#Victory80

🌟 In early April 1944, the Crimean strategic offensive of the Soviet forces commenced during the Great Patriotic War.

The Nazi-occupied peninsula was liberated in just 35 days through the coordinated efforts of Red Army units, the Black Sea Fleet, and the Azov Warship Flotilla, under the command of Chief of General Staff, Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky.

By autumn 1943, Soviet forces encircled on the Crimean Peninsula a Nazi troops grouping totalling over 200'000 personnel strength (soldiers and officers).

⚔️ At dawn on April 8, 1944, the Soviet forces delivered a crushing blow to the Nazi positions and breached the enemy defences by April 10. During the next three days, the cities of Dzhankoi, Kerch, Yevpatoriya, Simferopol, Feodosiya, Bakhchisarai, Alushta, and Yalta were liberated.

April 15 marked the onset of fierce fighting on the approaches to #Sevastopol, the main base of the USSR Black Sea Fleet, which the Germans had turned into a heavily fortified zone.

Thanks to the selflessness, unwavering resolve, and valour of Soviet soldiers, as well as a strong support from the guerrilla movement, Sevastopol was liberated on May 9, 1944. The German and Romanian occupant troops were crushed. By May 12, 1944, the remnants of the enemy grouping laid down arms and surrendered on Cape Khersones.

The main achievement of the operation was the complete destruction of Germany’s 17th Army and the final liberation of Crimea. The Crimean Offensive is regarded as one of the most successful operations of the allied forces during #WWII.

🎖All in all, 238 people were awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion following the Crimean Offensive, and thousands of other participants of the operation were decorated with orders and medals.

#Victory80

🗓 80 years ago, on April 16, 1945, the Berlin Offensive — one of the Red Army’s key strategic operations during #WWII — commenced.

The operation resulted in the final defeat of the enemy’s Berlin group of forces and, with Hitler’s war machine being completely crushed. The Soviet forces took the capital of the Third Reich — #Berlin. The Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed — the document that heralded the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

***

🌟 By spring 1945, the Red Army successfully carried out a series of offensive operations aimed at liberating the countries and peoples of Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazi invaders. Hitler’s troops and their henchmen were expelled from Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Poland; Vienna and the capital of modern Slovakia, Bratislava, saved from the Nazi plague.

Nevertheless, WWII was far from end. The final battle for the liberation of Europe from the Nazi plague, the Battle of Berlin, was coming.

***

By mid-April, 1945, the Soviet forces — having liberated Poland from the Nazis — consolidated positions along the Oder and Neisse rivers and started preparations to launch the offensive on Berlin. Mere dozens of kilometres separated the Red Army from the capital of Hitler’s Germany. The enemy installed deeply echeloned defences and deployed elite Wehrmacht units against the Soviet forces.

To attack Berlin, the Soviet Supreme High Command deployed forces from the 1st Belorussian Front (commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov); the 2nd Belorussian Front (Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky); and the 1st Ukrainian Front (Marshal Ivan Konev).

⚔️ The Berlin Offensive began at 5:00 AM on April 16 with a massive artillery fire. Following this, 143 powerful spotlights were activated to blind and disorient the enemy. Infantry and armoured units then launched their assault.

Enemy resistance intensified as Soviet forces advanced. Fierce fighting erupted at the Seelow Heights — a critical defensive point just 60 kilometres away from Berlin — where the Wehrmacht’s 9th Army, blocking the direct route to the Reich’s capital, was destroyed.

Within several days, the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts breached the Oder-Neisse defensive line of the Nazis, advanced 30 kilometres towards Berlin, and started encircling the city to destroy its garrison.

• April 20: Red Army units reached Berlin. Soviet long-range artillery started shelling, with brutal tank battles erupting on the city’s outskirts.

• April 25: The 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts linked up west of the city, completing the encirclement of the enemy’s Berlin group of Nazi troops.

• April 29: Fierce fighting started in the heart of Berlin, where Germany’s highest governmental and military authorities were located. During the storming of the Reichstag on the night of April 30 — May 1, the legendary #VictoryBanner was raised — a symbol of the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazism.

• May 2: Berlin’s garrison surrendered. By May 5, the Nazi resistance was crushed. A total of 134,000 German soldiers and officers were captured.

✍️ On the night of May 8–9, Marshal Zhukov and the Allied representatives accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender at Karlshorst. So, WWII in Europe ended.

***

🎖 The Berlin Operation saw the Red Army not only crush the last major and most elite Wehrmacht force but also liberate approximately 200'000 prisoners from Nazi concentration camps within the combat zone. Over 600 Soviet soldiers were awarded the title #HeroOftheSovietUnion for their valour.