re: How intense was the Battle of Berlin?

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Mostly Germans and Russians dead

Merica just cleaned up the mess

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Some of the last Troops left fighting in Berlin were French. These soldiers were members of the Waffen SS defending the chancellery itself. Most knew they were fricked if taken prisoner so they fought like hell to the bitter end.

As for the fighting itself, really the worst of it was done just outside the city along the Seelow Heights where what was left of the German 9th Army made Zukov's 1st Belorussian Front pay dearly to overcome the last defensive line outside Berlin itself.

The Soviets began their assault on the Seelow Heights on April 16 with one of the biggest and most intense artillery bombardments of the war. The Soviets vastly outnumbered the Germans in literally every way. And the ammunition supply on the German side was so pitiful some batteries could only fire like 3 rounds a day. But despite this it took the Soviets three days to break through the German defenses and encircle the shattered remants of the German 9th Army*.

The defeat of 9th Army basically ended anything resembling an organized German front. The road to Berlin was wide open and all there was in the city was a pitifully small force of Volksstrum (old men and young boys) and a few miscellaneous SS units. They fought as best they could, including the little boys of the Volkstrum who would ride bicycles like this into battle...



... but there was no hope of them ever holding Berlin. In fact the Battle of Berlin would not have lasted as long as it did had Soviet soldiers not spent so much time stopping to rape the women of Berlin and get drunk.


* - to give you an idea of the level of delusion Hitler had sunk down to towards the end, even after the 9th Army had been crushed and it's remnants completely encircled, he still expected it to not only break out from its encirclement but to also fight its way north to Berlin and drive the Soviets out of the city.