Rush for Berlin??

Question

Well, when I was at my school, I was disargee with my friends, about history of World War 2, so I believe that Soivets are capture Berlins first before Americans but they think it Americans was capture it first, but we was argue about that stuffs, Who know which Soviets or Americans capture Berlin first??

Answer 1

Yes, you're correct, the Soviets did capture Berlin first.

The Race to Berlin refers to the competition of Allied generals during the final months of World War II to enter Berlin first.

The Soviet advance and ultimate capture of the German capital was virtually unopposed by the Western Allies. In order to attempt to avoid a diplomatic issue, Allied General Dwight Eisenhower had ordered his forces into the south of Germany to cut off and wipe out other pieces of the German Army. The failure of Operation Market Garden in late 1944 may have played a key role in this decision however.

The decision to leave Eastern Germany and the city of Berlin to the Red Army had eventually serious repercussions as the Cold War emerged and expanded in the post war era.

Answer 2

In a sense there was no 'race' to Berlin. As others have pointed out, agreements during the war 'gave' Berlin to the Soviets.

Partly because the US didn't want the casualties (estimated 100,000), and partly because Eisenhower didn't want to run the risk of 'running into' the Soviet Army and incurring accidental casualties (and ill feeling), and partly because the Germans convinced the allies that they had prepared a 'fight to the last' redoubt in the mountains in the south of Germany. A further consideration was that the Russians with over a million troops just to the east of Berlin were simply going to get there first and there was no point entering a race that was already lost. The failure of Market Garden, and the setbacks at the Battle of the Bulge had put the Western Allies 'behind schedule' and they couldn't catch up from that point on even if they wanted to.

In the event the Soviets took 300,000 casualties (including 80,000 dead) in capturing Berlin.

Answer 3

The Soviets captured Berlin first. Know why? Because the British and the Americans didn't even try to capture it. First off, they thought there would be too many calualties (Bradley gave Ike a rough estimate of over 100,000 casualties) and we had already given Berlin to the Soviets during the confrences, so after we had capture it we'd have to give it back to the soviets!

Answer 4

There is absolutely no doubt that the Soviets captured Berlin entirely on their own.
For a good historical account read "Berlin , The Downfall 1945" by Anthony Beevor.

Answer 5

It was decided at Yalta in Feb. '45 that the Soviets were going to capture Berlin.

It was going to be divided anyways into 4 military sectors, and Stalin didn't care sustaining another half-million to million (nobody really knows an official number) killed and wounded to take it.

Answer 6

Before the war was over, the allies divided up Germany into zones of occupation. As Berlin was within the Soviet zone, we stopped at the border (Ober River?) of the US & Soviet zone and let them capture Berlin.

Answer 7

we obviously captured berlin first because otherwise all of germany would be part of russia rite now... thats why it was so important that we beat them there