It is mid-April 1945 as you assume the role of Marshal Ivan Konev, commander of the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front. You have commanded Soviet troops in some of the fiercest battles on World War II’s Eastern Front since the war in the east began with Germany’s June 22, 1941, invasion of Russia. During three years and nine months of horrific combat, you have led your armies from the gates of Moscow to the Oder-Neisse river line only 60 miles from Berlin, the capital of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s crumbling Third Reich. Now, with American, British and Canadian armies thrusting into central Germany from the west and south and the Red Army poised for its final offensive to overrun Germany from the east, your front is set to take part in the operation to seize the European war’s ultimate prize – Berlin.
Almost two weeks ago, on April 3, you and your greatest rival within the Red Army, Marshal Georgi Zhukov, commander of 1st Belorussian Front, were summoned to Moscow to meet with Josef Stalin, the supreme leader of the USSR. Stalin is a master manipulator and a sly practitioner of “divide and rule,” expediting the achievement of his goals while fragmenting any real or potential opposition by setting rivals against each other.
During the meeting, it became clear that Stalin’s intent was to speed the capture of Berlin by exploiting the rivalry between you and Zhukov. On a large situation map depicting central Germany, Stalin drew a boundary line between your 1st Ukrainian Front and Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front. However, when he reached the town of Lübben, 50 miles southeast of Berlin, he suddenly stopped drawing. The obvious implication was that from that point, either your front or Zhukov’s would be free to attack Hitler’s capital.
Although Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front is positioned much closer to Berlin, before it can reach the capital it must first break through strong German defenses centered on the dominant terrain of the Seelow Heights. Meanwhile, your 1st Ukrainian Front, before reaching the capital, must first defeat a sizable grouping of German forces in the extensive area between Dresden and Berlin, as well as send strong forces westward to meet the advancing Americans at the Elbe River.
This last objective is politically important to Stalin. At the February 1945 Yalta Conference, the Elbe River was agreed upon as the dividing line between the Soviets’ sector and the Western Allies’ sector of Germany. The always-suspicious Stalin wants the Red Army positioned along the Elbe in strength to enforce this agreement.
OPPOSING FORCES
Your 1st Ukrainian Front, situated between 1st Belorussian Front on your right flank and 4th Ukrainian Front on your left, primarily faces German 4th Panzer Army, which holds the Neisse River line from Guben to Görlitz (see COA maps). Under the command of General Fritz-Hubert Gräser as part of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner’s German Army Group Center, German 4th Panzer consists of V Army Corps, with five infantry divisions between Guben and Forst; Grossdeutschland (GD) Panzer Corps, with two panzer divisions and one infantry division between Cottbus and Spremberg; Hermann Göring (HG) Armored Parachute Corps, with three infantry divisions, one grenadier division and a panzer kampfgruppe south of Muskau; and LVII Panzer Corps, with two panzer divisions and two infantry divisions near Görlitz.
Meanwhile, your 1st Ukrainian Front contains seven armies: 3d Guards and 5th Guards rifle armies; 3d Guards and 4th Guards tank armies; and 13th, 52d and Polish 2d armies. Air support is provided by 4th Air Army’s 2,148 fighters, bombers, reconnaissance and transport aircraft. You have 1st Guards Cavalry Corps in reserve, and after the offensive opens on April 16 you will receive 28th Army, transferred from 2d Belorussian Front. Your powerful force totals 511,700 soldiers, 1,388 tanks, 667 self-propelled guns, 1,444 artillery guns, and 917 rocket launchers.
Although the German army is no longer the powerful, qualitatively superior force that won smashing victories in 1939-42, it nonetheless remains a well-led, dangerous foe skilled at conducting defensive operations. The Red Army has greatly changed as well since suffering the horrendous opening war disasters of 1941-42. Soviet commanders and soldiers have learned costly but valuable lessons on Eastern Front battlefields, and the Red Army has evolved into a superb combined arms force spearheaded by combat-experienced tankers, skilled artillerymen and battle-hardened riflemen. (See Great Warriors, p. 16.)
COURSES OF ACTION
As approved by Stalin and the Red Army High Command, your front’s main effort will be launched in the northern part of your sector along a 20-mile stretch of the Neisse River, from just north of Forst to Muskau. The first German defensive line runs along the Neisse, the second one lies between the Neisse and Spree rivers, and the third defensive line runs along the Spree between Cottbus and Spremberg. Both the Neisse and Spree are about 50 yards wide and the terrain between them is mainly dense forest cut occasionally by broad sandy passages.
While you will ensure that your front accomplishes all of its assigned tasks, you have made clear to your staff and commanders that you want to reach Berlin before Zhukov. In particular, you have stressed this point to General Pavel Rybalko, commander of 3d Guards Tank Army, and Dmitri Lelyushenko, commander of 4th Guards Tank Army, since any attack on Berlin will depend on the speed, mobility and shock action of your armored forces. With this in mind, you have developed three possible courses of action to accomplish your front’s objectives.
