Penyerahan kalah garison Berlin pada 2 Mei. Tentera Jerman yang masih bertempur di luar Berlin meletakkan senjata pada 8/9 Mei (selepas penyerahankalah tanpa syarat seluruh tentera Jerman—lihat Akhir Perang Dunia II di Eropah)
Persiapan defensif pertama di pinggir Berlin telah dibuat pada 20 Mac, setelah panglima baru Kumpulan Tentera Darat Vistula, Jeneral Gotthard Heinrici, dengan tepat menjangkakan bahawa kemaraan utama Soviet akan berlaku di atas Sungai Oder. Sebelum pertempuran utama di Berlin bermula, pihak Soviet berjaya mengepung kotaraya tersebut sebagai hasil daripada kejayaan mereka didalam pertempuran Seelow Heights dan Halbe. Semasa 20 April 1945, Barisan Pertama Belorussia yang dipimpin oleh MarsyalGeorgy Zhukov mula mengebom pusat bandar Berlin, manakala Barisan Pertama Ukraine Marsyal Ivan Konev telah mara dari selatan melepasi formasi terakhir Kumpulan Tentera Darat Tengah. Pertahanan Jerman sebahagian besarnya dipimpin oleh Jeneral Helmuth Weidling dan terdiri daripada beberapa divisyen Wehrmacht dan Waffen-SS yang serba kekurangan, tidak dilengkapi dengan baik, dan tidak tersusun, waima SS merangkumi ramai sukarelawan asing SS, serta anggota Volkssturm dan Belia Hitler yang tidak terlatih. Di dalam masa beberapa hari, pihak Soviet dengan pantas mara kedalam kotaraya itu dan menghampiri pusat bandar yang mana berlakunya pertempuran jarak-rapat.
Sebelum pertempuran berakhir, Führer Jerman Adolf Hitler dan beberapa pengikutnya membunuh diri. Askar-askar pertahanan ibu negara itu akhirnya menyerah diri pada 2 Mei; walau bagaimanapun, pertempuran berterusan hingga ke barat laut, barat, dan barat daya Berlin sehingga penghujung perang di Eropah pada 8 Mei (9 Mei di Soviet Union) sambil unit-unit Jerman berjuang ke arah barat supaya mereka boleh menyerah kepada Sekutu Barat bukannya kepada pihak Soviet.[15]
^Heinrici was replaced by General Kurt Student on 28 April. General Kurt von Tippelskirch was named as Heinrici's interim replacement until Student could arrive and assume control. Student was captured by the British and never arrived (Dollinger 1967, p. 228).
^Weidling replaced Oberstleutnant Ernst Kaether as commander of Berlin who only held the post for one day having taken command from Reymann.
^Initial Soviet estimates had placed the total strength at 1 million men, but this was an overestimate (Glantz 1998, pp. 258–259).
^A large number of the 45,000 were troops of the LVI Panzer Corps that were at the start of the battle part of the German IX Army on the Seelow Heights.
^German estimate (Müller) based on incomplete archival data: 92,000 for Seelow, Halbe and inside Berlin; 100,000 for the whole Berlin area. Initial Soviet casualties estimates are 458,080 killed and 479,298 captured, but these were based on kill claims and an incorrect number of total German strength (Glantz 1998, pp. 258–259). For information about the genesis of the "Das Deutsch Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg" project under the Military History Research Office of the Bundeswehr, refer to Ziemke 1983, halaman 398–407.
^The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6–11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help of Polish, Romanian, and Czechoslovak forces defeated the parts of Army Group Centre which continued to resist in Czechoslovakia. There were a number of small battles and skirmishes involving small bodies of men, but no other large scale fighting that resulted in the death of thousands of people. (See the end of World War II in Europe for details on these final days of the war.)
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