My Father's outfit, a Combat Engineer battalion was sent into Berlin not too long after the Russians captured it. This was their first meeting with Russians outside Berlin.
Posted on 05/02/2017 4:54:48 PM PDT by Bull Snipe
two soldiers of General Chuikov's 8th Guards Army raised the sickle and hammer flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag in Berlin.
“Making the world safe for Communism”
FDR
My Father's outfit, a Combat Engineer battalion was sent into Berlin not too long after the Russians captured it. This was their first meeting with Russians outside Berlin.
Thanks, must have been an interesting time for him.
Do you remember the unit? I think my uncle was in an engineer unit that went into Berlin right at the end.
What a long slog for those guys.
Yes it was the 208th Engineer Combat Battalion.
I recall Daddy once saying they were originally bivouacked right off the Pottsdamerstrasse. Which I suppose was a highway.
Many of the men that served in the Soviet 8th Guards Army marched from Stalingrad to Berlin. The Soviet 62nd Army had been General Chuikov’s army in Stalingrad. After they survived that hell, the army was re-manned, re-equipped and designated as the 8th Guards Army. That was a long slog for those guys.
My great-uncle arrived in Berlin shortly after the Reds captured it. His first, and only, I believe, encounter with the Russians was not a pleasant one.
I hate communists with a passion. FDR’s love fest with Stalin set the table for the Soviet Union post war. Their red communist butts should have been kicked backed to their border by Patton.
How many American lives would have been willing to end to accomplish that feat. The price would have been high.
The Russians were not a pleasant group of folks to have to deal with.
Destroyed Russian tank outside Berlin. Photo by a member of the 208th.
Great Picture!
That left the Russians with only 24,999 T-34s in their inventory.
I read that the Germans destroyed 400 Russian tanks in an hour at Selow Heights and it hardly even slowed the Russians down.
General Manteuffel’s defenses at Selow Heights slowed Zhukov’s assault on Berlin for a several days. The Soviets were willing to pay any price in men and material to get to Berlin. I am glad American Generals had a much higher regard for the lives of their soldiers, then those Generals of the Soviet Army did.
My lovely friend, now dead, was raised in Berlin. She told me that she and other German women detested the Russians, who were, she said, thieves and rapists.
I have a piece of the Wall, thanks to friend who went back there as soon as the wall came down. She was devastated at what the Russians had done to “east” Berlin.
Hypothetical. What if Huey Long had not been assassinated and was chosen as the Democrat candidate for President in 1940 and won the election?
Huey P. Long as our WWII President.
How do you think that would have fared?
Cannot really answer that, I know very little about Huey Long. Never spent much time researching him.
I have some letters he sent home from his time in Berlin. I will have to go back and check them again.
He had lousy penmanship...they are boring as hell!
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