COURSE OF ACTION ONE: RIFLE ARMIES BREAK THROUGH. Under this plan, which the Red Army High Command particularly favors, 1st Ukrainian Front’s 3d Guards, 5th Guards and 13th rifle armies will break through the three German defensive lines and secure crossings over the Neisse and Spree rivers. Once the rifle armies have pierced the defenses and seized the river crossings, the tank armies will then surge forward to lead the front as it destroys the enemy forces and advances west to the Elbe River and north to Berlin. A secondary attack by 52d and Polish 2d armies will target Dresden.
COURSE OF ACTION TWO: TANK ARMIES BREAK THROUGH. This option calls for 3d Guards and 4th Guards tank armies to break through the three German defensive lines, creating chaos and disorder in the enemy ranks. Your rifle armies will follow closely behind the armored forces to eliminate pockets of resistance and secure the tank armies’ lines of communication. Once the tanks have penetrated German defenses, they will pave the way for the front to overrun and eliminate major German forces in the sector, moving west to the Elbe River and north to Berlin.
COURSE OF ACTION THREE: RAPID ADVANCE TO BERLIN. As in COA One, in this course of action the rifle armies will break through the three German defensive lines and seize the bridgeheads over the Neisse and Spree rivers. However, once that is accomplished, 3d Guards Tank Army, reinforced with a tank corps and an infantry division from 3d Guards Rifle Army, will race north ahead of the front’s leading elements in a direct attack on Berlin. Meanwhile, the other forces will move west to the Elbe River and support the move north. Again as in COA One, a secondary attack by 52d and Polish 2d armies will target Dresden.
Now, without further delay you must decide which plan best accomplishes the missions assigned to your 1st Ukrainian Front.
What next, Marshal Konev?
COURSE OF ACTION ONE: RIFLE ARMIES BREAK THROUGH
You decide it is in your best interest to follow the Red Army High Command’s – and therefore Stalin’s – preferred plan, which involves your rifle armies breaking through German defensive lines and seizing the river crossings before the tank armies are unleashed. This prevents the tank armies from potentially suffering heavy losses during the offensive’s breakthrough phase and thus preserves their combat power for the front’s subsequent advances west to the Elbe and north to Berlin.
At 4:15 a.m. on April 16, your artillery units begin the offensive with a massive 2.5- hour barrage of German defensive positions. Afterward, your forces lay down a smoke screen, blanketing the Neisse River crossing points and the enemy’s first-line defenses to conceal your assault crossings. At 6:45 a.m., the rifle armies’ advance units cross the river in assault boats. Over the next five hours, your combat engineers emplace pontoon and heavy bridges.
The barrage and smoke screen disrupt the German command and control, resulting in poorly concentrated defensive fires. However, your artillery shelling and aerial bombing cause forest fires to erupt west of the Neisse, hampering maneuver by both German and Soviet units. Nonetheless, your front penetrates the enemy’s first defensive line, both in the main attack and in the secondary attack to the south.
However, as your rifle armies begin assaulting the second defensive line, German commanders react decisively by launching their tactical and operational reserves in immediate counterattacks against your main attack. Tenacious fighting by German panzers and infantrymen delays your rifle armies for three days.
Anxious over the slow pace of the advance, on April 19 you decide to commit the tank armies early. This, however, proves a mistake. Sending them forward while the rifle armies are still attempting to break through the second and third defensive lines creates a massive traffic jam over the increasingly congested roads. Although you order the tank armies be given priority of road use, their progress remains slow.
Finally, your luck turns when Rybalko’s 3d Guards Tank Army discovers previously undetected fords spanning the Spree River. Now able to cross in strength, his leading units break through the German third defensive line and roll into open terrain.
On April 22, as the rest of the front’s main attack units complete the destruction of the third defensive line, forcing German 4th Panzer Army units into a pocket between Cottbus and Spremberg, you order Rybalko to advance northwest toward Berlin. How ever, south of Zossen on April 23 he runs into the retreating German 9th Army, which blocks his approach to Hitler’s capital. In bitter fighting over two days, both armies suffer heavy casualties before 9th Army’s remnants drift west out of Rybalko’s path.
Seething at the slow pace of the advance, on April 25 you order Rybalko to speed up and to disregard any concerns about open flanks. By the end of the day, his lead elements reach Berlin’s southern boundary at the Teltov Canal – only to find Zhukov’s 8th Guards Army already there.
Zhukov has won the race to Berlin. This fact is made official when you receive a call from the Red Army High Command informing you that it has drawn the boundary between 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front and has placed all of Berlin in Zhukov’s sector.
