On 31 January 1945 the tankers of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Oder river near Kostrin and Frankfurt. Berlin, the fascist beast's lair, was in some 100 km aside.
But the Soviet Command took the decision to suspend the attack on the German capital. The units needed the resupply and replacement of losses, as well as the move up of the reserves. It was not before Pomerania and Silesia had been cleaned from German troops that the Red Army continued its offensive.
On finding out about the Allied plans on the takeover of Berlin, the Soviet Command elaborated an operation providing for making swift beeline to the city. At the same time Berlin was strenuously preparing for defense. The fortified Seelow Heights were in the way of the Soviet troops. Armies of Chuikov and Katukov were labouring their way through the entangled system of rivers and canals. Suppressing the resistance of the Volkssturm and remainders of the defeated regular military units, tanks of the 1st Ukrainian Front were racing towards Berlin.
Threatened by defeat, the Germans retreated fiercely fighting for each individual block and building. The 3rd Shock Army under Gen. Kuznetsov's command reached the Reichstag building and started fighting inside. The red Soviet banner was already flying over the German parliament building, the fights going on in Berlin.
A rebellion was raised in Prague. And it was only on 9th May that the Czechoslovakian capital was liberated. And on 24 June, 1945, Moscow held the Victory Parade on the Red Square.
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