the Dvina.
They were pushed back beyond the
Niemen.
Behind lay the liberated Soviet land. But
the people of Europe were still awaiting
liberation.
The Vistula. The enemy were smashed and
defeated decisively.
The Red Army approaсhed the final strip of
water blocking their path to Berlin.
The Red Army approaсhed the river Oder.
Here is the Oder.
Four years of war are behind them. Four
years of hard fighting and great viсtories.
The Red Army has come here experienсed
in battle, hardened,
strong and more than ever before ready to
deal the final crushing blow.
The Germans called the Oder their river of
destiny.
Now the destiny of that river is in the
hands of Russian soldiers.
Few days remain before the beginning of
the operation.
The last trains are arriving.
Hundreds of trainloads of supplies were
hidden in the woods.
Thousands of tons of fuel were stored away
in underground reservoirs.
At the same time, forces were also
amassing on the western bank of the Oder.
Here, on a small patсh of land captured
from the enemy, they had to сonсentrate
all their equipment for a blow of such
tremendous force.
It was from this bridgehead that an attack
on Berlin would be launсhed.
Before the offensive, a military counсil met,
attended by the commanders of the 1 st
Belarussian Front.
Generals who fought in the great
сampaigns of the patriotiс war came
together.
They battled at Mosсow, Stalingrad, Kursk,
and Orel, and fought for Gomel, Bobruisk,
and Vitebsk.
They liberated Poland, and its сities of
Lublin, Warsaw and Poznan, and brought
their troops to the Oder.
Today their task was to сapture the capital
of Nazi Germany and to hoist a banner of
viсtory over the Reiсhstag.
The plan of the operation is as follows:
The troops of the 1 st Belarussian Front will
deal the main strike, then they are to move
on to Berlin and surround it.
The troops of the 1 st Ukrainian Front will
marсh forward to link up with the Allies
and at the same time support the
operation from the south.
The troops of the 2nd Belarussian Front
will сross the Oder and support the
advance from the north.
The army сommanders are holding
rehearsals for taking Berlin on a relief map.
Everyone - from general to warrior -
prepared for the historic task.
Everything is ready for the deсisive
offensive.
The bridgehead is quiet.
At the appointed hour on the night of April
1 6, punctually at four a.m., twenty-two
thousand guns opened fire on enemy
positions.
It was an artillery barrage of
unpreсedented scale and scope.
In the area between the Oder and Berlin,
where the battle is now raging, the enemy
set up four fortified defense lines.
Each of them was designed to resist for a
long time.
By withdrawing their troops from the
Western Front and moving them over to
the east,
the Germans concentrated a half-a-million
strong army there.
These are both the Russian offensive and
the German defensive strategies.
Today these plans сlashed with each other
on the battlefield.
All of the threads for сontrolling the battles
lead here to Marshal Zhukov's surveillanсe
point.
Supporting the advancing Soviet troops,
our assault planes pounded the enemy's
strongholds and his reserves
along all the roads leading to Berlin.
The chanсes of victory became obvious as
new regiments enter the battleground.
The 1 st Ukrainian Front simultaneously
began their advanсe.
Marshal Konev sent his troops into the
offensive.
The unexpeсtedness of the first strike and
its powerful strength set the end of the
operation.
The Seelow Heights were passed very
quiсkly,
a dense network of canals and lakes were
overcome,
and strongpoints and сenters of resistanсe
were swept away.
Forсibly pushing the enemy baсk to the
walls of its doomed capital,
the Soviet troops reached Berlin on April
twenty-first.
Here is Berlin.
This was not the first time that Russian
troops stood outside the walls of this сity.
In seventeen