The sector in which most of the fighting in the overall battle took place was the Seelow Heights, the last major defensive line outside Berlin. On that date, the commander of the Berlin Defence Area, General Helmuth Weidling, surrendered to Lieutenant-General Vasily Chuikov, commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, a component of Marshal Georgiy Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. By 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the outside world. On 23 April 1945, the first Soviet ground forces started to penetrate the outer suburbs of Berlin. Nevertheless, there was heavy fighting within the city as the Red Army fought its way, street by street, into the centre. As the Soviets invested Berlin and the German forces placed to stop them were destroyed or forced back, the city's fate was sealed. The outcome of the battle to capture the capital of Nazi Germany was decided during the initial phases of the Battle of Berlin that took place outside the city. While the Battle of Berlin encompassed the attack by three Soviet fronts ( army groups) to capture not only Berlin but the territory of Germany east of the River Elbe still under German control, the battle in Berlin details the fighting and German capitulation that took place within the city. ![]() ![]() The battle in Berlin was an end phase of the Battle of Berlin.
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