Run For Your Lives ETO (id:#57800)

Heat of Battle (Berlin: Red Vengeance ID: BRV 2)   [next]   [previous]

Charite Hospital, Berlin, Germany 1945-04-25 (10 others)

Overview:

The first of three defensive rings which were to save Berlin from a fate worse than death had been "manned" by the boys and their grandfathers of the Volkssturm. During the first hours of battle they had been steamrollered by the Russian assaults. The second ring was a 25-mile circumference using the railway tracks and S-Bahn as natural connecting barriers. This line could have been formidable if manned by veteran soldiers. But the Russian onslaught had slaughtered all those who were to occupy these defenses. As the vanguard of the Russian 79th Corps entered the Moabit district they pushed into and over the retreating Germans. The defenders attempted to fall back to the third ring, the Citadel, which existed in the heart of Berlin itself between the Spree and the Landwehr Canal. But some defenders, however, simply tried to run home to their families.

Defender: German (9th Fallschirmjäger Division and Volksgrenadiers)  

Errata (source)