Tony Le Tissier: With Our Backs to Berlin

2 Hitler’s birthday.

1 This was the beginning of Marshal Zhukov’s two-day ‘Reconnaissance in Force’ in preparation for the launching of ‘Operation Berlin’ on the 16th. An essential factor was to gain enough ground to establish routes through the minefields for the main attack.

2 The 245th SPG Brigade and some tanks of the 8th Panzer Battalion were operating in this area.

3 A kind of parachute flare that scattered smaller elements to produce an illuminated Christmas tree effect.

4 Elements of the 3rd Guards Tank Army of the rival 1st Ukrainian Front.

5 Soviet Po-2 biplanes.

6 The surrender signed by Colonel General Jodl at Rheims.

7 The way that the remains of the 20th Panzergrenadier Division were kept intact and isolated by the British before allowing the division to disband itself, lends colour to the Soviet allegation that the British were contemplating using German troops against the Red Army should the need arise.

1 The second highest decoration after the Order of Lenin.

2 Exactly fifty years later on this battlefield, sixty-nine year-old Harry would meet his former enemies, the ‘Halbe Gruppe,’ and among them the eighty-four year-old Panzer leader Hans von Luck, commander of the 125th Panzer Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division.

1 This would have been the Sten Gun, a cheaply manufactured weapon produced in vast quantities.

2 The MG 42 was commonly known as the ‘Spandau’ from its original place of manufacture.

3 The major tank battle of the Second World War fought at Kursk-Orel in July and August 1943.

4 ‘Sippenhaft’ was the system whereby the whole family of a criminal were arrested and imprisoned.

5 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Nordland’.

6 In the German Army and Waffen-SS potential officers were selected from the ranks and ultimately sent to Officer School before commissioning. In this case a potential officer serving in the ranks with the equivalent of sergeant’s rank (Oberjunker).

7 The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in the ascending order: Second Class, First Class, Knight’s Cross, Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, with Oak Leaves & Swords, and with Oak Leaves, Diamonds & Swords.

8 The Thor mortar was of 600mm calibre with a 5.07m barrel, weighed 120 tons, and could fire 12 shots per hour up to a range of 6,800m. According to General Bokov, writing about General Bezarin’s 5th Shock Army, elements of which stormed the Schlesischer station, they also had 2,000 guns and mortars of 80mm calibre and over with orders not to spare the ammunition, for they had just received 2,000 railway wagonloads. The Schlesischer station is now the Ostbahnhof.

9 The senior garrison engineer.

10 The Waffen-SS belt buckle bore the motto ‘Meine Ehre heisst Treue’ (Loyalty is my Honour).

11 SS-Colonel Peiper of the 1st SS-Panzer Division ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ was accused of slaughtering American prisoners during the Battle of the Bulge offensive.

12 The obsolete machine gun that had been replaced by the MG 42 in general service.

13 The theme of the statue at the Soviet War Cemetery at Treptow Park.

14 Schweizer’s breakout from the Zoo Flak-bunker had occurred sometime after midnight and his group managed to get away unscathed during a lull in the fighting, but these conditions did not apply either earlier or later up to the surrender at dawn on 2 May.