to celebrate victory. Soviet and Polish soldiers were still fighting in Bismarckstrasse and Schillerstrasse, where the 1st Regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Maksymczuk was attacking. It had entered the battle later than the other elements of the division and had come under strong artillery fire. The battalions deployed east of the Schloss-Strasse, which was defended by SS and Police units.

The attack of the 1st Regiment had begun here at 0300 hours on the 1st May. The soldiers pressed forward fighting on Bismarckstrasse. The artillery fired at point-blank range, the walls of buildings collapsed noisily and there was the uninterrupted fire of machine-guns and machine-pistols. The Polish soldiers attacked the German Panzerfaust men, who were waiting for the Soviet tanks with hand grenades.

The enemy was firing from a cellar with machine-guns, forcing the Polish troops to the ground. But Sergeant Levczyszyn crawled, pressed to the tarmac, to the building and threw two hand grenades into the cellar. The machine-guns fell silent. Soon the building was in the hands of the Polish soldiers. On the roof they hoisted the red-white flag, the first Polish flag over Berlin’s ruins!

And again a hail of bullets fell on the tarmac, this time from the first floor of a large corner building. The gunners came to the infantry’s help again. The advance continued.

A U-Bahn line ran under the Bismarckstrasse. The first stations could be taken relatively easily, but then came a station that the Fascists had turned into a strongpoint. Guns, machine-guns and even a tank had to be used. Lieutenant Wassenberg’s gunners assisted in the taking of this little ‘fortress’, firing at point-blank range. Under cover of their fire, the infantry forced their way into the strongpoint and the garrison had to surrender.

In the advance along Grolmannstrasse the mortar crews under platoon leader Bdych especially distinguished themselves. They dragged their weapons along the sewers in the rear of the Fascists. An unexpected barrage from the rear and a simultaneous attack from the front and the Fascist defenders of a large building complex were finished.

I quote these episodes as they show quite clearly how decisively and bravely the Polish soldiers behaved in the street fighting and thus helped the Soviet soldiers in destroying the enemy. In the storming of Berlin the members of the Kosciuszko Division had covered the weapons and flags of the Polish Army with glory.

Two regiments – the 1st and the 2nd – had engaged later in the battle than the 3rd, but were able to end it sooner. But finally also the 3rd Regiment pushed forward to the Brandenburg Gate riding on Soviet tanks. The enemy resistance was finally broken. Only occasional bursts of fire from machine-pistols here and there were still heard. That evening peace came to liberated Berlin.

Polish aircraft were also involved in the Berlin operation, including the 1st Mixed Air Corps that had arrived at the front in April 1945 with 300 combatant aircraft. The Polish high command had altogether four air divisions and three regiments of auxiliary aircraft at its disposal.

Two days before the beginning of the Berlin operation our 4th Air Division, including the technical air battalion, moved to airfields 30 kilometres north of Küstrin.

If I am not mistaken, it was on the 24th April that the commander-in-chief of the Polish Air Force, General F.P. Polynin, came to my command post. I knew him already from before the war. Later we met on the western front where he was then commanding an air army and organising air support for the ground forces. Polynin spoke very highly of the Polish airmen. For example, he particularly praised Lieutenant Bobrovski and Second-Lieutenant Lazar, who had participated in the air battles over Eberswalde, and also both Lieutenants Kalinovski and Chromy. During a reconnaissance flight they had attacked two Focke-Wulfs that were wanting to bomb our positions. Kalinovski shot one of the aircraft down, while the other one, after it had discarded its bombs, flew off.

Polynin had come with an operational team to see me in Wriezen. Among them was the chief of staff of the Polish Air Force Telnov, the chief engineer Koblikov, and other generals as well as the commander of the mixed air corps Agalzov. They occupied the command post permanently and directed the aircraft in accordance with the tasks of the infantry divisions.

From the first day on we maintained close contact with the airmen. I learned from General Polynin that an infantry division from the Steiner group had pushed forward to the Ruppiner Canal with fifty tanks with a view to making a flanking attack. Our situation on the northern bank of the canal was anyway somewhat difficult. We only had the cavalry brigade left in reserve and a redeployment of the widely spread out division would be very difficult. But we could not let the considerable forces of Steiner’s group cross over to the southern bank.

‘Can’t you deploy the air force?’ I asked General Polynin.

‘They will attack immediately!’ he replied.

I told him that I wanted to relocate Vikentiev’s howitzer brigade and Dejniechovski’s anti-tank brigade there.

The losses that the Steiner group incurred through our airmen, gunners and troops of the 2nd Infantry Division were so considerable that the planned counterstroke ended as a local counterattack.

With their attacks, the Polish airmen destroyed the enemy positions and delayed the bringing forward of his reserves into our army’s attack area. On the 29th April alone there were 237 sorties by aircraft of the 4th Air Division. In the night leading to the 30th April the 2nd Bomber Regiment attacked the enemy concentration in Fehrbellin, and in the night leading to the 1st May the Night-Bombing Regiment ‘Krakow’ attacked troops in Neustadt and Friesack. On the 2nd May the night bombers bombed the Fascists retreating from the blows of our army to Rhinow and Spaatz.

Assemblies of troops had formed in Rhinow, where several roads met, and from where ran the shortest route to the Elbe crossing points. They were subjected to intensive air attack. On the 3rd May fighter and bomber aircraft strafed the enemy columns on the roads between the Havel and the Elbe, thus destroying a large number of vehicles, extensive amounts of equipment and hundreds of soldiers.