Despite your disappointment at losing the race to Berlin, your front has accomplished its assigned tasks of linking up with American forces at the Elbe River and defeating German forces in the area between Dresden and Berlin. At least Stalin is pleased.
COURSE OF ACTION TWO: TANK ARMIES BREAK THROUGH
You fear that waiting for the rifle armies to break through German defensive lines before committing your tank armies wastes too much time. You therefore decide to order 3d Guards and 4th Guards tank armies to lead the front’s breakthrough, followed by the rifle armies to eliminate bypassed enemy strongpoints and to secure the surging tank armies’ lines of communications. You believe that the speed at which this plan allows you to destroy German defenses will allay any anger Stalin and the Red Army High Command might feel as a result of your front not using their preferred course of action.
At 4:15 a.m. on April 16, your front kicks off the offensive with a massive 2.5-hour artillery barrage of German defenses. Under the cover of a smoke screen, your combat engineers emplace heavy bridges, and then at 6:45 a.m. the tank armies’ forward units cross the Neisse River. Attacking swiftly, their leading elements penetrate the first German defensive line. The tank armies’ main forces finish crossing during the night, despite the increasing vehicle congestion on the roads and at the crossing points.
The following day, the tank armies rapidly push through a second line of defenses midway between the Neisse and Spree rivers and then press on toward the third defensive line at the Spree. During the night of April 17-18, German 4th Panzer Army’s tactical and operational reserves hit your tank armies’ follow-on corps with multiple counterattacks. After heavy fighting your forces defeat the counterattacks, but this delays the arrival of the tank corps, which are necessary to break through the third defensive line.
Over the next three days of fighting, German 4th Panzer Army uses its last remaining reserves in an attempt to block your tank armies from crossing the Spree River. Each furious counterattack involves 60-70 panzers, and defeating them proves costly as they erode your tank armies’ combat strength. Moreover, bypassed pockets of enemy resistance delay the delivery of vital supplies to the tank armies, which are now forced to fight with reduced combat loads of ammunition and fuel. Although the armored forces slug their way forward, their average rate of advance is slower and more costly than you had planned.
You attempt to reinvigorate the advance by ordering your tank armies toward Berlin regardless of casualties and open flanks. For three days Rybalko’s and Lelyushenko’s forces each continue northward while encountering stubborn resistance from remnants of previously engaged German units. On April 24, Rybalko’s men capture Zossen, home of the German High Command headquarters, as Lelyushenko’s army swings farther west toward Potsdam.
Meanwhile, German Army Group Center launches a counterattack from your front’s southern flank targeting Spremberg. You react by advancing 52d and Polish 2d armies to repel the threat, but you also have to divert units of 5th Guards Army to reinforce the effort before the German counterattack is finally defeated. This, however, delays 5th Guards’ advance to the Elbe River, prompting an angry call from Stalin threatening dire consequences if your forces are not at the river by early the next morning.
Rybalko’s forces fight hard to retain their hold on Zossen in the face of counterattacks by German 9th and 12th armies, which have linked up to launch a relief effort to Berlin ordered by Hitler. Although your 3d Guards and 4th Guards tank armies manage to advance to positions from which to launch assaults on Berlin, they have lost too much combat power in the tactical battles and now lack the strength, fuel and supplies to punch through German defenses and fight their way into Hitler’s capital.
Zhukov’s attack, on the other hand, has steadily gained momentum after a slow start in overcoming the Seelow Heights defenses. At Stalin’s direction, the Red Army High Command draws a boundary line between 1st Belorussian Front and 1st Ukrainian Front south of Berlin, giving the honor of the city’s capture to Zhukov.
COURSE OF ACTION THREE: RAPID ADVANCE TO BERLIN
To avoid arousing Stalin’s ire, you decide to follow the Red Army High Command’s preferred plan and use your front’s rifle armies to forge the breakthrough of German defenses – yet you are also determined to beat Zhukov to Berlin. Therefore, once the breakthrough is achieved, you will launch Rybalko’s 3d Guards Tank Army, reinforced with a tank corps and infantry division from 3d Guards Rifle Army, ahead of the front’s leading elements in a rapid advance aimed directly at the capital. Although this plan entails risk since all major German forces won’t be destroyed before the reinforced tank army surges toward Berlin, you are confident that by the time Zhukov bludgeons his way through the formidable Seelow Heights defenses Rybalko will have already won the race to Berlin.
On April 16, following a massive 2.5- hour artillery barrage that began at 4:15 a.m., your front’s first-echelon units of 3d Guards, 5th Guards and 13th rifle armies begin the assault crossings of the Neisse River under a dense smoke screen. As your artillery begins blasting the German defensive lines to open routes for your rifle armies, the dense forests are set ablaze. The fires and heavy smoke affect both sides’ ability to maneuver, but your rifle armies press on relentlessly.
