La Mort de Charlemagne ETO (id:#66793)

(ASL 16 - Twilight of the Reich ID: 303)   [next]   [previous]

Berlin, Germany 1945-04-06 (17 others)

Overview:

By midday on 25 April, the city of Berlin was totally encircled when elements of Marshal Ivan Konev's 6th Guards Mechanized Corps from 4th Guards Tank Army closed the loop around Ketzin when they meet up with the 328th Rifle Division and the 65th Guards Tank Brigade of Col. General Zhukov's 47th Army. To the south, lead elements of 28th and 29th Guards Rifle Corps and 8th Guards Mechanized Corps, commanded by Col. General Vasily Chuikov as part of Marshal Georgy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front, had advanced north to the outskirts of Berlin around the suburb of Neukölln. Just to the west of Neukölln was the strategically located Tempelhof airport, while between these two important objectives and the Soviets lay a natural defensive barrier created by the Teltow Canal. The units defending the canal area, an ad hoc group centered around the remnants of the SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division 11 "Nordland" initially found themselves on the wrong side of the canal, and by midday had beat a hasty retreat across the canal into the heart of Neukölln. While this maneuver was carried out successfully and a series of hardened defensive positions were successfully established along the northern bank of the canal (primarily by SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 24 "Danmark"), the juggernaut that was the 1945 Soviet Army was not to be stopped, Under withering fire, elements of 242nd Guards Rifle Regiment stormed across the canal just east of the newly destroyed bridges along Rudower Stafe and Rungstafe. By 2300, the southern parts of Neukölln were firmly in the hands of elements of 29th Guards Rifle Corps, backed by armored assets from the 8th Guards Mechanized Corps.

Defender: German (SS) (Kompanien 2 and 3, SS-Sturmbataillon and SS-Waffen-Grenadier-Division 33 "Charlemagne," with Abteilung I, Panzer-Regiment 29, Panzer-Division "Muncheberg," and SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 "Hermann von Salza," and)  

Errata (source)