Early on the morning of the 3rd May Rola-Zymierski and I drove to the 6th Infantry Division on the army’s right wing. Its 14th Infantry Regiment under Major Domaradzki had already crossed the Havel with improvised crossing means and reached the Elbe bank while pursuing scattered groups. The remaining regiments of the 6th Division soon followed, Colonel Szejpak being the most agile this time.

For the whole of the 4th May the commander-in-chief remained in Berlin with those elements that had participated in the storming of the city. That evening the duty officer brought us a telegram from Korczyc. The Polish Army chief of staff congratulated Rola-Zymierski on his promotion to Marshal of Poland – in other words the highest rank in the Polish Army. I was congratulated on my promotion to colonel-general.

Berlin had fallen, but the fighting at the approaches to the Elbe continued relentlessly. In the Klietz area the 4th Infantry Division encountered the resistance of strong forces defending the crossing places. A large underground explosives factory was still at work near the town. No Polish soldier was allowed in and no worker out. General Kieniewicz did not want any advice. A surprise attack could well resolve the problem, but Kieniewicz feared that the mad director could blow up the factory. It could not be excluded that the demolition would be effected with a long fuse. A solution was found unexpectedly. Two captured soldiers offered to conduct negotiations with the underground factory. ‘We will deal with the workers and not the Fascist directors,’ said one of them. ‘I am a worker myself and will soon convince them.’

In fact it did not take long and hundreds of people left the underground factory with white flags. Only one did not come up: the director, who had shot himself.

During the morning of the 4th May the 2nd Division reached the Elbe, followed in the night leading to the 6th May by the 4th Division, which had beaten the enemy in the Klietz area. Now the whole right-hand bank of the Elbe in the army’s sector was in our hands. American troops had reached the river on the other side.

Once Marshal Rola-Zymierski had left for Warsaw, I quickly went to the Elbe. Everywhere on ‘our’ bank fluttered the victorious flags of the Soviet and Polish units. In honour of the joint victory, the Allied armies greeted each other with gun salutes. Our representative, Colonel Stanislaw Domoracki, went to the Americans, taking with him the best wishes of the Polish soldiers on the victory over the common enemy.

Our units left Berlin. The regiments of the 1st ‘Tadeusz Kosciuszko’ Division with the Grunwald Cross 3rd Class and the Virtuti Militari Order 4th Class marched in parade step past the Brandenburg Gate, over which the Polish flag waved next to the Soviet one.

The army was reassembled near the Seelow Heights and the headquarters accommodated in Seelow itself.

Later I was permitted a stay in Berlin. My sight-seeing naturally took in the Reichstag, on whose walls thousands of inscriptions could be seen, among them also the signatures of Polish soldiers.

The city was breathing again little by little. Here and there were people with picks and shovels, clearing ruins and dismantling barricades. Not far from the Brandenburg Gate a queue of Berliners had formed at a Soviet field kitchen. A jolly cook filled the utensils they had brought with them with Kascha. The orders of the City Commandant, General Berzarin, were conveyed over loudspeakers, spoken by representatives of the new German self-administration.

The crimes of the Fascists in Buchenwald, Majdanek and Auschwitz were broadcast from a vehicle. The Berliners standing next to it listened attentively, some shaking their heads unbelievingly. The loudspeaker fell silent. From the crowd rose a voice damning Hitler. A woman cried out, ‘We are all guilty for this war and now we have to pay!’

On one square the inhabitants and soldiers were watching a film in the open air. Being shown was the Soviet film Soja. I went nearer to observe the reactions of the audience. ‘I cannot believe that the German soldiers could be guilty of such bestiality,’ said a woman standing nearby. ‘That is Russian propaganda!’

‘Unfortunately that is all true,’ a man answered her in a low voice.

To be in Berlin and not call in on General Berzarin was simply unthinkable. He commanded an army to which my corps had once also belonged. I had the friendliest feelings for this talented army commander and outstanding man. Without thinking about it long, I ordered Wladek to drive to the Soviet Kommandatura.

In Berzarin’s reception room were packed many people, both civil and military. The General greeted me warmly: ‘Yet another representative of a friendly army! How would you like to be greeted; strictly according to etiquette or unconstrainedly?’

‘Better unconstrainedly.’

‘Shall I tell you the latest lies of the Fascist underground muck-rakers?’ Berzarin wanted to know. ‘Here is it: yesterday about 50,000 Mongol soldiers arrived from the Elbe, plundering and murdering their way through the city. It is said even the Soviet commandant was completely powerless against them. Naturally some of the inhabitants panicked.’

‘But everything is quiet in the city,’ I remarked.

‘Yes, the anxiety has died down again. Even the distrustful inhabitants have noticed that rumours of that kind come from Fascists who have not been uncovered yet.’

Berzarin then told me about the protocol on the interrogation of General Weidling – the commander of the Berlin defence sector – and other Wehrmacht generals being completed. They threw light on the circumstances in which the Reichs Chancellery and the headquarters had governed during the last days of the Fascist Reich: reciprocal mistrust of those who long before had quite different opinions, reciprocal threats, doubts, uncertainty, indifference about the fate of the Berlin people, suicides.

I did not want to detain Berzarin any longer from his important obligations. We parted warmly. Could I then have believed that this was our last encounter? It hit me deeply when I heard of his death.