German 4th Panzer Army counterattacks aggressively to slow your advance. Yet in spite of hard fighting, your front is progressing faster than Zhukov’s front, which is embroiled in fierce combat at the Seelow Heights defenses. By noon, 5th Guards and 13th armies have penetrated the enemy’s second defensive line, and your front’s leading elements are breaking through the third defensive line along the Spree. You order your tank armies forward to reinforce the rifle armies and to exploit their success.
When Rybalko’s tanks discover fords for immediately crossing the Spree, you capitalize on this tactical windfall by shifting Lelyushenko’s 4th Guards Tank Army north to cross there as well. This hastens your armored forces’ advance into the depth of German defenses. Rybalko’s reinforced tank army launches northwest toward Berlin, while Lelyushenko’s army swings farther west before turning north, thereby protecting Rybalko’s left flank and approaching Berlin from the west.
By April 20, your tank armies are bypassing built-up areas to avoid bogging down in protracted fighting, while 13th Army protects their lines of communication. After both sides suffer heavy casualties, your front destroys four enemy divisions, leaving the remnants of German 4th Panzer Army isolated in a pocket between Cottbus and Spremberg.
Rybalko’s army, however, is not advancing quickly enough to beat Zhukov’s front to Berlin. You berate your subordinate for “moving like a snail,” and he responds by exhorting his unit commanders to push on rapidly at all costs. On April 21, his army captures Zossen, only 10 miles from Berlin’s southern boundary.
That evening, Rybalko’s forces block German 9th Army, which is retreating from Zhukov’s sector. You rush 28th Army forward to contain the German army, and you reinforce Rybalko’s army with artillery, anti-tank and tactical air support. His men press on, reaching Berlin at the Teltov Canal.
Rybalko’s tank army assaults Berlin on April 24, becoming the first Red Army unit to enter Hitler’s capital. Lelyushenko’s army continues completing the city’s encirclement from the west and defeating German 12th Army’s attempt at a relief attack Hitler ordered. Your 13th and 28th armies join Zhukov’s approaching forces in isolating German 9th Army from Berlin. That evening, elements of 5th Guards and 13th armies reach the Elbe River, and on April 25, 5th Guards Army makes contact with American troops.
Over the next four days, Rybalko’s army, along with 28th Army, engages in brutal street-by-street battles, fighting their way toward central Berlin. However, at midnight on April 29, Stalin orders a new boundary line between 1st Ukrainian Front and 1st Belorussian Front and directs you to withdraw Rybalko’s forces from the city’s center. Although you have beat Zhukov to Berlin, Stalin has decided that your rival will have the honor of completing the capture of Hitler’s capital.
HISTORICAL COURSE OF ACTION AND ANALYSIS
Konev decided to strike directly at Berlin (COURSE OF ACTION THREE: RAPID ADVANCE TO BERLIN), and the battle unfolded as described in the COA Three narrative. His powerful 1st Ukrainian Front conducted an assault crossing of the Neisse River, broke through three successive German defensive lines, and sent the reinforced 3d Guards Tank Army racing toward Berlin to arrive ahead of Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front. Meanwhile, Konev’s other forces fanned out to the south and west, and on April 25, 1945, at Torgau on the Elbe River, 58th Guards Rifle Division of 1st Ukrainian Front’s 5th Guards Army made the first linkup with American forces (U.S. 69th Infantry Division).
Stalin’s crafty plan to speed the capture of Berlin by setting the two rival marshals against each other worked exactly as the Soviet leader had planned. Both Konev and Zhukov ruthlessly pushed their forces toward and then into Berlin as rapidly as possible and with scant regard for casualties. Stalin’s April 29 decision to let Zhukov have the honor of completing Berlin’s capture seems just another example of his manipulations: Since Zhukov was already going to end the war as the most famous Red Army marshal due to his previous victories, regardless of whether he captured Berlin, why create two potential postwar rivals by greatly elevating Konev’s fame by permitting him to seize the war’s greatest prize?
In mid-1946, Stalin made his inevitable move against his only realistic potential rival among the World War II Red Army marshals. He banished Zhukov far from Moscow (until Stalin’s death in 1953) to command first the Odessa Military District and then, in 1948, the remote Urals Military District.
In June 1945, Konev received his second Hero of the Soviet Union “Gold Star” medal (the USSR’s highest valor award), and in 1946 he replaced Zhukov as commander of Soviet ground forces and first deputy minister of defense. A decade later, in 1956, Konev was appointed commander in chief of Warsaw Pact military forces, and he led the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution that year. (See You Command, September 2012 ACG.) Konev retired in 1962, died in 1973 at age 75, and is buried in the Kremlin Wall.
Colonel (Ret.) Richard N. Armstrong, author of “Soviet Operational Deception: The Red Cloak,” is an adjunct history professor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Originally published in the November 2014 issue of Armchair General.
